H2O

Moving house has pointed out to me one thing all of us in the developed world take for granted. Safe drinking water. When you can just turn on a tap and drink what comes out without it giving you, at best, an upset stomach and at worst, cholera, you don't really think about how much water you use. Not just for drinking, but for washing fruit and vegetables, and cooking too. At the old flat we installed a reverse osmosis (RO) machine, which double filtered the water (activated carbon and UV light). This is brilliant, but we're still waiting for the filter guy to turn up to install it here. We were sure we had an appointment for 3pm this afternoon, but no one turned up. Rod phoned to make sure someone would come today, and was told we could have an appointment tomorrow for 12 in the morning (personally I think 12 is the afternoon. Frankly, the filter guy is so unlikely to turn up at 12, it will be the afternoon, even for Indians...) Anyway, while we are waiting for the RO machine to be connected, we are using bottled water. No sooner have we cleared the flat of the cardboard box mountain, of the protective newspaper mountain, now we are floundering in the empty 1 litre plastic bottle mountain. Like a volcanic island peeping out of the ocean, it is growing day by day. It feels wrong to throw them out, because I know the maids sell them to make a little extra money. But we haven't got a maid in Hauz Khas yet, so I have no one to give the bottles to. I really want to rectify both these problems (too many bottles, having to do all the housework myself) really soon! Both are bad!!