This is where we are...

With just 37 days until I get my hands on those keys things have stepped up a notch in the preparations. You may remember that we had already survived round one of the sofa delivery debacle, which gave us a grand total of 3 pieces of furniture (we already own a guest bed). We needed, and indeed still need, more. So at the weekend we ramped up the purchasing. Our tally so far:

• One sofa and armchair - already ordered for delivery the week after we get the keys... hopefully.
• One bed, boxspring - ordered to be delivered the day after we get the keys.
• One quilt, we already have pillows
• One DVD player - which may or may not be on its way to the UK depending on whether the Company sent it to my delivery address or my billing address. Their confirmation e-mail was unclear on this point and they have been incredibly silent since I asked for confirmation and provided them with a copy of the order. Am I to be cursed by deliveries?
• One desk chair with a E50 discount as it is the end of the line (hurrah, I would have bought it full price anyway).
  
• One set of Bemz covers for the, as yet, unbought dining chairs.

Which, I am sure you will agree, is progress. We have also:

• decided on a coffee table. An "opium table" rather like this one, but in natural wood, unless I change my mind and go for the dark stained wood, or the natural...

We have also chosen a television. And when did televisions get so expensive? I mean, really? We are not a tv watching household, more of a dvd boxset sort of a watching household. It galls me to spend this much money on something we don't use that much, but I have aesthetic issues. I simply cannot have a large lump of black plastic and glass as the focus of the room, so the television had to be as unobtrusive as possible while still being of a decent size to watch (which for the lovely husband seemed to mean 32 inch). The most unobtrusive I could find was a Samsung with a white surround, rather than black, however, it was way over my tentative budget. I just couldn't go there. Rather than bitch and whine about it (as I usually would), I took matters into my own hands and hit the internet. Having discovered it relatively cheaply in the UK and Germany I quickly worked out that no company would ship it due to size. Which meant hunting around the internet in Dutch.

I don't know what your experiences of buying online from Dutch companies have been like but my limited experience has left me frustrated and vowing never to do it ever again. It may be just my impression but online shopping has not really advanced here the way it has in the UK. The process is slow and complicated. One order required a bank transfer as a payment system rather than the more simple, plug in your credit card and away we go. Still, the lure of a cheaper product was too much for me and I hit the internet with a vengance. I started off with www.kelkoo.nl, a pricing website, to familiarise myself with the stores which stocked the tv I wanted. That worked well and I found it much cheaper at www.bestekeus.nl. It was still quite a lot though, so I pondered on it for 24 hours and tried again. This time I went to a dutch pricing site, www.beslist.nl who had a greater range of shops. The cheapest option on there was www.plasmadiscounter.nl. Joy of joys, they accept cards, no bank transfer hassle and they also promise to match the cheapest price you can find the product at. Hurrah. I am a happy bunny (well, as happy as a bunny still spending too much on a television can be). I'll let you know how the delivery goes. Maybe third time's the charm.