We succumbed to Astro! Mainly because we’re missing all that international news….I always miss CNN, BBC World and al-Jazeera news when I’m here in Malaysia. I find the local news channels don’t carry too much international updates. In Kuwait, I’d always be “listening” to the news whatever I’m doing – whether its working in our office or fixing a meal in the kitchen. Dan also thought it would be great to be able to watch his favourite sport on TV – football!

Suffice to say, Astro now hails as the most efficient service provider in my book. Dan went on line on Saturday night, chose a package, signed up and waited. We did wonder how long it would take. Today – Tuesday – they called and said the installer would come around 3pm to install the decoder.

They came at 3:30pm, took out the decoder, plugged it in, connected the MATV point, connected it to the TV and that was it. Voila….Astro started downloading and we should be able to catch CNN’s latest update around 5:30pm!

Wow. Is that service or what?

Bernard’s installer, on the other hand, was still struggling to fix my under-the-sink-trash can!

Since arriving this morning at 10am, he had been busy installing all the other outstanding stuff -

• the fridge door and the shelf and cupboard above the fridge door
• the 4 glass doors with the parallel opening mechanism, and
• the skirting underneath the cabinets

Last week I got really upset with Bernard, complaining about the slow pace of completion of my new kitchen. What was supposed to have been completed within two weeks (remember I was supposed to get my new kitchen by 17th July?) has taken more than a month!

Either Murphy (of “Murphy’s Law” fame!) had been busy or my kitchen contractor is not up to the mark.

I think its the latter – Bernard is a nice guy, too nice in fact, but I think he has too much on his plate. He seems to have very little control over the project. Overall coordination has been very bad. I heard many people have left the company so there is no one. In fact the lady who designed my kitchen and I think would have project-managed my kitchen also left since the time we appointed them. Poor Bernard. But that’s NOT my problem. A finished kitchen is what I want. So last week I gave Bernard an ultimatum – fix everything soon or I talk to Peggy! She’s the owner….the lady boss much feared.

So Bernard made a commitment to clear everything today. And they have been at it since morning. Bernard left around 2pm but his installer stayed on to complete everything.

From him I’ve learnt that there are a lot of “firsts” in this project. Its scary. I know. But what to do. We did our research. We got many different quotations. And we made a decision. The truth is you don’t really know who you’re working with or what you’re going to get until you do it.

I look around and everyday there is a new kitchen specialist advertising their services or launching a showroom. I think by now, I know a lot more about renovating and installing a new kitchen so that if I had to do it again, it would be a much better experience.

At the end of the day, my kitchen is what I wanted it to be and for that I’m grateful.

Its HOW we got here that was frustrating….