I love the way Americans discuss electric kettles as though they're from the future / deep in the past.

I remember visiting a family in 1999 and asking why they were boiling water on the hob in a saucepan to make me tea.

"How else would you do it," said the 'mom'.

"In an electric kettle," I said.

Mom said: "What? The plastic things? How do they not melt?!"

Awesome.

By the way - is someone suggesting in this thread that they make tea using water from the hot tap?