Who put the plug on?

I only use my blender for making drinks. It chops the heck out of some ice for really good strawberry margaritas LOL I'll be 35 on my next birthday so, either you're really old or things are just really archaic (LOL) over there.

35 Zeph. I think I'll have another year at 36.

Hi Zeph, so did I guess right, a blender will turn your cooked veggies into soup and is the same thing as a liquidiser? You are just too young to know about appliances without plugs I suspect. Everything used to be like that in the UK when I was growing up, hence Sandras tale above of hubby taking off the plugs before something broken got chucked away.

Let me know how the bread maker goes.

My frequent memory lapse involves buying coffee and then going to the car with th coffee in one hand and car keys in th other hand. so I put the cup of hot coffee on top of the car whilst opening the door. And that is very logical isn't it? So I get inti the car without retrieving the coffee and only realise later when I reach for the coffee holder to find out that it is empty. So annoying!

Hi cynthiann, that plug thingy really sums it up. Never come across the petrol pipe thingy though, the man at the petrol station puts it back on the pump whenever he's finished doing what he does with it. I did drive a few miles back from town today wondering what the dreadful rattle was in the car, then suddenly realised and stopped the car. My car keys and house keys were still in the car door on the outside and were about to rattle off onto the road. It's a good job I realised in time or wouldn't have been able to lock the car again or get into the house.

Most eurozone electrical equipment is sold as 220/240 Volt,so it only takes a change of plug to get it up and running again,depending on how permanent you want to make the transition..a travel plug adaptor will let you bring your electrical necessities with you on holiday,but if you're moving home,swapping the plug may be more convenient once you're there.My latest fridge is an under counter type,but the socket is above the counter,so it needed a hole drilled in the countertop below the socket,the moulded plug cut off,and a "screw together" plug added once the power lead was fed up through the hole..most of the time you don't need to change the plug,it's times like these you may have to choose to change it..Small US electrical gizmos generally have a moulded 2 pin plug with no earth connection,and run on 110 V.Bigger ones have a 3 pin plug attached.You need to remember to buy a voltage converter to run one of these (2 pin gadgets) in the UK/Euroland,otherwise for a short while they go twice as fast before going *poof*..Bigger appliances would not be recommended as imports due to power requirements,although some US Appliances such as the big vertical fridge/freezers can be bought as converted import models. I brought back a small electric coffee grinder which is still going well..

Well that's the odd thing, I can't remember when the transition took place, everything had to have a plug added when I was growing up and I never really thought about when it changed until today, probably because I thought it would be a bother to go and find someone to put one on today. I know everything Greek I have is moulded on. So are my UK electric items which it would be more sensible to change to Greek sockets rather than have adaptars trailing everywhere but I don't even know if they can be changed when moulded?

Can you say all that again in Greek please? I got the bit about things going poof. Now I don't use a little tourist adaptar, I have a couple of ones which have four spaces for 3 pin sockets which have a 2 pin socket on the end to plug into the wall. They don't run any big appliances but on one there is my lap top, my sons game boy charger and I've used it for the camera and the other monitor to work with my lap top. The other one has the other lap top and the telephone. I do used the travel one for the liquidiser. So is anything likely to go poof with that set up? I mentioned somewhere else as well that when I visited England the charger for the mobile was a 2 pin one and I couldn't find an adaptor that worked the other way round, from 2 pin to 3, odd that one.

Hi Aunty, it was always like that in the UK when I was growing up. Did you really buy things with plugs attached when you were a teenager or was someone screwing them on in the back of the shop? I wonder why the difference. Over here it wouldn't have been an issue as the village wouldn't have had any electircity then. I'll open the breadmaker up tomorrow, it was dark and cold when I got back from town. We'll bake bread tomorrow in it and I'll read up on marmalade making before the sacks of oranges are availalble.

I know u don't expect me to remember about that when i was a teenager, lol. I do well to remember what happened yesterday.

How was I expected to remember that Aunty?

Oh, yeah I wasn't thinking of that. Dryers and stoves are that way because there are 2 different plug styles for plugging in 220.

Hi Karen, actually I was talking about the UK 25 years ago, and not just big appliances then, most things came without the plug attached. So tell me, did you put the plugs on for people, expect them to do it themselves, or rush off to find a man?

We just sold them...the customers had to put them on after they got the dryers, etc., home.

Hi Rawbill, I've been misinunterstood I fear, I was talking of 25 years ago back in the UK when it was perfectly normal for electrical goods not to have a plug on, and one had to be purchased and attached before the thing would work. But yes I have items now with English plugs on which need special adaptars to work in the Greek electrical sockets. I've managed all this time without learning how to change a plug and presumed that all men were born knowing how to do it (naturally without reading a single instruction).

