Say hello to my little friend

This is Hal. Hal is my new best friend.


Hal is also a clothes dryer, as you may have guessed. I know most of you are probably wondering why in the name of little green apples I'm writing so lovingly about a dryer. Here's the thing: I haven't owned a dryer in seven years. Yup. Seven. Looooooong. Years. Haven't had one since I moved overseas (actually, I did have one in Darwin, but it was so crappy I never bothered using it - clothes came out damp no matter how long or warmly they were dried - so I don't think that counts).

You'd be surprised at how many Australians don't own a dryer - or, if they do, don't use it, either because they don't like paying for the extra electricity or they simply prefer air dried clothes. There's a reason that the clothesline is a national icon here.

That's a Hills Hoist. And I'm serious when I say that it is a national icon. Really.

Surprisingly, it's one of those things that you get used to. It sucks donkey balls, but you do get used to it. Eventually. After much gnashing of teeth and swearing at whoever designed your house so that there's only room in the laundry for a washer and nothing else.

When I lived in Alice Springs, it was OK. It's generally pretty warm there, and there aren't many rainy days even in winter, so I adapted. And when I moved to Darwin (where I did briefly own the world's worst dryer, as I mentioned above), it was pretty much the same - and in that kind of humidity, everything you own is damp regardless, so it doesn't really worry you.

But here...here it's a different story. This place has seasons - real seasons. Seasons that include winters with freezing cold and pouring rain. And after spending more or less the entire last winter with clothes perpetually draped all over the house, clothes that took five days to dry before they were replaced with the next load of washing...that was it. I told Ben that we would buy a dryer before we went through another winter, or I was moving to the Bahamas. (Maybe that last bit was an idle threat. But you get my drift.)

And so, shortly before the start of this winter, Hal entered my life; we picked him up yesterday afternoon, and it's been one long love affair ever since. Hal is my single favorite appliance in the house. Hal helped us get eight loads of clothing (mostly leftover from our cruise - don't look at me like that, we've been sick!) clean, dry, and put away all in one night, which is about a tenth of the time it would take with the clothesline.


Hal is my new best friend. Hal is my hero.