A Swedish inconvenience

Obviously yesterday was St Patricks Day, and I was invited out for drinks by some of my colleagues. This was my first ever experience of a big inconvenience here - not being able to go out because I was doing my laundry!
Like most buildings here, we have a communal laundry room that you have to book a timeslot for. The timeslot is called a tvättpass, which I inevitably read as something a bit ruder. Anyway, having specifically booked an evening slot for when I was home from work, to avoid my boyfriend being lumbered with having to do it all himself, there was nothing I could do but decline the invitation out. When I commented to my colleagues that I couldn't believe my laundry was affecting my social life now I was told "Welcome to Sweden".
As it happened, I wasn't much in the mood for going out, as I'd spent my whole working day taking minutes in a meeting without a lunch break, so by the time I got home I was exhausted, hungry, buzzing from coffee, my fingers were bent into claws, and I desperately needed to pee constantly. In England you would never move into a furnished home that didn't actually have a washing machine, but it seems here I will have to get used to planning my social life around my tvättpass.