Living on the edge

If you'll allow me to be so bold, I'll quote this comment by Karl-Marx-Straße over at Ed's blog in its entirety:

Whereever you move, you're right to only consider somewhere with a gas cooker. I'm glad I'm not the only one to abhor electric. There are gas-powered tumble dryers on the market, but I don't need one. If you could still get gas lighting, I'd probably go for it. Cos I live on the edge. And was brought up with some scary Public Service Information Films (ask any Brit what they are) which involved a couple smelling gas in their house and one of them going to turn on the lightswitch, and someone else screaming "DON'T!" at them (accompanied by scary music). And don't even mention wearing plastic wellingtons on an escalator.

For your scary Public Service Information Film requirements, check out the National Archives website. I couldn't find the film KMS mentions, but there is one called "Close To The Edge", a pyschedelic "1980s update of the Green Cross Code" which fortunately I seem to have missed, being as I am of the original Green Cross Code generation starring British street crossing superhero "Green Cross Code Man".

Stop, look and listen.

Indeed, the National Archives site is an excellent way of whiling away a dark winter Friday afternoon, and there are some real comedy gems in there such as The Fatal Floor, Seatbelt safety with Jimmy Saville and that old classic, Protect and Survive. Keep your kids awake at night with Lonely Water, or this hairstyle sported by Kevin Keegan.

I digress. For a real gas-based lifestyle I can heartily recommend Japan, where - despite a propensity for alarming earthquakes and the quaint, endearing habit of stringing electricity lines up on poles in the street - everyone cooks with gas. Some homes even have little gas sockets where you can plug in portable gas stoves so you can cook at the dining table: some Japanese meals such as nabe (a cross between a soup and a stew, very popular in winter) are made on a "cook as you eat" basis. Unfortunately I don't have any photos, but when I do I'll put them up on my recently renovated Japan Blog, where I'm gradually dumping miscellaneous pictures which need clearing out from my harddrive. (Added: overhead wiring in Tokyo).

Talking of clearing out, here at Penguin HQ we've been going on a bit of a unseasonal spring cleaning spree recently and have turned up some miscellaneous stuff surplus to requirements and which we'll make available to the highest bidder, or more probably anyone willing to take it away for free. In a desperate ploy to increase readership numbers I'll make a separate post with details, because I've just reached that point in the mid-afternoon where thinking starts to hurt, and I haven't seen all the films on the Public Information site yet.

Added for gas afficionados: Berlin's streets are still partially lit by gas lamps.