The price of washing clothes!

Slight change of plan from yesterdays post. We have put off buying a new washing machine until Boxing day when the sales start. Well.... we may as well get as much off as possible, after all, why pay full whack when you can get one at a considerable reduced price? So instead I walked up to the launderette armed with sheets, duvet cover and a mountain of clothes. Stood in the doorway looking a bit baffled and wondering how to operate the machines. So many of them and no idea of how much they cost or where to put the powder in.  Just two slots for coinage which I assumed were for £1 coins and 50p's. Luckily the owner of the launderette took pity, looked at how much washing I had and took me to the 'large' load machine.
 
There he informed me it was £5.20 for a hot wash at 40 degrees (40 degrees to me isn't a a hot wash!). Anyway washing powder went in the drum followed by the clothes. He then took my large fabric conditioner bottle and poured about half of it into the top draw (I couldn't even see the draw let alone reach it). I thought that was a bit OTT but, hey ho, he must know what he was doing. Leaving the machine to do it's work I headed for the shops to do the last minute Christmas food shop. 30 minutes later I was back at the Laundrette and washing had finished. Now for the drying. The drums were huge so in went all the wet stuff . Over comes the launderette owner, again, who informed me there was too much in the drum. What!! The drum was enormous so why couldn't I load it up?. 'Absolutely not' says he. 2 dryers were to be used. He made me unload the dryer leaving only the bedding stuff in. 2nd dryer took every thing else. At £1 for 10 minutes I was not best pleased. Ended up paying £5 for the dryers and then not everything was dry. So total spent because of my defunct washing machine..... £10.40. Outrageous!!!

Ian had another problem to sort out. Tar was running down the outside of the flew again. We thought it had been resolved when Ian dug all the old wadding out and replaced it with new. Obviously it hadn't been sealed properly the first time so back to the same procedure again but this time stuffed the gaps with loads of heat proof silicon in the surround. Keeping everything crossed it works this time. Instead of relighting the fire tonight on went the diesel heating. Ian wants as long as possible for the silicone to dry. With the weather turning colder over the Christmas period lets hope the stove can be relit in the morning.

Before the silicon

And after.

A couple of wildlife pics seen today.