Trappings

For what seems like the umpteenth time, I'm setting up a new home. I took possession of house keys yesterday, and later today I'll be getting car keys. The last week has seen household trappings slowly coming together.

Most of our stuff is being shipped across from India but that's going to take six to eight weeks and there are some things that you just can't do without for that length of time. And so yesterday I was at an electrical showroom booking our TV and microwave, a vacuum cleaner and other bits and pieces.

My seven years in India has probably made me a better shopper, and a better bargainer. So far I've probably saved around a hundred and twenty pounds just by asking various salesman to do me a deal. I like to think my wife would be proud of me but I know that had she been sitting in my shoes she'd not only have secured significantly higher discounts, she'd also have persuaded the salesmen to donate one of their kidneys - and maybe a lung - to the local hospital.

But I do like this 'starting afresh' approach, and in the UK it's so much easier than in India. My tenancy agreement was executed without the need for stamp paper - an essential anachronism in India - a financial guarantor, or black-jacketed lawyers. Neither did I need to pay the exorbitant ten months' rental deposit that is demanded in Bangalore. An estate agent handled my particular transaction but I didn't have to pay him the equivalent of one month's deposit; just an admin fee. I took gas and electricity readings at the property and I also booked my Virgin broadband, landline and satellite TV connection via a call-centre in the Philippines. I set up a direct debit with the water authorities without the need of proof of address, photos, passport copies and goodness knows what else. No form that I have filled in so far has asked for my father's name, and on all occasions that I've booked appointments so far, both parties have been punctual; none of this, "sorry saar, traffic saar; fie minutes; gie me fie minutes."

So all in all, it's rather exciting and I reckon I'm on track to having a partially furnished house -or at least somewhere to sleep and something to sleep on - for when my wife and boys arrive in the country next week.