Snow

Today on my way home from the country house I saw snow for the first time this year. It’s something very special with that first snow. I know I’m thirty but it still excites me and puts a smile on my face.

I have missed having white winters so much and I truly hope this year will bring me a very cold and white winter.

I will sit here behind my double glazed windows, well-insulated walls and functional central heating and watch the snow fall slowly from the sky.

Wet and grey is so last season, cold and crisp white is the new in-thing!

Miss S for sugar books a hotel

Miss S for sugar, U for uniform, N for November, D for David, Q for Queen, V for victory, I for island, S for sugar and T for Tommie has booked herself in to a very posh hotel in London. Well of course.

I haven’t had to spell out my surname in ages. It made me all nostalgic.

People often ask me where to stay in London and this is not an easy question to answer. “I want to book a hotel in central London” is like saying “I want to visit Europe, where should I go”. Swedish people don’t understand the size of London most of the time. It is a very big city.

And then we have the issue of living standard which is not one of England’s hot topics on the agenda and this is well reflected in London’s many hotels. Beware! The advice I give is not to stay at a hotel with less then four stars as it will most certainly ruin your stay.

A budget hotel in England is something you should stay far away from. It’s a health hazard; don’t go near it as you might not be allowed back in Sweden afterwards.

I’m staying at a hotel in Mayfair which I’ve walked past a few times and envied the people staying there, so I thought it was about time I stayed there. And funnily enough the person who will be waiting for me there is a Swede. A Swede and a bottle of champagne! After all the hotel’s motto is your London home from home.

London Revisited

This autumn I’ve been dressed in tweed and watch Brideshead Revisited, the original series and of course the movie. I’ve taken long walks, kicked my brown boots around autumn coloured leafs, with the sun shining in my face, wishing I was in the English Country side.

Instead I’m at home with a cold, high on Night nurse, my favourite English drug, reading Tatler and waiting for the snow to come. It’s on its way I’ve heard. The thermometer is pointing at zero and the frost greats me in the morning. That is outside I might need to point out, in case you are British reading this and felt you recognise yourself sitting inside your living room.

I’m on my way to London for the very first time since I left my old life behind 9 months ago. This time I’m coming as the good looking Swedish tourist with camera, spending money and a return ticket.

Less then a year ago I was writing form my home in London on this blog, telling Swedish people not to travel to London the weeks before Christmas as this is the time when it’s absolutely mad in London. And look at me now: I’m one of those hip Swedes who are going to London just three weeks before Christmas. I must be utterly mad!

And I know when I’ll be walking through Clapham Common looking at the big, impressive old Victorian Mansion that used to be my home, it will be like my own Brideshead Revisited. It will break my heart but I’m ready to revisit London.