Washing machine blues

Have you ever noticed that when your washing machine is out of commission the washing pile seems to develop a life of its own and it just grows and grows..............

Sadly the other day my most wonderful laundry aid decided to do a waltz across the kitchen floor... thankfully I managed to rescue it quite quickly... the thudding noise alerted me to the poor washing machines dilemma!!

Thankfully we do have a Coverplan for this overworked piece of machinery so wasted no time getting on the phone and dialling the number required.... And then I started to pull out my hair... 'Oh that number has changed now you need this number'.. blah.. blah.. blah... So rang that number to be greeted with the same repetitive message over and over and over and over and over again......... until I was cut off and had to start again... Then finally bingo I am actually able to speak to the very nice human being lady... who then tells me to write down two numbers.. authorisation number and engineers number (I think..... try to block these things out to be honest!!) Ring another number and after more repeated messages and the odd blast of awful music speak to a very nice young lady who finally gives me a day for my washing machine repair... Oh thank you . .. only a day and a half to wait.. not so bad.... but oh my how that washing pile grows and grows....

So this is my poorly washing machine forlorn and awaiting some much needed washing machine health care....

So a day and half later nice Mr Washing Machine health care man duly turns up and sets to work... 'Oh dear.. Oh dear... oh my this is bad news'..... 'Oh no' I exclaim eyeing up exploding washing pile.... and already planning a strategic plan of attack on wash pile in case of repair delays (will have to wait another week until said part is ordered!!) plan of attack usually means filling the bath with soap powder and soaking, washing , rinsing and wringing their and praying for dry weather!!

But regardless of deep intakes of breath and slow releases Mr Repair Man reckons he may be able to sort the problem out.. and bless his cotton socks so he did. With much heaving and pulling the collasped washing machine drum was pulled back into place via a repair job on a bracket that holds a very vital spring... once this was back in place the damaged seal which can be seen in above photograph was replaced and hey presto my washing machine was back in action!!

Thank you so much Mr Repair Man... and after a nice cup of steaming hot tea he went on his way and I was able to tackle that evergrowing washing pile....

And so you can see my much loved washing machine is now fully restored and now back in production again!!

I can remember my Mum washing by hand.. we lived in a cottage and we did not have a hot water system.. just a cold water tap in the kitchen and how she ever managed I will never know. I can remember her hands being blue with cold after rinsing with cold water in the winter. All the hot water was heated on a stove.. Monday was wash day, and in the winter wet clothes would be hanging around in the kitchen all day... then Tuesday was ironing day and Mum would put all her lovingly ironed clothes onto a clothes horse to air off and that would be opened in front of the fire and moved when we needed to sit nearer the fire... There was a day for downstairs cleaning, upstairs cleaning, kitchen and stove cleaning... On Saturdays we would go shopping and Sundays was roast dinner day and baking... all lovely and happy memories.....