Local Laundry Service and Home-made Apple Pie

If you click on the above photo to enlarge it, you will see me entering the laundry

Every evening my husband and I stand on our first-floor balcony and watch the world go by in the street below. Ever so often, we'd see someone come from the side street to our right carrying newly washed and ironed laundry. My husband deduced, correctly, that there was a laundry just beyond our vision. Together we decided that I should take a couple of his collared shirts to be laundered, in so doing, support the neighbourhood businesses.

Here I stride purposefully down the street from the laundry

On Monday I took the shirts across and while chatting to a debonair young gentleman, I asked whether I could take photos. He smiled broadly and said yes, but a second later, an elderly man shook his forefinger in my direction with a firm "la-la"/ no-no. OK, so no photos. I was quoted SDG2 / US$.80c for both items, and told to collect my laundry the next day.

Off to the spaza shop to buy fruit juice

When I went to collect the laundry on Tuesday afternoon, I waited while a young male - earphones in his ears - put the final touches to the shirts. He was using a coalfilled iron and bobbing to the music which only he could hear. Then he placed the crisp, still-warm shirts in my outstretched hand while I paid him with my other.

Crisp and beautifully laundered shirts

On Wednesday I discovered two Granny Smith apples in the vegetable crisper of my fridge. They looked as though they should be turned into apple pie and that's exactly what happened to them. The recipe for this easy and delicious apple pie comes from my dear young friend, Lynda of Tanzania. When I went back to find the recipe, I saw it was the second-ever post I did on this blog. (I had baked Lynda an apple pie! Crazy people: bloggers -ha-ha!) You can read about this here.

Above and below photos are of the apple pie I baked here at home yesterday. It was delicious.

Melt-in-the-mouth pastry filled with sweet baked apples, raisins and cinamon. Give the recipe a try - you'll be glad you did!