
So today was a Halyday.
Hal is what Grant calls the washing machine. No idea why.
Hal is very annoying. It beeps, like every other electrical thing in this house. Life is just one long beep these days. (Is it ever?)
Beeping isn’t Hal’s only irritation, however. He’s also temperamental.
Sometimes he works.
And sometimes he don’t. Doesn’t.
So Halydays are not our favourites.

Meet Hal. He’s not my pal.
Though, I must admit, today’s problem was possibly my own creation.
OK. It was my fault.
See that slot, top left?
That’s where you pour detergent.
The receptacle pulls out.

This is the laundry detergent. Usually it lies on it’s right side.
Then you press the red button, top right, and detergent flows out through the “tap”, into the plastic cover which is a measuring cup .
I personally don’t care for this system, mostly because when Grant does it, we end up with equal amounts on the floor.
It is very easy to edge the bottle out from the shelf, where it dwells, over Hal’s receptacle and push the button. Simple.
Which is what I do. Nothing drips on the floor.
But today the bottle was almost empty and the simple method was apt to take too long, so I seized the bottle and turned it on end, to use the funnel top left.
And the receptacle almost overflowed because there was more detergent than I realized.

“Hmm”, I thought, “It’s not a train smash…
“…we’ve got a turkey baster”.
Which we do, God knows why. We certainly didn’t baste a turkey with it. Grant says it was something to do with cleaning under radiators, but I won’t go into that….
This is what’s left of the turkey baster.
The lower bit is adrift in the bottle of detergent.
Having managed to siphon out some of the excess detergent, I suddenly discovered that the lower half of the baster had become detached and was floating about in the bottle.
But I was able to siphon up the rest using the top.
Got Hal going and took the red bit to the sink where I rinsed it out and succeeded in spraying water all over the kitchen. Well, it was one way of getting the windows and cabinets wiped. See there is always a positive to be found. š
Hal managed to perform appropriately today. Quite often, he fails to wring the wash out, or he will start beeping when it’s only been 10 minutes and you know he hasn’t washed anything. Or a whole variation of problems that make him beep. And he times it so you’ve just sat down again.
Yes, we do have an instruction book and no, we haven’t consulted it. It’s a washing machine, after all.
I refuse to resort to following instructions for such a basic appliance.