Zimbos in West Berkshire

After all the frantic renovation activity and the atrocious weather of late March, compounded with the start of a West Midlands consulting contract that gave me a choice between staying away all week or spending 4 hours a day commuting, it was a relief when Craig and family arrived and the weather eased up a little. We drove up to Shropshire to see some relatives there, hosted some cousins for an al fresco meal on our back patio (although it was too cool to have a proper braai in the adjacent little brick-built pub which was a major contributory factor in purchasing this place) and generally had as good a time as we could in changeable weather.

It was great to see my African family meeting my ex-African now English family after a gap of some years, and I hope the more sunburned ones got a sense that it is quite possible to have a good life here in the UK.

Lots of Southern Africans are terrified of the unknown world outside their borders, and have been told tales of woe by the returning masses of carers, waitrons, supply teachers and the like who have suffered at the bottom of the economic ladder here, lived in squalid communes in bad parts of London, dealt with disturbed and feral inner-city schoolkids or incontinent old folk, earned low wages and generally had a bad time of it. Well there is a little more to life in the UK than that - but you have to do your homework before coming over, live somewhere other than Greater London and work as a professional.

I am not optimistic, however, that any of my immediate family will ever move to the UK. For various reasons they seem wedded to their various parts of Africa - I do understand the attraction of the dark continent, it is just as much part of my heritage and ancestry as theirs, but to me it is a simple equation. I believe that conditions in SA will never get better than they are currently, and for me they are currently unacceptable. I also believe that the inevitable battle for decreasing resources by members of an increasing population will make the future for my children very difficult.

Also, frankly, having lived in Europe since 2001 has given me a taste for other things that generally just don't exist back in Africa - dependable infrastructure, good health and education services, centuries of art and culture, cheap travel, great libraries and a huge array of community services, support groups and the like.

I miss the sunshine, my family and, funnily enough, the Afrikaans language. So here's the deal - if I win the Euromillions I'll move all the extended family to Italy and we can have sunshine and togetherness - and I'll play some Tolla van der Merwe comedy CD's now and then...