The city’s still very quiet. My friends and I are trying to find out if there’s an open pub somewhere where we can all sit and have a drink and talk yesterday’s events over.

Here’s what I know now: Some 80 people died from gun-shot wounds from Utøya yesterday. At least 7 others died from injuries sustained from the bombing in Oslo. Countless others have been injured, some very badly and others only mildly.

The shooter arrested at Utøya is a 32-year-old Norwegian male, by name of Anders Behring Breivik. He’s a previous member of The Progress Party (I call them fascists) and its youth organisation. This party is the Labour Party’s greatest and most dangerous rival, as the second largest party in the country. Breivik has lived on the posh side of Oslo all his life, before he recently moved to a farm in Hedmark. He owns an agricultural firm. It’s believed that he may have built the bombs out of artificial fertiliser. Breivik is active on anti-islam forums, is a self-professed nationalist and is strongly opposed to multiculturalism.

Breivik is in police custody and being interviewed, but according to Aftenposten.no some witnesses from Utøya are saying that there was another shooter, so the police now fears that there may be a perpetrator still walking free. However, whether these witness statements can be trusted is still being examined.

Apparently, though, someone was apparently just arrested at Sundvollen by Utøya. The reporter on TV2 is saying he looked Norwegian, had (possibly dyed?) dark hair, was very young, and had a smile on his face when they slapped him in irons. They’re saying he may have had a knife? More on this later.

Anyone who knows me knows that I believe in a criminal justice system that places rehabilitation before punishment. I think this is the foundation of a civilised, modern society, to take people who have committed terrible crimes and do our very best to turn them into people who can be productive members of society. I want to make this very clear before I tell you that I hope that Breivik and whatever accomplices he may have had are locked up for the rest of their lives. A person who kills nearly 100 people in a day cannot be rehabilitated, and I wouldn’t take the chance of letting him out even if it seemed like he could be. Lock him up and throw away the key!

That’s all I want to say for now. Everyone in Norway stands together today. I’ve seen several politicians on TV since last night whom I usually despise and I haven’t been able to hate them. Like our prime minister said last night, we need to take care of each other and stand together now. I love my country, and its people. We will not be crushed!

I think it’s safe to say my day just got much worse, as well as everyone else’s in Norway.

OSLO, 5:21 pm: A bomb went off in Oslo today at around 3:30 pm, around the government buildings. The prime minister’s offices have been totaled, but the PM is safe and unharmed. The police has confirmed a bomb, but no one has claimed responsibility yet, at least not that anyone knows. At least two people are confirmed dead, and several more injured. Windows have been blown out of buildings as far as 1 km away from the explosion, it was that powerful. There have been huge fires and complete chaos. As far as I know, no one I know has been injured.

There’s a police press conference in about ten minutes. I’ll make an update when I know more.

UPDATE, 5:48 pm: Police press conference is delayed, so not a whole lot more information yet. They’re now saying “several dead” on TV, though. Morten had to go to work, so I’ve relocated to my mother’s house. Don’t really want to be alone…

UPDATE, 6:00 pm: The police press conference has started. They’re asking everyone to evacuate central Oslo, so if you’re there, get out. Don’t use your mobile phones unless you have to, in order to make sure that important calls get through.

The police are going to enter the buildings. They cannot confirm a car bomb, though it seems reasonable to think that a vehicle was involved. All important buildings and people in central Oslo are now secured. The police won’t comment or speculate on who is behind it at this point.

People who are looking for information on possible missing loved ones can call: 815 02 800

Witnesses who have any information regarding what’s happened, observations of suspicious behaviour in town prior to the explosion or other relevant information, can call: 22 66 99 66

The police is asking everyone to go home and remain calm.

UPDATE, 6:15 pm: Apparently, there’s been a shooting at an AUF (the Labour Party’s youth organisation) summer camp at Utøya, Buskerud, today. No real information to be had as of yet.

The press conference is now over, but they plan to start another in an hour’s time.

UPDATE, 6:20: Prime minister Jens Stoltenberg is being interviewed by phone on TV now. He’s having a meeting with the ministers of justice, health etc. tonight, didn’t hear why because my mum was talking, but presumably to work out a political action plan, discuss options and so on. At least now we know he’s actually safe.

UPDATE, 6:30 pm: @kjetilvevle is tweeting about a man dressed in a police uniform firing shots at Utøya. Still nothing confirmed by police.

