Of Washing Machines and Dryers
In an ideal scenario, I would be writing right now about my laundry feat which happened three days ago. Unfortunately however, we're not in an ideal world, and my feat was a complete loss. Hehe.Three months ago, I attempted doing my laundry just upstairs. However, when I saw the instructions in French, and the plentitude of options for both washing machine and dryer, i thought it was just too much for me. Thereon, I did my laundry at Tita Juliette's house using her less complicated machines and asking for instructions in either english or filipino.
This week however, I didn't have the luxury of that option anymore. I didn't have the time to go to Linselles and I couldn't put off doing the laundry since I was running out of clothes (more specifically socks, hehe). I thus ventured to do my first laundry adventure. It may not sound too much really, but it really is literally too much. Imagine 3 euros for a token for the washing machine and a token for the dryer. In my country, it would have sufficed for a friendly help from a professional labandera. oh well...
So I scrounged for 3 euros in my room and went to my landlady, Madam Bogaert, to buy the tokens. Since the tokens happened to have different sizes, I asked her which was which. She explained and I just made a trick to avoid getting confused - S for small and séchage (drying) and L for large and laver (washing). Glad to have made a trick to avoid confusion, I then put all my things in my sac, pocketed my laundry tablets, and armed myself with my handy-dandy French-English dictionary (just in case i don't understand the instructions). While climbing up the stairs, I prepared my mind for the whole ordeal, not wanting to lose my three euros because of some mistakes my other friends have encountered with the machines beforehand. When I got there, I saw two machines - one happily churning and another on standby. I looked at the porthole of the occupied one and thought, "Strange, there's water in the dryer. Oh, maybe that's the water being removed from the clothes." I then turned to the other machine, relieved that it was empty and started to unload my stuff. I followed the instructions carefully, and encountered just a slight problem. The token slot for the washing machine seemed too thin. I thus thought, maybe the landlady mixed them up. I then made the right adjustments, and in a few minutes I was happily hearing the engine revving up. Feeling a wave of triumph, I returned to my room, ready to happily retrieve my clothes in an hour or so.
An hour passed and I made my way back upstairs. When I opened the machine door, I was so relieved that there seemed no running over of colors. I then started to unload my stuff in order to prepare them for the dryer but strangely, they were warm and dry. I also noticed some powdery stuff on my clothes and I thought, maybe the laundry tablet wasn't dissolved that much. When I had finished unloading my stuff, I couldn't help but be happy that my clothes were dry already - too good to be true! I don't have to spend time another hour waiting for them to dry! But then I examined my clothes closely... and reality dawned on me. I hadn't washed my clothes, I only had them dried. Grr...
Since it would again cost me three euros to buy another pair of tokens (mind you, you can't buy them separately) I just went back to my room, washed my clothes by hand, and hung them by the heater to dry. tsk2...
posted by Pia @ 10:58 PM
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