Home sweet home

We finally have electricity, so tonight is our first night in the new house. Well, we had electricity apart from one hour early in the evening when a street light across the road shorted out and caught fire. But the local utility guys fixed that pretty fast, which was pretty amazing given how long most things take to get done here. That gave us a chance to walk outside in the dark with flashlights and meet the neighbours. Our row of 6 townhouses has 3 Aussie families including us, 1 Swiss, 1 German and 1 Dutch.

I'm learning that quality control sucks here. Here's my track record for items we purchased this week -

Pedestal fan purchased for our staff quarters. Factory sealed carton, purchased from department store. Opened carton to assemble fan - plastic fan blade was missing a big chunk (still works ok)

Water cooler. Factory sealed carton. Delivered with rear panel cracked. Took a whole day to arrange refund and source replacement

DIY bookcase for staff quarters. Instruction sheet indicated screws were included in (factory sealed) carton. Nope.