My mum often tells me of the culture shock she experienced when she moved to the UK from the Philippines during a mid-90s winter. The temperature, darkness and cold sandwiches being accepted as a lunchtime meal always stick in her mind. Whenever she’d send me to school with egg fried rice, the other children would crumple up their noses at the smell of onions and garlic in favour of their cheese sandwiches and monster munch. I then often went to school with the same formula of lunch: sandwich, crisps, cheese string, grapes, and my egg fried rice became a rarity.

She met my dad whilst they both worked as bar staff on a cruise ship. They encountered so many different nationalities whilst sailing over into so many territories! I’ll always carry that appreciation for London, in that you’ll walk down a street and hear a symphony of accents and languages.

- Natalie, London