Cultural Differences

Funny, isn't it, the things that trip you up? I'd never really thought about it before, but it is strange how the electric kettle is a rarity in many parts of the world - including the USA.

A lot of these countries aren't really tea drinkers, but there are lots of other uses for a kettle of boiling water (a kettle heats water for pasta, for example, far more efficiently than a saucepan does), so it is odd to discover people still struggling along with stovetop models. We actually bought my French mother-in-law an electric kettle a couple of years ago, because we were fed up with waiting for the stovetop one to boil on her gas stove.

As the Slate article says, UK voltage is much higher than US voltage, so our electric kettles are lightning fast. Yes, that's right: we have the best electricity (and plugs) in the world.

A lot of talk in the press lately about definitions of Britishness, and that's a good one. The UK plug is uniquely brilliant, and driving on the left hand side of the road in a right hand drive car is also superior to the other method. Don't get me started on that.

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In other news, I was delighted to hear Mr Terry Wogan on his BBC Radio 2 show this morning, pronounce Epiphone the correct way. There is no greater authority than the Wogan.