Online shopping :)

One major difference in India, we have found coming back after three years away, is that the online shopping options have grown and have also improved in coverage.  We now have access to Amazon India which is not quite Amazon US or Australia (well to be fair it is nothing like either) but at least I can buy things that are often not readily available on Indian supermarket shelves.  And, if they are something that a supermarket stocks, it is often out of stock, so ordering directly online saves that hassle.

As you can imagine, when relocating overseas the clear out and subsequent stock up of groceries is huge and takes up a lot of time, energy and money!! That’s not even considering all the additional household items you need when moving to a different house configuration. We have just moved from a small Hong Kong apartment to a 4 bedroom villa with 4 bathrooms....... that’s 2 extra toilet brushes just to start with !! And then there are the specific items you have just when living in India - back-up power UPS boxes for all technology, mosquito racquets, bottled water filters just to name a few.

This week I have ordered so many things online and they have arrived in dribs and dabs throughout each day. It’s very difficult to buy most things in bulk here - except rice, onions and spices! As an example, when buying any kind of drinks at the supermarket you get them as single cans, cartons or bottles. So when browsing Amazon, I was super excited to see 4 packs of soda and tonic waters on Amazon that I promptly ordered a couple of each to be delivered to the door.

Two day later they arrived in a very large box. Curious, we ripped it open and below is what we found. Individually bubble wrapped 320ml cans! With my trusty Stanley knife I sliced the layers of tape and bubble wrap but was a little too keen and punctured the can, sending tonic water exploding all over the ceiling, sofa, floor and me! Another fun clean up job for me 🙄

Never a dull moment in our new home !