To ask overseas folk what British quirks they think are weird/funny?

[Burntmybiscuits]

Us Brits are always on our high horse, making light humour over the habits of other countries (particularly the U.S!), so I thought it would be funny to see what people overseas find 'unique' about us!

*bottom two

Wait can earthing hole shock?

So should we be rinsing chicken or not? I'm tenterhooks over my defunct washing up bowl, here.

Can't be because some plugs have plastic thingy, not metal one for top hole. 🤔
Plus I would have gotten shocked quite few times😂 you can feel something move when you stick stick in and that opens the bottom to so plug slides in.

Only non-metal appliances have a plastic earth connection. Anything with a metal casing will be connected to earth as well, it causes the supply to trip in case of a short between the casing and damaged interior wiring. In normal use the earth pin doesn't carry any current.
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_wiring_in_the_United_Kingdom

@itssquidstella From memory they were around £2k plus VAT plus labour - no way we could justify it! They were enormous windows though.

@mbosnz Sorry if I didn’t come across as chilled! I was more amused than anything else, and suggesting that the poster outraged at people daring to say they didn’t like the bread as much as at home might want to take some deep calming breaths. But recognise that wasn’t very clear!

So should we be rinsing chicken or not? I'm tenterhooks over my defunct washing up bowl, here.

No. There is no need to rinse chicken unless you butchered the chicken yourself.

www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/never-wash-raw-chicken/

So should we be rinsing chicken or not? I'm tenterhooks over my defunct washing up bowl, here.

Absolutely and definitely not no matter where you come from, it’s a health hazard.

Devastated to learn that nomming on a bag of crisps at lunch is not considered a mature nutritional choice by our continental neighbours. We just can't go very long without eating something potato

Anyway, just so you all know on the 'anything can be a sandwich' front, in Barnsley there's this thing called a 'pasty barm' you can get from Gregg's. It's a pasty, in a barm. We call it 'the kebab of the north'.

We had some German friends to stay, and they were completely gobsmacked that, when out in the car in slow moving traffic, we would let people waiting on side roads out in front of us. They thought we were bonkers, even though we explained it was just being courteous.

@mbosnz Sorry if I didn’t come across as chilled! I was more amused than anything else, and suggesting that the poster outraged at people daring to say they didn’t like the bread as much as at home might want to take some deep calming breaths. But recognise that wasn’t very clear!

Nah, you did - that was more in the spirit of 'salut!'. It's bloody funny. People are the same the world over, aren't they? Fundamentally. . .

True that! And the wine looks good right about now...

@Slith well. That's interesting. I might reconsider digging in them in a future😂 Thank you

Christmas crackers. We were living in Spain and my Spanish DH family decided they were all coming to ours for a typical British Christmas dinner! I had taken a box of Christmas crackers and put these out for each person on the table. They were really intrigued about them and me and DH had to show them what you had to do with them - pull them! Then explain you had to wear the paper hat and be amazed by the little toy you got! However I have to admit the enclosed joke got the better of me and I decided to skip explaining them!

Anyway, just so you all know on the 'anything can be a sandwich' front, in Barnsley there's this thing called a 'pasty barm' you can get from Gregg's. It's a pasty, in a barm. We call it 'the kebab of the north'.
That's so horrible yet genious 😂

People's attitudes to their extended families. Bizarre to me.

dinner for one - never heard of it till my df went to Denmark and his danish friends all thought it was hilarious. and insisted he watched it not believing he'd never seen it.

I wish mixer taps were more common here
No two ways about it carpeted bathrooms are grim

Grew up abroad and the one thing which all guests were told to bring with them was baked beans. You could get them but they were expensive

@JassyRadlett thanks - that's actually less than I feared! Will have to get some quotes after lockdown.

I’m sorry if this has already been asked (haven’t read all 36 pages) but to all the people being confused about 2 different guests for weddings, what do you do? Do you not invite people that you would actually quite like to see on the day because you like them (maybe work colleagues or family friends) because you can’t afford £s per head for them to come to the whole thing, or do you just invite everyone and generally have less/inferior quality everything? Or maybe just save for an extra couple of years?

I’m genuinely asking, having extra guests for the reception just seems so sensible

Milkmen doing house to house deliveries.....there are still about 5,000 of them.

I’ve just realised I should have said it was ten years ago! But good luck! For us we weren’t planning on staying long term so couldn’t justify the outlay in terms of bill savings or adding value...

The mains voltage in the usa is 120 whereas it is 230 in the uk. So our hairdryers give a good blast and kettles boil in decent time. Perhaps getting an electric shock by dropping your hairdryer in the bath has much more serious consequences in the Uk because of this, so we have no plugs or switches in the bathroom.

So should we be rinsing chicken or not?

@mous I'm not uk, so really don't have a say about your way of doing things. But may I suggest, you have a designated bucket of bleach for dipping your chicken? Chlorinated US chicken has been a big thing on the Brexit threads and that must be the ultimate rinse .

Thanks for the chicken feedback @JassyRadlett and @phoenixrosehere

This means I've actually learned something useful on AIBU. I better go and read some troll threads like AIBU to take my budgie for a walk, or AIBU for opening my window more than once a day in order to redress the balance

In fairness, I was taught that you had to wash raw chicken in home economics. I blame everyone but myself for doing this wrong all my adult life.

I’m genuinely asking, having extra guests for the reception just seems so sensible.

You figure out what your budget is and who you want to invite, and then figure out how to make it work. All weddings involve compromises, whether on guest list or venue or other things. Having two tiers of guests just isn’t even an option in our weddings so you don’t consider it - much the same as you don’t have a C list here who are only invited to the ceremony because you’d quite like to see them but you can’t afford to pay for their bacon sarnie at the evening do.

I’ll be honest: I find the evening do at British weddings quite boring. Half the party is already drunk, and you’re basically just coming out for a very dressed up disco for a few hours, usually somewhere quite inconvenient to get home from. You don’t get to talk to people any more than you would in a crowded and noisy bar. I like the weddingy bit of weddings!

In fairness, I was taught that you had to wash raw chicken in home economics. I blame everyone but myself for doing this wrong all my adult life.

That seems eminently fair!

Warning though - some Mumsnetters will fight TO THE DEATH that washing chicken is the right thing to do, in the face of all scientific evidence.