UPDATE, 6:40 pm: Several shots still being fired at Utøya. People are swimming away from the island, being picked up by boats. Someone being interviewed by phone on TV says, “It’s total war out there.”

UPDATE, 7:14 pm: NRK can report that the shooter at Utøya is tall, blonde and Nordic looking.

UPDATE, 7:36 pm: 5 or 6 people have been killed at Utøya, reports NRK.

UPDATE, 7:44 pm: BBC World News reports that, according to a witness through Reuters, the army is now taking up positions around central Oslo. I saw military police with red berets in the early footage as well, but I suppose this means the action of closing off the city centre is now being organised by the military.

UPDATE, 7:50 pm: The BBC are now reporting that the Oslo police cannot confirm that ANYONE has been killed at Utøya. This is pretty confusing, but presumably we’ll figure this out eventually.

UPDATE, 8:03 pm: NRK’s US correspondent says that the American government condemns what they perceive to be a pathetic and cowardly act of violence and that their thoughts go out to the Norwegian people. Thank you, America.

UPDATE, 8:37 pm: This from The New York Times:

A terror group, Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami (the Helpers of the Global Jihad), issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack, according to Will McCants, a terrorism analyst at CNA, a research institute that studies terrorism. The message said the attack was a response to Norwegian forces’ presence in Afghanistan and to unspecified insults to the Prophet Muhammad. “We have warned since the Stockholm raid of more operations,” the group said, apparently referred to a bombing in Sweden in December 2010, according to Mr McCants’ translation. “What you see is only the beginning, and there is more to come.” The claim could not be confirmed.

UPDATE, 8:43 pm: The police confirms that they believe the man that they’ve arrested at Utøya was also involved with the bombing in Oslo, based on their knowledge about the man’s identity, but they won’t answer any specific questions about the suspect, whether he’s Norwegian, what his motives were or confirm whether anyone has actually been killed at Utøya or not. Meanwhile, eye-witnesses are claiming that tens of people have been killed in the shooting at Utøya.

UPDATE, 9:00 pm: I’m getting really exhausted from all this, so I think I’m gonna call it a night. If you have a loved one at Ullevål Universitetssykehus in Oslo, you can now call 23 01 51 44. Good night, folks.

Picture stolen from Aftenposten.no

I don’t know why, I just do. It might have something to do with a thread on Pundit Kitchen this morning. I found this lovely news post when I opened my daily PK newsletter today.

For those who can’t be arsed to read, its basic content is as follows. A bunch of gay activists turned up at Michele and Marcus Bachmann’s conversion therapy clinic, dressed up as barbarians, because Marcus Bachmann has said that gay people are “barbarians who need to be disciplined”. The activists demanded that Bachmann come out and punish them for their deviant behaviour, but when he didn’t turn up, instead they went into the empty waiting room and showered it with glitter while chanting “You can’t pray away the gay – baby, I was born this way!”

I find this to be an inspiring and interesting, not to mention good humoured, form of protest. Conversion therapy has been shown to do more harm than good, and there was no one there anyway. Note empty waiting room and reception area.

I scrolled down to read some comments, expecting the usual lols and humourous talking points. Imagine my shock when what I found was 300+ comments by ultra-consevatives who seem to think that these activists assaulted innocent people with glitter. Assaulted. WTF? What angered me even more was that the few people who were trying to argue held the “Well, the protestors were wrong, but so was Bachmann for saying that” approach, and they were being slaughtered by people who seem to think that you always have to pick a side, that you can’t see something from more than one point of view and that if you say you are you’re being dishonest and have no place to comment.

The way these people were defending Bachmann and his so-called “clinic” absolutely disgusted me. And these are the same people who stand idly by and say nothing at all when the Westboro Babtist Church pickets funerals or gay kids are beaten up by other kids whose bible study leader has told them being gay is an abomination. The same people who think that Christian protesters have every right to stand outside Planned Parenthood clinics with pictures of dead babies, scaring away women who need help and council.

Conversion therapy is not science, it’s not medicine, it’s not psychiatry. It’s fraud. And for every person who’s made “not gay” by conversion therapy (and this is ignoring the stress and trauma they have to go through to reach that point) there are ten others who are directly harmed, either by being forced into it by their family, or simply by seeing society around them lend credibility to these nut jobs and making them feel like they are somehow wrong.

