It is my fourth day in the UAE. Already. Which is good news as it means a mere 10 days of quarantine remain.

The flight from Manchester to Dubai was excellent: 3 movies back to back (Woody Allen’s latest really didn’t deserve the harsh criticism it got) accompanied by a chicken dish that wasn’t inedible. Having landed shortly after midnight, all that remained was to get a taxi from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. However (as I had been forewarned by colleagues on an earlier flight) this would involve showing a recent (within 48 hours) negative COVID test. As the tests we had done in the UK were already more than 48 hours old this was not going to be possible. The solution: a testing centre in a tent on the side of the road going into Abu Dhabi. With the taxi waiting outside. At 2am. It goes without saying that the safe arrival at my new accommodation at 4am was a welcome moment.

What came next made Tentgate a distant memory. As I was greeted by the porter and shown to my new digs I knew all was going to be well. The door was opened to reveal a very smart apartment: fully-furnished (or at least far higher equipped than the part-furnished I thought I was getting) with floor-to-ceiling windows and a basic stock of food to keep me going until I could order groceries. On the table sat a lovely welcome card, propped up by a couple of Ferrero Rocher. I climbed into bed exhausted but happy.

Since then life has been as uneventful as you might expect for someone in quarantine. In 12 days’ time I will, with any luck, be able to get to know my new home city as well as I know the interior of this flat. One thing that has struck me immediately, however, is the influence of the expat community here. I am told that anywhere up to 90% of the city’s population is expat, with a large number of these being from the UK. For example, the other day I ordered groceries from a very smart online farm shop that delivers fresh produce in lovely cardboard crates to your door (with the arrival of my new frying pan today I am very much looking forward to sirloin steak and chips for supper). On my desk when I arrived was a complimentary day pass for a private members’ club down the road that could easily be a country club outside any well-to-do English suburb (apart from it’s on a beach). And, unlike anywhere I have been to before, they have the same plug sockets.

Finally, as if all this wasn’t enough, having travelled 3500 miles to discover wonderful new cultures and customs, I had a Deliveroo last night. It was, however, Lebanese…….