On the days that the workmen actually did appear they slowly began to enact what was to become a multi-disciplined version of Flanders and Swann's ' - 'The Gasman Cometh'.
During this there were tales of walls that gave tingles up the arm (turned out that there was a bare wire in the new, wet, plaster) and items of work that were done out of sync' so that the plastering was done before the fitting of whatever needed fitting so that when it was fitted the whole thing needed plastering again- and so on.
At last, all of the work was complete and our dear heroine was allowed to take possession of her home and settle back into normality. Well, normal is you don't mind working in a kitchen where the light flashes and flickers like a scene from Will Hay's 'Ghost Train'. Not only did she have a disco kitchen but there was also the added benefit of a light switch that 'fizzed and buzzed'.
When she told me this I, replete with screwdriver, went over to check on the situation - and this is what I found when I got the switch off the wall, which was itself no mean feat as they'd painted over it, and it was well stuck (with additional help from what appeared to be double-sided tape!). Actually the tape and paint was doing as great job as one of the screws wasn't actually in the box's screw fixing.
And so - having tried not to knacker the paint job I levered the switch from the wall and here is what I found:
The more observant will notice the little screw at the bottom of the picture and the little wire that should have been in the switch is, as a result, unfixed. This was the 'line' and the cause of the fizzing and buzzing (arcing). So, a minute later the screw was replaced and the wire inserted (and fixed tightly) and it was 'job done' (remember the isolate the lights from the consumer unit [fuse box] before you start playing by the way!)
Another one of those 'things they don't teach you at theological college' moments!