That could never happen in Finland...

Yesterday morning a man walked into a secondary school in Tuusula, Finland, opened fire, and killed eight people plus himself.

This is a horrific tragedy and my thoughts are very much with the victims' families, the school children, and the community. I'm feeling really shocked by this event and disbelief that it could have happened in Finland. A country where I never went to a school that was fenced in or behind bars, a country I wasn't even aware of having the third highest gun ownership in the world.

There are so many emotions going on in me that I feel like I don't know how to respond. To my knowledge I have never been to Tuusula, but I do feel like my home has been violated, some inexplicable trust broken. And sadness.

Doomed...

I went to a lecture last Monday that was held in The Royal Society and was by Professor James Lovelock. He is somebody I studied while in Uni and I have to admit that it hadn't even occured to me that he might still be alive! So I was suitably excited about going to a (free) lecture by somebody so well known (think: Gaia theory).

He is a good speaker and had lots to say on Climate Change that was new to me or presented in a way I hadn't thought of (I think the speech should be available online). And my brain is so starved at the moment of any stimulation of this sort that I felt very invigorated by it all - even if it was a fairly dismal picture of times to come. Adaptation is the key, according to Lovelock, as we've passed the stage of being able to holt global climate warming.

At any rate I was also interested to see the buildings of The Royal Society, and seeing as my flat mate works there I was able to queue jump and avoid waiting outside in the cold!!

I'm off tonight to the Richmond Theatre which I've been meaning to visit ever since I moved here last February. I got a ticket as a birthday present so I'm finally going... I'll be seeing a modern adaptation of 'Faustus' (so another cheery event this week then!:) and really looking forward to it. The last thing I saw in a theatre was 'Richard III' - in German, so at least this'll be in a language I can understand.