I was on my first trip to West Palm Beach in Florida. Sunshine, clear blue skies, beautiful houses framed by lush green gardens and flowering wisteria, lazy afternoons with chilled wine and hot off the oven pizzas after an exhilarating walk on the beach and finally ending up in the Trump spa to be pampered with divine massages – would you blame me if I thought I had arrived in paradise. Worth Avenue like Rodeo Drive in LA is about choosing a dress without ever having to look at the price tag.

This would be the perfect place to settle down and with that thought in mind I started looking for On Sale signs on houses – and there were plenty of those – with 30% drop in the value of real estate, estate agents assured me it was the right time to buy. This was the ultimately perfect place – even the people looked perfect. That last bit worried me – all those retired people looked too good to be true.

Finally, the place scared me off. Can you really retire in a place where you don’t fit in a cultural sense? Despite taking on layers and veneers of different cultures – the last lap for me must be back to the roots.

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