My first brush with the Middle East occurred this morning.

At 9am I spoke online, via Skype, to the boss of a company I’m hoping to work for.

Our chat lasted around 40 minutes and, though I was nervous, I was pleased with how it went. At the end the boss said second interviews would be held in London in just over a week’s time and he’d be ‘very surprised’ if I wasn’t invited to the next stage.

So now, just as it has been for the past few weeks, everything is in limbo. It is not inconceivable that in around six weeks’ time I’ll be heading to Qatar to start a new life in Doha.

At the moment temperatures are pushing 40C in Qatar. It’s about 14C here.

Well, I always said I wanted to live somewhere warm…