Perhaps it’s the fact that I don’t want to knacker the new machine that we have been given, but washing these days seems to take forever. It may be that I underestimated the school uniform factor! I was dreading the fact what the domestic appliances were going to be like in our rental property prior to arrival, as they really are a personal thing. Some people spend lots on them, some do not see the point, and endlessly reinvest in cheaper ones. The old Bosch machine I was left to use in my rental property was just not fit for purpose. The drum and the whole casing of the machine was loose, and the engineer said basically it would shake itself to bits before too long!
Back in the UK, I suppose I do now take advantage of the lax rules on noise on ‘The day of rest’ to get my washing done. In Switzerland, I was not supposed to be washing at all on Sunday, as they had rules on this. I do admit to doing the occasional load on a Sunday with the windows shut, but this was real clandestine washing at its height. I always felt a little guilty that I was breaking the rules. When we first arrived in Switzerland in our company temporary appartment, the washing arrangement was a little bit of a shock to the system. I remember being shown by the rather scary caretaker lady that this was my designated wash day on the table pinned to the wall in the basement laundry. This was fine, I had 1 spot a week to get the entire weeks washing done..... This was OK, as there were only 3 of us at the time, and Laura was only 2. However, I really do not know how families cope with this longterm, as many families live in appartments with a washing rota. I had issues with my neighbour who seemed to think my wash day was also fine to use for her own. I can remember summoning up enough courage to tell her in my then rather ropey German, that this is my washday, not yours. I delighted in leaving her grey (sorry, White) washing in a damp pile ontop of the machine :-). Rules are OK, but only if people collectively abide by them..... I must admit, I spent most of the day last Sunday, putting endless loads into the washing machine, in the vain hope that I would have less to do at the beginning of this week, but alas, the girls have different ideas. I can now truly empathize with how my mum felt, I only have 2 children plus 2 adults, she had an extra childs’ worth of clothing, so the volumes must have been silly. I do remember hanging out a lot of washing for her whilst she slept in the morning after doing night duty at the local hospital. Now I know why she got fed up when we had worn something for 2 hours after changing and without a thought flung it into the dirty linen basket. Today, I returned Alice’s 2 hour worn skirt from yesterday back to her room J.
It is good to be in the UK from that perspective, it’s up to you how you spend your Sunday. Swiss shops except for the service stations and those in the vicinity of rail stations close on Sunday. They did referendum on this issue a couple of years ago, to bring in Sunday trading, but the consensus was ‘NO!’. We did say when we moved back (idealistically) that we would try and keep Sunday as a family day as far as possible. I suppose buying all the supplies I need on Saturday for the weekend and a little bit beyond has now become habit. I have not felt the need to waste my Sunday time in the supermarket just yet, and I do hope that I can keep it that way too. See what my blog says in a years’ time, that will be the acid test I bet! Instead, we used our weekend (Saturday) doing some PYO. We have a fantastic local farm on the edge of Wokingham called Gray’s. They do the full range of Pick Your Own, not just Strawberries and the usual fayre, but you can pull your own carrots, pick your own corn, beetroot, cabbages, cauliflowers, courgettes and more all fresh from the field. Both girls enjoyed picking all of the fruit and vegetables, but particularly the corn, when they disappeared into the maize patch to find the biggest cobs! The runner beans tasted very slightly sweet, just how I remember them from my mums vegetable patch. I am wondering whether it’s really worth investing in my own vegetable patches again now I have been to this farm!
We did enjoy our runner beans and corn with our roast spuds and parsnips and 2kg chicken J. Something I have really enjoyed being back in the UK, being able to do an inexpensive roast every weekend. Meat was not cheap in Switzerland, and with few or little opportunities to roast meat (as the best bits were always minced into sausages) I really missed roasting meat joints. Now I have to relearn this skill! I used to make the chicken stretch as far as possible when I was in Switzerland, as I could only usually get chickens that were about 1 to 1.3kg in weight. These were equivalent to about 10GBP each sometimes more. Once the meat was eaten, there was only about 100g meat left on the carcass, and I used to squeeze some cream of chicken soup and or a pie (padded with rather a lot of vegetables) out of this. This made some savings squeezing an extra meal out of a rather, let’s face it, measly bird!
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