Saturday 18 June 2011

Money laundering.

We didn’t have a washing machine for the first month in Chile.  Laundromats are extremely expensive, around CLP$3.000 a load, and we hand washed everything in the bath tub.  When we first moved into this apartment we were overjoyed that it came with a washing machine.


Even with a washing machine, doing the laundry here can be tricky as we have nowhere to hang our clothes. Our dining room turns into Mr Wong’s Loopy Laundry on the days that we wash our sheets and towels.  With haberdashery strung between chairs it is a tough job stopping the kids from building tents and hidey-holes.


A few months ago our neighbour’s machine broke down and it took several long weeks before a replacement machine found its way into the building.  We pitied them while we washed our clothes.  We began to fret when we noticed a strange rattling noise in our own machine.  It was a noise similar to two pesos doing a sudsy salsa on the spin cycle.  Today the noise stopped – so did the machine.  It refused to drain.  Cut to Talluah falling to her knees, hands in the air and slow motion, “NOOOOOO” escaping her lips.


As the man of the house I was voted, ordered, by Talluah to fix the machine.  With cup and bowl we emptied the water out of the tub and then removed the back of the machine.  My skills as a mechanic stop about here.  I squeezed some tubes, wiggled some wires and rattled a few things to sound busy.   We tilted the machine on its side to look at the pump from a different angle.  This is when we noticed a plug on the side of the machine to let you inspect the pump.  We pulled out the two shiniest coins in all of Chile.


1 comment:

  1. yay! glad you fixed it, and got some money out of it :P

    ReplyDelete