I've always been fond of dismantling things to find out how they work. Reassembly didn't always succeed, though construction wasn't a problem (which is a post yet-to-come). Because of my hand at electronics, the Padre let me retune the VCR for Channel 5's launch. Behind the TV, Completely unsupervised. Emboldened by this, I later decided to dismantle an old plug. As a ten year old I was curious as to why there were three pins. Without realising the dangerous path I was on, I inserted the top pin into the socket: Nothing. I then moved onto the two lower pins. One in each hand, oblivious, I inserted the pins into the socket.
I thought the Padre had grabbed me away from what I was doing, but he had left for his night shift. After a minute sitting startled on the floor with my heart racing, aware that no-one else was in the room, I realised the thump on my shoulders was a result of hooking myself into the mains system. I couldn't understand how I hadn't stopped myself from doing something so obviously dangerous - something you think would instantly stand out as a bad idea. Whether my electrocution has anything to do with my off-the-scale skin-conductivity (as confirmed in 3rd year physics) remains a mystery.
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