What can I take into Canada? Luggage and Travel insurance

I'm off to Canada tomorrow for 3 weeks, staying with Catherine Burden, my twitter buddy and penal for the past 5 years, supporting me, through friendship, from my move from the UK to South Africa and now to Dubai.

I'm not providing any links for this post as carry on and checked in luggage restrictions and customs clearance do vary from airline to airline and airports. I'd hate to provide information that is updated by the time someone clicks on the link.

I'm flying with Emirates and have a rather generous luggage allowance of 2 x 23kg suitcases, cabin bag and handbag. I am not used to packing a 23kg suitcase, as my normal routes are usually 1 x 30kg and as an expat I value the additional 7kg allowances, especially when I travel with documents and gifts for family back home. Without all the additional items, I was able to pack a 23kg case with ease, which includes gifts for Catherine and family, wash bag (I usually purchase these items on arrival to allow for extra weight) walking shoes, suitable clothing for camping and kayaking, rain wear (which I'm looking forward to) and birthday presents that I've been given to open during my stay. I will have plenty of room to bring back gifts and I can always check in my hand luggage case if necessary as I've packed a large handbag I could use for carry on.
Following airline regulations I've packed tweezers, nail scissors and other sharp items in the front pocket of my checked in luggage.

My case is by the door, I'm checked in and I've even selected my clothes for the morning. The rest of my pre flight/travel time will be spent, as always, watching Air Crash investigations and Border Control (Canada)

Hubby has a copy of Catherine's address and full names of family members and phone numbers. My gifts include food and wooded materials from the UK, South Africa and Dubai.

I fly alone, I a single, 43 year old woman, travelling from the Middle East/Africa, with multiple entry exit stamps, current and 2 expired visas in my passport. I get stopped, searched, swabbed on every flight I take, every time. I must match a profile.

Having watched Border Control Canada, I've realised I'm ideal for stopping at the border.

I will be issued with a Declaration Form and I will tick to declare the food and wooden gifts, sea shells and tea. They are all permitted goods, there is also a restriction to weight, but I have to declare them or I could face them being confiscated and issued with a fine. I am allowed to take in 200 cigarettes and either 1.5 litres of wine or 1.1 litres of alcohol, duty free.

I don't need a visa to visit Canada as I'm British, my only concern is my return trip as my visa is for residency and not work, several times I've been questioned as to whether I'm allowed to travel on my own and what my intentions are on arrival and why I'm not starting or ending my journey in the UK.

Our medical insurance in South Africa covered us for trips abroad, including to the UK, technically we are not entitled to NHS services as expats and have been out of the UK for 5 years, we don't pay taxes. (we fill in a self assessment tax return form every year though) Our actual travel in regards to delays, cancellations etc is covered by our credit card. So this year I actually had to purchase travel insurance and it was a mine field. There was the time hubby and I went to Las Vegas for a week and 'forgot' to purchase any insurance, so it's an area we've now planned with care.

It's very easy to select the cheapest option, but you really need to take care, especially if you know what activities you'll be taking part in.

For example Catherine is taking me camping, we will be travelling to the camp site via the water, in a kayak. The basic travel insurance does NOT cover me for kayaking/canoeing unless with a qualified instructor and in an organised group....who would've thought eh? I've purchased annual insurance Worldwide to include Canada and the USA. I will be spending 30 days in South Africa later this year and have another trip planned to the UK. I'm also hoping I'll be travelling with hubby to Turkey and we'll be off to Oman for a visa run when the youngest son visits in July.

It's worth noting that most travel insurance covers you for 21 days per trip on an annual policy, so I made sure the policy I purchased covered me for multiple trips up to 31 days and worldwide included Canada and the USA.

I will get my money worth's from the insurance though, touch wood I've never lost a case, but hubby and the kids have had theirs delayed and/or items missing and cases damaged on arrival. Hubby has required emergency medical care outside his country of residence, but as he travels with his employers this is covered for him automatically. I, however, have an excess to pay for none emergency's.

My last 2 things to do are:

Email Catherine a copy of my Insurance.
I always insist our visitors give me a copy of theirs, who knows if I had a serious accident how costs would be covered in the interim period if Catherine was unaware of who I was insured with. Although medical care is free in Canada, I'm not Canadian.

Call the banks.
They need to know I am travelling overseas and will be using both my UAE and UK banking cards.

The cost of living in Dubai

I have no idea how to budget here in Dubai, for starters we have no idea what our actual salary is going to be. Yes there is a contract but there have been additional costs involved in our relocation that have been unexpected in the way that a relocation works. So until we get in our house and start daily life, food shopping, utilities, going out etc we don't know what is cheap, what is reasonable and what is expensive.

A full tank of fuel for a BMW 5 series is AED 103, which is the same price as 2 and a half glasses of wine in a restaurant.

Forget the exchange rates, that doesn't matter when you're paid abroad in local currency, although you do have to keep an eye on them when you need to send money back to the homeland for things like school fees and house maintenance.

When we moved to South Africa in 2011 the exchange rate was R11 to the £, which meant when we left SA at R18 to the £ we lost an awful lot of money in regards to the sale of my car and the house rental deposit refund. But we only lost out because we were leaving and not reinvesting in SA.

It took me a long time to stop comparing prices to the UK, at first things were very expensive compared to the UK and now with the exchange rate things are cheaper. But when you are paid in local currency it's a slow plod uphill. We noticed that as the exchange rate altered so did the cost of living in SA, fuel, food in the supermarket, the price of cigarettes, still much cheaper than the UK but not cheap when you're paid in Rand.

The Rand went much further in SA than the £ did in the UK.

For example £10 = R175

For £10 in the UK you could buy a packet of cigarettes and a bottle of coke
The same items in SA would cost you R43, therefore making the cost of living in SA much cheaper than the UK, or was it? That was only if you were spending £'s in SA.

I now need to work out the buying power of the AED, I find the daily cost of living is similar to the UK, but rent is twice as much as the UK and 3 times as much as SA.

I bought a Macdonalds Happy Meal, a global product that is not regulated by tax, like cigarettes, alcohol and fuel. It cost AED 11 which converts to £1.95 in the UK and R34 in SA. The same meal in the UK is around £2.40 and SA is R24, but if you convert £2.40 to Rand you get R43 and back to AED is 7.5.

It will take me a while and I will get there, but until we have the first months salary, paid the first months bills we have no idea how much it actually costs to live here.