When Catherine Earl left university in Sheffield, she landed a low-paid job in recruitment at Boots in Nottingham. Every day, she walked to and from work in the unpredictable, often blustery, British weather to spend the next eight hours sitting in a vast glass office block with thousands of others.
Cat's devotion to the job includes an eye-watering £10,000 a year beauty and grooming bill to ensure she looks the part, including £80 mani and pedicures, £70 eyelash extensions, £500 hair extensions, £200 Botox sessions, £300 lip fillers, a hairdressing bill of almost £400 every 12 weeks, and £396 a month gym membership.
Some would call that naive, of course. Dubai is regularly singled out for 'significant issues' surrounding its human rights record and for poor pay and conditions suffered by many migrant workers, especially those, like builders and domestic staff, upon whom its luxury property market relies. Yet the truth is more complicated than sun, sand, and the copious quantities of Champagne many of the agents drink. In fact, it's a life that requires hard grind, ruthless focus and an awareness — amid the clinking of glasses — that Western lifestyles often clash with Emirati laws.
'Obviously, you have to respect every culture. When I go to the malls or the old town, I'm a little more covered up but in the marina area, it's very touristy and the beach is just there,' she adds, pointing at the area where people walk around in skimpy swimsuits. 'I am always working. It's not like my phone's ever off. We want to live the life we live, so we have to work hard for it.'
A former Stockport Grammar schoolboy and a graduate of Sheffield University, Waind, 42, drives a blue BMW 8 series coupe and loaned one of his brokers an emerald-green Lamborghini to drive to a Christmas party. 'We're running a competition right now to go skiing in Georgia,' he says. Cat is one of an estimated quarter of a million Britons who have moved to Dubai over the past decade, lured by the blue skies, designer lifestyle and, above all, fat salaries
Marcia puts fitness above beauty treatments. She enjoys surfing, wakeboarding and yoga, is a member of the Jumeirah Islands Clubhouse Gym and also enjoys Michelin-starred restaurants.