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.

How to sort hand luggage, checked in baggage, air freight and shipping

It is a matter of preference and it all depends on where you are moving to, the ease of obtaining visas and whether it's a company or personal move.

We didn't have the option of air freight when we moved to South Africa and it was an expensive mistake.

To move from the UK to South Africa, your visa to live there has to be stamped and in your passport before you fly, therefore we could've sent the air freight in advance and we could've moved into our new home on arrival and also stayed in our own home until we flew rather than a combination of spare rooms, sofas and splitting the kids up.

Due to a delay with customs in SA and the UK companies failure to book the shipping on time, we ended up having to purchase a lot of unnecessary items that arrived 6 weeks later, namely school supplies, basic kitchen items, bedding and towels. We did however have additional checked in luggage and took 2 suit cases each.

So upon our move to Dubai from SA we were given the option of air freight or additional checked in luggage. We opted for air freight, we remained in our home for a further week after the shipping container was sent and packed minimal clothing, a few christmas decorations, cards and the last few bits and pieces left at the house to include the wifi box and phone. We also packed a few towels, an air bed and sheets.

This decision has been a mistake as we cannot apply to have the air freight sent until our residency visa is approved, our container sits in Dubai in storage as this can't clear customs either and our air freight will take between 13-12 days including customs clearance and will arrive after our shipping.

As we have our 19 year old with us, but he is not part of the relocation having left home last year, we are liable for his costs in regards to accommodation and therefore will now be purchasing additional items here so he can stay in the house with the cat and dog and reduce the demands on me to get to the house every morning to feed them both. This was not an expense we had budgeted for.

In an ideal world, based on the information we were given and advise from the relocation people and personal experience on moving to South Africa, we packed the following:

Hand Luggage
All electrical items. Laptop, chargers, plug convertors, the last paper copy of every document relating to the UK, SA and Dubai, change of clothes, to save unpacking on arrival, toiletries.

Checked in baggage
Emergency christmas decorations and cards, clothing for destination, minimum clothing from country of departure, family bibles and DVD's as they cause a problem with shipping and customs, emergency bottle of wine, telephone and internet box as you'll be using those right up until you leave, airbed and sheets for son to live in house in Dubai to look after cat and dog.
know your allowance, for us we flew with Emirates who allow 30kg per passenger and check with airline what items are forbidden.

Air Freight
Everything you need to live in your home once your shipping has been packed, ours included the following:

1st aid tin and contents, air bed pump, airbeds, bed linen, belt, binoculars, blanket,

BOWLS, cafeteria, cake cases, camping fridge, cast iron pan and lid, cat bed, cat carrier, clock radio, cutlery set of 4 settings, decorative tin, dog toy, dresses, 

dressing gown, electric razor, extension cables, extension towers, face cloth, football, frying pan, glass oven dish, GLASSES, global knives, gloves, hand bags, hat, jacket, jug, jumper, kettle, kitchen linen, mirrors, MUGS, ORION TV, pet bowl, pillow cases, plastic container, plastic files, PLATES, printer, ring binders, rucksack, sandwich toaster, saucepan, scarf, set of 2 telephones, sheets, shirts, shoes, shorts, skirt, stool, suitcase, tent poles, toiletries, tool box, torch, towels, trophy, trousers,

Tupperware, water bottle, wicker basket, christmas presents (assuming air freight arrives before your shipping and on time as promised by HR)

Some of the above stuff was left behind after shipping and/or there was room to pack it.

Shipping container
All belongings were carefully sorted and items no longer needed for country of destination were donated to various local charities. Your shipping company can make arrangements for this if needed.

EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING has to be itemised and a replacement cost given for renewal in your country of destination for insurance purposes, again the shipping company can arrange an appraisal for you, but you need to know to ask for this prior to packing.

Jeep for sale, it's had it's faults but all better now

I need to sell my 2006 Jeep Cherokee 2.8CRD with 180,000km on the clock.

I'll be selling my car to someone I know as there is no way that I'm advertising and selling to a total stranger, not in South Africa. A friend arranged to meet a potential buyer in a public place, he took a friend with him for security, they were bundled into the boot of their car and held hostage in a township over an hours drive north, for several hours before finally being released after one of them became very ill. I never did ask what happened to their car.

