h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yes, it's probably a slightly weird situation, 'cos these were literally strangers until they arrived. Obviously, if there's a prearranged visit from a RL person you know, they get a nice clean bed& space for their stuff etc. But Couchsurfers/hospitality Club folks are usually young & broke & probably travelling around a lot.

It's probably not an issue if you've got a washing machine, but mine is a tiny little "Eco" thing, uses 7 litres of water in a moving bucket, you do
the rinsing yourself. It's fine for underwear, T shirts etc, but no way can cope with bedding!

Dubman reckons it's a "mindset" thing "These girls live in Paris,supported financially by rich parents, the idea of *not* having a washing machine has probably never occurred to them!"

Bedbugs in hotels???? what a revolting thought!

zdt

Bedbugs in hotels. *sigh* Reminds me of Ecuador...

Pretty much any kind of upholstery can have bedbugs, and it's not a chance I'd ever want to take. I don't personally care who's slept in a bed before me as long as the linens are clean and there are no cooties.

If you've got house guests and no washing machine, send the guests to a laundromat to wash their own sheets and towels beforehand!

I could never live without my washing machine- there are six people living in this building and only one washer and dryer in the basement. My portable units don't hold as much as stationary models, and a third of what a laundromat unit could do, but they work just fine. Except the dryer's electric and blankets/ comforters would take ALL day to dry, so those go to the basement.

If these girls are supported by rich parents, why don't they just stay in a hotel? I'm nowhere near rich, and I managed a hotel room in Paris- it was only $100 a night... and when I stay with friends I always chip in rather than exploit. I surely hope that if they have as much money as they say they do, they're contributing to your household.

Hotel beds and chairs skeeve me out no end so I do the ostrich thing and try not to think about it too much!

As for couchsurfing..been there done it and helped wash and put away the sheets afterwards if I've had to use them, but because I didn't like the thought of using other peoples stuff and having to take care of it afterwards I used to always travel with my quilt in several layers of black bin bags. I used to also keep a rug type blanket thing in my car for the just-in-case...ahh those college days of yore...*sigh*

I am wildly allergic to feathers so I have to be careful about bedding and mattresses and such like.

I hear that about the feathers- though I do OK at home because I have the liners for my pillows and comforter, that go in between to suck up the stray feathers and the mites. But at hotels & such need to request hypoallergenic bedding, which isn't too hard to come by, fortunately... will remember to make sure you get one of my hypoallergenic pillows if you ever visit, Vix!

I had a double sleeping bag and it was quilted one. It did not last and it was huge. The zip went and I tried several times to fix it. It was very good as it also acted as a quilt when it got very cold. I used to use it when I slept over my parents.

I still have my sleeping bag from when I was a little kid. I used to use it for camping trips. I haven't used it in years...

I imagine they didn't stay in Hotels because:

A) they are all fully booked up, usually a year in advance for the BD, there are only about 4 Hotels in or within walking distance of town. Youth Hostel also gets fully booked up way ahead & not many "Chambre d'Hôtes here

B) They joined the sites 'cos they actually prefer to be with "real" people who live in the place than in an anonymous hotel. Cultural exchange & all that.

Anyway, i am feeling much fitter today, had a long hot bath & after, dumped the bedding in the bath & washed it, plus the towels. The house must look rather odd from the outside, with bedding hanging from the window frames, but it's saved me around 10 euros. Sounds a good idea to have a communal laundry in apartment blocks, do you pay separately for the electricity/water for that or is it included in your rent? Makes ecological sense too, it's a bit silly having every family having a washing machine each, using all that water & electricity & carbon emissions!

We've got a launderette here, it's used a lot, but it's a very studenty town, many folks live in a tiny studio bedsit, where it would be impossible to fit in a washing machine., most of those types of place ddon't even have space for a proper cooker, usually you get two hotplate rings & buy a microwave. I've got that plus a mini oven; if i managed to cook for 10 people using that, i reckon that's enough! The little freezer is key to being able to do this of course, plus when i'm cooking, i turn the heating off, the cooking heats up the room (the kitchen is part of the living room; plus all those people generate a fair bit of body heat!)

I remember way back in my yoof, i also had two of those "zip together" sleeping bags, the damn zips went long before the bag itself & yup, got used as quilts!

zdt

I hate hand washing bedding - at least you can hang it from your windows. I used to put mine on the radiators and it mould itself around the radiators and dry like wet cardboard...ugh!

Arms like Arnold Shortknickers doing handwashing in the bath..

