Tumble Dryer

On 26 December, the heating element on the tumble dryer broke. I thought no big deal. We can hang our clothes up and air dry them. We'll save some electricity costs and save a wee bit of the planet (maybe offset the climate impact of all those Christmas cards I sent). After all, I line dry all the clothes in the summer. How difficult can this be? I toyed with the idea that maybe I don't even need a tumble dryer. How wrong was I?

We ordered the new part on 27 December and were told that in 3-5 days a new heating element would be delivered. Now those are working days and around the holiday season a working day is hard to find. The day of placing the order doesn't actually count and date of delivery isn't what they meant; date of dispatch from their warehouse is what they meant.

It was ok for the first couple days. We wore those socks at the bottom of the drawer. We wore those T-shirts that never seem to make it to the top of the pile. We discovered underwear under the bed.

Then Sebastian ran out of underpants. Then Marc ran out of socks. Then Abigail ran out of pajamas. And I ran out of trousers. The sheets needed to be changed and my house resembled a Chinese laundry.

We had clothes hanging from clothes horses and radiators all over the place. I build a huge fire in the fireplace and turned the Aga to high and it still took about 10 hours to dry a load of laundry.

I was reaching the end of my tether when I received a text from my dear husband at mid morning announcing the part had at last arrived. And he had installed it. And the tumble dryer was working once again.

Oh thank god for small miracles! Don't think I'll be retiring my tumble dryer anytime soon. I learned my lesson.