Metric or Imperial

It has been a long long time since weights and measurements were switched from the imperial system to the metric system. However, some countries still choose to remain with the old system and this also include the temperature scale of Fahrenheit instead of Centigrade.

I still remember that difficult transition period when most of us had to change our mindset and think metric. Although it has been like a lifetime ago, some tradespeople are still quoting in the pound when I ask for the price of certain items like shrimp and meat. Thinking in metric has become a way of life unless we are in the United States of A. It is a three hundred and sixty degrees switch from kilo to pound, from km to mile. Amazing! Thank God for conversion apps.

I clearly remember that first time I did some baking when I was in the States. I set the oven to the temperature required to bake the cake that I have successfully made numerous times before. It was supposed to be done in ninety minutes but the cake mixture remained wet and did not rise even after double the time.

By the time my daughter defended that her oven was in perfect working condition, I had almost chewed away all my nails. It was pretty frustrating. She suggested that I could have set the oven temperature too low. It then dawned on me that the oven reads Fahrenheit and not Centrigrade. I adjusted the setting and the cake came out fine an hour later.