Laundry

Doing the laundry kills me. Am sitting next to the washing machine now in the kitchen and listening to my clothes die, and there is nothing I can do to save them. To top it off I have forgotten to throw in the wash the shirt I have on my back (literally, the T-shirt I wear in the house. Which means it will have to wait till the next available wash. Arrgh. So reminiscent of the glasses on the head syndrome, right??) But back to the catastrophe at hand. For starters when I opened the washing stuff cupboard it appeared different from when my landlady first showed me that I had to combine this washing powder with that blue liquid and put equal amounts in the washing machine compartment that holds the suds. So I just chose the two most interesting solutions and understood them with my best Spanish (fwah!) and then poured them in and went to step two.

Step two comprises of choosing which type of fabric and which temparature to wash them in. I had with me socks, sweaters, spaghetti straps, tights and a dress that had instructions which said “Do not wash at more than 30degrees temperature.” So I was like, okay, looking at the dial. The setting Tere told me to put it at was Synthetics/40degrees. And I thought – this would not be right. It would ruin the dress. And I didn’t want to turn the dial to in-between ‘frio (cold)’ and 40 degrees, cos I am a bit doubtful that if I turn the dial to where it is supposed to mean 30degrees, it will be washing at 30degrees. For all you know once the machine starts it will click happily to 40degrees.

Anyway, as the luck of the draw would have it, I chose Wool. (This is why it is a good idea, if you are not a manual-reader like me, to at least make the effort to know what spin cycles are available on your washing machine before you choose an option and press the ‘Start’ button. Cos once you press start and the clothes start spinning, you will have to just pray ur way through to the end of the cycle if your machine does something you didn’t expect and are not thrilled about) The Wool setting is at 30degrees, which was good, and also I had some cottony stuff in the bunch of things I put in the machine. Now, the thing that started me worrying was that 20min into the cycle, when everything was sailing along fine, the machine suddenly stopped for a while. Then I tried to open the door, thinking that the cycle was done. But no, it was not the case. Then the tumbler started spinning really fast, and I mean really. And the spinning sound got higher and higher pitched until I thought the machine was going to explode (in the back of my mind I was thinking: very clever, this Wool setting. You have to replace the machine and your clothes every single time you choose this cycle).

(Oh wait, let me check the machine… Clothes are safe! Clothes are intact!!! YAY! :)) Okay, am a lousy writer as I have already given the ending away. But let me continue. )

Is there any Emergency stop button on these things? Like an oh I changed my mind, Wait!!! Can u just stop the washing and rinse out my clothes and can I have them back already, thank you very much - button? So the machine started spinning real fast and I was just sitting there ostensibly in silent contemplation (in case Tere walks past I didn’t want her to see me flapping around the kitchen lest she thinks I cannot be trusted to be left on my own with any household appliances), thinking, oh shit, will my dress be torn apart at this speed? I’ve only worn it once, and what about my tights?? Etc, etc… So anyway, the laundry turned out fine, better than the first time it came out a bit green, so, think I will choose Wool again next time. ;) Yes, the daredevil in me.