6 things I missed about my kitchen

In a kind of sequel to 6 things I missed about my bed, I am writing this list of things I missed about my kitchen. I went to visit my grandparents in Essex over new year and they don't have a normal gas or electric cooker or oven. They have an AGA. For those of you who have never had to deal with one of these things, it's like a massive hunk of whatever AGAs are made of (I think iron?) and it is always on. It' can be like having a fireplace in your kitchen but a metal block you put food in. But I have no idea how to do anything with it apart from make toast on the hob on the top. There are a few other mysteries about my grandparent's kitchen so here is my list of things I missed about my kitchen.

1. Not having wait forever for toast. My grandparents (as far as I know) don't have a toaster. We have to open one of the lids on the hob, get this weird round sort of a metal tennis racket thing (patiently waiting for someone to tell me what to call it), stick your piece of bread in it and patiently wait while one side gets toasty, then turn it over and wait some more. I've never timed how long it takes but having to stand around waiting for it makes it feel like ten goddamn minutes. I'm like 90% sure my toaster can toast bread about 3 times as quickly. Seeing as I have zero idea how to use the AGA to make anything else, toast kind of becomes the regular snack and I can tell you that by the time I've made it, I'm twice as hungry. It's a brutal circle.
2. Who knew microwaves were so different from each other? My microwave has a nice big start button. My grandmother's does not. I swear when I went to heat up whatever it was one dinnertime, I managed to tap in the time but spent about five minutes quibbling over how to start the ruddy thing. I think I did find the button eventually. I'm not an complete idiot.
3. I only know how to make tea and coffee in my own house. On my kitchen counter, opposite the cooker, is the kettle. Next to the kettle are two clear jars. One has tea bags in it and the other has sugar in it. Coffee jars are kept in the cupboard directly underneath it. Milk in the fridge, obviously. Very simple. I went to make tea for some people while at my grandparents. I managed to start the kettle boiling (because unlike microwaves, all kettles are 90% alike), then I looked around and I realised I had no idea what I was doing. I could see the jars of coffee near the windowsill behind the kettle, but no one wanted coffee. But could I find any tea bags? Nope. Sugar? Alas, no. I basically stood there for two minutes being very confused, then sat back down at the table. Someone else had to make the tea. It was very embarrassing.
4. All my cutlery and utensils are in the same drawer. But my grandparents have two drawers at either end of a row. One has normal knives, forks and spoons. The other drawer has sharp knives, kitchen scissors, ice cream scooper and all the other kind of utensils you might put in the cutlery drawer. This makes it very hard for me, someone who only visits this set of grandparents two or three times a year, to find what someone asks me for. My gran's friend asked me for sharp knives to cut the foods people had brought to her big new year/birthday party and of course instead of being able to open one drawer and pull out some knives, I had to go along the whole row of drawers trying to find some. It was even more embarrassing that she had to point out which drawer the knives are kept in the end.
5. My choice of juice never runs out. I have a thing for cranberry juice, the bottled kind you dilute with water and I like sparkling water with my cranberry. I took a bottle of cranberry and a bottle of sparkling water down to my grandparents. Then it ran out. I really didn't want to ask my gran if we could go to the shops to get more when I was only staying a couple more days and she'd been shopping like the day before, so I didn't and I hated it. I sound so arrogant and privileged but I like my juice and I don't like being forced to drink something else if I can help it. In my house we never run out and I miss that when I'm away.
6. And finally, I just know where stuff is. I got a problem with being in strange places, and even though my grandparents have lived in that house for around ten years, I still don't know my way around it very well and it puts me on edge. I wanna know where all the things are and what they are and if I'm allowed to eat the things or not.

So there you are, my middle life crisis of a blog post. About kitchens and my anxiety about them and my embarrassing moments of the last week. I'm so bloody dignified, I know.