On money, money, money

It must be funny in a rich man’s world…


In the real world, however, I feel money has played a considerable part lately (before you start asking if I just had a blonde moment, let me clarify. I know money always have played a considerable part in the real world, at least ever since we stopped trading food for …other types of food. But I needed an intro, so bear with me, okay?).

We have had a week of low cash flow in Norway. The security guards’ union has been on strike. “Why?” you say? Because they want more money, of course. Ironically, while the strike is ongoing, the result is less money in circulation for us all, because the striking security guards (yes, the pun was intended. I have a thing for uniforms…) provide the money transports.

We’ve basically been a cash-free society for a few days, at least that was what people feared. The news reported that people should use debit (and/or credit) cards if possible, and that the shops were short on cash. Unfortunately someone forgot to check whether this was actually the case… We did fine on the cash front in my shop, but nevertheless a lot of people kept dumping coins on us. Because of the striking security guards on strike we had nowhere to deposit the cash, so we were stuck keeping uncomfortably large amounts of cash in the shop (I can say this now, because the strike is over, otherwise I might accidentally become an accomplice to robbery). I counted 354687534658768 krone-coins (well, no, I didn’t, but there were a lot of them!) when closing up the shop this Saturday.

Speaking of coins and Saturday, I also found a Swedish coin on the floor of my shop on Saturday, which is funny because it was all about Sweden in our news that day. Saturday was the wedding day of the Swedish Crown Princess Victoria and her (now Prince) Daniel (no longer) Westling. I’ve been on a “gorgeous dress” high all weekend. Of course, I could never afford any of the dresses worn to that wedding –I bet several of them cost more than what I earn in a year.

Even if I wasn’t invited to this wedding I am going to one next weekend. One of my close friends is getting married, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Fortunately I don’t have to spend a yearly wage on a dress, since I am wearing one I already have. I know, I know, the fashion police will be at my throat for wearing the same dress twice (or they would have been had they not been too busy catching bigger fish), but I can’t really afford buying something new every time I have to dress up. With the semesterly “candidate parties” where semi-gala is expected, I have been stretching my dress budget these last two years. Going to the US helped, though, because the selection was wider and the prices lower. Still, the relatively low prices probably contributed to my over-shopping when I was there, and this in turn contributed to my over-spending of money I now wish were still in my savings account.

I’m not going to starve, but it would have been reassuring to know that I had some money in the bank for the last semester of university; and even more so for the time after that when I face no “real” job (at least I haven’t gotten any yet) and no student loans. Fortunately my job in the bookshop – even if it means counting an endless number of coins and accepting that the world is full of ignorant people – is going to keep me afloat until I find something more permanent.

If only I could strike to get more money!