[bobbyball]

Best one that I can remember was some years back when I went to help a friend who had just bought a ramshackle house that needed completely rewiring amongst many other things. His mate a few doors down was a full time sparkie who had done the power circuits and put in the cables for the lighting ones, neatly labelling each one at the ends going to switches and fittings. The guy was having serious relationship issues with his then girlfriend and decided to decamp to Cuba for a few weeks to clear his head. My friend was due to move into the property imminently and needed lights so I went to finish the job off.

What I hadn't bargained for was that my friend had thought the wires sticking out where the switches and fittings would go, and previously neatly labelled by the other guy (another "Robert"), were a bit long and shortened them, at the same time losing all the labels. When I saw this, I excused myself and went outside, down to the bottom of the garden. There I said a few very bad words, quite loudly, and then returned to the job, test meter in hand. Later on, after much crawling round in very grubby lofts and under dusty floors (it was a very old house), it was finally done. I was so grubby I had to have a shower in their newly commissioned bathroom; at least the boiler was working.

Tea was very definitely "on" my friend that night!