26th January 2017. Vera, Spain.

Today had been put aside for doing the washing as the site had washing machines.  Jane had discovered that there were a few washing machines so, Darren went down to put the washing in while I finished faffing around in the van.  At midday we went down to the on-site cafe for coffee, but got lured into having egg and chips and salad, and it was very nice indeed, it’s a shame I forgot to say I didn’t want tuna on salad because that’s what it was topped with, Darren was pleased because he scraped it onto his plate.

After lunch I went to check on the progress of the washing machines and was dismayed to discover that the washing was still very wet when I pulled it out of the dryer.  A French lady noticed my dismay and started talking to me, we then had quite a long conversation using our schoolgirl French/English and a lot of miming.  She told me how to use the dryer, that was hard to mime and having spent a good 10 minutes trying to let her know that I understood what she was saying I heard a disembodied voice come faintly through the window saying ” Agitate”, it sounded like Jane but when I looked outside I couldn’t see her at first, that was because she was on a higher level and hidden behind the washing she was pegging out on the line!  That certainly helped the conversation move along but when the French lady opened the tumble dryer she discovered it had only been making the washing hot and humid and her washing was still damp after an hour in machine.  She commented on how hard it was to do normal everyday chores when in a motorhome.  She said it was frustrating to have all this hassle when she has a perfectly good washing machine and tumble dryer at home.  At that point I told the lady I was going to take my soaking wet washing back to the van where I had a washing machine in van and would spin it there, she was surprised, I think she might have thought she was misunderstanding what I was saying.

I went over to the cafe and dragged Darren away from his pint of beer which he temporarily left in Steve’s safe keeping then between us we carried the very heavy and extremely wet washing back up the long steep hill back to van where I spun the washing in my machine.

When the French lady came back to her van I was surprised to discover that she was our neighbour (I am so unobservant), she was astounded to see my washing machine and we had another chat about trying to dry the washing in the failing sunlight.  Darren went back to play pool with Steve and Jane and I spent an hour spinning washing and ironing it, I felt a sense of achievement when it was all finished, when Darren got back he hung it up in our shower to dry.

We had a quiet evening spent replying to our backlog of emails.