British Things I Had NEVER Seen Before Moving to the UK
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- Опубліковано 25 чер 2024
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Turns out a lot of you have pullcords in your bathrooms still...I'm surprised as the houses I've been in in the UK have all had a light switch outside of the bathroom to turn on the light within the bathroom with no pull cord, but clearly this is still a big feature in UK bathroom electric design!
I have a pull light in the bathroom old house
Most of our houses are older than the recent development of having the switch outside.
@@fainitesbarley2245 The house I was brought up in had the bathroom light switch outside, and the house was built in the 17th century - don't know when the electricity was added, but the wiring was lead-sheathed and the sockets and switches were Bakelite.
The picture at 9:55 is an inedible Gunnera plant, not rhubarb. Gunnera has prickly stems, rough gigantic leaves and grows by water, rhubarb is much smaller, with soft leaves and has smooth stems
Same I have a pull cord for the fan.
I tried to write a romance novel on a US keyboard, but when I printed it out, it was a history of Arizona. It was quite good.
😅🤣😂
I changed all my computer keyboards to the US layout. After years of typing on minicomputer and mainframe dumb terminals, I just got used to the layout. Why would you *_not_* have double quotes as shifted single quote, ffs..?
@@TestGearJunkie. The keyboard layout derives from the typewriter and a second single quote would be either an 'm' space away because of automatic carriage advance or typed over the top of the first one if the backspace was used.
@@TestGearJunkie. Because you have it as shifted 2 because there's two of them, duh.
I lived in a village in the UK in my younger days.
The next door neighbour was a very keen gardner and one day I saw him collecting horse manure off the street with a shovel after some riders had gone by.
I asked him why and he said to put on his RHUBARB.
I told him we have custard on ours!
My great grandfather lived three doors away from a factory that still made deliveries by horse and cart. The entire family, including my then under 5 year old mother, were under orders that if they saw a horse drop a dollop, they were to immediately go out with a shovel and bucket and scrape it up for the rhubarb.
@andrewwatson5360 🤣 love it
Double button on the toilet? Small button for short flush (wee.) Big button for full flush. Saves water.
I thought it was the other way round as it is difficult to press the small button alone
@@andyp5899 You are right. its one big button for small flush, both buttons for big flush. No ones fingers are wee enough to press that wee button on its own every wee. 😁
We have those in the USA. They are certainly not everywhere but they aren't necessarily unusual either.
Rhubarb needs the big flush.
All those oxalates.
Dual flush toilets are common in Australia, and I think mandatory in new builds. When there's a drought, they say "if it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down." Water is a scarcer commodity in Australia than in the UK/US.
What surprised me the most was when you said you'd never even heard of rhubarb before coming to the UK
And that was a photo of "Gunnera manicata" not rhubarb
Rhubarb is a southern US food brought over buy the English. Not generally available.
Commonly grown in gardens all around the U.S. Strawberry rhubarb pie is the usual use of it.
Rhubarb originated in Northern Asia @@Number6_
I've heard of rhubarb. They made rhubarb pie at a cafe I worked at.
You don't have to lock the window every time you use it. It's a security measure for when you leave the house empty, just leave the key in the keyhole or in a pot on the windowsill and yes, I do have a pull cord in my bathroom.
When the windows are first fitted they will each have a key supplied but that key will usually fit all the windows ,so in a new house there will be multiple keys .Personally .I blutack the key on the inside of the window frame ,so that it is always handy right by the window
@@gillcawthorn7572 I also hung a key near my front door, which has a double-cylinder (needs a key on both sides) ... but not so close it could be reached by someone breaking the window and reaching in.
@@JDoors What about the sneaky thieves that poke a long wire with a hook on the end through your letterbox to steal your keys off the hook. It is a widespread practice to do that so I've seen.
@@Poliss95 Risk/Reward ratio -- for the door, having a key available in an emergency outweighs the small risk of a thief with a coat hanger.
@@LiqdPT It's not a federal standard but local code may prohibit double-cylinder locks on egress doors.
Tomato is a fruit which we treat as a vegetable.
Rhubarb is a vegetable which we treat as a fruit.
It thrives in Yorkshire (site of the “Rhubarb triangle”) as it likes slightly damper, cooler weather.
And they force it there (cause it to grow faster than it would naturally). Apparently, it's one of the few plants you can actually hear growing.
I grow Rhubarb quite well down south and I prefer the old Victorian variety it's hardier that some of the newer varieties.
A pull chord in a bathroom is a safety measure, water and electricity do not mix so a pull chord stops the chances of electrocution.
In Finland the switch is always outside. That is handier as you can turn in on when you go in.
@@okaro6595 And sneaky practical jokers can switch it off whilst you're in there! 😂😂
@geoffos42 I used the toilet in the windowless basement of an office blockmonce. On the wall outside was a laminated notice "Please turn off the light when leaving."
Across the bottom, in a very angry looking handwriting was the phrase "But not if someone is still in there."
Cord, not chord lol
@okaro6595 I would estimate that over 75% of UK bathrooms have the switch on the outside instead of a pull cord.
The cord is an older method, the preferred modern method is an external switch.
For reference, this is in a proper "bathroom" with a shower or bath, a room with just a toilet still often have a pull cord.
The sliding windows are called sash windows. Lot of old houses have them.
The parking brake, also known as the hard brake must be used with manual cars, because when the car is in neutral, there is less of a load on the wheels, so it will roll away.
*hand brake
I drive an automatic and I always use the handbrake. If you are parked on a slope and put it in Park the entire weight of the vehicle is resting on the parking pawl. Stop with foot brake, select N, apply handbrake, release foot brake, select P.
Hand brake. This is the normal name.🇬🇧
@@paulgeorge6353 That is correct.
I've driven manual cars all my life and unless I'm working on the car I never leave it unattended in neutral, and yeah I always use the hand brake when parked. I think it comes down to bad driver training and not just in the US. Some young drivers are just never taught to use them or fall into bad habits probably passed down from there parents.
Yes, still have a pull cord. A light switch outside the room is problematic if you have children who like to mess with each other
I do not get why children find it extremely funny to turn off the lights when someone is inside.
Irritating accent
As a child when going out to play, my mother would tear off a square shaped piece of newspaper, make a cone shaped receptacle put a couple of spoons of sugar therein and we would dip rhubarb into the cone, it was a well loved snack when we went out to play: this was during WW2 and the likelihood of getting poisoned by printers ink was not thought of it was very popular among my playmates.
