Connection Nightmare

I have had a pretty busy week getting things organized to move into our apartment. Saravanan was my helping hand for the day and boy, was he a godsend. I could never have done it all without his help.
The curtains are all up and all same lengths so I am pretty happy that's done. Even Victor helped me hang the last of them and said to me "Very nice color Madam, I like very much".

Our first stop was the Gas Company, if you could call it that. It was a tiny, dirty room off a back street and was a huge eye opener. I almost got the nervous giggles when I entered and was told to have a seat. "Germs" But I did what i was told and then sat there while Savarvanan did his thing. Talking in Tamil, I had no idea what was going on but ended up handing over the Rs4000 and taking one of the gas bottles home with us ,and the other one to be delivered the next day. Chennai does not have underground gas supply so it comes in the way of cylinders that get delivered to your door. Saravanan doing the talking.....
I think they need a electrician in here..............................



Loading the gas bottle, the office lady watching in the background, the bikes with the crates on the front are what they deliver the bottles in........Those things are really heavy and that guy was pretty small and filthy, covered in rust and dirt from the bottles.

We then went on to organize T.V. cable connection, water bottle delivery, phone and Internet connection and none of it went smoothly, but heh, I am realizing that NOTHING is straight forward, even our landlord told me that and not to believe or trust anyone here.

That was two days ago and we still haven't got any drinking water, even after five calls to the company and the cable guys are supposed to be coming tomorrow. We will believe it when we see it. We have no idea when the phone company are coming either.

The other big thing we have done this week was to purchase all the electrical items we needed, and this was a rather positive experience, we have a new Whirlpool washing machine and fridge, microwave convection oven, a hot box?? ??????? after a while we caught on that an iron is called a hot box, funny heh, kettle, phone and food grinder, commonly known to us as a food processor and a water cooler. It was a pleasant surprise to work out that all this cost us just under $2000 Australian dollars. The delivery was 1 1/2 hours late and the washing machine and fridge didn't fit through the kitchen door, but with thanks to the handy building supervisor and his screwdriver we got the doors off and both in place the following day. Before I could blink I had the Whirlpool customer service guy on the phone to organize coming to set up the appliances. The LG service guy keeps calling me to find out when I will be home so he can come and show me how to use the Microwave. Hows that for service in a country that is so backward.

So who knows what tomorrow will bring? Maybe a phone connection????? Maybe fresh drinking water???