Darn it. Looks like Bobby is right.

I had seen transformer thingies in places like Target and Radioshack, that'll allow you to run a 120V (US) appliance on a 250V (UK) system, so I'd thought that we'd be able to take our small kitchen appliances with us when we go. Today, though, I did some research online and, sadly and unwillingly, was convinced that what Bobby's been telling me for the past while is true : the little cheap transformers don't really work properly, and the ones that do work cost a fortune and are incredibly heavy and unwieldy. And even if we wanted to deal with that kind of transformer, things like my blender and bread machine still wouldn't work properly, since the transformer doesn't affect the frequency, so things would run at 50Hz instead of 60, so that they either ran slowly, or burned their motors out, or both.

Which means I have to say goodbye to my bread machine, my food processor, my immersion blender thingie, my coffee grinder (I don't mind much about that one, it is old and grotty anyway) and my microwave. I'm not heartbroken about the microwave either, since I seldom or never use it, but it does have sentimental value and I love the fact that it is blue and translucent. I think my crockpot would probably work, but it'd cost more to buy a transformer for it than to buy a new one. It's the bread machine I'm saddest about ...

So I guess I will try to ebay all that stuff. And, if that fails, donate it.

Someone is coming to give me a moving quote tomorrow ... the list of stuff we plan to take with us shrinks all the time, it seems.