Being gay/lesbian/bisexual/transexual/whatever else that isn’t 100% straight is NOT an illness, mental or physical, and it doesn’t hurt anyone. It’s not an abomination, it’s not a question or right or wrong. Why people are not-straight, how it happens, is completely irrelevant. It’s there. Deal with it. We’re not going away, we’re not gonna sit quiet, and we’re NOT gonna let bigoted, hateful, ignorant people tell us that we need treatment!

To Marcus and Michele Bachmann, and others like them, I respectfully suggest you go fuck yourself. In the arse. With a pickaxe.

I just got back home from Finland, and I’ll probably make a post pretty soon about how everything was, but for now I feel the need to share something really sad that happened yesterday while we were driving to the boat.

WARNING: The following contains a fairly graphic description of something very tragic, and you may find it disturbing. Read at your own risk!

(more…)

June’s always slow, isn’t it?

I haven’t really had much to blog about recently. It happens. When life is slow, blogging is slow. Oh, well.

I’m leaving for Finland in the morning. I’ll be gone for ten days, but I’ll try to blog a bit if I do anything interesting, though at the moment it looks as though the most interesting thing I’ll be doing is seeing the new Harry Potter movie at a midnight premier screening. Maybe I’ll try my hand at some movie reviewing.

Come autumn, I’m sure I’ll have a lot more to blog about. Also gonna try to do some recordings when I get back home, play around a bit. And who knows, there may be new songs on the horizon. I’ll be back in force after the summer, I promise. I guess for now I’m just enjoying not really having to do much of anything.

Oh, also, I got Browncoats: Redemption, the Firefly/Serenity fan film, in the mail yesterday, and watched it. As fan films go, it’s not half bad. Some of the acting was less than perfect, and the sound was so-so, as post-production was basically non-existent, but the plot was pretty good. I liked it, and I recommend any Firefly fans out there to check it out, if you haven’t already. You have until September to order the movie, and if you do the proceeds go to some pretty neat charities, as it’s a non-profit project.

Off I go, then, to a cabin in the woods with no wi-fi. Till next time, Interblogs! Behave yourselves while I’m away, don’t light anything on fire, and try not to destroy the universe.

I considered doing this in installments, to be easier on my poor readers (those of you who still bother checking in; I’m impressed with my site stats, not a single post in a month, but you still keep coming) but then I decided, fuck it. I shan’t underestimate the intellectual capacity of those loyal enough to give a damn like that. Also, I’d just end up not posting the next installment till next week, and that would be stupid.

The reasons for this recent hiatus are many and varied, and pretty much all boil down to laziness. The whole coming home and needing to socialise and job-hunt thing, combined with the all too satisfying feeling of being able to veg out on the couch for hours playing computer games, are the main culprits. I could almost end this post there, because that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing since I got home, but that would be boring. So here goes the high lights.

I had a slightly delayed birthday party in my second week back, of the usual garden party BBQ variety. Not all the people I had hoped would turn up did, but it was a pretty decent turn-out, and we had a nice time, I think. Everyone was late, except Chris, who was early. But that’s all normal. It was a night of good food, cake and drunken debauchery. Then we withdrew to the living room where there was more awesomeness to be had. Though it ended a bit earlier than I should have liked. Despite having enough sleeping space for half the party, no one stayed over, which also meant I had to do the cleaning myself the next day (as Morten was going to another garden party). But even though I’m bitching about it, it was still an awesome party, and I love all my friends who turned up. It was a great occasion to get to hang out with people I hadn’t seen in ages. And Chris made me a crown. It was really cool.

We’ve been out drinking quite a few times in the past month. Had a great night Sunday last week. Since Monday was a bank holiday, we figured it would be a good idea to have a night out. I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so drunk in my life… It all went very quickly. We went grilling in the park first, so we didn’t start getting our drink on until around 10. I should probably not have had that second Long Island Ice Tea… Or those two shots of Sambucca. Oh well. Live and learn.

This weekend we celebrated Ingrid’s birthday, which was lots of fun. One of her friends made the most amazing After Eight cake! Oh my god, best cake ever!!! Brownie cake with mint glazing, om nom nom!!! There was talking and drinking and much awesomeness all around. Ingrid is cool. She’s studying acting, and I was lucky enough to catch her in her school’s performance of Peer Gynt. It was my first time seeing Peer Gynt, but it was Morten’s fifth, and he said it was a good production, so I’ll take his word for it. Not that I didn’t enjoy it or anything, but it’s a national treasure and all that, so people make higher demands to it than a lot of other plays.

