Mixed fruit soup of something between

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This blog is a report of the period between the start of the semester and the autumn holiday.

I have worked as myself most of the time, only the days I have customers outside of our organization I've made exceptions. The situation feels sort of natural for me and it seems it is regarded to be natural by my work environment as well.

Since last winter there has been the metro also in Espoo. It goes from the Iso Omena mall in Matinkylä to Helsinki via several stations. For me it means the trip to Helsinki takes about fifteen minutes longer than it used to be with a single bus: Five to ten minutes more to get to Iso Omena and five to ten minutes more from Iso Omena to Helsinki, depending the waiting time for the metro departure.

                                 A very early morning at the bus stop


So I have preferred use my bike instead of the metro. It is faster and naturally also healthier. Unfortunately my knee has been a little sore and there is quite a high uphill on the way to work.  To solve the problem I have used a hybrid solution: Biking to the nearest train station, taking the bike to the train and biking to my work places from the station near them. It has turned out to be the fastest way and I’ve used the metro very seldom. 

                                  Waiting for the train.

                 There is some room for bikes and prams in the trains

The life of part time lady is full of surprises and confusion. I was invited to health inspection by an occupational health nurse. She was a new one and never met me. When I went there properly in time I saw her through the open door, obviously looking for a male customer to enter the corridor. Some minutes after my appointment time she came out and seemingly annoyed shouted my name – she probably thought it was another lad late…

She also sent me to blood test. The procedure was carried out by a bioanalyst with whom I chatted for some time before the official things. The first official thing was to check my info from my health insurance card. When doing it she literally dropped my card and began to claim it was a wrong one. I just replied it isn’t and that kind of confusion happens sometimes. Yet I was astonished my male voice didn't any bell to her. 

        At the occupational health care station after causing some confusion

The mushroom season in Finland has been excellent. In my forest the situation has not been as good as it could have been. Actually the main season is approximately a month late compared to an average year. Fortunately the weather seems to continue exceptionally warm so I hope I can pick them longer than I use to do normally.

            I still found pretty much gipsy mushrooms (kehnäsieni)

Last times I have been lazy with my night life. There was an exception though: Some of my friends organized a big happening with theme of seventies. Last time I attended their show I accidently won the best costume price. This time I thought someone else may win it but anyhow decided to dress up in the mood of seventies. When I thought what to wear I tried to remember the variety of styles: Hippie, Abba glitter, Saturday night fever disco style, long salsa skirts...  I also remembered  the Star Trek style but foud out the series was stopped 1969, though it was seen later in Finland. Finally I decided to choose the casual seventies style. It naturally included trumpet jeans or pants which I didn’t have. The casual colour of the decade was brown so I chose the brown-green pleated skirt with dark brown tights and matching striped shirt mimicking Marimekko shirt, a typical casual shirt that time. I also found a pair of slippers with very thick heels in 70s style. Then I remembered the girls used to colour their hair with henna colour and took a red-brown wig. 

As I assumed the trophy went to other people who had really invested in the theme. On the other hand I thought the younger people even didn’t spot my 70s elements, the stereotypical picture of the era consist of the top fashion instead of the casual and most typical clothing.

              A girl from seventies having fun at the Kaisaniemi restaurant.

The music consisted of 70s disco hits which I used to hear and dance in seventies discos. This time I could do in the outfit I would like to do it then and this thing made me very emotional.

The Dreamwear Club Autumn meeting took place in Vähäjärvi near Hämeenlinna. I have been in the board of the club and now I was elected to the chair of the board. Last year we were very active and because of it we got some extra financing from our central organization Seta. The increased activity was carried out with old financing so this year we have some extra resources to do things a bit differently.

                                           A musical moment with Tuija

                                          Old and new chairs together

The icon of Finnish Transvestites, BB told us about the trans scene in 1960s and 1970s in Helsinki

                       Tanja telling about trans legislation all over the world 

And last episode is about my political activities...

One day I was at the Helsinki Pop Jazz Conservatory to introduce Seta activity with a friend Pauliina. One of the aims was to tell both the students and the staff that it is very possible to meet a student representing sexual or gender minority and how to cope with it. It seemed the students were very busy with their rehearsals but the staff stayed longer time with us. We were happy to give them Seta material about this issue and on the other hand we had very fruitful discussion with the student welfare team members.

                            With Pauliina at the Seta material table

I also had another opportunity for lobbying my agenda when I was invited to give a lecture about discrimination on basis of the gender diversity at work places. The invitation came from the Trade Union Pro. So I told about the gender diversity, about myself, about the survey we did two years ago and about the best practices to avoid discrimination. The audience was very active and we had a long talk about the issues after my lecture. It seems that these issues are still quite unfamiliar to many people and there is still very much to be done. Anyway I was very happy to have this opportunity to tell about things I know and regard as very important. I have an intuition the main attitude has rapidly turned to non discriminative direction but it may gain some boost on knowledge and personal presence.

                         Lecturing at the Trade Union Pro session

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