How much do you want for that?

The British Pound is a very deceptive currency. Numerically, price tags in London appear about right to Australian eyes. I expect to see the numbers "70" associated with a reasonable business shirt, or the numbers "2.50" associated with a carton of orange juice. However, these numbers list prices in pounds and not Australian dollars, a currency with 2.4 times less buying power. I can't tell how many times I've handed over what seems a reasonable sum of money, only to remember later that I'm not spending Australian dollars. In other words, things can cost a lot in London.

Take the movies as an example. We went to see Mission Impossible 3 a few weeks ago. Each ticket cost £9.15, including booking fee. Convert this to Australian dollars and you'll find that $22 has disappeared from your wallet. Of course you can't keep converting everything, unless manic depression is your forte. (Talking of depression, MI3 wasn't any where near as compelling as its predecessors. The camera doesn't loves Tom the way it use to.)

Deceptive price tag syndrome struck home this week following the arrival of an insurance check from the removal company. We had several items suffer minor damage enroute to London. Our dining room table arrived with a rather nasty scratch across its surface (left) and the long planter box arrived with almost every corner dented and damaged. (We also had the glass in a picture frame and a couple of old crockery items not quite make the journey intact).

The insurance company agreed to pay for the repair of the table, but elected to pay out the planter box's replacement value. In hindsight, we probably valued the planter box more in Australian dollar terms rather than pounds - and forgot to add VAT (value added tax) to the price. In the UK VAT is 17.5%. Ignoring tax, on top of a 2.4 conversion rate, added up to a rather large shortfall in funds. It still can't imagine quoting a price twice what we paid in Australia.

The table goes off to the furniture restorer next week for an extreme makeover. The total cost of repair? An astonishing £848, including VAT. I've also been able to negotiate a deal with the restorer to cover repairs to our planter box (an example of the damage is shown left). They'll repair this for £442, only £32 more than the insurance payout we received. I got the original planter box quote reduced by a whopping £110. I dare not convert this amount for fear of heart failure. I can only just cope with being £32 out of pocket.

Abbey Antiques, the furniture restorer , is interesting company. It's a family-owned business based in Essex that now being managed by the eighth generation of family members. I can't imagine doing what my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather use to do (and I suspect he couldn't imagine doing what I do). Odd little facts like this remind you that we're no longer living in a young country.

Our table will be away for two weeks. Abbey has even promised to email photos showing each stage of the restoration process. It's their way of proving that they won't fill the wood with dodgy pollyfiller, then disappear down to the pub with the remainder of our insurance cheque. I'll post any interesting images that come through, but I suspect it's the next best thing to watching paint dry.