We did that in the 1960s.
It used to be recommended that if a baby was born outside of home or hospital, like on the bus or on the waltzers in a fairground, etc, to wrap the baby in an unopened newspaper as it was completely sterile due to the temperature of printing. I suppose the idea was that you wouldn't leave it wrapped up like a fish and four pennethworth of chips for very long, so toxic ink wouldn't be a problem.
What amazes me is that in the US they don’t commonly have blackcurrants. Nor cordial/squash. So totally miss out on a childhood full of Ribena!
that's why American teeth are better than ours
@@TheOwlsarewatching606according to research done by Harvard University (yes, really) that is a myth. According to them, British teeth are better kept than American, probably because of our NHS, which enables Brits not to have to pay so much for Dentalcare
Blackcurrants were illegal for years in the US. Ribena was developed in Britain during WWII to ensure children had enough vitamin C, and because we lack fruit year round, it became something that continued. I grew up on ribena and I have a wonderful blackcurrant bush in full bloom right now. It smells like ribena without the sugar
Never did drink Ribena far far far too sweet. However blackcurrants love them have along with red currants and white currants have all 3 in my garden.
@@Paul020253 that's probably why, but seeing as NHS dentistry is now completely inaccessible to many, that trend is going to be downwards.
I bet it won't be long before we are worse in the statistics than the US.
Because we used to have ease of access to NHS dentistry, people seem to outright refuse to pay for private dental care.
Leaving many people with long running issues that they won't get treatment for.
The NHS caused me to lose two teeth, they also put in two bad fillings which then cost me over £4,000 of private care to save, along with the two extractions.
Florida to NW England 18 years ago. I had to learn a new language, English, which led to many interesting conversations and quizzical looks!
The electric light in the bathroom is switched by a pull-cord because in the UK we have 230v which is considered dangerous in a small bathroom. In the US you have 110v which is considered less so. The hand brake [parking brake] is used in the UK because most cars have manual gearboxes. With an auto the gearbox is "locked" in Park.
The combo washer dryer will only dry a half load at a time to dry properly.
The two button on the toilet is for a long flush or a short flush in an effort to save water.
The pull cord switches are to prevent getting an electric shock if you have wet hands.
Washer/driers are for people who have small kitchens - which very many houses in the UK do.
Up here in the North East. I've never seen roast dinner crisps, and what you call crumpets tend to be called pikelets. Crumpets are something different.
I learned to drive at school in Cansda, and automatics that we trained in had foot brakes, as well as 'park' , which were necessary when parking on any incline. Not sure Florida has hills.
Electricity is much higher here than in US/Canada, so there is more danger from electrocution, hence pull cords in bathrooms, sometimes bedrooms.
@lindsaysmith2290 I was going to mention pikelets. Plain or fruit. Butter, sometimes jam. I once had them with quince jelly on top of the butter. Very nice.
Combo washer/dryer if you want to use the dryer only ever used my dryer part 3 time's will dry all your load if you put the dryer on for the right amount of time.
The plant @09:54 is Gunnera an ornamental relative of Rhubarb, but it's not the edible Rhubarb (Rheum).
Rhubarb used to be a treat years ago all over the uk, You could dip the end of the Rhubarb in sugar as a treat for children. Nowadays, it's used in various foods, like puddings or fruit pies.
We have regs about having a switch in the bathroom because if you touch a switch with wet hands ( it’s a bathroom ) you could get a shock, so you’re not supposed to have a switch in a bathroom/en-suite/ cloakroom but can have either a pull cord ( in the room ) or a switch outside the room . Older houses tend to have pull cords, new builds have switch by the door outside .
I have the cord we re wired but didn't want a switch on the outside.
Just one little thing. The plant you showed isn't the rhubarb we eat (Rheum palmatum), it's gunnera manicata, a cool topical looking plant but not very edible
Topical? You mean it's first with the news?
@@michaelprobert4014 Do we have to pull everyone up on a typo. Yes was humorous though.
woops! @@michaelprobert4014
@@tonys1636 (wasn't really pulling him up on it, just taking advantage of it ☺)
Neither is rhubarb!
Oh, there's so much I could say on everything you mentioned Girl, but nobody reads long comments! So here's my contribution - rhubarb was first used as a "fruit" in England, prior to which it was used in savoury dishes and medicinally. The first recorded recipe that used rhubarb as a fruit was for "rhubarb tart" in the English cookbook "A New System of Domestic Cookery" by Maria Eliza Rundell, 1807.
We have locks on the windows here in Australia, but it depends how new the house is and yes you don't need to leave them locked and even if you do you can leave the key in them, we got one key for each window and usually leave them in the lock. Yeah probably defeating the point of a lock but if someone breaks in then either they have broken the window or found another way in already.
@@lancer1993what’s that got to do with the story of rhubarb?😀
Ah, your trying to throw some light on it🥴
The first Rhubarb was inported in Edinburgh, there is a fantastic Jacobean manor house called Rhubarb, expenciive and stunning resturant.
Rhubarb leaves are very poisonous --beware!@@gabbymcclymont3563
I love rhubarb yogurt, nice and tart. Gooseberry yogurt too.
I once saw a group of lads pushing a car along the kerbside up the road to leave it in a different parking space. That's what you get for not engaging your handbrake and parking on a flat road in the UK. No harm to the car but a surprise for the owner when they come out of their house. Boys were almost peeing themselves laughing.
Yeah, well, here in Sweden it's common to just put the shift in first gear instead of using the handbrake, it works, sometimes even better
@@matshjalmarsson3008 I do both 'cos why not?
@@vtbn53 I do too, especially on a slope that's good measure, just saying that shifing to a gear works pretty much the same as using the handbrake
@@vtbn53on a hill I do three, 1st gear, handbrake and wheels toed in to the kerb. My wife and I never had an unplanned pregnancy😉
What's the third option after belt and braces, I wonder?@@mcgoverg1
Ah! The old fruit v vegetable thingy. Vegetables are parts of a plant you can eat, like the leaves (spinach), the root (carrots), the tuber (potatoes), the flower (broccoli), the stalk (celery), and yes it does include fruit.
Fruits are a specific part of a vegetable, that carry the seeds, or are the seed, like an apple, orange, grape, even a tomato is a fruit, rice is a fruit as it is the seed/grain, the same with corn.
