the clothes washer

I have been in battle with my tiny washing machine since the day I moved into my flat. Its gone mad. First off, the dials and buttons have no universal symbols or English instructions. Secondly, the door does not like to open once it has been closed; my dirty or clean clothes are therefore held in hostage. And third, it shakes so fiercely that I found it in the middle of my kitchen during a spin cycle! (It is suppose to stay tucked neatly under the counter between the refrigerator and the sink!)

I decided I had to laugh at the incredibly long and ridiculous amount of energy it takes me to wash my clothes! I almost resorted to hand-washing instead of this newly purchased machine because I could not get it to work properly! But before I battle the machine, I must conquer the supermarket! Detergent must be bought. Not a problem you say? Ah but I am in a foreign country where English is not all that widely spoken. And all products are advertised in Thai. I find the detergent isle; it’s quite lengthy and with an extensive selection of brands and smells. I look for a familiar but am not so lucky. Then I decide to try and decipher the foreign words. Nope, that surely doesn’t work! Finally, I resort to the sniffing method; they have little bottles of each detergent to open and smell. My friend Kate would love this aisle! I sniffed all twenty plus options. Half of them cleaned out my nose! And in the end…I picked the one which looked similar to a product at home. No rhyme or reason. :-)This process took me a mere 30 minutes. And while I was hard at work, two little Thai girls came up and watched me. Giggling. I wondered what was so funny. :-)