It seems that plugless appliances were a UK thing only.

Wow, as far as I am aware plugs have always been part of equipment here, probably because we are so far from everywhere else...LOL I just naturally assumed that the rest of the world has always been this way too. I have learned something today! Yeah, even as a baby, I could do minor electrical work...LOL. Instructions? What are they???

Nope, I've never seen electrical products without the plug... My mother doesn't know about that either. She says there were some cookers that had a plug different to the ones used in our country, but you had a "normal" type of plug adapted so you could insert the plug available for the cookers in them. My mother says the village was electrified around 1968, but there are many villages up in the mountains that still don't have electricity. That's because nobody cares enough to bring electricity to their doorstep... The electric companies probably care only of their income and don't think a few hundred people could make enough profit to go through all the "trouble" of building power lines that far... damn vultures!

That's so strange to think of people still in your country existing without electricity. I wonder if they actually want it or just live as they've always lived. Do they have gererators that run things like fridges and televsions? It reminds me of things I've heard of here before electic came and people did not have electric ovens. When they prepared a special dish they took it to the bakery to be cooked in their much larger wood oven than the smaller ones at home. Last night we had a power cut for half an hour, a common thing, luckily there was light from the lap top screen as this is the kind of area which is so black without any light. It was quite cosy once a few candles were lit but inconvenient even for such a short time as we are so used to electricity, and I wa about to make coffee. It reminded me I forgot to buy the small gas camper thing for coffee without power, and that all the matches were wet and useless and must be replaced as lighters are difficult to light burnt down candles with and bits of rolled up paper set alight go out immediatly.

Hi stvasile, I thought you might be familiar with that system in Romania too but you're probably too young. When I was growing up in the UK appliance were sold with the cord attached yes, but no plug on the end, one had to buy and fit a plug. I can't even remember when this stopped and they started coming with plugs attached, probably not long after the incident I described. At the time there were two high street chains in the town and lots of independant electrical places too. I certainly would expect someone selling electrical things to go out of their way a bit so that one could actually use the thing, especially when they also worked on commission. The word of one 'rudeness' spreads more harm to a buisness than 100 praises. The village here actually got electiricty between 30 and 40 years ago, for the first time, when did you get it in your village? In fact I know of one house which only had electricity installed for the first time two years ago.

Well, you learn something every day! I didn't know you could make marmalade in a bread oven!

Hi Cloudwatcher, well I did get as far as removing the instructions from the box, which appear very complicated, and then got sidetracked by the fact that marmalade made in it requires something called preserving sugar and not granulated sugar, and I've never heard of it. This could account for the fact that I've never actually come across a Greek with homemade jam, not once. This is a bit odd actually when you think that most Greek women can produce a tray of baklavas which appear so big I don't know how they got in the oven. So the bread will be wafting over tomorrow.

thea- nah,i mean to clean the device itself..it's just annoying when it's banging around in the sink because you're not supposed to submerge it. as far as electrocution goes-i'd already done that enough at former job..i don't need the home version (i am serious-3 times.lousy cheap vacuums..cheap employer). note i said "former job" LOL

Hi scarlet woman, what were you doing removing plugs to clean them. You've lost me, I've never cleaned a plug in my life, they're electric so we could electocute ourselves. Glad they've put an end to that dangerous little habit of yours. Gadgets, smadgets, crock pots and chip fryers. Don't have either. Fjaril you amaze me, doesn't a deep fat fryer rather spoil the pristine neat area of your kitchen surfaces.

Hi jillhill, I know, it's mad. Imagine the horror of getting something home from the shop and then discovering it is self assembley.

Hi Hatley, all through my childhood in the UK nothing came with plugs attached so the old ones were taken off and saved for the next plugless appliance. When it came to doing it myself though I had not a whit of interest in learning how it should be done. I don't know if Greece ever went through that too as my village got its first electricity within the last 35 years, amazing isn't it? cooking with fire and living by candelight, but I will never understand how they coped without fans in the summer. We are kindred spirits when it comes to our fear of wires and plugs and I'm just glad that things have them these days.

Did He collect the moulded on plugs,or just the ones you had to unscrew and take apart to get at the fuses?

