Silly American...Learning How to Do Laundry Again

One would think doing laundry is a simple task that I've done hundreds of times and what would any different in the UK. Well I was so lost when it came to the laundry that I first attempted to look at the machine and figure things out, then I broke out the instructions which could have been written in Chinese. I broke down and called Cathy Duffy, a fellow ISE wife, to ask how to run my washer dryer...yes it washes and then dries your clothes...supposedly. Well Cathy couldn't help because she had a separate washer and dryer, so she called Holli who once had a washer dryer. Well she actually came over the apartment to show me how to use it and between the two of us we couldn't get it to work. So I ended up calling David our apartment landlord and he couldn't get it to work, so he ended up calling a "chap" to come look at it. Well I don't know how but he turned some knobs and the water started running. He had to think I was a total ditz and left thinking silly American woman. Well I finally figured out that you have to set the washer up with the RPMs you want it to spin and set the tempurature of the water along with the drying heat, set a knob for how long you want the clothes to dry and then you can depress the economy and quick wash buttons to put it on the coldest water and faster loads. One load takes about an hour to wash and then I usually set the dryer for about 60 minutes and when I pull the clothes out they are steaming hot so I let them air dry for about 5-6 hours. The capacity of the washer is about 5 kg so I can fit a pair of jeans, a couple of tshirts, and a few of Addie's outfits and bibs. In a week and a half I've already gone through a box of laundry soap and bottle of fabric softener, but we've had the cleanest clothes ever.