Summer 2016 has been kind of hectic so I have had have
energy to tell about it now when it is about ending. Before the Midsummer the
project was belly dance intensive course. We were happy to have training from our
long time teacher Marinka just came back from her maternal leave.
The music was somewhat exceptional, the “Myrskyluodon
Maija” by a Finnish composer Lasse Mårtensson who died last spring. It was
originally composed to the film telling about the life in Finnish archipelago in
19th century. The music is very romantic, sad and sentimental. And
choosing Mårtensson music was a pure coincidence and had nothing to do with his
death.
Almost immediately after that we went to Estonia to
celebrate Midsummer. Actually we could do it twice for in Estonia Midsummer is
a day earlier than in Finland. Both countries do it with bonfires, “Juhannuskokko”
in Finland and “Jaanituli” in Estonia. It seemed they used some special tree in
Jaanituli, for the smell of the smoke was special and different from the
Finnish variation.
The sun in Pärnu at 10 pm
Most of the
time we were in lovely spa town Pärnu. The Midsummer eve was very peaceful and
there weren’t many people on the beach in the almost-midnight sun.
Luckily the weather was warm most of the time so we could
swim, sun bathe and make a bike tour along the Pärnu seaside and river side.
...and of
course there was time for doing some shopping in the shopping street of Pärnu.
After spending three days in Pärnu we headed to north.
The weather was still really hot and dim so we had to chill us in the sea. The
place was near Villa Andropov, the luxurious villa where Andropov had time to
visit only once. That also gave an explanation to the odd piece of the four
lane highway leading to the villa.
Remains of the Jaanituli in Virtsu ... 3 days after!
Our last night in Estonia we spend in the Padise manor. There also was a monastery ruins near the manor. We had a sweet and a luxurious
dinner in very at a reasonable price.
At the Padise monastery
The next morning was very foggy. So when we visited
the Paldiski cliffs we could hardly see the see under it. Anyway the feeling
was spectacular in the meadows of Paldiski. Wea have had a tradition to visit
Paldiski “Kaubamaja” mall. Paldiski seems to be sort of relic from the Soviet
time and also the Kaubamaja is old fashioned in Russian manner. Anyway the
prices were very cheap and it is one of our places to complete our pantyhose stash.
The Estonian trip was the first completely made as
Anukatariina from the home door and back. The lack of need of hiding this issue
was really relieving.
The next big thing was Helsinki Pride. One of the
things I was involved was a panel discussion about the treatment policy for transgender
people, arranged by the committee of trans political affairs of Seta. We had
good debaters, a doctor Teemu Kärnä, a transgender activist Luca Tainio and the
Pii Anttonen as the leader of the conversation. The main conclusion was that in
spite of the notions many people have made the two treatment units Helsinki and
Tampere have approximately same policy due to intensive collaboration between
the units. The problem is mostly with the admission notes made by the ordinary
doctors before the trans treatment unit and also with the surgeons who
interpret the admission notes made by the treatment units. The debaters agreed
the other thing is that the treatment and legal gender process should separate
completely. In the audience of about 30 people I noticed the members of “True
marriage” group of Finland making lots of notions to their notebooks. I’m
interested in seeing the results of that action but haven’t found anything, yet.
Luca, Pii and Antti
The other thing was I got a short floor in another
panel about discrimination of LGBT people at work, arranged by labour unions.
There I could give some information about our survey. The third panel was about
legislation work by LGBT group of members of parliament. The situation is not
very good because very stagnated party True Finns in the government. The sad
thing is the other parties in government let them stop any reasonable progress
in this branch, mostly to shut True Finn’s mouths in other matters where
Finland is going towards economical inequality. And of course there were two
parties missing in the panel: The True Finns and Christian Democrats. I asked
if the new legislation should base on the principles of the older, sort of
constitutional bills. The debaters agreed, but just today it became evident the
new laws can be confirmed in spite of the fact they contradict with the
constitution.
The politicians debating
Of course I had some “obligatory” events like
Dreamwearclub coffee evening with 23 visitors and the traditional Finnish ball
where I danced waltz, humppa and jenkka with friends.
In the Pride parade there were more people than ever,
partly because of the LGBTI Euro Games held at the same time in Helsinki.
Though I had got sort of bikini tan lines in Pärnu I burned my back in
otherwise so lovely sunshine during the parade and the park festive after that.
In July we visited Kristiina in Rymättylä. The weather
was not good for sun bathing but we had very useful discussions how to proceed
with our survey and made some statistical analysis on the material. Earlier I
had met a scholar at the University of Helsinki who also gave me some valuable pieces
of advice. And of course we made some barbequed food in Rymättylä.
I still had some spare time to enjoy my lady holiday.
I have been as Anukatariina in my garden dining or in bikinis, I have been on the beach and
in the woods for some mushrooms. The life has been much easier in that respect
and it takes much less energy to do anything.
But the most important thing for me was to meet my grandchildren as Anukatariina for the first time. Surprisingly they payed no attention to my changed outlook and were ready to play with me as usually. The other of them wanted to look my ear rings more specifically...
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