I am only just starting to get straight in the new Wayne-Bough Towers. Not having yet got round to purchasing a Bosch washing machine, I have had to resort to the joys of a launderette for the first time in years. Oh my, haven't they moved on? They're all electronic now. I spent half an hour reading the instructions and working out how to buy tokens, where to put them, where the washing powder went, what programme combination to select, and how much my washing weighed. Then I had to do it all over again for the dryers. But while I was sitting watching my magic knickers go round and round, I espied something very interesting in a corner. It was an ironing machine! You feed your sheets, towels, pillowcases etc. into big rollers and they come out completely flattened! This was the acceptable face of technology. I had great fun feeding my duvet covers and teatowels in and catching them as they dropped out of the bottom completely pressed and smooth. It's the most exciting machine I've used since I bought my digital camera. No, I don't get out much. The local launderette is incredibly clean and tidy, with plenty of work surfaces for your servant to fold your washing. I might not even bother with a washing machine, the ironing machine was so much fun.
13 comments:
When I lived in Tunbridge Wells, at least two of my friends deliberately eschewed machines and enjoyed their social visits to the launderette.
Forgive me if I have alresdy told you, but one of the husbands took the washing and then had to sit transfixed as he watched his wife's Dutch cap stick doggedly to the porthole as the washing swirled round.
Do contraceptives need to be washed with detergent? I am innocent of such matters. The ironing machine sounds fun, though.
Pi - hahahahaha! Hahhahahaha! Snort! Hahahahahaha!
Daffers - yes, good, isn't it. I used it while the renovations were happening. Some nice young men go there, but I have to say I've never seen Julio removing his jeans as depicted in your stealthy shot there. I'm very impressed.
GB: no just ordinary soap and water, but inadvertantly, his wife had forgotten to empty her dressing gown pockets.
For the last seven weeks, I have had to do my own washing. The knob was set for me back then and all I have to do is stick this tiny capsule of soap and conditioner, close the door and open a bottle of wine.
Ironing? I don't do. I'd love to have some of those rollers.
Does the Towers have a view - like Twin Peaks?
An ironing machine! I could weep with gratitude only I just know they have nothing so new-fangled in the laundromats here.
Can you put crumpled children in, d'you think?
Pat, it is indeed a good place to meet the neighbours, although they always make a point of tellin you their own machine has broken down. If they bought Bosch they would never see the inside of a launderette, they never break down.
GB,an ironing machine could be useful in the jungle in the monsoon season.
Aunty, is his name Julio? Such a nice Young Man. His jeans had got wet in the torrential rain we had last week.
Cream, not quite a New Man yet, are we?
Goth, I am on the ground floor at the front, so the view of everyone in the building coming and going at all hours of the day and night is very entertaining. My curtains never stop twitching.
Sam, your children would come out of the machine two-dimensional like the road runner. You might prefer them like that. They would take up less space in the car.
Ahem. That, of course, was not Anonymous, nor was it someone impersonating me. It was me.
An ironing machine...that sounds great!
This post also reminded me of what Mr. Bean once did at the Launderette.
i haven't seen one of those ironing machines since i first moved over here, 20 odd years ago. they're bloody brilliant for sheets and stuff and great fun to use, it's true.
I'm sure a lady of taste and refinement such as yoruself will have seen the film 'Secretary'.
What Brussels needs is a concept landrette like the one Maggie Gyllenhaal dates the loser boyfriend in -- we could set one up, copmplete with champagne bar, sushi, tapas, 'Speed Queen' tumble dryers and make it social hub of eurocrat washday.
We can probably even give it an elaborate Place Lux/Electrolux punning name...
Oh dear Daphne, you've just given me a flashbacks of my Brussels days when a visit to the laundrette was the highlight of my week, particularly meeting a Nice Young Man from the Commission called Lars who asked me for my phone number (it was my skill at operating the calendrier that clinched it). I'd only had my phone installed that day and really couldn't remember my number, and the poor thing took that as meaning I wasn't interested. I returned to the same laundrette at the same time on the same day for weeks but no sign of the Gorgeous One.
How things could have turned out so very very different...
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