For my international readers, Peer Gynt is a play written by Henrik Ibsen, who is considered one of the greatest Norwegian authors who ever lived. The play is often considered the epitome of Norwegian-ness. Mostly it’s just a really weird and fairly enjoyable story, and a lot more ironic than a lot of people realise. The title character is an anti-hero, who lies and cheats his way through life with the best of intentions, at least most of the time, and the play really messes with the stereotypical Norwegian figure and is not, as some think, a nationalistic or romantic piece, but rather a cynical play on how deeply flawed Ibsen considered Norwegian culture to be. Which is why it’s pretty funny that Peer Gynt is revered as oh so Norwegian and awesome.

On Saturday I went to the Medieval Festival with Jen, Chris and Martin, a ren fair type of deal with activities and costumes and lots of stalls where you can buy authentic clothing and armour and decorative weapons and all sorts of stuff. Last time I was there they had a jousting tournament. They didn’t have that this year, but they did have a field cannon, which they used in a reenactment of some battle or another that they showed.

I bought an awesome dress, which I will wear to next year’s Medieval Festival. Every time I go I find some awesome dress I really want, and then I feel like I don’t have money or something… So this year I just decided to go for it. Pretty neat, no?

I’ve been job hunting like crazy. I started appying for loads of kindergarten jobs as soon as I got home. I wrote myself a shiny new CV and nicely worded applications, but I wasn’t getting any response. Might have been because my lack of references. I e-mailed loads of people I’ve worked with, but no one responded, so I couldn’t really attach anyone’s name without their knowledge. What if they didn’t remember me? So I was starting to get worried, cause no one had called me in for an interview or anything. Not a single phone call, till last week. Tuesday they called me from the last kindergarten I’d applied to (I had sent in the application the Friday before, and that Monday was the aforementioned bank holiday, so they literally called me the moment they got my application) and asked if I wanted to come to an interview on Thursday. I said I’d love to.

The place was only 10 minutes away by bus, and the staff seemed friendly. West side kindergarten, though. Having worked on the East side a lot I was almost shocked at the lack of immigrant kids. All the kids that I saw were definitely European, probably almost all Norwegian. There really is a big difference.

We sat and chatted for a good half hour at least, and they seemed to like me. Asked me all sorts of questions like, when would I be able to start and if they were to offer me the position would I feel comfortable with making a decision straight away. I told them I could start whenever they wanted me to, and if they offered me the position I would say yes.

This morning they called me to offer me the position. I said yes.

So, this autumn I shall be working part time looking after kids between the ages of two and four, and taking up math and physics at Bjørknes. I didn’t do too well with math in school, and I never took physics. I’m doing this so I’ll be able to apply to study the Physics, Astronomy and Meteorology programme at the University of Oslo next year. I’m really fascinated with physics, and astronomy. If I fail at music, maybe I can be an astrophysicist.

Speaking of, I now officially have a Bachelor’s degree, with honours, in Popular Music. First class, too. I ended up with two A’s and three B’s. Got an A14 for my concert, but it got pulled down to a B13 due to that embarrassing presentation before Christmas. It happens. A B is still a really good grade, and this is the highest level of B.

Other than that, I have now officially moved in with Morten. I am a rent-paying resident. Well, I didn’t pay rent this month, but Morten owes me money and I’m basically broke until I can start my job (my mum is the awesomest mum ever as she’s given me a loan so I won’t starve and can contribute without dipping even deeper into my savings). Today the new signs for the mailbox and the buzzer arrived in the post, so now the postman will deliver my post to me and people can see that I live here. I like that. Makes it feel more proper. Like a real home.

So yeah. Mostly I’m happy.

I’ve packed my bags and cleaned out of my room. Tomorrow morning I’m leaving for good, going home, and never coming back, read more here .

Well, no, not never. But I’m not coming back to live here. This has been a mad year. There has been so much going on, and I’ve met so many people, and there have been so many emotions, feelings, thoughts… There’s been loneliness, but also friendship and happiness and giggling.

