Washing Machine Woes

I'm bored of not having a washing machine.

For the whole of last year I cursed every time it came to washing my clothes. I would have to take those two stupid buckets to the roof, fill them with cold water and then try and subsequently fail to clean my clothes by hand! Without Sohaib's polite conversation about lottas and the like, it might have been unbearable.

However today I would have quite fancied a couple of hours sitting on my Karachi roof doing my washing. It seems that negotiating the washing machines in university accommodation can be even more tiresome.

The reason I bring this up is that it is 12:20, way past my bed time, and I am waiting for my clothes to dry in a laundry room 5 minutes away, out in the cold.

I know this doesn't sound too bad, but I have actually been trying to carry out this task since yesterday evening.

My first stumbling block was change for the machines. I went to the cafe, they said I couldn't change my note. I went to the bar. They said I couldn't change the note. Then I went back to the cafe, £20 note in hand and wanting to buy an apple. Apparently that wasn't allowed either. They were worried I was some sort of charlatan looking to give them a fake 20. Feeling frustrated, I gave up.

I mean what is the world coming to, when people won't even show you the human kindness of changing a bit of money?

Then today I marched down to the laundry room with renewed vigor and a pocket full of change. However when I marched in there was not one machine available.

I went back an hour later. Still no machine was available.

Eventually at 11pm, I was able to put my washing in the machine, some 26 hours after I first tried.

Not quite home and dry yet though. The timer said 32 minutes, but when I returned 40 minutes later, there were still 12 minutes left of the cycle! Someone explain that to me.

I have now managed to transfer my clothes to the dryer, no doubt short of a few socks, and am waiting until 12:50 for the dryer cycle to be complete. Then I can bring a bag of wet clothes back to my room and hang off various hooks, curtains and doors.

Still 20 minutes and counting.....bring back my Karachi washing line

25 then....

So I have a spare few minutes. There is nothing on the TV, I’m definitely too tired for shorthand and besides I need to give the new Kings of Leon album a proper listen. What better thing to do then, than write a blog?

As yet, I’m not sure what about. I know it’s a bit risky going straight to paper without a plan or a sturdy intro but hell I’m only 25 which means I am still young enough to take a few risks. Speaking of which that might be a good place to start – how do I feel to be 25?

Well surprisingly not too bad. I feel like I have turned a corner. 23 and 24 were a bit crisis like. But I feel comfortable moving into my mid twenties (First time I have said that). I think I have a bit more direction and more idea of where I am going now so I’m kind of content, for the moment at least.

I also had the best birthday for a while.

It started on Saturday when I met some University friends for a long lunch. Jess made me cakes, Druce supplied me with a miniature bottle of champagne, Stevie got me a CD, cards were all around, and Caroline, well she exceeded all expectations. She re-created Sunday paper club for me, even though it wasn’t Sunday. For nearly 5 hours we sat in the pub shooting the breeze. It was beautiful!

Following lunch was an evening out with my school friends.

It’s funny how different friend groups work. No cards from this lot. No if they spent money on a card that would merely take away money they could better invest in getting me drunk.
Despite my twin brother not turning up to his own birthday, it was a quality night which ended in a dirty indie club at 3am.

The final chapter of my birthday was Monday, the actual day I turned 25. For this I went out for a few drinks with some fellow journalists. The environment, meaning the student union, seemed to take me back to younger days. That meant I ended up drinking too much, being sick and missing lectures the next day. But still there was plenty of banter going round and I had a great time.

So I think thanks is in order to everyone who made sure I saw in what could have been quite a traumatising time, in such memorable style. Thank you.

I guess this blog is about my birthday and little else...I can highly recommend the new Kings of Leon album.