So Rhubarb is not a fruit as it is not, nor does it carry the seed, It's the stalk.
Pull cord light switches, not only in my bathroom, also in the cloakroom toilet and in the garage! Sliding sash windows, used in older houses but rare in houses built after 1930's. The push button / dual toilet flush is usual in Europe, the type shown is a German one. Using the parking hand brake was taught at driving school and had to be used in the driving test when you finished and stopped the car.
You'll also find that many American kettles are set to switch off at about 90 degrees Celsius which is crap for making tea. You must have boiling water for decent tea.
I am a middle aged. British man who has never seen Roast Dinner crisps
No youngsters,please:)
I enter my 8th decade in London, in May and neither have I...
sounds utterly vile
Give me Ham and Mustard! I've never seen roast dinner flavour, either.
@@TheOwlsarewatching606 You mean you've never taken a roast dinner and mashed the whole thing together before in a blender?
Me neither
In the UK, people wouldn't normally lock their windows unless they were going on holiday, or leaving their house for a few days. The main reason for a combined washer/drier, is to save space over having two separate machines. Some people prefer to save space. Pull cords in UK bathrooms are a safety measure, to avoid operating a light switch with wet fingers.
That makes sense. I thought the lock was weird.
I think if you live in a city, you lock the windows.
I'm Canadian, and I think we have the same voltage as in the US. We've always had kettles.
My grandmother used to make blackcurrant jam. It was so delicious. She also used to make rhubarb pie. Again, it was delicious and it's still my favourite kind of pie.
Yes, it has to do more with the tea culture than the voltage.
We had and still have an electric kettle in my family in the US. My mom was a tea drinker and we drank a lot of ice tea.
Our house was built in the 1950s and the toilet and bath were in adjoining rooms. In the bathroom was a bath and wash basin, whereas in the toilet there was just a toilet. Each room had a pull cord for the light. In the 80s we demolished the wall between toilet room and bathroom and made them into a single room, but still have pull cords.
Another poster mentioned rhubarb and sugar during WW2. My late mom said she and her siblings would get sticks of rhubarb from the garden and pester their mom for sugar to dip it in. This would again be during WW2 and the years after.
When I was in Philly last year, I'd forgotten about the lack of tea making facilities in hotel rooms. I contacted my friend in Syracuse who bought me a travel kettle for the rest of my trip. It was a life saver.
The windows in the UK that have a lock and open outward are only in modern houses. Until some time in the 20th century, most house windows in the UK were of the sash type, with a latch, and were opened by unlatching and then pushing the lower sash upwards, like the American type you described
Sash windows went out of fashion in the early 1900s when side hinged casement windows started to replace them.
Only in modern houses? I'd like to think my lockable, push-out windows rendered my home modern...when it was built in the 1870s.
Modern? I've lived in mostly modern accommodations in my time (post 2000 built), and have never had a push-out, keyhole window
key in window - they're normally on double or triple glazed frames so I've always left the key in the lock itself. If anyone can smash the double/triple ply frames and turn the key they're welcome to do so.
Murfing to move - nice.
Blackcurrent jam on a digestive biscuit with a cup of tea is bliss.
Rhubarb crumble with custard or ice cream is the ultimate comfort food
Homemade Rhubarb crumble with hot thick custard or chocolate icecream mmmm now my mouth is watering. oh and Rhubarb yoghurt on museli rather than milk.
The dual flush toilet is to save water, pressing the small button for a number one ( wee ) does press both buttons in, but by pressing the small button it pushes a bit out the back of the large button that prevents the button going fully in, you can actually push the small button in, and when you stop pressing it the water stops - if you press the large button in it locks in and will not release until the whole cistern is empty.
Pull cord here. One for the light, one for the shower. House built circa 1750, but got elastic trickery much later.
Check out the Rhubarb Triangle; it's a thing.
It's definitely a thing. I live in the rhubarb triangle!
The thing with the safety pull switches in bathrooms is that the person in the room has control over the light, those with an ordinary switch outside the room means some evil person can switch the light off while you are using the room. I would always replace an out of the room switch with a pull switch in the room.
Again related to the higher voltage in UK and the consequent greater danger of operating a normal switch with wet hands.
In Australia, NZ we have the same voltage as the UK and the switch is inside the bathroom. No one gets electrocuted by using a normal switch with wet hands - although most normal people would dry their hands before operating the switch. Maybe 100 years ago what you’re saying was true
Or, don’t live with evil people?
or replace with a Kinetic switch, which can be placed in the bathroom as there isn't any power at the switch
@@SeeJayCampbell Standard UK electrical installations used to use a ring main and a single master fuse that was normally 30A, this meant that UK electricity was enormously more dangerous than in other places, which resulted in the incredibly safety-conscious features of UK electrical installations, like the pull cord in bathrooms, and the overengineered UK plug design.
Modern UK electrical installations (since the 1970s/1980s) have adopted the safety standards of the rest of the world, like star mains and individual RCD trip switches, but we still retain the extreme levels of safety at the user end as well - which is probably excessive these days, but since we have a massive installed base of these safety precautions, it's not a significant cost to continue with them.
So many British people have been told by older generations (who were taught this officially when 1940s-1970s electrical installations were still common) that these are necessary precautions that we come up with reasons why they don't apply in other countries and don't realise that the reasons are actually because we used to put really dangerous wiring designs in the walls and other countries never did.
In the UK we generally have smaller homes and therefore less space for separate washing and drying machines in our kitchens, a second water using appliance is more likely to be a dishwasher. And yes, in the kitchen, we seldom have utility or laundry rooms.
P.S. My washer dryer does dry fully.
I live in the USA in a small home that has a Master suite that is only 9 1/2 feet wide but around 16 feet long, but still have a utility room under the stairs and separate washer and dryer. Downstairs its more American, but upstairs I feel like I crossed the pond as everything is narrow. lol
5 out of the six homes I have owned in the UK have all had a separate utility room only our first home a 3 bedroom semi-detached didnt have one, a utility room it is quite common in the UK obviously in smaller and older homes its not as common due to space.
@@ebbonfly It is also the difference between classes in many cases. Those who are more well off, is more likely to afford a home with a utility room. Which city also matters, as some cities just have older homes. I'd say utility rooms are more common in the more modern built homes for me middle class then in any home built for the lower class.
True but I'm sure that would also apply to anywhere else in the world inc. the USA@@tpkyterooluebeck9224
@ebbonfly - Where in the UK are utility rooms common?
