This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Renee O’Drobinak, director of marketing and communications at PMKConsult, a construction and project management consulting firm based in Dubai. Her words have been edited for length and clarity.
I’ve been in Dubai for about a month, and my husband and I are really enjoying the city — but the move from London couldn’t have been more dramatic.
We flew Emirates and landed in a thunderstorm with heavy turbulence. I even saw lightning strike one wing. Within two hours of landing, we got our first missile alert on our phones at around 2 or 3 a.m.
Outside the airport, the roads were flooded. Dozens of people were waiting for taxis, and it took us about four hours to reach our Airbnb.
I was terrified. I looked at my husband and thought, “What have I dragged us into by accepting this job?”
Settling into our new life
The first week of our life in Dubai was quite disconcerting. We were woken up early, around 3 a.m., by missile alerts, but apart from that, we felt safe.
These days, Dubai is much quieter than when I visited last year in November. Understandably, there are now fewer people in the city, but they are getting on with their lives. There seems to be a concentrated effort to make everything look like business as usual.
But hospitality is struggling with lower footfall. You notice that when you go to a restaurant, there are a lot of open seats, but we don’t feel as if we are in any particular danger.
We got used to the alerts fairly quickly.
Our first few weeks in Dubai
Aside from the quiet start, traffic has picked up as people who left Dubai are returning. In the last week, life feels mostly normal — just a bit subdued.
I started working out within five days of arriving, which has helped.
I grew up in Tokyo — my father is American, and my mother is Japanese — and moved to the UK for university. I ended up staying for 23 years and married a British man.
In London, I was head of communications at an architectural practice. I liked my job and wasn’t planning to leave, but about a year ago, an opportunity in Dubai came up.
After a few visits, I was drawn to the people and the role more than the city itself. My husband, an architect, and I weren’t looking to leave the UK, but we were open to the right opportunity.
I accepted the job in November 2025 and gave three months’ notice. Then, about four weeks before my move, the war started. It was scary — people kept asking if I would pull out.
What convinced me to go anyway was how my future boss handled it. He acknowledged the situation but reassured me that the authorities were managing it well and that my safety was a priority.
HR also said I could start remotely from the UK if needed. It made the decision feel much easier, and I chose to move forward despite the uncertainty.
Life here is very different
Back in London, my husband and I owned a small one-bedroom flat in southeast London, and I commuted to Marylebone three to four days a week.
My job involved a lot of travel, and I’d often go to the gym after work, getting home around 9 p.m. We’d eat quickly and go to bed. On Sundays, we batch-cooked for the week because eating out in Marylebone was so expensive.
Every day, I carried my lunch, gym gear, and laptop in a huge bag. We weren’t poor, but the cost of living in London was incredibly high.
Over six years, I rose to the position of head of marketing and communications. Even with the higher salary, our lifestyle didn’t really change.
We stayed in the same flat, packed lunches, and dealt with the same commute. I felt financially stagnant — not because of my employer, but because everything in London had gotten so expensive.
An easier way of life
Life in Dubai feels much easier. My salary is about 45% higher than in London, and I rent a two-bedroom apartment near a major train station in the Dubai Marina area.
My commute is around 30 minutes, and there’s sunshine nearly every day — the gray weather in London really got to me.
After work, I return to Dubai Marina, where my husband and I usually go for a walk. People tend to leave the office at 5 p.m., and with the shorter commute, I have so much more time than I did in London.
There’s a gym in our building, and I can afford to eat lunch out. I carry a much lighter bag and don’t bring my laptop everywhere.
I was surprised by how Dubai was portrayed in Western media and by people telling me I’d hate it or that it was tacky. I don’t find that at all — I enjoy it here.
Despite what I’d heard about tensions in the region, people here have just been getting on with life. I’ve really appreciated that.
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