Electrifying Stuff!

The light switch at the top of the stairs had started playing up, always been a bit loose, something that I kept meaning to fix but never got around to. It had decided to stay on, no matter what position you put it in, so I called the electrician, as it was a complicated two-way switch system, where you can turn on the light at the bottom of the stairs, then turn it off when you get to the top.

I have never been a great fan of electricity, and have had my fair share of drilling through cables and forgetting to turn off the mains. I mean that stuff can kill you if you’re not very careful!
The electrician spent nearly an hour, testing every plug and filling the house with an ear-splitting bleep every two seconds. Eventually he had to admit he couldn’t understand why it was behaving like this.


Carpets and floorboards were lifted and more manic bleeping ensued, but he still didn’t look happy. He was standing in the hall, scratching his head, when he suddenly noticed a picture above the downstairs light switch. ‘How long has that been there?’
I had to admit I had put it there the day before. Quick as a flash, he ran his noisy bleeper thingy up and down the wall, and it lit up like the fourth of July!
To cut a long story short, the power was turned off and the cable stripped from the wall. He discovered three holes in it and raised an eyebrow. That’s when I had to admit to trying three times to get the picture in the right place.
That was when he started looking at me as if I were the second coming, saying I was incredibly lucky to still be walking around. What he couldn’t figure out, was why the circuit breaker hadn’t been tripped.
Apart from feeling more than a little stupid, there was a trace of gratitude. Something, which will probably grow, as I consider the enormity of what could have happened. And three times!~~~~~This was not the first time we had avoided an electrical disaster.
I remembered another incident that happened years ago when we were living in a council house. I kept smelling fish in the kitchen. Not so strange you might be thinking. But we didn’t eat much fish in those days. The odd fish finger and that was about it.
But the smell was getting stronger and I knew something had to be wrong. But what could it be?Then one day, I noticed one of the walls felt very warm, and on closer inspection, discovered the fuse box was situated on the other side of the wall. And it wasn’t just warm, it was hot.
To this day, I am grateful for my sensitive nose, as it certainly saved us from a serious house fire that day!