Kitchen Progress: Part One

No packing done yesterday in the end. Instead spent the whole afternoon trying to make a decision about what sink to get. Had to be cheap, so that narrowed it down to stainless steel or white acrylic; then got distracted by the post-modernity of black acrylic* but then remembered the horrible tidemarks that coloured sinks get. No lovely china butlers sinks - we'd probably drop a saucepan on it and smash it within a week. Needed to be here within days so trawled the "buy it now" permutations. The does-it-come-with-plumbing-bits-or-not had to be factored in, then I realised what I was looking for was nice parallel lines on the draining board. Not swanky, fiddly, sunburst designs or over-elaborate curved bits; don't exactly want to spend my whole life cleaning the damned thing any more than necessary. Then, for a few quids more, I could get the luxuriousness of a-sink-and-a-half. It wouldn't matter if the kids suddenly had to run the cold tap for a glass of water just as you've filled up the washing up bowl. Ooooh, the poshness, the life-enhancing possibilities... Only one met the parallel lines criteria. Then, for the umpteenth time, I put the tape measure across the wall, which is only 5-and-a-half-feet, and realised by going for a compact, single bowl number I'd magically gain 15cm of worktop. Done! £42..... fabulous. I don't think it comes with plumbing, and the model has a K before the T in its name; the plumber had better not suck air through his teeth and start muttering about incompatibility of pipe diameters when he sees it.

*that its been done before, and was naff, but suddenly looks "new" again.