I'm sure there are plenty of successful stories but I'm not prepared to take the risk.

I've owned Chryslers and Jeeps before in the UK but sold or traded them in after 4 yrs. I bought this Jeep at 4 yrs old. I tweet frequently and blog about my experiences in SA and therefore everyone I know here, knows about the problems I've had with my Jeep, therefore I feel the need to explain it's frequent trips to the garage for months on end.

My first breakdown occurred in May 2011, when my tyre blew out in the outside lane at 120km. The tyre pressure valve was faulty so I had no indication it was running flat, I bought a new tyre and still don't have a pressure valve which means the light is on all the time on the dash board. I argued with the garage over it and asked them to order me a new one which I said I'd pay for, all that happened was they kept saying it wasn't covered under warranty and I had a Facebook request for friendship from the salesman. How inappropriate was that?

I've had a yearly service which has left my car off the road for several weeks, not because there were any major problems other than break pad and disc changes, but for some reason I end up choosing idiot garages that are so desperate for the work, but don't have the tools or fail to order the parts needed.

I broke down in 2012, the car refused to restart after refuelling so I called the breakdown company, they subcontracted to a tow company who subsequently failed to remove the key from the ignition and broke my steering column. The breakdown was due to a new starting motor, which was under warranty, however the warrantee company argued over the dates and it took 3 weeks before they agreed to pay up, in the meantime I was without a vehicle. It was then the garage informed me the steering column was broken and I was told my my insurance company I had to take the issue up with the tow company, after politely and forcefully informing them that my contract was with them and as they sub contracted it was their responsibility to sort, I finally got my car back and fixed, 7 weeks after the breakdown.

In December 2013 I started to hear a knocking when driving over bumping ground. My son had learnt to drive in the Jeep and I assumed he had been driving Top Gear style so wasn't surprised to hear it was the front suspension that needed fixing.

Easy to sort I thought, order parts and fix.....no, parts wouldn't be in stock until the end of January, so with a bit of googling and phoning around, I found parts, ordered, collected and returned with them to the garage, to discover they didn't have the tools to do the job, so contacted the garage where I'd purchased the parts from and they informed me they closed at 5pm for Christmas that day, but booked me in on January 6th for the repairs.

So no car over Christmas, Mother in Law and both kids were here, so we all suffered with a little bit of cabin fever. On January 6th on taking the car and the spare parts to the garage, they informed me there was nothing wrong with the front suspension, it was the rear and not only needed new parts but bushes also and thankfully they had them in stock. More money handed over and car returned the following day.

In August this year, whilst reversing off my drive, my wheel fell off. Give me strength, Insurance company called who subcontracted to tow firm, who I forcibly had to stop from literally dragging my car, with drive shaft dragging on the floor onto their truck, another guy arrived, despite me informing them it needed a pick up, not a tow and they fashioned a trolley under the wheel to drag the vehicle some 3 hrs later and took it away.

This time I had car hire as it was an accident, not a breakdown, for 30 days, but with previous experience something was bound to go wrong. I was told it was mechanical not a breakdown, but I'd done my research and ball joints are none serviceable parts, neither had Jeep done a product recall for my make and model and as I was on the road and not my drive it eventually classified as an accident not a breakdown. Had I have been on the highway when it happened, I probably wouldn't be writing this blog post now, I'd have flipped the car at speed and would almost be dead now.

Anyway 28 days later, my car was back, hubby put in new bulbs for the brakes and we bought new struts for the glass window at the back as they'd failed a year ago and I had to use an umbrella to prop the glass open.

But to my dismay, the following day, my car refused to start, I cried, I gave up. I went away for a few days then we had visitors, then I googled and made several calls and 2 weeks later after a visit to The Battery Centre who replaced my battery free of charge, I'm now back on the road and selling the vehicle.

My issues with the car being off the road for so long each time have been due to the garages and the insurance company I choose to use, not the Jeep, not the parts.

So if you're interested message me, I'm asking R70,000 for it.

Does it rain in South Africa?

Yes and lots of, but usually every few days for a couple of hours, which dries up very quickly, before the humidity builds back up for another thunder and lightening storm.

But it started raining here on the weekend and apart from a couple of hours relief, it's still raining.

So what? I hear you say, you should've been in the UK the last few weeks/months where people have been made homeless and lost everything to the floods.

