Sunday, June 29, 2008

Another day, another dryer!

When I came to visit Oxford over the last few years, the flat I stayed in had this really tiny washer/dryer combo machine. The machine in our house looked just like it, so I assumed it was a washer and dryer, too. So a couple of weeks ago I went to do the first load of laundry. It was in there forever, seriously, like 2 hours, so I went to take the clothes out and was shocked to find them not dry! Then I picked up the instruction manual, which I probably should have done in the first place, and there was nothing about dryer settings. I had always wondered why there was a clothesline outside.



I mentioned this to some of my coworkers and they just kind of said "So? Don't you have a clothesline?" Now I am willing to assimilate here, but I draw the line at hanging our underwear outside for all the world to see. And do I have to remind you that we live in England, so the odds of your clothes actually drying outside and not getting rained on are about 50/50? So we started by just hanging things over chairs, on the bannister, basically wherever we could find a place. This was not good. It literally took everything days to dry. Then, my fantastic husband found a used dryer online for £20, and the seller was willing to deliver (this is key since we don't have a car)! Phew. Now I just want to do more laundry so I can use the little dryer. It's so cute- it just plugs into the wall and that's it! And it fits perfectly in our pantry, even. Am I gushing too much? On Wednesday our new TV will be delivered (we're downsizing to 42") and on Friday the furniture from Ikea, yippee! Also our shower should be repaired next weekend, so we're almost completely mostly settled in.

We went to church this morning at the Holy Trinity Church in Headington, where C.S. Lewis was a member for 30 years. He is also apparently buried in the church cemetary, but we didn't see the site. We did, however, see the frosted glass window dedicated to the Narnia characters! We liked the church service, and it's a short walk from our house, so we'll likely go back. I even met a man who wrote a book chapter for OUP-USA- everyone's an academic here.

Cheerio for now!
Robin

3 comments:

Dean said...

So, does that mean you'll get the Wii hooked up?

BTW, I've made connections with local Ubisoft developers (Rayman Rabbids). My EA connection is moving, so I guess I won't get to keep that connection. Anyway, I put a little thought into their head about improving Wii Fit.

Anyway, glad you guys are settling in. Laterz.

Dean said...

Oh, and one more note. You'll probably want to do more laundry in the winter time, sounds like you can use the new mini-dryer as a second heater too.

Robin H said...

Oh yeah- the Wii is finally set up. We plan to open up WiiFit today and try it out. It looks good on the plasma- almost as big as our TV in the US.

Speaking of game developers, if you know anyone who is looking to network/make a change, I actually know a guy very well who does a lot of recruiting for gaming companies.

And, yes, the thought of using the dryer to help warm us up did cross my mind. It's actually chilly here today; and a bit of rain is falling. It really has not rained much but we're not expecting it to stay so sunny and dry for months on end.

-Jon