>>>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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>Any particular reason to want to leave South Africa?

Charles, there are always many reasons and thoughts that go into a decision as major as moving country. However, I would say the 2 biggest ones would be (1) I come from Holland and all my extended family is in Europe (Holland, France, Switzerland) and (2) the crime levels here in SA are not good ...



>If you'd like a literal 'change of climate' you might find the US midwest refreshing - lots of water, many good schools, fairly low cost of living and some very livable communities with virtually non-existant crime.

I would love to move to the US and love and the American life style. However, this requires applying for resident permits and the like, which in turn would laregely depend on job offers, etc. Europe is open to me and, of course, my extended family, siblings, etc are a short plane hop away.