>>Can you tell me a few decent counties, shires, or suburbs which are about an hour outside of London (by train)
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>>I lived in Caversham (just across the River Thames from Reading) for almost 2 years and I thought it was a great place to live - 30 minutes by train to Paddington. Howevever, Caversham, like most of Berkshire is a pretty expensive place to live....
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>Thanks for the info. Yes, the UK is very expensive. We are not sure what we may or may not do and we're just looking at a lot of different options and places, Australia, New Zealand, and various European countries. It is early days but we like to look around and see what's what. Perhaps Cape Town is the nicest option. Fairest cape in the world afterall :)

It's been a while that I was there, but the cape town area for me is one of the areas on the top of favorite places. I realize that visiting and living are different, but the "entreprenurial spirit" in your country was one of the most refreshing things. I thought the economy was still quite strong and crime going down (but still on a very high level) ? If the "attitude" thing is very high on your priority list, think again on going to europe. It is "safer and slower" over here.