Stockholmers and the curse of the Tvättstuga

There is a curious reverence attached to washing here in Stockholm. It's not something you might casually do when you get home after a few beers, and chuck the lot in the dryer to have awaiting you, warm and fresh, when you awake. I call that the Sydney System. It's not even something that you might drop off at the launderette before work and pick up on the way home, as in the Amsterdam Arrangement. No, it is a carefully planned event that you must arrange your life around, regardless of how many years you have been waiting to see Jarvis Cocker in concert or how many good-looking Swedish men have suddenly decided that they must start drinking in the establishment immediately adjacent to your office. The washing machine is your master.

This is because everyone in your apartment building (if you're lucky) or block (if you are unlucky) will share your laundry. Usually, being Sweden, the laundry (tvättstugan) is well-equipped and clean, possibly with equipment that no-one knows how to actually use. To access this equipment, you need to book a time. This is done using a special key that unlocks a tiny metal placeholder in a calendar. Each placeholder is marked with a mysterious number that may or may not match one on your front door (if you forget which of the little placeholders is yours, you will have to test each and every one with the key. My hairdresser informs me that he has taken his washing to his mother's for weeks because no matter how many he tries, he can't find his placeholder. That's how serious it is. I told him he should just shove a piece of paper in the placeholder with his apartment number on it. He looked at me wide-eyed and couldn't believe an Australian had just given him the wisest washing advice in Sweden).

Anyway, once you have booked the timeslot, you'd better hold onto it for love or money. If you're half an hour late, you lose it. If you book more than twice a month, you lose it (assuming you don't resort to sneaking down at night or worse, pretending that you mixed up your booking time and stealing a slot from the old lady downstairs. Not that nice people like us would ever do that, even when we have to catch 5am flights the next day and have no clean clothes for our travels).

On Sunday we cooked pancakes over an open fire in the snow, complete with kaffekask (vodka and coffee). One of Irina's friends couldn't come because she was washing. Last night Jarvis Cocker was in town. One of Irina's friends couldn't come because she was washing (no, it was not the same friend).

I have to go now since Miss I. is summoning me to remove our laundry from the drying room. You have one hour to remove it after your agreed time slot. We don't know what happens if you fail to do this, but we don't want to have to wait another two weeks to find out...