The electrician came round this morning because one of the plugs kept blowing up. I left him to it with a big glass of Sobo squash and some Coconut Cookies. He emerged a few minutes later saying that he’d found the problem. It was the plug for one of the lamps, not the wall socket at all. And to prove it he bit through the wires for the lamp and deftly inserted them into the wall with his bare hands. Sure enough the lamp lit up. He stood up with the air of a man who has wrestled a lion and won. I said, well, what do I do with the lamp with no plug. Which was the wrong thing to say. Trust me to pick on his one area of weakness when he had conquered everest. He weakly suggested I buy a new plug and fit it myself. Which I accepted. I need to learn these things. In the mean time I suppose there’s nothing for it but to rip the plastic coating off with my teeth and insert the bare wires into the socket.
