lost or what?

Southbank and washing day

Im going to go out of order chronologically.
I hate the idea of the laundromat. To think that theres millions of people who every week go and sit in a laundromat for a few hours to watch their clothes slosh about reading whatever stupid magazine.
My laundromat experience lasted the whole day, with some brief interludes of doing things.
I dutifully noted the evening before that the local one (which I used on my last trip, and which was my first laundromat experience in my life) opens at 9am.
So at 9 I head down to it, theres people waiting in the street with their clothes in bags waiting for it to open. I waited until 9:25 and gave up, and walked further down the street to the next one, which opens at 10. I go back to the first one, it must be open now, no.
So I take all my clothes back upstairs and decide to go out instead (read below).
After my days adventures, I arrive back in the afternoon and yes, its open, im excited, race upstairs and bring my clothes down.
A single load costs 4 pounds (double this for Australian dollars, close enough). The washing powder vending machine costs only 70p, and only takes exactly a 50 and a 20. So I ask the girl for change. She tells me theres a 1 pound charge for giving change...ok then.
Now the washing powder thing eats my 50p coin I just paid a dollar for. So I ask to change for some more...that'll be another pound thanks. I told her no, and to open the machine now and give me my 50p or im opening it myself. She actually asked how do I plan to open it! I remained silent and got another 50p without paying for it.
Washing powder in hand, I load up my machine, and insert 4 pounds, it still needs another pound, I guess it ate 1. I insert another and it fires up...and stops. I tell the girl the machine stopped, she told me it does that, just wait.
5 minutes go past, still nothing, I tell her again, she says 'did you try putting in another 4 pounds?' By now im seriously considering murdering her. I open the door to show her that theres a tiny bit of water thats come out and wet my clothes, but its gone nowhere since that, she puts in another 4 pounds and its still busted. So she turns off the power somehow, turns it back on and it starts going.
The actual washing lasted like 15 minutes, in a front loader? Last time I was here it took over an hour, I enquire, apparently thats the full cycle.
So now I transfer my clothes to the dryer, and insert a pound, which gives you 10 minutes. After 10 minutes the clothes are still wet, but importantly its warm. I insert another pound, the thing spins around some more. After another 10 minutes the clothes are no dryer, and are no longer warm. I tell the girl, she tells me to try another dryer.
So I transfer all my clothes and put in another 2 pounds, they are nearly dry after 20 minutes (theres 528 tiles on the floors and wall of the laundromat).
After another 2 pounds they are dry.

Still reading? It cost me at least $25 to do a single load of washing!

In between my washing adventures I decided to go to Southbank. Because of various tube closures, my exact station wasnt available, but this didnt matter, its sunny out and I like walking.
My first stop was the Tate Modern...I love museums but this place was boring. The Salvador Dali paintings were the only highlight, all the large installation art was pretty boring. They also had a terrible cafe where I had a fruit salad.