I’m preparing to leave the UK for the desert

Preparing to leave the UK

I leave the UK for Dubai at the end of the month! I’m SO nervous but also excited about the next chapter.

I met a friend for coffee while I was back home, and something she said made me smile. I was talking about my upcoming move to Dubai and she pointed out that all my childhood dreams had come true.

I’ve always wanted to live and work abroad. As privileged as I am to live here, the UK is just a bit too drab and dreary for me and ever since I can remember, I’ve dreamed of warmer climates. Not Dubai specifically – my sun-kissed dreams generally play out in some Tuscan courtyard or South American beach. But hey, I’ll take what I can get.

I’m a self-confessed sun junkie and the chance to swap cosy days indoors for sunbathing on weekends was too good to turn down. I can’t wait to feel the sun on my skin, be able to dine alfresco and never have to look out of the window and see a grey and miserable day.

Packing for Dubai

Packing isn’t going so well. I’ve basically pulled everything long, loose and lightweight out of my wardrobe and now it’s heaped in a pile looking… well, not at all like the capsule wardrobe I had planned.

England is freezing right now and while that makes it all the more exciting that I’ll be waving goodbye to Britain in a few weeks, the cold is also making it tricky to pack for the desert. It’s difficult to envision myself living it up in the Middle East while I’m sat at home wondering whether it’s too early to put the heating on. Right now, I’ve forgotten what it feels like to be ‘too hot’. I need to buy a couple of sophisticated work outfits and lightweight coverups but the shops here are too full of gorgeous winter coats and boots. It’s so distracting! I went shopping the other day and bought a faux fur jacket and two bikinis, so that’s a good little insight into my inner state of confusion right now.

I’m all too aware that the dry, desert heat in Dubai is going to be unbearable sometimes. I actually received a comment on a post the other day advising me to, “just spend more time indoors in summer, like you do during winter in the UK”.

I’m not what you would call ‘outdoorsy’ (this post will clarify that), but I do love to be outside. Just, you know; sunbathing with a cocktail in hand, not scaling a mountain or anything crazy. I dread this time of year, because it means dark nights and no summer strolls. I’m not alone – around 5% of the UK’s population are thought to suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and as many as 13% suffer from the Winter blues. I reckon I fall into the latter category, and this has got me wondering how where we live can affect our overall health and wellbeing.

Can living in the UK be harming our health?

I wrote a post just as the leaves were turning brown about surviving Autumn when you’re a ‘Summer Person’. It details how I, like many others who live where the sun doesn’t always shine, suffer during the colder months.

It’s just so much easier to feel happy when your face isn’t a pasty grey and the weather is frightful. I honestly believe that living in the UK can be very depressing. Obviously, there are pros and cons attached to living in every country, but I’ve been wondering whether the complete lack of sunshine is making us all sick. In the interest of research, I had a play with the ‘Risk by Region’ tool from Benenden. You can search which medical conditions are most likely within your region, and the outcome was a bit of a shock for me.

Obviously, this tool doesn’t know if you neck green juice and do downward facing dog every morning. It simply looks at the national average – based on occurrences per 1000 people, with statistics looking at how more or less likely you are to potentially develop a serious medical condition based on where you live, as well as the regional differences between the sexes. There’s no arguing with demographics. The tool allows people to make informed decisions about their health and lifestyle.

We all know how dangerous self-diagnosis via Google can be (OMG I THINK I HAVE RABIES), but this site is actually very informative. I was shocked to learn that Tyne & Wear, where I currently live, is within the top ten ‘higher risk’ regions meaning you are 9.54% more likely (compared to the national average) to develop a serious medical condition such as cancer or liver disease.

I often read about expats who are enjoying a much more fulfilling life abroad and they usually cite the weather as the main thing keeping the away from the UK. I think that your level of life satisfaction affects your health and moving abroad might just be the answer for some of us. What do you think?

On that note, I’m off to stare at my empty suitcase for a bit.

This is a collaborative post but all pre-Dubai nerves and thoughts are, as always, my own.