Rene Zondag is the regional manager for the Middle East and Europe of Peter Burwash International (PBI), which operates tennis facilities at more than 60 of the world's leading hotels. He and his wife, Ineke, have lived in Dubai for just over five years. I had no real expectations about Dubai when I first came to check it out a year before moving here but I was immediately struck by its dynamism. That was six years ago and even then it was pretty incredible. I was overwhelmed - maybe even a bit intimidated - by the intensity of it.
The UAE is not home. I love my work here but, in terms of home, it's purely temporary. Ineke and I have been doing this together for 12 years now - we were in Spain before this and I also worked in Austria, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Egypt. When we left Holland initially to work for PBI it was very easy to let go; after all, it was only a house. Wherever Ineke and I are - together - is home. Ultimately, what counts is not where we are but who we are.
Home is Europe, although I can't see us going back to Holland, despite the fact that we have a house there. It's a cottage in the forest, a real hideaway where we keep a couple of bicycles and not much else. It couldn't be more different from here. These days I enjoy Holland as a holiday country, in a totally different way from how I knew it before. We also have a house in Spain - on Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands - and that feels like the place we will go back to eventually.
Here in Dubai we go home to sleep - literally that's all. Because we work such long hours, and we know it's only a temporary home, we haven't felt the urge to buy much stuff. We came here with two bags each and we will probably leave the same way. The things we do take everywhere are photographs.That's really important to us both as those memories create a sense of connection and roots. We really miss our garden and the outdoors lifestyle we had in Europe. That may sound strange but remember, for half the year the weather here doesn't lend itself to being outside. And since I'm out on court for hours every day, getting more sun at the beach on my day off really isn't high on the list. Another thing we miss is having friends come over for drinks or dinner. Inviting people home is just not the style here - you usually meet in a bar or restaurant. Probably that's another reason we haven't spent money doing up our apartment.
The best thing about being here is my work. The mix of people I deal with is fascinating - Lebanese, Indians, Europeans, North Americans and Emirati nationals - and the opportunity to develop the business is huge, so much bigger than I thought it would be. Initially I agreed to come for six months to develop the tennis facilities at Jumeirah Group's hotels. Since then we have expanded to Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Doha and Sharm el Sheikh. And now we are looking at how we can provide tennis to the community - that's an important part of what PBI does. So, even after five years I feel I still have a lot of unfinished business.
What really disappoints me here is the lack of accessibility to tennis - both financially and in terms of the structure of the sport. In Europe you have real grassroots infrastructure, with public courts as well as clubs, and very open interaction between them. Here each club seems to operate in its own bubble. I would like to see much more cooperation, with inter-club play and a national league, all happening under the umbrella of the National Association. Grassroots sport works only if you have a broad platform and if I can be instrumental in getting getting people to work together on that, I would feel that I have achieved something really worthwhile here. I wish I had more time to work on it.
My normal day starts with the alarm at 5.30. I'm at the office by about 6.15 and sometimes don't get off the courts until 9.30 in the evening. When on court I simply drop whatever is in my head and focus on the moment. It gives me a complete break from all the things I have to do in the office. My time off is usually spent visiting other PBI sites in the Middle East and Europe, which I am responsible for. I try to confine longer trips to the summer, when it's quieter here and the weather makes playing very unpleasant. But I generally have to do the regional sites on my days off. I don't consider my work to be work. If I didn't love it I would have quit a long time ago.
Of all the cities in this region Dubai is the most intense. I love going to Oman - work there feels like a breath of fresh air - and even Abu Dhabi is more relaxed. But wherever you are you have to learn to enjoy it - to focus on the 95 to 98 per cent that is good, not the two per cent that isn't. If I knew what I know now I would have left Holland 25 years earlier. Changing cultures is one of the best things you can do for your self-development.