Written on: 2 March 2026 at 9:30PM.

It’s the 2nd of March today. Just 25 days before my birthday. It is (or was supposed to be) my most anticipated one, considering I turn 27 on the 27th for the first and last time ever.

I had such an elaborate wish list of all the things I wanted to do for my birthday, back in November when we were planning to go back home to Jakarta this Eid. Then my husband got a job in January which rendered us landlocked for the next 6 months due to probation. I thought of going to Muscat for a weekend trip to my dearest childhood home. But then a war broke out on Saturday across the Middle East (or should I say West Asia?) —including, to my and the world’s surprise, Dubai. So I’m not sure how feasible that trip would be now.

It began at 1:44PM when a loud and uncanny thud punctured my slow afternoon. I was home alone that day recovering from a week’s old flu and fever, and my husband was working in the office (yes, he works on Saturdays sometimes). I instantly messaged him out of how odd that “thud” was.

Me: “There was a loud thud. It shook the bathroom door.”

Husband: “Woah, really?”

Me: “Some people are running away from the gym and the pool… I think it’s the construction.”

Husband: “Ooooohh”

Me: “Something fell I guess.”

Husband: “Damn what fell?”

Me: “I don’t know, but there’s no sound anymore.”

For about 15 minutes, I continued to dilly-dally in my room without a clue. That was until I opened my apartment group chat to see what was going on.

T: “Was the loud noise from earlier the missile?”

C: “Sounds like it! We live right in front of the construction site and thought it was from there. But others from Tilal Al Ghaf were reporting it too.”

T: “Yes I thought it was that as well but the noise was so loud the whole building shook.”

C: “We’ve got a base close by to D2, but haven’t seen/heard any jets deployed. So probably it was intercepted and just sent a good sound wave.”

I, for some reason, didn’t really understand what they meant by “missile” at this point (let alone what D2 was), nor about how serious the situation is until I opened Twitter, where this was the first thing I saw.

I quickly went and checked all forms of news to confirm what I had just read. To my dismay, it was all true…

I called my husband and asked him to quickly come home, to which he argued was unnecessary because “nothing is happening here (in his office)” and other rebuttals that were both inconsiderate and pointless.

At 2:38PM, I went to my local Carrefour and bought half a dozen 1.5L of bottled water because, one, we ran out, and two, just in case. Plus a few groceries for the night. We were planning to have Iftar outside at an Indonesian restaurant in JLT, but then a post on Threads said missiles were spotted (and intercepted) in Marina, which was across the area we wanted to go to.

At 3:53PM, our fellow Indonesian friend/neighbor (M) called and asked if we wanted to have Iftar together at another fellow Indonesian friend/neighbor’s house (N). To which I of course said yes to, because having familiar company at, what then seemed to be, the brink of a war meant the world.

PSA: this is not to fear-monger or spread any distasteful rumors —a missile spotted anywhere in the world isn’t normal. And while we must always stay calm, we must also allow ourselves to be human and notice when to be vigilant. That being said, I’m not sure if I would have remained as calm had I experienced this in any other country, which goes to show how confident I am in the U.A.E.’s governance, Alhamdulillah.

At around 4:16PM, my husband was home and we went to our friend’s place a little after 5. When we met M, it was clear from her reaction that the situation wasn’t normal (for reference, she’s lived in the U.A.E. for 8 years and she also grew up in Saudi, so she’s quite well-versed in terms of living in the region). Then M’s husband, realizing that he should probably take some precautionary actions, decided to fill up his tank.

After M’s little girls woke up from their afternoon slumber, my husband and I along with M and her daughters, gathered in N’s house a little before Maghrib. At this point, M’s husband still hasn’t come back. Apparently, everyone had the same precautionary idea, so the gas station was completely jam-packed. It was only after breaking our fast that he arrived.

Now N’s house was at the very edge of the community complex. It was positioned in a way that allowed us to very clearly see and hear and fear the interceptions being launched, of which there were many that night (yes we feared because, at the time, we didn’t understand what we were seeing and panic washed over our reasoning). It was the first time in almost 27 years that I didn’t want to leave a gathering early. Despite being sick and somewhat wiped, I didn’t want to let go of the only sense of belonging and “safety” I had left. If you ever find yourself living abroad and there happened to be a nationwide emergency or crisis, I’m sure you’ll come to get what I’m trying to say.

Nevertheless, we left for home before 10PM and tried to sleep at 11PM.

At 12:31AM, we received the world’s loudest, most unbearable notification. The national emergency alert.