I've never lived in a house with one and I've rarely been inside a house with one.
Perhaps they're common in houses above a certain value.
Re pull cord light switches, yes I have one in my bathroom. They are very common. I think most of the houses I have lived in have had a pull cord light switch in the bathroom.
Incidentally, I also have a bedroom pull cord light switch. It's great. You can have the main bedroom light on and switch it off without having to get out of bed. I suppose it does the same job as a bedside lamp, except you don't need the lamp and you don't have to worry about having a socket in which to plug the lamp.😊
Crumpets are excellent - with just butter, but you can add toppings like creamed mushrooms, poached eggs or baked beans. I grow my on rhubarb and there is nothing like a rhubarb crumble for desert served with custard, or vanilla ice cream. Rhubarb is a native fro India/China and is grown mostly in the Rhubarb Triangle - in West Yorkshire. Loving the videos. Great to see you back and amazing
As a perennial Himalayan plant, rhubarb does well in cooler wet humus-rich areas. In winter the above-ground parts die off and collapse to protect the growing crown from frost. Storage roots give a powerful and rapid growth in spring, producing huge leaves on sturdy edible leaf stems - it is a very handsome plant.
The leaf stems are harvested by pulling and twisting from the base. The flat part of the leaf contains oxalic acid and is not eaten. The stems are tart, and are sliced, then simmered with no additional water - plenty of liquid comes from the stems during cooking. Sugar is needed to counter the sharpness. Stewed rhubarb, and rhubarb pie, can be served hot or cold with custard, cream or ice cream. Rhubarb can be combined with apple or other fruits. Rhubarb and ginger jam is also popular.
As a small child I can remember being given thin stems of raw rhubarb with a bowl of granulated sugar for dipping.
Rhubarb crops heavily, and needs plenty of organic material - the 'rhubarb triangle' in Yorkshire was the prime commercial growing area, and the waste 'stuff' from the local woollen mills was put on the fields every autumn. To produce an early 'forced' crop, mature plants were dug up and overwintering in dark sheds; in the spring the plants would send out shoots that were tender, long and pale because they were in darkness. They grew fast and the stems rubbed against each other, and in the sheds you could actually hear the quiet creaking as the plants grew. Harvested by candlelight, the forced crop exhausted the plants and they were apparently then discarded.
Vegetative propagation is easily done by dividing a crown and planting the parts as separate plants. Rhubarb will put up a huge 2m 6' raceme of small uninteresting flowers that will exhaust the plant and probably kill it - growers tend to cut the flower stalks out as soon as they appear.
The rhubarb triangle thing is the forced-in-the-dark stuff, I think? It's bright pink. The normal stuff is green and a bit of pink. The former is supposed to be nicer, but is more expensive.
I live in the Rhubarb triangle, yes a lot of forced rhubarb is grown, mostly so it can be sold year round. We have 1 plant in the garden, does not need much looking after and gives a crop every few weeks from June-ish onwards.
I’m originally from the Black Country and we called crumpets pikelets, there’s lots of odd regional variations like this.
In New Zealand you won't pass your driver's licence test if you don't use the parking/hand brake. The parking pawl in an automatic is a back up in case the parking brake fails. I don't know why Americans aren't taught that. That's the same reason you park a manual in gear and set the brake.
The pull cord is there so that steam or condensation in the bath or shower room is drawn away from the switch positioned in the ceiling,by gravity. Therefore reducing the chance of electrocution. The same theory goes for positioning a light switch outside, because condensation running down the inside wall could seep into the switch/socket
The pull cord switches in bathrooms were to satisfy a safety regulation - no switches on bathroom walls because condensation might build up and form a puddle of water inside. Having the switch in the ceiling meant the water drained away from the wires. These switches went out of fashion so builders had to put wall switches outside the bathroom door - and in the recently-built houses these must be at a level that someone in a wheelchair can reach.
@davidrobinson3221 Not true. The regulations are that you can have light switches in a bathroom as long as they are a certain distance from the bath. The same with electrical sockets.
True. My wetroom switches are outside, near the door. Their height is just right for me - yes, I'm in a wheelchair.
How far is 'a certain distance' I would imagine most bathrooms aren't big enough to comply with that regulation. For example if it were three metres then that would have to be a very big bathroom by most people's standards.@@Poliss95
It isnt to do with water draining out of the switch. The idea of the cord is just to put more distance between your possibly wet hand and the switch, and you don't get much condensation on string. Pull switches have not gone out of fashion - whether a wall or pull switch is better depends on your layout.
In theory the key is the same for all windows, so if you only have one key you're okay. A useful feature of good pvc windows that most people don't use is that you can lock them when they're open an inch - good for ventilation.
Another useful feature of modern windows which i believe is now part of building regs is that you can open them wide enough to to clean them from inside.A feature designed for upstairs windows.
Ohhhh! My dear Floridian, friend! A parking brake is definitely something we use in the Western USA! 😂 Otherwise our cars would roll down all the hills we have here. And yeah, rhubarb isn't a common southern USA thing, either. We grow it all over, here! Rhubarb pie!! Mmmmmm!
Lucas LOVES corn on pizza. I don't know many people here that eat corn in pizza, but he loves it and was thrilled to see it as a choice in London. 👍
The keyboard thing would drive me bonkers. Good for you for re-learning. That would be tough.
Cords on lights!! I'm always afraid I might yank down the light! Lol!!! I've only seen them rarely.
And since meeting you, Neil and Colin, I got a kettle and I LOVE it. I got a really good one and it is my favorite kitchen tool. ❤️ I'm a convert.
Anna try rhubarb crumble it is good.
@@charlieyerrell9146 oh yes!! We have . . . With extra crumble! 😂
Yep, parking brakes are mandatory in California when parking on an incline.
It is a hand brake not break
You should also try rhubarb crumble for dessert (or pudding as we would say).
ELECRIC KETTLE. i bought one of these in a Florida Supermarket in 2011 for American friends who had never heard of one and were boiling water in a Pan to make Instant coffee.. True, the Male assistant working on a display didn't know what one was- There was a floor display of 60/100 of them not more than 20 feet away. There are 3 pull cords in my house The Pantry/Larder, the Bathroom and one over the Bed in the Main Bedroom so that the Main Light can be turned on without getting out of Bed - yes we do have bedside lamps also. The bathroom and Larder ones are so you don't have to touch switches with wet hands. Modern Properties may have switches on the outside of Bathrooms but Pull Chords are quite common. WINDOW Locks. All the keys are usually the same - I leave the upstairs ones in the Lock and downstairs ones out of sight but easily accessible.
