How to tell my friend who lives in Saudi to stop bloody patronising me!

[SomeLikeitSnot]

My friend lives in KSA with her family and LOVES it. Loves having a live in maid, pool on site, glitz and glamour. Great- v happy for her! Shes in the UK over summer visiting and we are seeing her a lot and shes driving me INSANE.
Shes taken on this real 'aw poor you stuck in UK its sooo hard here' mentality and I find it so grating. I have no inclination to move to Saudi/the middle east and her acting like Im jealous of her life is becoming so tiresome.
When we are chatting she will keep saying 'sorry I'll stop going on about the sun and lifestyle it must be hard to hear!' when I honestly couldnt care less. Sounds great for her and I love the stories- I also love the UK countryside/weather/culture/all our friends and family. I think she feels me prickling and thinks is jealousy.
I remember from visiting friends in the UAE everyone is v anti-UK and thinks its a shithole and theres a real feeling of people 'escaping' to the ME but I really don't mind it here and I want to say something to cut out the comments.
She is a friend so I wont want to make a sarky comment about womens rights/death penalty etc just a 'please stop feeling sorry for me, I dont want your life'!

A family member of mine lives in UAE with their family. Lives on an immigrant compound, has a maid they pay buttons to for really long hours with very little time off. They are exactly like your friend… constantly bragging about the lifestyle and slagging off the UK. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to complain about living in the UK but the majority of it is great and there’s not enough money in the world to make me move to a country with sex inequality, legalised rape, Sharia law, slavery, animal abuse and so on.

Ask her what she is going to do if one of her children is LGBT+?

My thoughts too. She's definitely not as happy as she likes to make out 🙄

She’s overcompensating. Why would any woman in her right mind move there voluntarily? Sounds like hell to me. I’d rather live in gloomy England where I can walk unchaperoned

I did. It was a decent life! Made some excellent friends, experienced a wildly different culture, saw some incredible places and the life for young children there is amazing. There are some very obvious and some not so obvious downsides, of course. But on the whole, we loved it.

I love the fact that Dubai/ UAE filters away all the shit from the UK. The type of people who love it, are just the type of people I'd rather didn't live here. So it's win, win.

Shes NOT an immigrant shes an EX PAT
She is correct though... Everyone not local is expat in these countries. The only ones who could call themselves immigrants would be those paying out for green card. Expats or residents is normally used or everyone because most people are there just temporarily

I’ve loved my time in Saudi. Won’t be here forever but I’ve ingratiated myself into life. Live off compound and work here alongside DH.

If we leave when we plan to we will have £1m invested and our kids have been helped on the property ladder.

it’s not just about money. It’s opened my eyes to other possibilities.

I’ve just paid for my mum to have biopsies and tests while I’ve been home because getting her into the UK system has been a nightmare. WTF is all the tax being spent on? Certainly not healthcare

MASSIVE PRAWNS

Except for them both being in the Middle East and funded by oil riches, governed by people of Middle Eastern Islamic heritage, surrounded by thousands of square miles of either desert or sea water, and with unrelenting hot sunshine nearly all year round I can't imagine why anyone would think they are remotely similar.
Dubai isn't a country, I'll give you that.

she is immature

Just say oh you carry on, I don’t mind hearing it at all. It’s a great reminder of how much I love the seasons and living here with all the freedom.

This and I’d say this

Can you direct me to any videos showing the insides of a compound please? Tried looking on YouTube but they invariably involve someone talking about themselves.

To be fair. I do miss the seasons 😂

There are loads of wannabe instagrammers. Which city?

Just remind her that her husband can literally get her arrested. Women are property of their husbands. Living in a country with such appalling human rights abuses is just plain wrong. (I also don’t like hot weather nor swimming and a live in maid is my worst nightmare, we could have had that lifestyle somewhere far nicer than KSA but I wouldn’t entertain that)

Any of the compounds in Riyadh please.

I lived in Saudi for six months - there is no glitz and glamour!

Also no cultural history of any note, compared to say Iran, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, etc.

Sedra Village
wadi Quortuba
Isbillia
Al Hamra Oasis Village
Kingdom

These are well established compounds and are very expensive.

Take a look at the communities built on the Dubai model.

Have a look at Flow. They have two buildings Granada and Narjis. Very active on Social Media.

Thank you, appreciate it!

It’s easy. In these situations, I just say that I literally couldn’t think of anything worse. But good on you for giving it a go.

This made me laugh so much 😂👌

“Actually Jane, you couldn’t pay me enough to go there. The human rights issues alone are enough for me to veto it, and as for the lifestyle at the expense of other people, it wouldn’t be for me. I don’t enjoy the heat either. “

That’s like saying Britain and France are the same because they are green, have mountains and and and…
Ive lived in both and the experience is very different between the two. But you crack on with your ignorant views.