24 September 2007

Wash day


Our
washing
machine
has
no
on
or
off
buttons,
but
it
does
have two manual programmes. The first of which is the heavy soil, which T operates admirably.It includes jeans, garden clothes, towels and sheets. I am responsible for the delicates, girly items, underwear and anything that I don't want to be bleached, scrubbed or wrung to death. Before coming to live here, anything requiring hand washing lurked at the bottom of the laundry basket for a period of time, gestating towards annihilation or rejection, until I would risk throwing it in the machine rather than leave it lying there any longer. Initially, I admit, I found hand washing difficult. I had no notion, no desire, no technique. I watched and learned and, gradually I found a rhythm, a system, a liking for the water and the suds, the rinses and the wringing.
It is unlikely that I would feel this way if there was only one programme and I had to wash for three adults and three children, as my sister in law does, but, for the two of us,?
I like it.

6 comments:

  1. laundry left for days....mmm sounds familiar.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This reminds me of when I was living in Greece with no access to washing machines or laundromats/laundrettes and sending one load out equalled the month's rent. I had to learn to hand wash and how I hate it now!

    ReplyDelete
  3. uuh, huu, it was something like that - though with a roof above - I discovered behind my cabin in Costa Rica and... planted mesclune in it... well, it had a roof... and a rainy season was approaching... and what else could it have possibly be needed for?
    ....Now I know better :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I was a bit silly putting our sink inside, unlike everyone else, I can wash if it's raining or really hot.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I remember being fascinated by the "squeechy" sounds the clothes would make. I could never get the technique right. My hand washing never made that squeechy sound.
    You know what I'm referring to?

    ps* Gullyside back up

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jamsprint, now that you mention it, I know exactly what you mean. I don't think I've got the "squeechy" sound quite right either, but I do have a mean rhythm going with the scrubbing brush.

    ReplyDelete

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