Cross the boarder into Canada and you will find plenty of kettles. Ours work fine in the US but just take a bit longer to boil. Last time I was there someone mistook mine for a tea pot.
I like toasted tea cakes more than crumpets. I used to have them as a kid when we went in a cafe.
Ah but think how much Marmite could ooze in a crumpet's holes!
@@blackenreed1425 no I don't like marmite very much. My friend put jam and butter on his which was nice. Americans could put peanutbutter and jam in it.
Take a look at one of the videos that show the inner workings of an automatic gearbox.
I feel that when you see the size of the piece of metal holding your car still you’ll want to apply the hand brake.
I have a pullcord in my bathroom of my childhood home. My grandfather lived in an assisted living facility with separate units In the late 80's. I went into his toilet and pulled what I thought was the pullcord for the lights, when it was the emergency pullcord. A voice asked if I was ok 😂. In my flat, which I rent out, the light is outside the toilet.
Blackcurrant flavour is in the UK, whereas we don't have Grape flavour. A lot of Americans think that crumpets & English muffins are the same. My flat has windows that open with a key but my childhood home doesn't. We had a Combo washer/dryer once in the late 80's or early 90's and never again as if one part stops working, then two machines are affected. I have had separate machines ever since. I always apply my handbrake even on flat roads. If you park on hills you apply handbrake and either leave car in first year or reverse depending on gradient. I have never seen roast dinner flavour crisps. I have never had sweetcorn on pizza as I don't like sweetcorn. Some Americans have stove top whistling kettles which we had here in the 70's. We got electric kettle in the late 70's. I bought our first cordless kettle on the late 80's.
Our early 1960s house still has a pull cord for the overhead light in the rec room bathroom and a second pull cord for a lamp over the mirror above the bathroom sink. Also a pull cord in the attic. The house also has a NuTone whole house intercom with a mic/speaker for outside visitors. That intercom has an AM/FM radio built into the master control panel for playing music through out the house. I was in Scotland and loved using an immersion heater to heat a cup of tea in less than 60 seconds due to the 220 voltage.
230/240v is actually supplied to houses in the USA; it's just that it is generally distributed at 115/120v within the house. A 230/240v outlet can be installed if required in a kitcen or garage/workshop for heavier loads.
Correct. All US houses are supplied with 240v.
The 2 button toilet originated in Australia, as a water saving measure
@petergreenham7235 They don't save water because the danged modern things leak.
@@Poliss95 I'm an Aussie and in 40 years of using the 2 button system, I've never had one leak,
The leakage is very subtle. It's a very slight dribble into the bowl that most people never notice.
I would say 50% of public toilets that are not syphonic are constantly leaking, completely deleting the benefit of the dual flush mechanism.
@@marieravening927 Do you use coloured bleach in your toilet? If you do then look carefully at the back of the bowl. If you see a clear line that is water leaking from the cistern.
You have toilets in Australia?
With regard to the washer/driers, I had one for a long time as it saved space in the small kitchen in my flat. It was fine for me as a single person. The reason why people say that the drier isn't very efficient is usually because they haven't read the manual. Very often the max load for the wash cycle is greater than that for the drying cycle. If you fully load it for the wash you should remove some items to lighten the drier load.
Now I'm in a house I have separate machines but I still have a washer/drier in my utility room which I find handy for small quick loads.
One of the weirdest things about Britain/Ireland is that the washing machines are in the kitchen. I have never seen that anywhere else
@@matshjalmarsson3008 To have them in the bathroom would be weird to me as a Brit. (it's the electricity being 240V thing). Some people like this poster have utility rooms, but it is not universal particularly as many houses tend to be smaller here.
Clothes lines - the latest eco-friendly invention, although some people seem to struggle with the technology.
@@Lily-Bravo I get that, and have heard it before, but with 230V here in Sweden it doesn't seem to be an issue for some reason.
It just makes more sense to me, you clean yourself in the bathroom, why not your clothes as well.
In the kitchen, you have the risk of spilling sauce, oil etc, seems a bit risky, plus where I've lived, I never really had the space for one in the kitchen
@@philroberts7238 I have one of those rotary driers that looks like an inverted umbrella frame. But you need good weather and as I live in the sticks there's a good chance that a pigeon or seagull, fresh from the fields, will use my wash for target practice.
I've lived in houses with pull-cord light switches in the past. My current place has it on the wall outside the bathroom.
In my parents' house in Scotland, rubarb grows wild in the garden, and grows back really quickly when you pick it, so we had plenty of it when growing up.
The window you showed, that you have in the US, looked like a sash window, which opens either from the top or bottom by sliding the sections up or down. There is a pully system within the side compartments of the frame to enable the sections to move. They were very popular in the UK, US and Australia in Victorian and Edwardian times. Most have been replaced with modern double glazing these days. But not necessarily a double glazed sash window as they are much more expensive than a regular outward opening type. The sash 'lever' is called a latch in the UK. Thanks GGL 👍👍👍👍
You kind of made it sound as though combined washer dryers are pretty commonplace in the UK, I’d personally say that it’s probably more common to go without a dryer than it is to get a combined washer dryer, they really aren’t great, the drum gets unbelievably hot and it takes forever to dry the clothes.
We've got a washer/dryer, but rarely use the drier as it uses too much electricity. We got it really just in case we ever did need it, but we rarely have. No space for separate units.
@@TestGearJunkie. I had one years ago for the very same reason and rarely used it because it wasn’t efficient in either use or cost…they’re not particularly cheap to buy either.
You can't beat the smell of line-dried.
@@helenfitch6590 I totally agree.
The parking brake (or handbrake) holds the car a lot better than Park on the transmission shifter. The reason for this is basically that the parking brake puts on the normal brakes on the rear wheels whereas “Park” just sticks one or two small pegs into slots somewhere in the transmission. Also the majority of cars in the UK are what you would call “stick shift” (what we call “manual”) so don’t have Park anyway. We are also taught (or, at least, I was taught in the 1980s and my wife in the 2010s) to avoid our brake lights dazzling the person behind us at traffic lights by putting the parking brake on and shifting to Neutral if we are going to be stopped for more than a few seconds.