>Sounds a good idea to have a communal laundry in apartment blocks, do you pay separately for the electricity/water for that or is it included in your rent?<

The communal machines in the basement are coin operated. 75 cents per wash and $1.50 to dry, because it's gas. So in effect each person using it pays separately for the operating costs; the gas and electric used to operate them are on the landlord's meter. Water is never billed as a utility here, it's part of a homeowner's assessment, so the landlord pays for all of the water on his bill and presumably it's included in the rent.

What's not good about communal machines is that it costs a lot more to use the coin operated units down there than to pay the little bit of electricity to run my own machines. Not to mention the difficulty of six people needing to wash/dry clothes at the same time. And dragging the clothes basket up and down 70-odd stairs.

We're not allowed to hang laundry from windows in the city, but a lot of people still use clotheslines out in their backyards. My mom used to have one- it invariably would start to rain as soon as we'd hung everything. I have a drying rack I use on my back porch, to hang dry my work clothes which can't be machine laundered. Dryer is for socks, undies, pajamas, and linens.

Hmm...interesting that one about "not allowed to hang washing out from windows". I can understand that i guess in huge skyscraper type buildings, if everyone did it, it would be very! I haven't a clue what regulations are here, not even thought about it!

Your "coin-op" machines are around 6 times less the cost of ours here, plus water is metered individually & you pay that on top of your rent. personally, i think that's a good thing, my water bills are pretty small, having lived on boats & in Africa, i'm very conscious of how precious it is & use very little...with a bit more effort, i could use even less, such as dishwashing water for the plants etc.

I can't do the radiator thing, the new ones aren't solid type, they have a grid which specifically says "Do NOT Cover!"; so either stuff drips from a rack over the bath or hangs from the windows. I've got a big standing rack, which i cheerfully violate the 18" wide bit of pavement with in summer, no doubt that's against the rules, as are the plants...but this is (so far) still France, where rules exist, but are widely bended unless someone actually objects!

zdt

All this talk of laundry reminds me I need to do some.

I am avoiding laundry right now..

I'm avoiding everything right now. See my most recent post on my "Under Pressure" journal to see why.

And we don't have any radiators!

Yipes, cat food everywhere! You poor thing.

I would rather have a whole heap of burst bags of plutonium scattered around my kitchen that this:

French Bureaucracy. They invented the word "bureaucracy" & are experts in it, well, they should be, except not even the French understand what's going on. I have 29 separate dossiers, including CCAS, CMU, CPAM,COTOREP (now renamed something else) EDF, SEMEA, FTEL.... & tomorrow i have been summoned to CPAM for a RDV with a new one they've just invented called CRAM. Or CRAMCO; they can't seem to decide which.

http://www.cram-centreouest.fr/

So, i have spent the whole of today & much of yesterday Cramming. Taking out all the dossiers, trying to determine which particular essential bits of paper they are going to ask me for from which department, who don't know that the other department is already on the case. My Social Worker is, of course, on holiday as are the schoolkids, since the poor souls have done at least 3 weeks work since the New Year. Thank goodness, Dubman has helped me out (after helping his Papa out with much the same sort of paperwork...poor soul is gonna end up becoming a social W**ker himself at this rate "Bring me your poor, your foreigners, your handicapped: i will sort 'em out!"

The New System dear Monsieur Sarkozy has deviously slipped through the back door is about twice as complicated as the previous system, which was twice as complicated as the one before. Despite computerisation, every single confrontation/request/notification/meeting produces a written copy in the post to the recipient of aid/victim; plus of course copies to all other departments.....as Dubman said "Hardly surprising the Amazon forests are disappearing, France could wipe them out all on its own in a decade"...I've filled a carrier bag tonight just with 3 times copied letters informing me of my rights & duties as a citizen: this seems to get sent with every type of Government letter.

The rendezvous is at the unearthly hour (for me) of 9.30am at the CPAM building, the one which deals with Health issues, conveniently located at the end of the steepest hill in town, with a large set of steps & no wheelchair access (the Social Work place doesn't have wheelchair access either!)

So: they seem to be allocating me another set of Social W**kers, who will supposedly provide me with shiny happy opportunities to lead an independent life. Jolly Good; i am all for that. My list of priorities is:

No unnecesary letters please, email me via:
A nice new computer, which enables me to:
W**k from home & Do My Own Thing, which means i can:
Get off your Benefit System, assuming:
You fix the pavements so that when i do have to go out, i don't fall over, resulting in:
A hospital visit & resulting bill, which means i have to:
Contact my Social W**kers.

But if they managed to find an efficient integrated simple system for dealing with all us inconvenient little handicapped & Not 100% French people, that would mean millions of French people becoming unemployed, wouldn't it? So i think it's highly unlikely to happen; who would sort out the paperwork for the newly unemployed Civil (& not so civil) servants?

*sigh*

Wish me luck, trying to do all this in French!

zdt

A lorra lorra luck, chuck!