I HAVE CLOSED DOWN THIS BLOG. Please click the photo above to be REDIRECTED TO MY NEW (continuation) BLOG.

Wednesday 28 January 2015

Shampoo madame?


How do you get your car washed? There was a time when everyone seemed to wash them by hand, legions of people out at the weekend with buckets and sponges (or power-washers now, I suppose). Then came those automatic washes with swirly plastic brushes and conveyor belts to pull you through the system, quite terrifying! They seem to have all-but gone out of fashion round here, and now everyone goes to a 'hand-wash' centre like this, where an army of young men rush round with hoses and chamois cloths, spraying, shampooing and mopping. I suspect they are all on minimum-wage zero hours contracts and sometimes I feel I am exploiting them, but I suppose they might be glad of a job of any sort. Qasim's is the one nearest to me, situated in what used to be a petrol station. They do a pretty good job. It's worth it to me at £5 a wash. I don't own a power-washer and life's too short for a bucket, sponge and numerous trips through the house to the kitchen tap and back. Anyway I park my car on a narrow street, so doing anything at the edge of the road is pretty hazardous.

3 comments:

  1. I don't own a car so I don't have that problem.

    ReplyDelete
  2. the automatic was has made a comeback here in Arizona. There is a chain of them that have recently popped and the cost for the wash is very minimal. I should do a post about them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. There is a very good hand wash place near here, though I admit that every now and then I go out and do it myself when I want to be absolutely sure to remove some of the pitch and tar that inevitably ends up marring the car's finish.

    ReplyDelete