Before you start on me, I'm from the UK, I lived there for 39 years and was there in 2007 when the floods hit the South West, we weren't flooded but we had a 4 hour journey from Malvern to Tewkesbury to collect our disabled daughter from her care home as they had no electricity or water and bring her home for a week to look after her.

There has been a lot of flash flooding and the force of the river took out the security fence last week, the golf course has been closed and I have to drive round the estate rather than through it as the bridge is closed. My car is getting mud splattered, I'm delayed and inconvienced. My washing hasn't dried and smells a bit musty and I'll have to re do it. Pot holes have appeared and despite having a 4x4 I can do an awful lot of damage if I hit one of them at speed.

But where am I going with this blog post?

Last week I drove to Mamelodi, the river has flooded, the hillsides are teaming with running water. It took me over an hour to travel a few kms as there weren't exactly pot holes in the road, there was no road and everyone had to drive on the mud outside peoples homes and shops, making the streets even worse. People's houses have been literally washed through and in some cases have been demolished, OK these people don't have a lot to lose in terms of people flooded in the UK, but what they do lose is EVERYTHING.

There are no journalists and reporters on the case (they're all in Pretoria, a few miles away, covering the Oscar Pistorius case) There is no military presence and no government representatives. There are no offers to temporally rehouse these people, why, they don't even live in a brick house anyway, no government handouts, financially or otherwise, no insurance payout and no one from neighbouring areas to make donations or raise funds to help them. No one is aware and no one is caring, they are on their own.

Until the water recedes these people are unable to get to work, send their children to school or buy provisions and when the waters recede and they go back to work (if they still have a job) they will have to work longer and harder to recover the money they lost when they couldn't get there.

Children unable to get to school

 Pot holes are everywhere

 Roads are un drivable due to the pot holes

 Unable to cross the river to get to work

Now. Now, now and Just now.......

When people here say ‘I’ll do it now’ they actually mean ‘forget it’

When people here say ‘I’ll do it now, now’ they actually mean ‘I’ll get round to it, in the near future, as long as you keep reminding me’

When people here say ‘I’ll do it just now’ they actually mean ‘you’ve got a fair chance I’ll get back to you sometime today’

And this is why after a week I’m still without my car. But it’s not just because there was a public holiday last Thursday and most people took the Friday off also, or the fact that the whole country is winding down to a complete standstill for Easter and doesn’t get going until the 8^th April at the earliest. It’s also because I don’t know how things work here.

On Monday I had a big row with the warranty company because they told me my policy had expired March 17th so of course I went ahead and had the work done. I then discover warranty wasn't signed till April 5th, so they extended the warranty but then said as id already had the car repaired they couldn’t assess it and wouldn’t pay another row and now finally they paid R4000 towards the R6241.50 bill.

So all is good, well actually it isn’t because the garage also informed me that the ignition barrel was damaged and the quote for a new one was R4900.00. So on Tuesday a friend suggested that I call my car insurance company as they were the ones who towed my vehicle.

But for my insurance company to investigate I have to make a claim….now hang on, I have a contract with them, if they sub contract out to local towing firm, that’s still there responsibilty? Surely? I don’t pay part to them and part to someone else do I?

Before towing my car the guy did a vehicle inspection to check for damage, marking 2 cracks in the windscreen and nothing else. He wrote the break down up as mechanical/electrical and sat in the car with the lights on to do this. He requested I emptied out my car before he towed it and I saw him trying to remove my keys from the ignition. He was tugging, pulling and pushing the key. I yelled at him that there was a button to press to release the key, but he ignored me and continued. I walked up to the car, nudged him gently out the way and pushed the button to release the key.

Now my insurance company wants to know why I waited 6 days to report this? Why did I wait so long? Because I didn’t think about phoning them, I had enough going on with the warranty people and being without a vehicle, making me housebound as I can’t use public transport here.

It’s Easter weekend now, my car was towed this morning from the garage by the Insurance Company. I’m going to start taking bets on when I get it back and whether I have to pay and how much.

I guess Saturday 6^th after driving to the garage in desperation and demanding it back, yes I will have to pay and the cost won’t be R4900.00 as quoted because that won’t include labour and VAT and they’ll have found another problem.

But your guess is as good as mine as I'm still dealing with people that say 'I'll  do it now'