Stockhome?

I've travelled to Sweden to visit my family two or three times a year since I was 5, and have thus developed a sentimental loyalty to the country; the kind that has led me to defend the bad football team and try to appreciate questionable Swedish music. My history makes my attachment to Sweden more than a idle fancy; having been born and spent the first 4 years of my life there, I harbour a nostalgic sense of curiosity as to what my life would have been like if I had never left. With a Swedish Dad and an English Mum, my comparison of (quite literally) the Fatherland and Motherland, has constructed the notion that England is my house, whilst Sweden is the garden playhouse that entices me with holiday freedom and the buzz of fond recreations. This allure certainly captured my childhood; but as I skip back and forth along the garden path of Heathrow airport, I realise that despite my Swedish passport, my UK eBay shipping address dictates my true home. Having gone through school, college, and now university in the UK, I have become a cog in it's mechanism; and as I prep myself for a toke of life in the big smoke, I see my life here branch out whilst each trip to Sweden is a replay of the last. True that she has provided me with slopes to ski down, fjords to bathe in, and ABBA... but I have exhausted the sale section of this IKEA catalogue, and am not yet prepared to bring my career here and pay the full price.

Without injuring the thrill of adventure: when you explore a new country and get traveller-napped by its awe, it is only when you land your feet back on well-trodden carpet that you remember the comfort of familiarity. Much like the family you can't choose: England's accomplishments, habits and failings have given her a satirical, humorous character that other countries just don't offer us Brits. So, in an accessible world where 'up North' is up the road and 'Down Under' is around the corner... I know that whichever flag adorns my address; I will look to England as my home, my house, and my delivery drop off.