Look, I've only got a little over a month to go before I get my flat. I know I'm obsessed with it, but please understand that this is how it's going to be until I move and quite possibly a good while after that...

Perhaps it was simply that my first encounter with a kitchen sales person set my expectations to high. Perhaps I expected that tidal wave of obsequiousness (however pointed it may have been) to be replicated in every establishment I encountered. It's true that considering the amount of space I have, I'll be spending a modest sum compared amount required to kit out the cavernous kitchens I've seen elsewhere, but it's still a quantity of money I wouldn't readily dismiss.

Strange then to discover an overwhelming atmosphere of antipathy in so many shops I've visited. Most irritating are those sales assistants whom I approached in the hope that I'd be able to sit down with them to discuss my requirements and to guage, if only approximately, the cost of all the various bits and pieces (of which there a great, great many) only find myself rebuffed in a most bizarre and off-hand manner. In response to my overtures, two assistants (in differing shops) both quoted me extremely high figures they appeared to conjure out of thin air. Neither made any attempt to ascertain what I might be interested in, what size of kitchen I had to work with, and whether I'd need need appliances, or indeed any of the relevant information you'd actually need before giving a quote of any sort, however approximate. Indeed, when I tried to discover how that figure was arrived at - what proportion of it was units/appliances/work surfaces etc. - I received nothing more than glassy stares in response. One of them in particular seemed to fail to understand the question at all, and instead starting extolling the virtues of the units around her. My rephrasing the question a number of times failed to make any difference and in the end I just couldn't seem to derail her from her sales spiel - instead I had run out the door when her back was turned.

I'm currently leaning towards MFI, for the simple reason that they had a kitchen set up I rather like (the Townhouse range, which I can't seem to construct a link to irritatingly enough) that appears to be within my budget, and, perhaps most importantly of all, because the employee I spoke to was actually helpful. He answered all my questions, produced a realistic sounding estimate and did so without being the slightest bit pushy. I'm still slightly wary of them, especially given Simon's warnings on chains, but I don't need all that much from them, and what I do need is extremely straightforward - fortunately my families friends number a builder who recently did work similar to what I need for my brother. The only downside to choosing MFI is having to navigate through their seemingly never ending sales to actually work out what their appliances cost, but I'm quite happy to look elsewhere if it gets too intimidating...

It's a complex business. I'm never moving again.