Q&A #2: Winter coats, work outs and England vs Sweden

I think your blog is perfect! I like the short posts about beautiful things. Not too many pictures and always something interesting. I don’t dare to comment on every post, don’t want you to only have comments from me! But I would like to see a post about winter coats, what winter jacket should you buy? I would love more posts about food, ingredients/drinks/ready meals. Do you work out? What's the difference between England and Sweden? Should you comment in English or Swedish? /Kim

Wow, so many questions! You got your own Q&A post, Kim :) First, I'm really flattered that you think my blog is perfect. It's not perfect, but thank you so much! And please please please, continue to comment as much as you like in whatever language you prefer! As long as you can stand me translating them... I've split your comment in three, so here comes; winter coats, work outs and England vs Sweden. There will always be more food posts, since food is my favorite thing on earth, so don't worry about that.

All coats are from Beyondretro.com.

Regarding winter coats I would like everyone to at least think of buying second hand since the constant produce of new and new and new stuff is causing our planet to over flow with waste and toxics. Plus all the coats I like this season are to be found in previous decades anyway. My favorites are the 90's puffer jacket, the shearling jacket, the 70's suede coat, the boxy mens coat and of course, fur. Real or fake doesn't matter to me as long as it's second hand (if it's new I prefer fake). Personally I don't feel the necessity of buying a new coat if I don't find one that I absolutely love. Instead I reuse my old coats from last year and the year before that. I have two wool coats, a beige and a black one so I'll manage. But if I would buy a new (old) coat it would be one similar to any of the ones above, or a green shiny puffer I've put aside at work...

Working out is sort of my least favorite subject to be honest. I've tried loads of different ways of exercising through out the years (tennis, floor ball, spinning, going to the gym, swimming, walking, yoga, pilates) but I struggle with consistency. There's always something I'd rather do. But sometimes, like last autumn when I found a pilates class that I really loved or when I live close to a really nice park, I do enjoy it. A part of me really wish I did work out more, another part couldn't care less. I do have some troubles with my knees that makes running difficult and maybe just because I can't I imagine running to be the ultimate form of exercise.

It's hard to compare England as a country to Sweden but I can compare London to Stockholm and Gothenburg, where I've also lived. First of all – London is so much (SO MUCH!) bigger and a so much more diverse city. I bet you can find people from all around the world living on the same street here, at least you can find food from all over the world on the same street. Since it is so much bigger it hosts everything and anything imaginable – weird things, beautiful things, scary things and all things in between.

I've always been a restless person, easily bored and always up for new things. When I first moved to Stockholm from Gothenburg I, for the first time, experienced a sense of calm that came with the fact that I couldn't do and go to everything I wanted every day and every night since there was simply too much going on. That feeling slowly disappeared with time, as Stockholm grew smaller and smaller the longer I lived there. But now I experience the same feeling here in London and it's wonderful!

I can imagine London to be awfully stressful though and some things here are terrible, like the traffic in the mornings and all the people shopping at Oxford circus, swarming around, buying, buying, buying. Another thing is the big gaps moneywise, the rich here are richer and the poor are poorer. London is the most expensive city in the world at the moment so even if you do have a job you do feel how easily this city swallows all your money. But it does give back in experience!

I enjoy living in London at the moment and I'll probably be here for another year or two but I wouldn't want to live here for the rest of my life. But then I don't know where I would like to live so I'll probably move around some more before I settle, if I ever do.