Hi Sandra, I remember my Dad doing exactly the same thing, always taking plugs off so as not to buy a new one for the next item. I never actually bought a plug as I always made them put one on for me for free, otherwise it would be of no use to me, unless I went to the bother of getting a man in. A few of the things I have now still have the English plugs on, the liquidiser, both laptops, and a few other things, so I have to use those adaptars. What flumoxed me though is that my mobile has a Greek plug on the charger, but when I went back to the UK for one week I could not find an adaptar to work the other way round, EU to UK style. Odd that. I've never considered changing my English plugs to Greek plugs as they are all moulded on as Shepherd said, and no one saved an old Greek ones like Basil.

Just the screw apart ones. Moulded plugs are too new-fangled to figure on his radar, bless him!

hi checkmail, like I said I'm going back 25 years with that incident, but I always remember the negatives of shopping somewhere and don't go back. Things do come with plugs these days but they didn't used to in the UK, but apparently they did in the States, so they must have been more up to date. It will be handy for you to have electrical knowledge as then you won't need to get a man in to do it, or in your case an electrician.

Hi sunny, I think the days of that are gone for good but its only the responsders here from the UK that ever came across it, no one from anywhere else. I had no idea a mobile phone needed charging when I had the first one, I knew they had batteries in and hadn't bothered looking if there was anything else in the box after it had been set up by the man in the shop.

today similar problem exists with memory cards. phones and cameras do not come with memory cards and even if they do, they are of so less capacity that you are left with no other choice but to buy a high capacity memory card. however with decreasing price of memory cards i hope that soon such gadgets would come with memory cards included...........

that's the one alright...a rectangular piece of plastic...size may vary between that of a postage stamp to that of a fingernail. now a days it is an integral part of the mobile phone and stores all your data. and in case of camera phones, it stores all photos and video clips.

mAYBE we just overlooked the electricity...don't seem to need it..refrigerators work just FINE in Igloos! LOL!

Hi Shirley, so your dreadful storms continue unabated, ours have stopped for a while and another day of sunshine was enjoyed, but it went dark at 5.30 when I was expecting 6, and got stuck on the mountain road in the dark which I really don't like, especially coming downhill to home with the sea on the same side as the car, naturally at the bottom of a large drop. Haha, you misread me my dear, I said 25 years ago and was speaking of the UK, they hadn't actually had electriciy in this area very long then. Back then plugs came separately as they did all through my childhood, which Sandra will vouch for in her box, so no, not plugging your leg. Did this never happen over the pond. How very odd that we were so used to it and you never had it.

I'm surprised that it happened anywhere...

Hi moonchild, yes there's been a couple of responses from Australia confirming this didn't happen there, apparently it didn't happen anywhere except the UK, which surprised me.

I was convincing myself I was imagining it until Alice turned up remembering the same thing.

Hi Malpoa, that's a strange fear to have. I can understand it if thats the way of turning something off if it doesn't have a switch but it's safe if you turn the thing off first. I think the only thing I need to plug in without a switch is the iron, ironically that's the only thing that always sends the trip switch up on the electric panel and plunges the house into darkeness. I wonder if there's a connection.

Malpoa I agree, irons are nasty things invented for nasty boring jobs and cause havoc with the electric.

Ah iron!!! it is the first culprit of puttig mein this state.. I got my first shock from our iron... the wire gets entangled and the lamination comes off quickly..our iron had a peculiar way of passing current through the zari work it is a type of thread work with metal thread)...even now, when i plug in I tend to move back ward...many times the plug has fallen from my hand quite before the socket!!! there is no question of plugging in after switching on...

Hi Lou, well done, see you've gone blue. I didn't know until today that an adaptar is the same thing as a transformer, strange isn't it? Are they selling things with European plugs now in the UK? Thought that would have been against the law. Couldn't you just have changed the plug on the toothbrush if you know how to change a plug? It would have been a complete waste of time if I'd ever learnt how to change a plug though as now the wiring is completely different over here, so I have quite a few adaptars around.

It's very useful for picking up strange things here. A transformer makes an adapaptar sound like something which does amazing things. So I gather its not worth taking the plug off and replacing it with either a UK or Euro one then now they are moulded on. Just think though you won't need to cart an adaptar over to Europe for your tooth brush.

Ooh! I hadn't even noticed! I've not even been very active on here the last week or so, people must have been very nice to rate the comments I made! Lol! I didn't know that about transformers either. See? Learning something new every day! The plug was fitted to the wire, you know the kind I mean? So to replace it, I would have had to have cut the flex, so it seemed better to buy the adapter. I've only ever seen those plugs on toothbrushes and razors. I think it's because if you buy one of those mirrors for your bathroom with the light and power point attached, they always have the 2 prong power supply.