ianbee: this is instead of getting a dog

Double washing machine crisis

So whilst I struggle with my Australian washing machine*, I receive news from my tenants back in Edinburgh that my British one has also packed in. Now I know I have a "washing machine repair badge" but it's not a long-distance badge and it sounds like the same problem and it is an old machine now (~11 years) so it's probably time to replace it.

Has anyone had experience with washer-dryers? Is it like not quite a washing machine, not quite a dryer? Or are they okay? What shall i get? My friend has just brought a machine with a soft-toy program, which we think leaves a little bit of air at the top so they can breathe ...

* I ignored it for a week, thinking that would fix it. Turns out it didn't, which my neighbour found amusing as she caught me mopping the floor again.

Mourning

Yesterday was a national day of mourning in Australia. Last night at Small Boat we filled in pages for the Bushfire Message Book. I think this is a wonderful idea; pages from all over the country will be filled, collected and bound as a lasting memorial to those who lost their lives, and a statement of support and encouragement to the survivors.

I have just finished what I have been calling my "Month of Trauma" which has been a series of courses designed to improve my ability to care for trauma patients. I've always been a bit hesitant about this aspect of my job, but I feel a lot better about it now. My head is spinning though, I have put myself through exams, scenarios and vivas; I have eaten dodgy sandwiches in several conference centers and have met some great people; I have cut people out of cars and I have put out imaginary fires. I can splint a leg, bandage a pelvis and theoretically amputate a limb, although since we only practised the latter on a broom handle I hope never to have to do that in real life.

I met an old retired surgeon who told me about oyster farming in Western Australia, which in fortunately is all I can really recall about the trauma-conference I attended. I have the notes though. Actually, that's a lie, there was a great speaker from the International Red Cross who reminded us that there is a particular triage category you occasionally find in war zones called 'extreme urgency' where someone is holding a gun to your head and saying 'treat my friend first'

Rugby Exile

My Six-Nations rugby blues peaked today, in anticipation of missing the Wales v England match at the weekend. I've been thinking about how to watch the games over here, in the land that the BBC iPlayer doesn't reach. Then today I had a thought, it must be possible in the 21st Century to watch them online  from anywhere in the world. Fifteen minutes later I am typing this whilst watching the highlights of last weekend's matches streamed onto my screen complete with BBC comentary! It might be in a fuzzy four-inch high box and it might screw with your internet settings and it might inexplicably crash (in shock?) when Scotland score a try, but Setanta are only charging me fifteen dollars a month so I am happy :o) Although part of me wishes I was Welsh. Another part of me wishes I was walking back after the match from Murrayfield to my flat right now, ready for Top Gear and toast.

Bushfires

THE AGE

ABC

BBC

A friend recently said that at this time of year she feared the "Aussie summer hysteria" trio of bushfires, sharks and rips. I understood the last two, but not the first, until this weekend.

Laundry Crisis

My washing machine is broken. There was a knock on my door the other day and an agitated neighbour led me outside to the little outhouse full of our washing machines (six in a row, one for each flat) where my machine was spewing out foamy water all over the floor. It appears that it doesn't know when to stop filling up, so just happily overflows for, um, ever. Today I stood in front of it and when the water rose high enough I manually turned the control knob on to the next bit of the cycle. When I was hanging out the washing later in the morning I noticed that the clothes were still smelly, too smelly to ignore so I had to wash them again. It appears that when I move the cycle on, I am missing out the actual 'washing' bit and just going straight from 'cover in foamy water' to 'rinse'. Unsurprisingly this is not good enough to get things clean.

Most Australian washing machines are the type with lids on the top, so if you have just found another pair of socks after you have started it you can pop open the lid and chuck the errant items in mid-cycle. It also means that you can open the lid after the foamy-water-filling bit and manually slosh your clothes around before shuttiing the lid and jumping onto rinse. The other thing I can try is to do two rinse cycles, the first one with a bit of detergent.

It might be easier to dismantle the machine and try to figure out what is going wrong. Or to sneakily use a neighbour's washing machine. Or to buy new clothes.