A quick update on the past week: Last Friday Morten, mum and I went to London, and Morten got a flight back home to Oslo. Mum and I proceeded to shop (new jacket, yay!) and on Saturday we went to the Science Museum, Natural History Museum and in the evening went to see Wicked. It was an awesome musical! I loved it. On Sunday, after mum had got on the Piccadilly Line out to Heathrow, I met up with Stephanie in Camden, where we had lunch and went shopping and things.

This week I began packing all my stuff. I’ve shipped two boxes with Parcelforce, but my suitcase is still way too heavy. I’ll just have to manage tomorrow. I’m getting a train at 9:13 from Walsall tomorrow. Thinking I’ll ask them to call me a taxi from reception when I hand in my keys.

Yesterday I went out drinking in Walsall with a bunch of awesome folks. Got more drunk than I’ve been in a long time, and so I was a bit reduced today, tired and tummy achey. Still, it was worth it. Today I’ve cleaned out my room, and went out to dinner at Nando’s with Abi and Renee, and Emma who’s here for the week and her boyfriend Jon. It was a good meal, and I had a great time. It was a good goodbye.

So, yeah. Goodbye, Walsall. I might not miss West Midlands weather, or the long walk to the shop, or the lonely nights in my room, but I will most definitely miss every one of the amazing people I’ve been lucky enough to get to call my friends this year.

I’m gonna miss all my flat mates, past and current. Even when I’ve been by myself, I’ve felt less lonely simply for having Clayson in the next room listening to music or rehearsing guitar.

I’m gonna miss my drinking buddies, especially Robin, whom I have declared to be my brother. Hanging out with them all on Wednesday nights has made the past few months so much more bearable, especially after Abi moved out.

I’m gonna miss my class mates, and all the other music students. Even though we haven’t hung out as much as I should have liked, they’ve all been very important to me and the time I have spent with them has been awesome.

I’m probably gonna miss Abi most of all. We haven’t seen each other so much lately, but she’s been an amazing friend. When I was freaking out today, trying to get everything sorted, she came and helped me out, and I’m so grateful to her for all she’s done.

All that said, it’s hard to pretend that any of that can overshadow my joy at going home, being with Morten again, seeing all my friends and getting back into my old life. This year has been a fantastic experience, but the greatest thing it’s taught me is how much I love my home and my life and the people around me. I’m gonna miss all the friends I’ve made, but don’t think for a second that this is the last time I’m gonna see them.

I’ll see all my classmates again when I come back for graduation in September, and I’ve promised to come back to go drinking with Robin and the guys. I’ve promised to come visit Abi, too, and she’s promised to come to Oslo to see me. So has Emma, and a weekend in Amsterdam seems like a good future holiday so I’ll be able to see both her and Ree.

This isn’t the end. It’s a new beginning.

I met up with my mum in Walsall yesterday afternoon. We took her stuff to her hotel, went to campus so I could get changed and fetch all the stuff I needed, and then we were off again to head to The Roadhouse in time for 6 o’clock. We arrived to find that the only people who were already there were my band. Aiden’s guys started arriving some minutes late, and Chris got there at 6:30 or so. This made me slightly nervous.

We were late starting the sound checks, and the start of the gig was pushed forward to 8:30. I felt a bit easier after everyone was done sound checking.

A little while before 8 pm, however, as I was sitting at the entrance ready to take entry money from the coming audience, I had the biggest birthday surprise of my life.

Through the door came Morten, my boyfriend. I had a moment of, “Wait, wut??”, as my mind first decided that it was impossible for him to be there, and then realised that, no, it was definitely him.

He had flown down that morning, had lunch with a friend in London, and then headed up to Birmingham at a leisurely pace. He hadn’t told anyone. Officially the best birthday present ever! Suddenly, everything felt awesome, and I didn’t feel as nervous as I had. I felt excited and ready and happy.

Aiden and Chris played really well (Chris especially impressed us with an incredibly intricate guitar tune that blew us all away). Then it was my turn, and it went AWESOME! I realised a couple of songs in that I’d forgotten to hand my promo packs to the assessors, so I asked if I should take a break and do that, and was told to keep playing, so I did.

It was the most awesome gig I’ve ever played! I felt great up on stage, I felt like everything went really well, and I got loads of applause and cheering, and as we all know, us performers live for recognition(!)

