What just happened here? Was I unreasonable in some way?

[Trills]

I walk into the kitchen - kettle is full and nearly boiled. Mug is next to kettle with teabag in.

Me: "I'm going to have some of your water if that's OK - shall I fill up your mug?"

Other person: "It's OK I'll do it"

I take some of the water (leaving more than half a full kettle)

Other person: "It wasn't done yet"

Me: "Yes it was it had just clicked off"
(kettle is still in my hand)
"Do you want me to put it on your tea?"

Other person: "No I'll sort myself out"

Other person fills up kettle and puts it on to boil again.

Me: "Sorry did you need the whole kettle? I thought you were just making tea"

(note that this person always fills the kettle up all the way immediately after using it - not just before using it - so I should not have assumed that full kettle = more than just a cup of tea planned as you might with someone who only filled up kettles as much as they needed)

Other person: "It's alright"

I hang around in the kitchen a bit more doing a couple of other things.

Other person waits for kettle to boil again, makes cup of tea.

Cup of tea that could easily have been made with the over-half-a-kettle of just-boiled water that was already there before they filled it up again.

I busy myself in the kitchen for a few more minutes to just check that I saw what I thought I saw, and that nothing else was needed from the kettle.

What happened here exactly?

[EduCated]

On the filling the kettle back up for the next person, that is weird, isn't it? I got told off at a Saturday job once for not filling the kettle back up after I'd used it. Surely it's the responsibility of the person using it to fill it up first? Else it could end up sitting there all day.

[TattyDevine]

Some people are funny about reboiling water because it concentrates various sodiums or something so they add more water then boil it and it doesn't "feel" like they are reboiling then.

Bonkers though really.

Brits and kettles, so many different kinds of bonkers.

[Quiero]

We had a student on placement at work and I made him a cup of tea. I made it via the usual method of boiling water onto tea bag etc and passed it to him. Without saying a word he took it off me and put it in the microwave - for two minutes

Weirdo!

[DorisIsALittleBitPartial]

Haha Trills, I think you work with some of the same people I do - this is the sort of thing that happens in my work kitchen. We have a water heater for hot drinks but it's not hot enough for some people so they use the kettle instead. And the same people fill it up again and reboil it once they have used it so it can sit there cooling down in time for the next person to boil it in an hours time

[carabos]

I do this. It's a bit compulsive in that I would find it very difficult not too. However it's fairly harmless in the great scheme of things .

[Trills]

I'm not in Cambridge any more, just saying it was another place with very hard water.

This person was not waiting by the kettle, I didn't slow them down and interrupt their tea-making, they were doing something on a computer across the room - and didn't even notice when the kettle clicked off.

[StripedOss]

you should never leave water in the kettle, it causes limescale.

surely everyone knows that? (well, not everyone, Dh keeps leaving water in the kettle and wonders why it furrs up!

[SneakretSanta]

OP, did you say you're in Cambridge? Because I had a housemate there who did this and was completely barmy and well on the way to merging with the bricks may well still be there? The rationale was a very convoluted one as far as I recall...

[RonaldMcFartNuggets]

Do you work in a library by any chance, op? Usually filled with people with odd tendencies like that apart from me of course

One woman used to eat an entire tub of Philadelphia cheese a day.

The other would mark their milk wth a marker so they knew if people were stealing it I never watered it down after using it, no way

[FestiveElf]

Uh oh killed the thread! Soz!

[FestiveElf]

I'm going to go against the grain here and say YABU

The reason is that the other person was there using the kettle first - had filled up the kettle and was waiting for it to boil with teabag and cup ready. You then kind of charged in and took over the "tea making process". I think I would find that a bit annoying... better to have waited for the kettle to boil, let her pour her water and then ask to take some for your cup - i.e. wait your turn.

If you are in the queue at a water cooler, you would not overtake the person at the front get your water and then say can I get yours?

About re-filling the kettle, yes wasteful, but his/her choice.

[Tinks42]

at Eminybob and yeah just ask her. Leave out what you are really thinking which is probably... oy freak what on earth are you doing haha

[Eminybob]

You see, I would have just asked her why she did it.

[Tinks42]

Im with the most sensible answer here. Bubasaur. Live with it, I love quirks and never take them personally due to it not being about me.

[Bulbasaur]

When you live with people, you live with their quirks.

I'm sure you do things that seem nonsensical to the other person as well.

[Volley2014]

I can imagine acting like this if I felt some obligation to "have tea" with the person with whom I was sharing the kettle when I didn't want to. It's bizarre and irrational and doesn't make sense, but it's the same way I would refuse if someone asked me if they'd like them to saw off an extra couple of slices from the communal loaf if they were cutting it for a sandwich. Yes, I would be going through the same process 2 or 3 mins later (getting the loaf, the same knife, cutting it, putting it back) but I would feel under no obligation to eat with them or have further interaction etc.

[Trills]

If she HAD needed the whole kettle I WOULD have been sorry for taking some.

[Icimoi]

Perhaps they were concerned that they might get bits of scale in the water?

[Merrylegs]

(But YABU for your disingenuous 'Sorry. Did you need the whole kettle?' remark. Because you weren't actually sorry, were you?)

[hugoagogo]

Are you living with my ds? He takes as gospel the 'freshly drawn water' bit and many a kettle full of hot water waiting for my coffee or hotwater bottle has been flung down the sink because he wants a cup of tea.

[AwfulBeryl]

Trills.

[Em3978]

My inlaws do this too, weird, weird, weird behaviour! They'll boil it up to three times if they weren't there to catch it just on the boil to pour it into a mug. Always a full kettle at a time

(oh and they only use loose tea leaves too, a teaspoonful, straight into the mug, no straining them out or anything. And they think the rest of the planet is weird for not making tea this way... )

[DameEdnasBridesmaid]

DP does this, he then huffs and puffs while filling up the kettle to make his brew instead of just pouring the remaining water in. Bloody infuriates me, but it don't say anything because it would be me who was doing it wrong.

He fills kettle to brim too and then is so parsimonious in other areas like switching lights off - doesn't make any bloody sense to me.

[asmallandnoisymonkey]

I'd be cross at the wasted electricity, never mind the ridiculously odd behaviour!

[Trills]

Your DP doesn't want to smell too alluring to his colleagues with his irresistible shower-gel smell.