Categories: uncategorized
Date: 28 June 2006 17:22:36
I have a working washing machine!
Yay!
And I turned off the water supply, disconnected the old machine, sealed off the hot water feed (the new one's cold feed only), cleaned the floor (ahem), connected the new machine and turned the cold water supply back on all by myself and only got slightly damp toes from water remaining in the old hoses.
Well, I'm impressed, anyway.
It's been, um, educational, these last few days - I've only ever had to use laundrettes in similar circumstances to these, i.e. when the washing machine in my accommodation has broken down. Whereas the laundrette near me (not the one that shuts at five, the one I actually used) has a clientele that mainly consists of people who have no choice but to use a laundrette, because they're renting off a rubbish landlord (rental law states that everything that is in place when the tenancy starts must be maintained in good order all through the tenancy, so if there's a washing machine & it breaks, it has to be replaced. Therefore, slum landlords don't provide washing machines), and working a minimum wage job that doesn't create enough slack in the budget to save up £5 a week for a £170 washing machine.
And it's not like the bloke at work who gave up his Starbucks habit to save up for a Gaggia coffee machine - you can't exactly stop washing your clothes and save up all the £3.40s and buy a new machine that way. Not if you want to remain in gainful employment, anyway. And £3.40 is the cheapest you can get a wash - no use of the spin-dryers, no use of the tumble dryers, and definitely not lashing out the £1 for a service wash - carting bagfusl of soaking wet laundry home on the bus, spending 20p on the cheap and nasty washing powder the laundrette provides (I'm still itching from the residue, despite using my own washing powder), and then draping wet laundry all round your flat to dry.
I'm glad I was just visiting the underbelly of poverty in London, rather tthan having to stay permanently.