In November 2005, my boyfriend Nick and I were driving back to London after a weekend in Cornwall when we got the call confirming his job offer in Dubai. At that moment, we couldn’t have felt further from the Middle East. We had just left the rain, cold and roaring fires of St Ives and here we were deciding to move to scorching Dubai.

By that evening, Nick was on a plane and the next day, I handed in my notice. Over the next few weeks, I finished at work, saw as much of my friends and family as possible and packed up my flat in London (then tried to condense it into a suitcase for the move). In January, I joined Nick in Dubai.