Today I was invited to a Picnic where a friend of mine have gathered a bunch of girls heading for EuroPride later on. I asked the wonderful A if she wanted to go with me there and she thought it was a great idea. We were to bring our own barbecue food so I needed to think something really nice out. I like to cook and I am interested in food but lately I have not been able to find much time so I always feel I know too little about it and have no imagination. However, there is a nice foodstore not that far from where I live so I went there and decided to buy filets of fresh salmon and tuna to grill and had some lime aioli and a seafood salad (Skagenröra) to go with that. Together with some cooked potatoes it looked good. I had also promised A to buy her some beer and luckily it was a Systembolaget, the Swedish Alcohol Retail Monopoly Store next to the food store. Remember, I don’t drink alcohol at all so I don’t even remember when I was in this store the last time – let alone buying anything. However, I think I found a couple of nice light beers for her.
The weather was just stunning and me and A headed off to the southern part of Stockholm before stopping by a flower shop to get something to the hostess. And I got a flower from her too which made me real happy! It now sits in a vase back home and it still looks good and warms my heart. Our barbecue was real nice and the food we had brought was just delicious! It was so nice being there with her and all the other Pride-people eating and talking on the lawn.
After that we drove to the Pride Park and I tried to show A around Pride Park. We stopped by the VIP soiree at the QX tent and then I found an old colleague who is now an Air Force Colonel and we talked for quite a long time. He had not been to Pride before and was honestly interested and thought it was really important for him to be there. Being able to talk a little about my experiences and hear his thoughts on LGBT issues actually made me feel real good about the possibility of changing the Armed Forces. Later I also heard that he had enjoyed hearing about my experiences as well.
Since Christer Fuglesang was there I was wearing my pink NASA-top but unfortunately I missed his official book signing. However, I managed to say hi to him later on but he seemed very stressed out and did not say much more than that he liked my top. Around ten o’clock he entered the scene to introduce The Arrival – a band that plays ABBA-music but I think EuroPride really made that into an almost embarrassing moment both for Christer and for us watching. It is such a shame because space science is really cool if you just treat it the right way.
Anyhow it was a wonderful day with A again and a perfect start of the Pride Park week.