Yes, I was taught (many years ago) to put the car into neutral at traffic lights and use the handbrake , so as not to dazzle the driver behind with my brake lights. I notice most people now don't bother - too much effort and who cares about the driver behind. That's progress I guess.
@@raytrevor1 According to another UA-cam video you should leave your automatic or hybrid in drive and use the handbrake, since switching it in and out of neutral wears out its clutches, while in hybrids it also disables the charging mechanism. I've only ever owned manual cars so I have no idea how accurate this information is.
I learned to drive in the 1960's and there was two more uses of the handbrake taught then at traffic lights in the event of a shunt, the back brakes were locked so you did not cause multiple car shunts. Also we learned a technique called the handbrake turn where you could approach a turn at a higher speed and apply the handbrake as you slid, this locked the back wheels and stopped you a right angle to your original direction leaving a straight route for the next road ( not recommended) but in those days we were taught not to cut corners, which no longer seems to be the case, and this is more dangerous.
The disadvantage is that a vehicle left in park for days can have the brakes seize in moist conditions.
@@damionkeeling3103 I think you mean left with the parking brake on, but I take your point. I shall have to think about that when parking on a level surface.
I once lived in a council house where all the light switches apart from the stairwell were pull cords. Apparently it's cheaper to fit a ceiling mounted switch than a wall switch.
It is indeed: if you think about it, the wiring for the lights is in the ceiling anyway, so fitting a ceiling (pull) switch is easier than a wall one: to fit a wall one, you have to dig a channel down the wall to where you're going to put the switch.
Many people prefer pull cords for bathrooms. It prevents the light being turned on or off accidentally from the outside. They are also used for electric showers. The cords never break unless the switch is faulty.
Pull cords are still very common in older houses. New builds have the electric light switch outside the bathroom door. There are no non-cord light switches in bathrooms because our 240volt electricity and water do not mix.
@HeatherMyfanwyTylerGreey Not true. You can have a light switch in the bathroom as long as it's a certain distance from the bath.
My house isn't old and it has pull cords both in the bathroom and the downstairs toilet.
Not true about older houses. Age of the house has nothing to do with it.
My childhood home is about 400-500 years old so I would think that would be regarded as an older house. It did not have a pull switch in the bathroom. I don't think they even considered it when it was build. As regards water and electricity not mixing, I always thought the problem with electricity and water was that electricity liked to mix with water too much.
@@dukenukem5768 It sort of does (age of the house having to do with whether pull cord). The regulation about no switches inside bathrooms (at least, less than a certain distance from the bath and washbasin) only came in on a certain date; if the house was built before that … though I think rewiring also has to comply with the regulations, and if it hasn't been rewired for that long, it almost certainly needs it!
Regarding keys in windows - just leave the key in - I think most people do, at least amongst my family and friends.
They are a safety feature, not really for security. It's to stop children from opening windows and falling out.
I think the washer dryers are more of a thing in rental properties or small flats, rather than ordinary homes.
According to UGov 67% of UK homes have a separate dryer, that's about 10 % less than US homes.
Yep exactly, we mostly leave our windows key bit unlocked, since just closing it with the handle pretty much locks and unlocks it anyway. The only time we use the key is as an extra safety feature for if we go on holiday or just away for a few days.
I had a washer dryer in the 80's ,you had to stop it after wash cycle and half the load so quite pointless, they are much improved now.
Canadian here, and your comparison highlights our still close relationship with the UK. Common to Canada: KETTLES, rhubarb, crumpets, and we do have roast chicken crisps
In Australia bathroom light switches are just inside the door. All bathrooms have a window that is supposed to be left partly open. All bathrooms have a ventilation fan either in the ceiling or an outside wall.
Electric Kettles are very common in Denmark too... and the toilet flush buttons too... and our computer keyboards are a little different.. lol.. becauce we also have the letters Æ Ø Å... and people are using that "parking break" aswell. Most people here drive cars with a manual stick.... and we make marmalade out of Rhubarb 🙂 Interesting video...
Ooh, rhubarb marmalade sounds nice!
Rhubarb and ginger jam in the UK.
If you have to pull a cord operated light hard to make it switch on or off, then your switch is faulty but can be replaced for a couple of quid in about 5 minutes.
True, but most people don't do so until it fails. (Plus there's the cost of the labour to do it - you and I can do it, but many are wary.)
@@G6JPG I guess you could pay someone else to do it but it's quite simple to do just follow the instruction's and always take a photo first of how your's looks like to refer to if you can't understand the diagram and instructions. That's what I did and hubbie was very impressed with my work after he took a look.
@@eileencritchley4630 Some people just won't touch anything electrical. Or plumbing, for that matter, or many DIY tasks, or car, or … (Probably not confident enough of their camera to take a photo, either). I'm maybe too far the other way - will try things I shouldn't! (I don't _think_ I'd do anything to do with gas.)
@@G6JPG Don't blame you when it come's to gas. However cars and building work I can do that. I've had good instructors and do lots of research first as well. Although one time I got my arm stuck while under my car changing some petrol lines. That wasn't nice I got rather panicked and forced my arm out resulting in a nastie gash all down my forearm. Had to sort that then go back under the car to finish the job. Hubbie wanted to finish the job for me but me being me wasn't going to let it beat me so refused his offer.
@@eileencritchley4630 Cars I generally pay to be done, but like to think I _could_ - at least up to ten or twenty years ago; sadly you need specialist equipment to do - I'm an electronics engineer and understand much of what's going on, but don't have the equipment. But basic things … you sound like you share my "have a go" attitude. (Rats, you're already married … 🙂)
Parking/hand brake is needed here as we predominantly drive manual cars. When a manual gearbox is in neutral the car can easily be moved, hence why we need to use the handbrake to keep the car where we left it.
Rhubarb is a plant native to Siberia, so loves a cold winter. In early Spring, look out for forced rhubarb- it is grown in the dark and is pale pink and has a very delicate taste.
The first rhubarb plants in the UK were given to Queen Victoria by the Tsar.
Crumpets: there's a small shop near to my local pub in London and the guys in there didn't know what a crumpet was when I asked them if they had any. They're from Bangladeshi backgrounds so they were forgiven and I bought a pack for each of them from Sainsbury's. They still don't stock crumpets but that's because the man who owns the shop doesn't know what they are either (he's Kurdish) and he's in charge of stock.
