I've never been a tourist in Dubai

But from a tourist point of view the place does have the wow factor, the buildings are great if you like glass and tall, there are some great nights out too, the water parks are brilliant, there's motor racing including F1, worlds richest horse race ("gambling" aka "raffles" is allowed).

The Dubai fountains are better than Bellagio's, 4x4 in the desert is brilliant, camping there too.

As for cheap hookers and beer? The beers I have, a pint is around $8 and the hookers all night are from $100 - or so I've heard .

For living here it is tax free on your income but the indirect taxes in terms of duty, registration costs, traffic fines etc. are crazy. Petrol is under $2 a gallon (the most expensive in the region, Saudi is under half that).

Basic foods like rice/local veg/bread/milk/eggs/flour, that sort of stuff is peanuts, but if you want imported it's 3 x the price.

Cars are cheap in comparison to Europe, 8 lanes or more in either direction means you get around pretty quickly, but the driving standards are horrendous.

I'm quite looking forward to a couple of months in Canada a couple of months each year.

It's safe (usually), but if it goes wrong it goes spectacularly wrong.

I've been here 8 years.

Whats the selection of cheese and prices like in Dubai?
Can you get Robinsons squash, Ribena, Irn Bru, Walkers crisps and a whole raft of other UK goodies that people harp on about not being freely available in Canada or needing a second mortgage to purchase them.

Was $6.50 last time I remember buying one in a pub, but that was a year or so back.

Still probably cheaper than Ribena.

Yep, all of those are available, even Pork, proper bacon etc. Walkers are here so are local varieties, decent Cheese? there is many a decent Deli.

You can get Irn Bru, but it sells out quickly when the Scots contingent finds out about it!

Marmite or Vegemite? Bovril? Lyles Golden Syrup you name it.

Again all the imported from Europe stuff is priced at least double the locally produced stuff (which most of the time is as good).

Chickens are dirt cheap, a one that serves a family of 4 is around $4.00 uncooked.

Well things have moved on and I'm not due there until early January. I reckon that'll be stoopid cold!

Possibly - it can get so cold you can take a pail of hot water outside and throw it in the air and the drops freeze before they hit the ground. A good thing to watch on the internet from the comfort and safety of a cozy bar.

I saw that vid - it's Russian!

I keep meaning to try that .

My record for shoveling snow here is -44C, with wind chill taking it down to -54C. The temperature isn't really a big issue so long as you dress for it, the problems come when you get a winter like the last one where it snows just about every day.

A search for 'water freezing' on youtube yields tons of vids, no doubt some from S'toon. Last year was a real freak for snow; I heard the pile the city of Regina made outside of town didn't all melt until mid-summer. I came home from Florida one year with a sunburn in February to -40 and it was disgusting. So was not paying $10 for 24 beer. It may take a while to settle in.

-44/54 Centigrade?

I'm used to +44/54Centigrade but a difference of 100+c?

Most of the winter is usually in the -10 to -20 range, but I've had to walk back from the bus stop a few times at -40 or thereabouts. In March last year, I remember having the AC on in the car because it was so sunny and warm, then a few days later it was -20 with snow again.

I've just about grown Canadian enough to walk out to the garage at -20 wearing a T-shirt.

One time in Edmonton we took the rabbit for a walk in the park at about 10C in the morning, and the temperature dropped to -40C in the evening. There are some pretty scary temperature changes here sometimes.

Saskatoon is #12 in the lowest average night time temperatures (-19.93c) and #5 in the lowest temperature recorded (-60.92c)

Scary!

http://saskatoon.weatherstats.ca/winners.html?2

There is some interesting data available, using the drop down menu's as well as the clickable links.

How very British we are - talking about the weather!

Well, the three biggest things distinguishing Saskatoon from any other small North American city I've visited are:

1. The weather.
2. The drivers. It's like driving around Rome, except Italian drivers actually know what they're doing.
3. The lack of hills. Which is good, because they're typically the places where you end up sliding along on ice in the winter hoping the brakes will eventually work.

I’m not saying its going to be boring but the provincial pastime seems to be watching dogs run away.