We found a great place to rent in Darwin this time around. It's a 2-storey townhouse in a nice complex. It's expensive, but well located for public transport, shops, etc.

It just has a few little problems with electrical appliances ...

Fridge - The townhouse includes a fridge/freezer. It doesn't work. I put in a maintenance request when we moved in, but 5 weeks later (yes, 5 weeks!) it still hasn't been fixed. Luckily we have a bar fridge to tide us over while we're waiting but patience is wearing very thin on this particular issue. I haven't had ice cream in over a month!

Air conditioning - As far as I'm concerned, it's essential in Darwin. Especially in a house that isn't designed to work without it. A week after we moved in the air conditioner in the main bedroom broke down. We slept in the second bedroom (home office) for about 2 weeks while waiting for it to be fixed. It was finally sorted out just a few days before our first visitor arrived.

Washing machine - A week later, it was the washing machine's turn to die. The washing machine also comes with the house, so it was another long wait to get it replaced. Much hand washing was done in the meantime. The new machine arrived today. I wasn't impressed that we had to install it ourselves.

Television - I also haven't watched TV in over a month. It took us a week after our furniture arrived to get the television, set top box/hard drive recorder, stereo system and DVD player set up. At which point we discovered we had no TV signal. After some more to-ing and fro-ing, a technician came around and we discovered that the previous tenant had taken an important component with them when they moved out. That was replaced a few days ago and we can now watch telly again.

So things are getting fixed, but at a snail's pace. It's very different to when you're in your own home and just get things fixed when they break - this ask-and-wait (and follow-up-and-wait, and ask-again-and-wait) process is so frustrating!

P.S. The fridge/freezer issue should be sorted out soon (it had better be!!) and I'll let you know by sharing a celebratory ice cream with you :)