In Yorkshire they're called picklets.
@@___Rick___ Sounds like pikelets and the word probably has common origin though quite different food.
Yes, I have a pull cord light in my bathroom. Also another one to turn the electric shower on or off 😂 My parents even had table lamps with little pull cords although I haven't seen one of those for years.
Interesting!! I've only had light switches outside the bathroom to turn on the light in the bathroom in the houses I've lived in here.
same here! Two pull cords (one for the light, one for the shower) in my bathroom too 👍
ditto@@duncanliath
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial: my last house was a complete renovation and I had the bathroom light switch outside the room.
@@duncanliath My mum's house had that. Where I live now we have a switch outside the bathroom door. The main switch for the shower is in a cupboard, so never gets switched off..! As an aside, why do bathroom extractor fans always come on with the light..? There are times when you want the light on but not the fan or the fan on but not the light. There should be separate switches for those.
When I lived in the UK 15 years ago, the toilet flush was generally the lever type and on moving to New Zealand I had to adjust to the two button flush system. I'm glad it's caught on in the UK.
Lever flush is still a 2 type flush system. Pull and release quickly for a short flush. Hold the lever down for a full flush.
Loved your video ❤
You should try rhubard crumble with custard! That is a good dessert! Better still if you can find someone to do a home-made one.
Rhubarb, high in antinutrients such as oxalates.
A lot of Americans do not seem to get the water saving purpose of the double toilet flush button. Half flush where no paper just fluid. Full flush for paper and solids. Very helpful in Australia were areas may have tank water or otherwise limited supply. Also please never leave the water running when peeling potatoes and similar jobs.🤩
It's the Rhubarb Festival in Wakefield tomorrow! Runs until Sunday, and we'll be going on the Saturday. Most British rhubarb is grown in the triangle Wakefield-Leeds-Bradford. It's a mild (very mild!) laxative and is yummy under a crumble topping! I live just south of the triangle.
Technically the triangle is Wakefield, Rothwell and Morley. The latter two are both in Leeds.
When you were talking about ‘Parking Brakes’ on cars, I remembered my Cousin’s current 2021 model year Audi A3 Hatchback (the hatchback models you don’t have from Audi in the U.S., only the Sedan)… anyway these have an Automatic Parking Brake that comes on when you select Neutral from the lever in the Centre Console, there is still a Button with the (P) symbol on it for activating it anyway if you wanted to just make sure.
Alot of our other cars still have the traditional Handbrake lever (with the Release Button built-in for making sure your car doesn’t roll forward or back when parked or at a stop on a hill.
The UK has many examples of sash windows as per US pattern. They are notoriously easy to access from the outside and many insurance companies require separate locks to secure them that then creates the lost key issue again. The stupidity of the whole issue of window security is that for example, we have tilt and turn windows with (superfluous) locking handles because its simply impossible to operate the handle from the outside to open the window, whereas sash windows and top hung or side casements can all be opened from the outside if not locked.
Combo washer'dryers are generally inefficient and expensive to run, their only benefit being the saving of space.
Our bathroom lighting has two controls a pull cord for the pelmet fluorescent lighting and a switch for the 12v overhead lighting. The shower room has a switch on the outside and the downstairs toilet has a pull cord, I guess we have 3 variants as they are individually appropriate.
Another possibility is a light that comes on when you open the door. They can be set to go off again after a set time after no movement is detected.
I have tilt and turn windows. You can open them from the outside if they are initally tilted and thereby gain access. String is wonderful.
@@dlanor9312 I fail to see how that can be achieved on our windows (Kawneer 800 Series aluminium) and many similar windows I have seen in Germany.
@@clivewilliams3661 I'm not familiar with your windows type. If the handle is vertical when in the tilt position, and horizontal when allowing the window to swing open; it is possible to loop a self tightening knot over the handle. If you then positioning the string correctly you can pull on it which both closes the window from tilt and pulls the handle to horizontal. I have used this method both in the UK and in Germany when I lived there. Do not wrongly assume windows in the tilt position cannot be opened from the outside.
@@dlanor9312 My Kawneer aluminium windows open on the tilt with the handle in the horizontal position and vertical opens the casement. Also the handle can be locked with a key in the horizontal position. The windows are a commercial grade that you will find in many top commercial buildings in the City and as such have many fin/ribs along the stile for draught proofing that ought to prevent any rope or string being pulled through. Kawneer are a German firm and have a reputation of being a top grade product at the pinnacle of window design.
I've got a gas kettle which whistles when its boiled but its for my van which has a gas stove. I also have a low power electric kettle for my van which takes a little bit longer to boil because its 1000 watts not 2000 watts. In the US the voltage in houses is lower so it takes longer to boil water in an electric kettle.
The length of time to boil depends on the wattage, not the voltage. The 110v circuit in US homes struggles to supply the amperage needed.
Before the electric kettle became widespread in the UK, everybody boiled water in a kettle placed on a gas burner.
@@andyp5899 yeah I know but if the voltage is lower, you can't run things as high power because its dangerous to run too much power (watts) through so low a voltage. I know this because the leisure batteries in my van are 12 volts dc but I have an inverter to convert to 230 volts AC to run apliances up to 1000 watts. The formula is P = I*V so power = current * voltange but too much current (amps) for a low voltage could blow a fuse or melt the wires. I'm guessing that US kettle are around 1000 watts whereas in Europe its normally between 2000 watts or 2500 for a home.
No gas in our kitchen. Our kettle is 3000W and boils just a mug full of water at once. Takes about 30 seconds.
I don't have a pull cord in the shower, but the switch is on the outside and not in the shower.
In my parental home there was a pull cord in the bedroom above the bed that was connected to a hotel circuit with an ordinary switch next to the door, I always found that very useful.
It means that you'd put rhubarb in a crumble for dessert rather than on your plate alongside your meat. Like an inverse of a tomato or a cucumber (which are both fruits botanically that we consume as vegetables culinarily)
There are Sash windows (up and down) in the UK, both the older wood type and the new plastic double glazed type. I much prefer them.
I understand the washer dryer combination is not very popular because they are not very good.
Long live the pull cord.
Amen!
A suggestion for you is to look rather deeper into toilet design, and in particular the flush mechanism. The vast majority of the USA uses what's called a siphonic flush mechanism, whilst in the UK (and pretty well all of Europe), a wash-down flush is used. There are pros and cons of each design, in terms of how water usage, who prone they are to blockage, and what are euphemistically called "skid marks".
