This is a technical post so if you like kittens and flowers, don't read it

Because I am kind, like Oprah Winfrey (except I'm not black and I don't have a problem with fluctuating weight), I thought that I would share some interesting facts about the year 2011 with you.

Strap in and hold on tight .........!

This year we are going to experience four unusual dates: 1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11 and 11/11/11. But that's not all ........ take the last two digits of the year you were born (e.g. I was born in 1970, so I took the number seventy). Add to it the age that you will be this year (e.g. I will be 41). And here is the freaky bit; the result will be 111 for everyone. I am sure it would be quite easy to work out the formula but I can't be arsed (but if I had to pick three people who could be arsed, it would be Masher, Robert and Brennig).

And my last interesting fact about the year 2011 is that October will have 5 Sundays, 5 Mondays and 5 Saturdays. This only happens every 823 years.
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Now for something completely different. As you know, earlier this week I decided to treat myself by buying a new Morphy Richards 'fast boil' kettle. Unusually for me, I bought it on the fly, without researching all the different types of kettle beforehand.

My laissez faire approach led to me suffering from gadget anxiety: What if my kettle wasn't a bargain? What if the 'fast boil' function was a farce? How would I live without a glowing blue 'on' button?

So I decided to ask for help with an experiment. I wanted everyone to fill their kettles to the '6 cup' mark and then time how long the kettle took to boil. An amazing 8 people decided to partake in the experiment, and I have collated the results in the graph below.

Chart No.1 The results of my kettle boiling experiment (click to enlarge)

Conclusions:

1. The mean (average) boiling time of a kettle is 208 seconds
2. Men have slower kettles than women in 71.4% of cases, and they can't multi-task
3. Susan's kettle was so fast that she feared it would explode and ended up returning it to the store
4. Jim's kettle was so slow that he needed to use diary entries whenever he wanted a cup of tea
5. Steve's boiling time was exactly 4 minutes, suggesting a roughshod, round-up approach to timing
6. American's don't appear to use kettles at all, which meant the majority were unable to participate

So all in all my kettle is just 'average' and I am gutted. But this is offset by my intrigue as to why Americans and Canadians don't have kettles? Is it because they don't drink tea? Or do they make it using a different method?

Pic.No.1. Ooooh, a lovely cup of tea

If you could enlighten me that would be wonderful. And thank you for your participation in my experiement.

P.S. Today I have been at my London house all day (again). My back is killing me because I had to undertake some 'manual work'. Not only that, the manual work involved staining floorboards and I forgot to wear gloves so now my right hand is (probably permanently) stained an 'antique pine' colour. Bummer.