I walked home tonight from Swedish class via Oxford Street.

I never cease to be amazed at how busy it can be on a Wednesday night, although I was more interested in looking in shop windows.

Swedish class was, as usual, lots of fun tonight, especially as we had a few new faces in the class.

As we chatted (in Swedish) about our lives, what we do, how we spend our time and so on, an interesting gap emerged between our experiences and that of our teacher.

Almost all of us live reasonably close to the city and don’t have cars.

About half of us don’t have breakfast at home, preferring to get something on the way to work.

It was an interesting gap, I thought, reflecting both a generational change (I see loads of people buying breakfast every morning) as well as a cultural change.

Growing up in the country, getting a car was the first life goal. Living in the city, it’s no longer a priority. And because I’ve lived without one for such a long time I can’t imagine life with one.

Times change.