We have a pull cord in the bathroom because the building regs don't allow a wall light switch to be positioned within a certain distance of the bath or shower (I think about 6'), to prevent the occupant using the switch while emersed. Most UK bathrooms are too small to achieve this and so a pull cord is used. A pull cord is not required in a separate toilet or kitchen because, although your hands might be wet from washing, you will not be emersed in water (or at least not normally!) and so the risk of electrocution is much less.
We have a washer but I don't think it has a true drier setting, it does have a spin cycle. Either way we have never had a drier, we always hang the laundry on a clothes line in the yard. Its way more common here in Australia to not have one and only in newer homes with limited access to the space needed for a line have them. I can see where a combo unit can be handy where a house or unit might have limited space for both. Speaking of which I've got a load to do before putting on the kettle for a cup of tea and I might have a crumpet for breakfast, oh BTW here in Australia the also come in a square format!
I have a pull cord in my bathroom (in a 1930s English semi-detached house). But my parents have a wall switch outside their bathroom (1950s semi-)
...and yet, my parents' 1960s house had the switch outside the bathroom, and my late '70s house has a pull cord. Obviously it's been a long period of evolution.
I would think that both a 1930s and 1950s house would (or should) have had a radical re-wiring long before now. My father re-wired his 1930s house in the 1980s and by that time some of the underfloor wiring had all its insulation rotted away - bare wires. It was rubber in those days and perished.
Which one of these things surprised you the most?
Definitely kettles AGAIN 😅
That this message isn't pinned to the top.
Well we have two pull cords in the bathroom - one for room lighting and one for the extraction fan. In addition we have two in the main bedroom - one over the vanity mirror and one over the centre of the bed near the pillows end to switch the main lighting on or off.
I work from an office at a large old manorial house (4 floors) where all the toilets above the ground floor have pull chains as opposed to a cord to operate the flush for the pan from an overhead cistern.
Noisy but highly effective!! 😄😄
I also have 2 one for the light and one of the power to the Electric shower.
Another excellent and interesting video. Did not know about the blackcurrant thing so learn something new every day 😎
I had always wondered why the US didn't use electric kettles, but your comment regarding voltage makes perfect sense. As a Brit. I would be lost without my electric kettle, because I don't have a hob (stove top?).
@@marydavis5234 Coffee makers don't usually get the water hot enough to make a decent cup of tea (it needs to be boiling).
Without getting too technical into exactly why, an electric kettle on the US voltage would probably take of the order of four times as long to heat a set amount of water to boiling compared to a UK/European one.
Parking brake is necessary, even with an automatic. In an automatic in park there is a small pin that locks the output shaft of the gearbox, you really don't want that tiny pin being the only thing that stops your car from rolling away when parked on a hill.
A good point! Florida is very very flat so I had never parked on any sort of incline really while living there!
@@GirlGoneLondonofficial yea still surprised you've never used it though. If you break the parking pawl on your transmission it's an expensive repair so I would use the parking brake if I were you 👍
You seem to know a lot on the subject, shame you can't spell brake.
As someone else has probably pointed out in the depths of the comments, there are plenty of (usually older) houses that have sash windows (the up/down type, usually with counterweights in the frames) rather than casement (the opening type). In some areas, sash windows are even required by the residents' code.
However, even those usually have a locking mechanism these days - the little latch that swings across can be easily opened by inserting a thin item (a knife blade will do, or a metal ruler) to flip it across, making it very easy to break in through those.
We had pullcords in the bathrooms before we renovated this house. Now we have switches outside :) Also we have shaver points in the bathrooms for toothbrushes etc.
We charge our toothbrush in the bedroom, no shaver socket. It only needs charging once a fortnight or so, if that, so it's not a big deal.
(Combo) washer/dryers. Good at neither washing or drying but useful space savers, so seen in many smaller UK homes. Separate tumble dryers (as we would call them) are much better but cost a lot to run. Lots will use the airing cupboard (where the hot water storage tank is) and/or hang outside. Or hang inside after using the spin cycle on the washing machine.
I have 2 pull cords in my bathroom. One for the light and one for the extractor, this one I never use. It was put in when they
insulated my house.
We have a pull cord in the bathroom upstairs possibly because it is part of the old part of the house which was built in 1937.We also have a shower room which was built in the late 90s and that has a switch on the outside but does have pull cord inside for the isolation switch for the shower unit.
Do u lot across the pond have Brambles , its a hedge row fruit that makes delish jam
We call them Blackberries and yes - we have a LOT of them
ah so the other side qf the pond , use the cultavated berry name not the wild name , sounds about right lol
Blackberries the fruit of the bramble.
When I went to Greece I was confronted with a Greek keyboard with the Latin alphabet underneath in small letters, then i moved to Germany & was confronted with a German keyboard the Z & Y are in different places & the umlaut keys were new. It didn't take long to learn either Greek or German keyboard when spelling English words. Ones brain can adapt.
A favourite prank at work used to be to swap two of the keys around and even though i can't touch type it still used to catch me out sometimes.
Electric kettles take at least double the time to boil on 110V versus 240V. To match 240V speed, dedicated 110V kettles would lose more energy via their upgraded wiring. Plus, septics are not big on 'quick' tea or instant coffee, so electric kettles never caught on.
Combo washer dryer are sold in US, but stack units are also popular.
Yes on pull cords in bathroom and loft.
My mother and gran had electric kettles. They are less necessary in hotter areas.
Crumpets are great with butter or marmalade.
Hedgehog flavoured Crisps. Yes, that cute little garden dwelling animal, that we all love to see. Even though their always covered in fleas.
Yeah!! we use to eat them.. ha ha ha
Just in case any Americans are shocked by this, I have to mention that no hedgehogs are used in the manufacture of these crisps - it's pork flavouring, honest!
The fleas on hedgehogs are species specific so there’s no danger of being bitten by one. I learned this from a friend who fosters hedgehogs and it was one of the first things I asked. 🙂
@@Zatnicatel
No!
They were 'hedge-hog' crisps - vegetable flavours.
We refuse to buy Walkers crisps because they employed Garry Lineker.
We have pull cords in our bathrooms for the shower and the light. 👍 💡
Have done in all our houses.
As a Brit, I had no idea about the blackcurrant thing. Definitely going to get my US colleagues trying it when they visit!