Fascinating Aida

It is another beautiful day today, so working around the Church service I did my washing.

On a Sunday? you ask, horrified.

Well, as it happens I (have been so busy)** am such a lazy slut that it has all rather piled up and amounted to four loads. So I wakened early and took my 4 bags of wash to the laundry room at half past seven.

Yesss! A result. Nobody was there so I put one big load into the big washing machine. When it was nearly ready I sneaked a small wash into a half hour programme – very naughty as you are supposed to use only one machine at a time.

So the first wash went into the drier at 9.15 and the second large wash went into the washing machine at the same time.

By 10.15 the first was dry and the second went into the big drier while the small one went in to a smaller drier.

Fascinating, this isn’t it?

I put strikethrough on the bit in brackets, but it DIDN'T WORK

Saturday, Wonderful Saturday

This morning I awoke at 7.15 (in fact probably at 7.05 as my alarm clock runs fast), so I snuggled down under the duvet again, but sleep eluded me.

So, I thought I might as well make the best of a bad job and showered and dressed and headed down to the laundry room at about 7.50. You are not allowed to use the machines before 8am, so I was hopeful of being able to get the larger capacity washer for my bedding.

Nobody there – YES!

So washing on and headed back upstairs for the 1hr 15mins that the machine requires on that programme.

At 9.15, headed back down and as there was nobody using a machine I used 2 dryers, hoping not to be caught! Into the larger capacity one I put the double duvet cover, and into one of the others I put the rest of the bedding together with the cotton underwear.

Back upstairs, then down again after an hour.

At this point I discovered that only one of the three washing machines was in use and that it was still quite early on in its cycle, so I hadn’t inconvenienced anybody by using 2 dryers(of 4).

Better yet, my washing was dry, so folded up, dryer emptied of water and de-fluffed, washing brought upstairs and put away.

And it is only10.37!

So I have the rest of the day to relax….

Looking out the sky is a light shade of grey, and there is a light sprinkling of what looks like frozen snowflakes on the grass and on the cars. Doing my jigsaw and reading my book in the warmth of home seem like bliss to me.

That Vegetable Box Again

This week's box contained potatoes, carrots and onions plus 3 leeks, a large turnip (swede), 2 cauliflower and 3 beetroots. I think I shall make a cauliflower macaroni cheese with one of the cauliflower, and maybe a cauliflower with parsley sauce with the other one; The leeks are nice small ones and, now that I have got my new steamer, will search out some leek recipes.

Today was D-Day (or rather L-Day). I finally ran out of clean underwear (oh, all right, if you watched Bridget Jones, knickers!) so I absolutely had to do the washing. I had rather a bad night's sleep and tossed and turned till 6 o'clock, when I thought I might as well make a virtue out of necessity. I got myself washed and dressed and was down at the laundry room at 7.30 making sure I would be first in the queue for the big capacity machine, loaded the machine, added wash liquid and conditioner. ready to press START at the crack of 8am. This is the earliest we are allowed to use the machines.

So, I went down at 9.15 to transfer the washging to the drier; but it took longer for the spin than I expected, so by the time I transferred the load and put the second load into the washing machine, it was after 9.30. This meant that when I got upstairs again the bags were waiting outside the door. I had really wanted to see the driver today, but it can't be helped.

Must be Feeling Better.....

...as it is back to wash day once more. Of course it all mounts up when you are under the weather. Hope the shrink now has his brand new washing machine. I haven't done family sized hand washes for more years than I care to remember. I have got the white wash and the black wash done (do you think I view the world in black and white rather than in shades of grey - never mind in all its multi-coloured glory?)

My weekly cleaners, who enable me to cope , and who are unfailingly cheerful and helpful) will be here shortly and will change my bed, leaving me with a further wash.......

It is a beautiful day here today with the sun shining and just a little wind in the trees. I love days like this.

On a.'s advice am now reading Fred Vargas "Have Mercy On Us All" - looks promising!

Must get around to taking out shares in Amazon.....

Wash Day

This block of flats has a laundry room in the basement with 3 washing machines and 4 tumble dryers. (We are not permitted to dry washing outside.) You may not use more than one washing machine at a time, so as you can imagine, it can sometimes be difficult to find a machine available. Yesterday my laundry bin was full, so I needed to do both a dark wash and a white wash. I trekked down to the laundry to find to my delight that the new machine with a bigger drum was available, so in went the bulky white wash to a short but hot programme, and then returned to my flat. Half an hour later I returned to the laundry room to find my machine on its last spin. I then was a little bit naughty and put my less bulky dark wash into the machine next to it for a “once worn” quick wash and almost immediately transferred the first wash to the new, bigger and better tumble dryer.

I returned to my flat for brunch and half an hour later returned to the laundry to find the dark wash ready to spin and put in the dryer. A further half hour or so later, both washes were dry, so I folded them and brought them upstairs to put them away.

All this before 2pm when it was time to go to the residents lounge for a cup of tea and wait for the milk man to come for his money. (Yes, we get doorstep milk here – and he even can deliver my organic milk!)

So yesterday was a really good day; usually I hate a wash day as it can be really difficult to get a machine free, and I hate when I have to work on with it until evening.

I can, however, tell you of a rather funny story about this. A demand came from TV Licencing for "Flat 5". Now we have no Flat 5. The house manager brought it to me as a query and I said I would look into it. Eventually I worked out that "Flat 5" was the laundry room. So I phoned TV Licencing and told them so; however they were still insistent and I kept saying there was no television in the room, only 3 washing machines and 4 tumble driers. So they said they would come to inspect the "flat". They told me they would write to "3 washing machines and 4 tumble driers" to arrange an appointment.

Well, after I stopped laughing, I managed to convince the guy that it was not a staffed launderette (where someone might watch a television) but merely a facility for residents to come and do their own washing (and what's more, get out of there as quickly as possible.)

Okay, so he accepted that, but he told me that they would send out another letter demanding payment in 2 or 3 years time to ensure circumstances had not changed!

You could not make it up.