When I moved out of home not long ago I had nothing, I mean literally nothing especially no kitchen appliances. Oh I had a few clothes and personal belongings, a bed, a sofa and a kitchen table that came with the house but that was about it and what I missed the most was the kitchen appliances that I had enjoyed at home.

The difficult thing was that I hadn’t just moved around the corner but I had moved halfway across the world to a place where many of the kitchen appliances that I was used to having available to me that made my life simpler, easier and somewhat more enjoyable were just not available.

And it wasn’t for lack of trying that I couldn’t find them, these what seemed like everyday kitchen appliances were just not available where I was. So in my naiveté I made it my mission to hunt them down I guess if nothing else it helped me to settle into my temporary home.

The first thing I needed was something to cook on. Where I had come from houses always had a stove, an oven or a range hood. But I looked through the kitchen, it didn’t really take long as these kind of large kitchen appliances are usually pretty obvious, and I concluded that I had no way of cooking anything.

I wandered down to the local stores; I was in a capital city so I was confident that I would find what I needed, to find kitchen appliances that I could use to cook with. Now I thought that a cooker might be out of my price range so I looked for smaller kitchen appliances that would fit my budget.

I looked and I looked and I looked but unlike where I was from there was no stores that were dedicated to kitchen appliances in fact there were mostly small stores that had a mixture of items – and of course my search wasn’t helped by the fact that not many people spoke English and just looked away when I spoke to them.

Despite these challenges I found a store that sold kitchen appliances, they all looked like they were from the 1950’s but at least they were kitchen appliances that I recognized and that I could use in my new apartment. My first priority was cooking and luckily they had a single electric hotplate amongst their stock of kitchen appliances.

Well actually they had a total of two they were both the same brand so I thought that I had better buy one so that I could cook at home. I grabbed it in its box, found some pots, pans, knives, forks, plates and other utensils that I might need and headed to the cash register then home very pleased with my purchases and very pleased that I had been able to buy them with my very basic use of the local lingo.

I ventured out that afternoon to buy food for my evening meal and was thoroughly satisfied with cooking for myself that night though with only one burner it required a bit of a juggling act to cook everything that I wanted but I knew that I would become more adept as I became more familiar and adjusted to this different way of cooking.

Now that I had the first of my kitchen appliances I decided I would buy more for my kitchen as the one burner thing had gotten easier but was still a bit limiting. I was missing toast for breakfast so it seemed logical that the next one of the basic kitchen appliances I would buy was a toaster, a pretty basic but very useful piece of equipment essential for every kitchen.

I looked for days for a toaster; I tried explaining what it was to shopkeepers only to be met with blank stares, the concept of making toast is completely unheard of here. I found a blender but no electric can opener and an iron but without any steam.

A refrigerator I was told was only for people with a business and coffee makers are not necessary when the only coffee you can buy is instant with the powdered milk already included.

A bit dejected, with the only one of the kitchen appliances that I wanted to use being the blender, I headed home defeated and ready to accept that the kitchen appliances were different only to find that there were other differences when I arrived home.

The first thing was that there was no power till it was nearly dark, I guess that makes electrical kitchen appliances redundant and when the power did come on the burner just wouldn’t work. I ducked down to a local bread shop to buy some bread for my dinner and vowed to return the burner the next day.

When I tried to return the burner, which was less than a week old, they refused to accept it and told me that warranty on kitchen appliances was for only a day. I bit my tongue and left the store very quickly this was the last straw. I was alone in a confusing foreign country and it didn’t seem like anyone would help me I sat outside on the steps of the store and burst into tears.

Vowing to try and sort it out again the next day all I could hear was my mothers voice in my head telling me that there are three things that you need to remember when buying kitchen appliances and they were warranty, warrant and warranty all kitchen appliances must have a warranty. I smiled as I pictured her face far away and dried my tears I couldn’t cook so I guess I was going to have to eat out.