Where's the annoying paper clip for a washing machine?

MP3 track of the day: O Fortuna -

Weather: Hot, really hot and beautiful; most certainly sun cream weather.

After my blog last night I went to my first proper restaurant of the tour. TOP TIP if you are within a tourist area, walk about 10mins /15mins out of town and you will find cheaper deals. This is what I did and I found an Italian restaurant where I had a pizza, chocolate cake and a drink for around £14 ... bargain! The menu's were superb ... one of the best bits of marketing I have seen (the photos of the food made it look soo good ... and it was actually).

Anyway, I woke up early and headed out; my first activity was to walk around all the ramparts of the old city. Quebec City is stunning, simply stunning and I would put it up there with Prague and Vienna. The buildings are beautiful and walking the walls allowed you to look right into the city (check out my Flickr account for photos).

I'd walked all the way to the top of the city to find the citadel; a star-shaped fortress built by the British to protect against French and American attack. The citadel is still an active Canadian military base and therefore you can only go around by guide; the price tag was $10.00 (£7.00) which seemed a little steep for what was there. I ummed about it and then a quote from my mum popped into my head "... Don't leave regretting you hadn't done something; you never know when / if you might return..." So I coughed up the doh and went in; actually it wasn't really worth it. You could see most of the stuff from outside of the citadel and the museums weren't that great either (After going to the Ottawa military museum they certainly weren't) but I did get some good views and the tour leader did take my photo (see the bottom of this blog ... bet you can't wait).

I continued my walk around the ramparts seeing some beautiful buildings, scenic views and the old town. There is however one problem with Quebec, and its down to those town planners. The Quebec town planners have allowed some shy scrapers to be built just out of town; these buildings are bigger than the old 1850's Quebec buildings and therefore the skyline is destroyed with high rising skyscrapers behind beautiful old buildings. What's worse is that there are a few newish skyscrapers within the old town it's self ... someone needs shooting.

Anyway, after I completed my walk around the battlements I was out of water, my shirt was soaked through from the baking hot sun and I'd been out for 4 hours. So I decided to return to my hostel (which is lovely; it's set in one of the old buildings right in the heart of the old city. It feels more like a hotel, apart from the dorms, but is a little expensive) for a shower, change of clothes and then out for lunch.

After lunch I wondered around the shops and purchased my first souvenir (a book of photos of Quebec City ... which I will post home tomorrow). After this I headed back to the hostel to do something, that needed doing but, I had been putting off ... the laundry. Now it's fair to say my time with a washing machine has been 'limited' in my life, and therefore I was quite terrified of turning my clothes into the new 'backpacker' action-man range (still they wouldn't be as hard to pack in my bag). I was going to go with one pair of pants as a 'tester' but looking at the price I shoved the lot in. Anyway it was okay, I had steps written down...

Step 1: Separate whites from colours - So far so good

Step 2: Check labels for temperatures - every label I read must have had a warning on it. WARNING do not wash over 43 degrees; WARNING do not wash in volcanic lava; WARNING wash individually as this t-shirt doesn't like other t-shirts. Anyway I decided to ignore all the warnings.

Step 3: Get to washing machine and put first load in - Well as it was $1.50 for washing, $1.00 for washing powder and $1.50 for the dryer (totaling nearly £5.00) I decided to mix the colours and whites together ... if my white t-shirt becomes pink ... so be it.

Step 4: Put washing powder in draw and set to 40 degrees - draw, draw ... what draw? Reading the instructions on the washing machine it said put the washing power into the actual machine before putting in the clothes. However 'Tide' (the washing powder) contradicted this and said to put the powder in after the machine had been on a little while ... I decided to side with 'Tide'. Next temperature, temperature ... okay no temperature setting. I looked at the chart and went with the bog standard ' warm wash for colours / and whites' and let it rip. After two minutes I opened the lid and put the powder in the machine and waited 26 minutes for it to be completed.

As I was sat there (reading my innocent smoothie book) I wondered what was happening to my clothes. I wondered if action man would like the new range I was creating; it would be a bit of a blow if all my clothes (and I mean all; I was sitting in my pyjama top because I had put all my t-shirts in) were destroyed ... being that I'm in a really expensive city. After about 15 minutes the machine stopped sounding like water was flowing in and instead, started to build momentum (like a steam train as it leaves a train station); so much momentum was building that the machine was shaking side-to-side. Now I'd seen this is films but wasn't sure if it was correct; I therefore read the warning message on the machine...

' Do not put in any metal objects' - nope I'm okay there

' Do not put in any explosives' - ummm think I'm okay there.

So I was safe; I waited for the cycle to end and peered into the washing machine ... huzzah everything was the right size and in one piece.

Step 5: Put stuff in dryer and let it do it's thing for 45mins - Well I put it all in and I had three options, 'white and colour normal dry'; 'delicate dry' and something I had no idea what it meant. I decided it wasn't a delicate wash ... I'm mean I wasn't washing a Ming Vase. I set it off on 'normal dry' and the timer counted down from 60 minutes!!! I looked all over the machine for a 'booster button' to dry the clothes in half the time but I couldn't find one.

As I sat back I finished my book and then thought; I can fix a PC, I can put PC's into bits and rebuild them. I'm pretty good with software problems too and you know why? Because the PC normally tells you whats wrong with it (and if it doesn't you can always Google it). Bill Gates puts that annoying paper clip on his products to help you out ... where was the paper clip for washing machines? All I had were some rubbish pictures that looked like a park bench. I mean, some machines have 6 draws, where does the washing power go; no paper clip turns up and says ' hey looks like you are doing a cycle would you like help on etc, etc'. No I had decided that the washing machine was a 'French' machine ... if you didn't speak it's language, it didn't want to know.

Anyway after my book and thoughts I moved onto music; and, just as my drying cycle was ending, 'o Fortuna' was playing on my MP3 player. Was this a sign? Had I created actions mans first 'backpacker' range of outfits?. No I hadn't, everything was clean and dry. I took it back to my room, pretty impressed with myself, and put it away.

It was 5pm and so I decided I had an hour more sightseeing before coming in; I put on one of my new, freshly clean t-shirts and headed out. I decided to do one of my favourite things; just walk around a city taking photos ... I went through all of the old city snapping away (see my Flickr account); this city is so beautiful.

Tomorrow, if the weather is good, I plan to take a bus to Mont Saint-Anne; apparently there are some beautiful waterfalls there.

Now, tea.

Toodle Pip

I hope this photo is proof that I am around the world and not in a basement, at home, looking on Google for images of where I have 'supposedly gone' ... and no it's not 'super imposed'.