Hold the Front Page!

On Friday, something truly momentous happened in the Fairweather family household. Something so strange, so unheard of, that Rod and I were caught completely off guard. We've asked around, and no one we know has ever heard of it happening in India before either. Workmen turned up early. I know, I should have asked you all to sit down first. Sorry about that.

You see, when we rented this flat there was no airconditioner in the main living room. That wasn't a problem, we arranged to buy one second hand off an online group for expatriates living in Gurgaon. Which was great, until the lady heading back to Austria decided to sell it to her landlord instead three weeks later. Bitch. So we needed to buy a second hand airconditioner. Needless to say, when it's pushing 40 degrees outside, there's not too many good second hand AC's floating around. So we call AC rental places and get the prices of different AC's. We decide, even though it's the most expensive, we want a split AC, because it will be quieter, and a 2 ton one, because the room is quite big, and we don't want to be hot anymore. Ever. The AC guy says he can install it at 3pm on Thursday. It's Wednesday, so that's not too bad. Our hopes are raised at 2.20pm on Thursday, when he calls to say he'll be at our place between 3 and 3.30. And he does turn up at that time, but he does not bring a 2 ton split AC with him. He has a 2 ton window AC. It'll be cheaper, but it'll be loud. I imagine my longarm stitching away, with the AC on, while someone tries to watch the telly. The TV volume is going to have to be so high eardrums will burst. There might even be blood. As all longarmers know, it's poor form to bleed on a customer's quilt, so we reluctantly send him away and tell him to bring a split AC instead. This takes great willpower, because it's 40 degrees outside. He says he will return at 10.30-11 the following day. Rod and I know what that means (11.30 if you're lucky, and never on a Sunday).

So when I woke up Friday morning at 9.15 (our bedroom in the new house is at the back and doesn't get any direct sunlight. It's impossible to tell what the time is when the curtains are closed. There's barely a discernable difference between 1am and 9am!) I put a load of washing on and sat down to read yesterday's paper over breakfast in my nightie. The paper guy still hasn't grasped the concept of morning delivery. And I have no idea who is delivering the paper. I have to wait until he comes for money to explain morning to him. Rod got up about 20 minutes later, and peered out Thalia's window to see if today's paper had arrived yet. Imagine his surprise when he saw two men unloading a 2 ton split AC out the front of our place. It wasn't even 9.45 yet. He rubbed his eyes in disbelief - this isn't how it works. We hurriedly got dressed so we could pretend we hadn't been caught out. Who knows, these AC guys could have been trying to catch the goras (white people) out...and we weren't going to give them the satisfaction of finding out they had!