Oops.

Lovely hot summer weather today. Full sun with a touch of a cooling breeze. I've just had a look at the beach web cam and there doesn't seem to be a single space in the car park. Perfect conditions for drying so into the machine went the duvet cover and a few other bits.

Taking the washing out of the machine my ultra sensitive nose caught a faint whiff of mustiness. I don't often do a hot wash partly to save electricity as we are all instructed to do but mainly because a hot wash takes over three hours. I guessed it was time to run a hot wash to give the machine a clean. With the thought that we are told that the best way to destroy covid is soap and hot water I decided to use a general cleaning detergent rather than the clothes washing liquid. I didn't use much but it was a BIG MISTAKE. I walked into the kitchen to see soap suds escaping from the machine in ever increasing quantities. I tried turning off the machine but it wasn't going to let me open the door. All I could do was mop up the floor, turn the machine back on and catch the suds as they poured out of the conditioner drawer. An ice-cream tub proved handy for this. A good thing we have marble floor tiles. Because our houses are small it's common to have the washing machine in UK kitchens. Luckily we have a big utility room in Red Roofs which being a later addition has a concrete floor and will be tiled. That way similar mistakes won't be a major problem. I'm also thinking it would be sensible to have easy access to the back of the machine rather than having it slotted in neatly between the fitted cupboards.

Once the machine had got to the end of the cycle I then had to run it again with the towels I'd used to mop up the floor. 

Inbetween mopping up the soap suds and ironing there wasn't a lot of spare time in the afternoon but we did get some time to sit outside. It wasn't very peaceful with a petrol lawnmower going on one side and an unidentified machine buzzing away on the other but the sun made up for it. It takes more effort now but we still reassure ourselves with thoughts of how nice it will be once we're in Wales.

Not much change with the fridge freezer. The fridge part is sufficiently cold and we can hear the motor running but the ice-cream is still a bit soft. The rest of the food in the freezer is frozen solid so no worries there. I'll just have to keep testing the ice-creams.