The story of two kettles!

It whistles!

When finally feeling a tad more affluent than I had in years sometime during October, I bit the bullet a bought a new electric kettle! This may sound a little ridiculous, but I have a dodgy fluctuating power supply, whereby light bulbs & appliances blow at an alarming frequency.  So, I've been using a stove top whistling kettle, which was fine, particularly in developing the art of patience, until I left it on and went out and it burnt and then rusted.  Bearing in mind I boil all my drinking water, you can imagine how awful it tasted...never mind the potential toxicity...

Look at that magnificent iridescent blue swirliness!

So I bought a truly beautiful Hamilton Beach kettle in Pricesmart, for under TT$300 which I found most reasonable. Its clear glass allowed my childlike outer self to giggle every time I was witness to the bubbles starting to build up into an explosive frenzy.  On top of that it glowed an iridescent blue, which combined with the handsome stainless steel features, the hidden cancer causing coil and the fact that it boiled water really, really fast, added immense amounts of joy to my daily, coffee drinking life.

Then all of a sudden it stopped.  Stopped coming on. No more blue light....no more bubbles...it was truly heartbreaking. I marched it back to Pricesmart, one of the stores in Trinidad with the most progressive returns policy and as it was still under its meagre 30 day warranty they agreed to give it to the tester man to test. Lo and behold the damn thing functioned perfectly.  The clerk took me through the heavy doors with access restricted to designated personnel and showed me my gorgeous new toy bubbling happily away unabashedly, almost tauntingly and informed me the technician could find nothing wrong with it. So I had no choice but to take it back home.

Needless to say, regardless of which plug I plugged it into, it refused to function in any reliable way ever again. It flirted briefly with the idea of performing when plugged into the surge protected plug board but then decided against it.  I went out and bought an individual surge protection for it's exclusive use..but alas, the kettle worked less and less frequently until kaput...it stopped working all together.  

Back to Pricesmart I went and after much umming and ahhing of the accumlating management team, partly due to the previous clerk

Elegant, functional, and a kinda cool orange

giving me back the wrong bill as well as my being well out of that paltry month's guarantee by then, I eventually got a full cash refund. Clutching my hard won cash triumphantly, I then headed down to Excellent stores and was fortunate enough, after seeing the same pretty kettle for TT$500, to get a marked down, bright orange Bodum for a mere TT$150! Despite its diminutive size, this was a true bargain, as the same kettle in more subtle colours was close to $600! Realising I had a steal of a deal, I purchased and left fast, just in case they suddenly decided there'd been a mistake.

Getting home, I plugged the new device directly into the surge protector and have enjoyed hot water in good if not super speedy time ever since. As for the smaller capacity, that works pretty well with my water filter jug so I don't have to be constantly topping up the kettle to maximise water boiled in my OCD manner. Although orange isn't my favourite colour, and it kinda clashes with the rich, metallic maroon of the blender, I still find it aesthetically pleasing, and it even has a hidden coil like it's more flashy counterpart.

However, the story goes on....my father had admired the first fabulous water heating appliance, but had been perturbed at its limited lifespan so I thought had decided against putting his hard earned retirement money into such a volatile product. At a loss of what else to buy him for Christmas, and seeing them lined up resplendently in the supermarket, I decided his power supply was steady enough to handle it, so went ahead and paid almost twice the original price for the same product, but with a six month warranty.  However, I currently seem to be out of his purchasing loop, as following the unwrapping procedure in the wee hours of Christmas morning, he scurried off to the kitchen only to return with the exact same kettle, which he'd bought 'just in case' his common or garden version ever gave out! Hmmph...I knew I should've re-gifted him the opulent, crystal wine stopper! 

After some discussion, and reiterating how much the thought really did count on this occasion, Daddy returned the kettle to me.  I now had one of those powerful existential choices to make....keep it and risk having my heart broken again....or keep the orange Bodum which has been perfectly functional and I was falling in love with in a much deeper and steadier manner. I looked at the two of them and felt it would be wrong to replace my high end branded, designer product with that gimmicky thing with a ridiculous brand name...so following a brief sigh succeeded in returning it to the supermarket (no mean feat in Trinidad...but that's for another discussion).

As I got home, with a pile of groceries in the kettle's stead, and a light hearted feeling I suddenly realised how this situation had so accurately reflected my recent love life!! Guy #1 brought me a heady mix of joy and adoration, and although wasn't exactly flamboyant, was part of an exciting world. I was thrilled and excited.... until he became inconsistent and after not too long fizzled out.  Along came guy #2 more interesting, with more depth and pretty unusual. Maybe he wasn't what I originally thought I wanted but as things develop he's proving to be an excellent choice. As well as being reliable, he consistently fills me with joy yet doesn't overdo it. 

As attractive as the original kettle still was, and how sweet my bubbling blue memories remained to be, sometimes you just have to sigh and relinquish items which weren't for you. And it's certainly worth holding on to functional items which have beauty, good design, bring a sense of calm and also make a reliable cup of coffee!