How did this happen?

The short answer is:  It's all my fault.  Here we were, happily cruising along with a part-time London to Abu Dhabi commute and I had to screw it up by applying for a job.  Which I got.  So blame me.

Now, after rounds of negotiations, renegotiations, waiting, questions, phone calls, fear, debate, and shock, we are, in fact, actually committed to moving to the UAE.  Abu Dhabi, specifically (n.b.  Abu Dhabi is not Dubai, even though the letters in Dubai constitute a subset of those in Abu Dhabi).  Here's a map for the geographically challenged:

And we're leaving in five weeks.

Fortunately, I am a natural researcher, so the past five months have been spent reading everything I can find on the web or in print, travelling back and forth to explore in person, and assembling Excel workbooks for just about every aspect of the move one can imagine.

I figure that's the least I can do, since after all, it is all my fault.