6.3.07

Best Tram Stop in Basel

Bahnhofeingang Gundeldingen

I giggle every time I hear the announcement. Then for some strange reason I start singing it along to the can can, which can then gets stuck in my head for several hours. A real ohrwurm. There is simply no explanation for the whole chain of events. But just ask my sister; she saw how its done.

Tonight I am on a serious mission. At risk of death by finger wagging, I started laundry at the shocking hour of 9:30. Given the two hour wash cycle and the one hour dry cycle, that puts finishing time at around 12:30 AM. Duh duh duuuuh!!

Wait, it's time to move the clothes to the dryer...

(Queue Mission Impossible music)

I peak out my peephole and see if the lights on the hallway are off, a sure sign no one is around. I remove my shoes and my heart starts racing as I slowly open the door and tiptoe in the dark down the hallway to the laundry room.

My snoopy hausfrau (ex KGB spy) could be lurking at any corner waiting to wag her finger at the late hour, the light left on in the laundry room or the little spill of detergent on top of the laundry machine.

On hands and knees a slither along the floor to avoid the criss-crossing laser detection beams blocking my way to the big prize, the washer. Next time, I will drop in a harness from the ceiling with a flashlight but this time it is gymnastics that will get me through.

I debate turning on the light in the laundry room but after a moment's hesitation I realize I can't see the settings in the dark. That light draws snoopy hausfrau like a moth to the flame. Anything longer than 45 seconds and she knows someone may have left the light on for the long haul and there goes 0.0003 CHF for everyone in the building. But she is a patient one. And she will wait. Until they come back. I know.

With the double violation of after hours washing and using electricity at night, I am very careful to turn off the light as I bolt down the hall, dash into my apartment and lock the door. Slowly my heart rate comes down and I try to relax until it is time to collect the clothes from the dryer. For now, victory is mine!!

Stay tuned for the next adventure of After Hours Washer Woman!

Posted from Basel

8 comments:

Un-Swiss Miss said...

We're really lucky, no snoopy landladies in our building, so we've been recklessly doing laundry late at night. Well, we always start at a reasonable time, but then we forget about the clothes in the washer for a while, and then by the time the dryer's done it's midnight!

But the other day I wanted to take out some recycling at 10 pm. My boyfriend goggled at me as if I were insane. "You can't do that now!"

But he has no problems with doing the laundry late at night. Interesting...

Maria said...

We have a snoopy Hausfrau in our building, and if she dares to go off about our doing laundry at night (we have a washer in our apartment and dry on a rack), I have a laundry list of things to go off on her about...starting with her old enough to walk grandson's kinderwagen next to the door so no one can get in and out with their things, including my kinderwagen. All that to say, you need some dirt on the hausfrau!

lobstah said...

Hmm, shouldn't they be encouraging washing at night when electricity rates are cheaper?

I still have the video of me singing that bahnhofeingang song.

Christina | AmiExpat.com said...

I'm pretty sure that our landlords/upstairs neighbors start their washing machine at about 12am every night in the room above our bedroom. Who needs to do laundry everyday is what I want to know?

Anonymous said...

ok, for those of us not in the know, who maybe wanting to move overseas, what's with the longer time to wash and dry and the differences in price for electricity?!?!

Gretchen said...

You're right-- that is the best tram stop in Basel! Except that it's on the 16, and for some reason I hate the 16. I even blogged about it once. There's always someone irritating on the 16.

Michelle said...

Tram 16 is one of the sketchy lines, along with 14. Although I have had more weirdos talk to me on Line 8 so maybe just trams attract weird people.

Lobstah - maybe you need to share on YouTube?

Kat - I have no idea what is taking so long on the washer. Could be that they cook their clothes and the machine is responsible for heating the water. Seems to be a lot of rinshing and spinning too.. maybe they use less water with the repetitive centrifuge technique. In the end, between the small washer size and the long loads it can take forever to get through the laundry pile. And if you don't have a dryer, which a lot of people don't, you have to wait forever for the clothes hanging on your little rack to dry!

Unknown said...

too funny! Sounds like my washing adventures yet every time I tried, the washer got taken, with my stuff sitting waiting yet again...