Not the Best Start to November

 

I do my washing in a common laundry room in the basement of the building where I live. There's one washing machine, one tumble drier and one drying cabinet, so one books the room for a 4-5 hours at a time (and is then supposed to have it to oneself). I prefer the afternoon time slot (starting at 12), as I'm not an early riser, and also don't like being down there in the evening. Usually it works out ok, even if now and then there are irritations with some people forgetting to fetch their laundry on time etc.

Today everything was ok when I got down there at 12 and put my first load in. However, when I got back down an hour later, there was a message on the display on the machine indicating that something had gone wrong with the water supply and that the hose needed checking. I was able to open the door. My things (towels etc) had obviously been washed - the washing powder had been used up, and everything was wet. Actually too wet, though - it had not been centrifuged. And still warm to touch, which indicated it had probably also not been through the full rinsing cycle...

I called the landlord's office to report the error. The lady who took the call said she'd treat it as "emergency" and try to get someone over asap to have a look. I still had 3½ hours left of my time, which meant I had a choice: either just leave things as they were for a while and hope someone would turn up to fix the machine in time for me to re-wash that load; or else try to put those heavy, soaked towels to dry as they were...

I started with the optimistic alternative and left things as they were in the basement and went back up to my flat for an hour or so. I kept a lookout through my window for service cars, but none turned up. After an hour I went back down and moved all the wet heavy towels to the drying cabinet (which seemed somehow safer than trying to put them in the tumble dryer in that state). Went back down again after 1½ hour. No repairman had shown up (my own sticky note was still on the machine)  and everything in the drying cabinet was still very wet. I gave the drier another hour+. Got back down again around 17:15, and by then someone else had actually put their laundry in the washing machine, and my note about it not working was gone. Someone must have turned up to fix things at last after all. I got my now semi-dry things out of the drying cabinet, and up to my flat, where they're now hanging on a foldable (unfolded) drying rack in my living room.

The 12-17 time slot for tomorrow happened to still be open on the booking board, though, so I snatched that. Fingers crossed I'll be able to get my towels etc properly re-washed (and re-dried!) then - and my other intended load of clothes as well...

If anyone is wondering why there are rats in my AI illustrations, that's because on my next to last visit to the laundry room, I saw a big fat brown rat running along the basement corridor, and disappear in under the bottom of an anonymous door next to the laundry room. (I have no idea what's behind it.) The landlord's office was closed for the day by then, so I sent them an email to report that...

I've lived 15 years in this building and never seen a rat here before. And nowhere else that I've lived either. Back in my childhood, we sometimes got mice from the woods in our loft in winter; and once my mum also managed to catch one in our laundry room in the cellar. (She caught that one in a towel or something and carried it out into the woods nearby.) But what I saw today was bigger than a mouse.  (Makes me wonder about my own storage rooms downs there. They have different kinds of doors, but it's never occurred to me to consider whether rat-proof or not!! I'll save checking on that for another day, though...)