The Culture shock of moving Continents lasts a lifetime. In 1973 under very difficult circumstances and in a matter of a few weeks we decided to move from South Africa to England and settle in London. My husband, daughter aged three and me. The greatest difficulty I found was from living with an extended family and a very open society to moving and trying to integrate into a closed insular society. “An Englishmans Home being his Castle” and all that.... The first thing that I had to learn to do was to clean………I had never seen a dirty window in my life how on earth did you get it clean …. the more you try the more it smudges. Suddenly I developed a pain in my elbow ….probably from washing dishes or the like. As my husband went to work every day he had the luxury of meeting adults …..my turn came when my daughter started going to school …. I befriended some American women as they were in the same boat as me. As their husbands worked for multinational companies they were used to moving continents and taught me some of the ropes.. One of the highlights of those early years of moving to London was doing a Cordon Bleu Cooking Course…. I couldn’t cook at all before that and could hardly make a cup of tea. Cooking good food is definitely one of the pleasures of life. The next stage was learning to cope with the public school culture. My daughter started going to St Paul’s at the age of seven. There was music school on Saturday morning and horse riding in Rotten Row in Hyde Park for most of the rest of the week end. Little English school girls are besotted with horses and riding them. What a thing to happen to me…….not only am I terrified of horses but also allergic to hay etc. Another exciting project that we embarked upon was starting an amateur orchestra. my father-in-law was a music conductor. We brought my parents–in–law to live in London as they had retired from a very busy life in the music world in South Africa. The Orchestra became hugely popular and grew to ninety five members. We did charity concerts all over London. Posh ones at venues like the Guild Hall and others in local Church Halls. We raised many thousands of pounds for all sorts of charities. Music is definitely the best leveller…. A famous surgeon could sit and play an instrument next to a bin man and they could get along famously. My advice to anyone moving Continents is…….persevere it does get easier. I moved back to Cape Town with the advent of the release of Nelson Mandela and change of regime, and enjoyed the beauty and weather for ten years. I returned to England …..Milton Keynes with the birth of my beautiful granddaughter Saskia. As she needed me to help look after her…… I have stayed for five years. Who knows what is just around the corner and what life brings tomorrow ……..perhaps another move ……..another continent…