A Little Less Drama if You Please

Hey Friend,

How’s it going? I don’t know about you, but I am really looking forward to half term next week. A whole week of not hearing:

‘It’s too early to get up!’

‘I don’t want to go to school!’

‘I’m soooo tired!’

‘My stomach hurts!’

‘Why can’t I stay home? It’s just one day!’

To be fair, this doesn’t happen everyday, but it’s often enough that I need a break from it, if you know what I mean. These days I just smile through gritted teeth and keep coaxing them along until it’s time to leave, knowing that by the time I speak to them again at the end of the school day, the phantom stomach ache would have disappeared (well, it’s actually gone by the time breakfast comes around but we’ll ignore that…).

When you add to this morning dance sorting out laundry to take to the launderette, you’ll understand even more why half term week is bathed in glorious light. You see, our washing machine broke down.

Oh the joy.

It started making a weird noise one day. My brother (who can fix anything) said it must be the bearings and we could keep using it for a bit but not for much longer. I looked up the part on the net and watched a video on how to fix it.

I would need to take the whole machine apart just to get to this tiny thing!

So, of course we kept using it. And of course, the noise got worse. In fact, it got so bad that I thought the whole thing was going to spontaneously combust. So rather than walk around wearing Mr. E’s noise cancelling headphones, I bagged up the clothes and spent several mornings at the launderette whilst Bubs was at school, drying the loads of washing I’d done using my mum’s machine.

I borrowed my mum’s ‘granny trolley’ as Bubs calls it – you know the ones that the old dears use to do their shopping (NOT that I am for one minute calling my mum an ‘old dear’ – love you, Mum, you spring chicken 😊).

It was usually pretty quiet so, I’d bring a newspaper with me and do the crossword. There was one day I got talking to a lovely – mature woman (I am not getting myself into anymore trouble!). I had on a long knitted cardi and she was gushing over how lovely it was. She asked me if I work in fashion and I said I used to. She then said ‘See! A woman with such beautiful clothes must know something about fashion!’ It made me smile and so glad that I hadn’t worn my trackie bottoms and trainers that day!

My last visit there was a couple of weekends ago and for some reason, the place was packed. You could barely move for the amount of people and me and my granny trolley were getting in the way. I just needed a dryer. There were two finishing up so I lined myself up in front of one of them, a lady next to me was already lined up with the other. They finished, but the owner of the load for my machine was nowhere to be seen. I asked the attendant if she could empty it so I could use it.

‘Priority is for customers using the washing machine’ she barked at me. I looked around. Even in the sea of bodies, there was no one other than me and this woman waiting to use the dryer. My new friend came to my rescue: ‘It’s fine, I’m using this one so she can use that one.’ She smiled at me and nodded. The attendant cast me a look before emptying the machine and moving away. I shoved my load in as quickly as possible, added my coins, turned it on and plonked myself on the bench in front of it. The woman next to me waited for the machine to be emptied, added her load and her coins and turned it on. It wouldn’t start.

It was at that moment that I found something really interesting to look at on my phone… I don’t even know why I felt guilty. It wasn’t my fault it wasn’t working and she chose that machine!

The attendant came over and banged it a few times (if in doubt, give it a whack). When that didn’t work she left and came back with a wire coat hanger which she jiggled around in the coin slot (electrocution, anyone?). It eventually sprang to life and my shoulders relaxed away from my ears.

Thankfully last week Mr. E said ‘A washing machine’s coming tomorrow,’ as he passed me in the corridor 😊 So, the granny trolley has been retired from laundry duty and I don’t have to deal with the scorn of the launderette attendant… Thanks Mr. E!

I’d better get on. Have a great week!

Speak soon x