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What Kajsa loves about you/the UK/England
Warm to a rainy mild weather, service economy, shops, music and culture (plays, theatre, radio), languages, history, experiences like gardens, planetariums, aquariums, sets of famous movies, scandalous newspapers, libraries and books, walking to places, driving on the left, being surrounded by sea, carpet floors, British chocolate, women's magazines, RSPCA, NHS, self-checkouts, no monopoly on alcohol products, school uniforms, bad coffee replaced by strong tea, well what I usually like but, just with flair… savoury flavourful cuisine and most things have already made their way to Finland. Pre-packaged salads, triangular sandwiches etc ready-to-go food, my first Teriyaki chicken sub, British chocolate, Tesco partnership with S group, and more.
You might’ve guessed the best year of my life was spent in England in 2006. I am always in awe of you, but I have to pretend you are not to be gaped at, of your historical grandeur. I reminisce about my travels and keep my souvenirs. Exhibit about the exhibition that does not exist. What was before London? I always wanted my foreign language to be easy to learn, never forgetting new words. The words I learned from books and TV. “My name is” can be intuitively learnt. Parrot, volcano, duck after duck in a Where’s the duck. I bought a book about Tigger so I could read it when my English was good enough. When I found the book again it was too easy of a read.
A whole life can stretch between the limits of the area where you live. Don’t judge London by its jellied eels. Take a lot of pictures, even if you help train AI when you share your everyday photography. Progress goes on in the tech world, politics, medicine and equality – even if we all decide to opt-out of being decent sacks of skin. I learned cunt and crazy aren’t offensive words. I learned not to get offended. I’d never get lost in London. The underground map makes too much damn sense. You make other people's lives easier by choosing to exist politely and with humour, think of others, queue, chat with the person on the bus. It’s lively and lovely and makes lasting connections, or acquaintances who make life worth bumming around in London.
Keep calm and mind things. Teach your nursery rhymes and don’t fall down like London Bridge. Act like Shakespeare and make eloquent rhetorical written or verbal accidents. Mean something like the Romans did when they built you on. This place is an icon, a brand. I’d love to learn how everything makes sense, with a bell tolling in the distance. I miss your city life and forever Londoner climate. Always looking with hope for my own gentleman still, to leave me in my secluded homeland during war unscathed.
