Sorry, another laundry story.

I dont want this to be a daily update on our laundry situation but once again it was time to catch up on the dreaded task while we had facilities and again it was eventful.

Yesterday we were able to find the only laundromat in town and did the usual checks, how much is each wash, do we need washing powder, is there a change machine, are the instructions in english (well one can hope). Thankfully it was check on all, great! So this morning was the plan to get it over and done with and we loaded up our clothes and walked into the town to the laundromat.

On arrival, there were no other customers, more good news, no waiting for machines. I noticed the lights weren't on but assumed this was just a power saving measure during the day. We loaded the machine and then realised why the lights weren't on... no power to the laundromat.

Always time for Facebook.

No horses, cats, dogs or shoes are alowed in these washing machines

Both Katie and myself searched every corner of the shop that is no bigger than a bedroom hoping to find a switch or push button to get the power on, no luck. Thankfully there was a phone number on the door and with nothing to lose whipped out the phone and gave it a call. The phone was answered by, um, lets say Luigi. In fact i didn't get his name or anything else for that matter, he had no english and i had no italian. I managed to tell him where i was and there was no power. He continued talking like he was calling a race at the track and in the end I just hung up, not knowing if he had understood our dilemma.

It was at this point when we were contemplating unloading the machine and returning with our dirty clothes when a posse of italian women and their daughter come in with washing. Great i thought here is my ticket to get these machines going. These women looked like they knew a thing or two and would know what to do.

Up until now we have been a little spoilt as most people we have talked to have had between 35-90% skill in english, but these women, well they had no english skills.

With lots of hand waving and adding 'o' to the end of words (i.e. electricity'o, washing machine'o broken'o) the ring leader either understood me or realised the lights were off and in turn was the power.

I pointed to the phone number on the door and she realised i had made a call. I then was able to get her to take my phone and talk to 'Luigi'. After about 4 minutes the call was over. She was frustrated, she couldn't do her washing, and so was i as i still didn't know the story. Was the power out to just this business, the block we were in, or who knows?

I then had a helpful hand from Google Translate on my phone. I was able to type in english, and it translated to Italian and vice versa, from this we worked out Nicko was on his way and would fix it in 10 minutes. Even though they all left, we were again waiting, but this time knew a Knight in shining armour was on his way.

It was hot in the Laundromat, so we both got a chair and sat outside. Many italians passed, none were Nicko. Then, a short, fat, slightly balding Italian man was walking up the street, could this be Nicko?

He grunted to get past us at the doorway, we let him in, then he got on the phone, to Luigi? We didn't know. He then went to every corner of the room just like we did, he didn't know what he was doing, ohh the laundry was doomed.

He left the building and then went into a door just up the street and in the wink of an eye all the lights come on, the machines all beeped one by one and wolla, we had power, our mysterious man fixed it.

He came back gave the place the once over then in his Italian-English got our details and advised the boss will be in contact to refund the money we lost when the power went off!

Little did he know we hadn't put any in, we will wait for tomorrow to see if the money is returned.