I've posted before about my London laundry dilemma. I can never seem to stay on top of the laundry situation. There's always piles of it in my room and in the utility closet. The drying rack is always up in the lounge. Sad crunchy socks dangling on the rack or over the radiator. Despite being a free spirit, I need to have some order in my life. I can't stand to have laundry drying all over the place.
Yesterday I decided to take the whole lot of it over to the laundrette. I live right around the corner from a decent little laundrette and there's a coffee shop up that same road where I can have a coffee while I wait. I will admit that I don't walk down to this laundrette despite it being so close. I drive there. It's not even a block away, but I drive. There's always a place to park in front. So I do it. I washed two loads at 3 pounds a wash and it dawned on me that I could just wash the clothes at home in my machine and zip down there and toss them in the dryer.
The dryer is only 1 pound for 20 minutes and that is usually enough time to dry the load. I went home washed a load in the machine on the quick wash and then drove down and threw it in the dryer. 20 minutes later I was back at home folding my hot dry clothes and then immediately putting them away. I've still got to get my hands on some strong smelling dryer sheets. I had some store brand ones and they didn't do much. The clothes ended up smelling like hot metal. Not the best smell in the world, but it does fade once the clothes get dry.
Before the genius plan of mine, doing a load meant washing it and hanging it. Drying could take up to two days depending on the clothes. Also, there were times when someone forgot to take the clothes out and hang them up immediately because they didn't want to get up during EastEnders. They would get forgotten in the machine and start to stink, so they would have to be washed again. It's hard to place blame in a situation like that, since there are no commercials during EastEnders, cheers BBC!
Yesterday I managed to wash six loads! Like most people in London I carry my laundry around in the nice big blue Ikea bags. They are really handy bags. I don't know if they have them in States, but they should. Matthew pointed out to me that if I was English I would have walked the block to the laundrette with the heavy wet bag of laundry. Oh well, I wash the clothes so I do it my American way. At least now he has a drawer full of clean pants and socks.
I should start by saying that Matthew and I don't have one of these lovely Minis....yet. Perhaps driving or motoring would be a bit better if I was cruising around in one. For the record we have a lovely blue manual Astra that has been very good to us.
It is very strange not be able to do something that you used to be able to do without thinking. Driving in London is certainally an experience. I have been thinking about getting my license over here. We don't really do too much driving in London, but we go out of town and around England. It would be nice if I knew how to drive so Matthew wouldn't have to do all of it. I have driven a bit in the UK. I drove down to the gym twice now and I did a bit of driving on the motorway up to Scotland.
The experience so far has been stressful and a bit frightening. I am not very good at judging the distance between the car and the curb, or other cars on the left. The times I have been out in the car I tend to over correct and drive in the middle of the road. In case Matthew is reading, I only do that on residential streets not on the Uxbridge Road.
It's a very strange feeling to feel unfamiliar behind the wheel of a car. I've been driving since I was 17 years old. Getting oriented, working the shifter with my left hand, trying to make sure I don't scrape any parked cars, not being sure the rules of the road, fearing the other crazy drivers. It's a lot to think about.
Let's also not forget the CCTV traffic cameras. I was driving with Matthew one day and we were coming back from the gym. The gym by the way is only about a mile away. Here's the route I take to get there. The main Uxbridge Road is a pretty busy main road.
So I was driving us back and I accidentally went into the bus lane for a second and it was caught on the camera and a ticket showed up in the mail a few days later. That's a bit unnerving! I could make a slight mistake and it would mean an instant ticket without being pulled over.
I took two driving lessons a few months back. That was ok. I just drove around and the kindly old man told me where to turn and this and that. What I really need to do is get a handbook and learn the rules of the road. Most of the traffic markings are on the road instead of signs. You have to know first where to look and what you are looking for.
I drove myself down to the gym yesterday and it's so funny. I sit in the car and drive, slowly, and give myself positive reinforcement. I say things like, Rhea you are a good driver, You know how to control the car, You have never been in an accident. I do it to calm myself and it works to some extent. It will just take practice. It would be nice to have an automatic so I would have to think about all the shifting. I think when our Astra gives out we'll get an automatic.
Slowly, but surely I am learning and mastering my fear. I also thought that driving on the motorway would be easy, but that is very different than driving on the freeway in the US. On the way up to Scotland there are three lanes and you constantly changing lanes with the flow of traffic. It's not like cruising along on 94 and maybe passing one or two slow people.
I've posted before about my London laundry dilemma. I can never seem to stay on top of the laundry situation. There's always piles of it in my room and in the utility closet. The drying rack is always up in the lounge. Sad crunchy socks dangling on the rack or over the radiator. Despite being a free spirit, I need to have some order in my life. I can't stand to have laundry drying all over the place.