Now, as we’d started off half an hour late, the sound tech had been getting cranky. He had, apparently, asked Chris to cut down his set, which he had refused to do. He kept playing. The sound tech never said anything to me, but I cut one song anyway, because I realised that if I’d played it, my set would have gone up to about 50 minutes, and it was supposed to be 45 minutes. By the time I got on, we were only about fifteen minutes behind schedule. However, during my second last track, the sound tech started waving his arms (I think he was gesturing before that, but I wasn’t wearing my glasses and so couldn’t see him properly on the other end of the room). When that song was done, he cut the sound.

Here are two very important facts: 1. In the e-mail I had received when making the booking, I was told that we could play until 11:30 if need be. 2. It was, at this point, 7 minutes before 11.

I told my band to stay where they were, and stomped off to the sound tech, where I found Brendan already telling him that he was out of order. I asked the guy what the hell he was up to, and he said that we could only play until 11. I told him about the e-mail correspondance, he said it was wrong, and I told him that that’s not my problem. I was told 11:30, and that was what I had paid for. He sullenly told me I could do one more song, and I said that was all I had left.

Then I got back on stage, to great cheer, and performed Uninvited, as intended. When I got up to the green room after, it was exactly 11 o’clock.

This is where I interject that I am as proud of myself as I could possibly be. I stood up to the man and I won! I think I’m allowed this little victory.

After the performance, I gave my promo pack to the assessors, received kudos from Steve Cooper (happy birthday, Steve!), and then lots of other people for having stood my ground, received lots of hugs, and felt sweaty and tired, but incredibly happy. Then I went back to campus with my boyfriend, and we spent half the night singing folk songs, because that’s what I do when I’m happy.

Today I handed in my final assessment and went out to dinner with Morten, Abi and mum for a more proper birthday celebration. I’ve had a great day, and tomorrow I’m off to London with mum and Morten’s going back to Norway. I go home in a week. I’ve completed all my assessments, and I feel so accomplished and done and just good.

This is my life, and I feel good about it.

So, here we are again. A year has passed, and I now have to get used to telling people that I’m twenty-three. Makes me feel a little bit old, really…

My mum is coming today, to watch my gig and things, and then this weekend we’re going to London to go to the theatre and have a proper birthday celebration.

Today is going to be a strange birthday… I have some work to do before my mum gets here, and then I have to be at the Roadhouse at 6pm for rigging and sound checks… I mean, where’s the “Today you can have whatever you want for dinner”? Where’s the “kringle”? The birthday song and the pile of presents… This is the first birthday ever where none of these things have happened, and I like my childish traditions.

I also desperately miss Morten. I spent my 21st and my 22nd birthday with him, and I won’t get to see him for another nine days. This makes me sad.

I’ll make up for it next year. I’ll have the most awesome birthday ever next year. Today I need to focus on being awesome myself.

The good news is that I no longer feel all that nervous. Now I just feel slightly apathetic and tired. Great birthday feeling(!)

Here’s what I look like today, on my 23rd birthday:

If you haven’t already decided what you’re gonna do tonight, and you happen to be in the Birmingham area, join me at The Roadhouse for my dissertation gig, and help make my birthday a little cooler!

I’m a bit of an idealistic change-the-world type of person. I want to fix the universe, basically. When I become famous one day, I will no doubt be the kind of rock star who puts on charity gigs, releases a song for charity and so on and so forth. That’s what I’m like. Deal with it. I promise I won’t go all Bono and ask for donations for environmental protection and then get in my private jet like another piece of corporate scum.

At present, I have two monthly donations to charity. I give money to the WWF’s Adopt a Polar Bear programme (they gave me a cute, fluffy polar bear cub teddy for it, too), and to The Girl Effect, a humanitarian charity I discovered quite recently and that I really believe in.

Here are a couple of videos describing, in simple terms, what they do:

I know that it seems a little naïve at first glance, but if you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. If you visit their website, there are some videos of testimonies by girls who have helped improve their community in real life.

Now, as some of you may know, my 23rd birthday is coming up, and for that occasion I’ve set up a “birthday wish” on causes.com, asking people to donate money to the girl effect. If you’d like to help me raise money for this cause, please click here, make a donation, or just share it with someone you think will. It would mean a lot to me if we could raise my target amount by the 11th. And if you think causes and birthday wishes are stupid, and you’d rather make a private donation after some more thought, The Girl Effect will still be there after my birthday has ended, too.

Please note that any money donated through My Birthday Wish will go straight to the charity trough their donation programme. I won’t see a penny of it. The Girl Effect is a non-profit charity organisation.

Thank you for your time.