Moving house in any country comes with challenges, but after two international relocations, I thought a move within Dubai to Meydan South couldn’t be too hard.

Not so.

I’ve spent the past two weeks feeling quite lost, and that’s just in the house.

Not only can I not find anything, but we’ve switched rooms around and it took me about a week to get used to the new layout. I’d walk into a room, stand rooted to the spot for a few seconds, realise what I was seeing didn’t make sense, then back out to reposition myself on the landing.

Cookie cutter: I need a sat-nav in the compound

Then, I step outside the villa, and feel as though I’m in a maze. The houses are identikit copies of each other, and the streets very similar – do I turn left or right out of our house to get to the roundabout that leads to the road that takes you to the exit? The compound is like a rabbit warren and I swear you could get lost in here forever.

I’ve struggled! I’m a creature of habit, especially on the roads, and so it was with some trepidation that I set off in the car to the supermarket for the first time. My pulse a little faster than usual, I made it there ok; I marvelled at the American-style, ample parking spaces; my eyes grew wide as I walked the aisles (it’s like a Super Spinneys!), then I got hopelessly, utterly lost on the way home.

There were no signs! I can just imagine the Roads & Transport Authority’s meeting. “Should we put a sign for the highway up? Tell drivers how to get onto the main artery from Silicon Oasis to Dubai?”

A cracking great laugh. “What would we want to do that for?”

But the great benefit of moving is the decluttering opportunity it presents. I’ve had Take My Junk out twice; we have a store room you can walk into; and the house actually feels lighter and less weighed down by seven years’ worth of kid paraphernalia. That, in itself, has made it all worthwhile.

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