[dotti34]

A couple of the things I did were quite ‘shocking’ and I’m probably fortunate I am still here to tell the tale. The first one occurred when I was about 14. My sister had a hairdressing business and was giving me a perm. This was in the days when dryers were huge and heads almost disappeared up them. My sister put the machine over my head, turned it on, and went off to do something else. I got bored and I could see through the mirror that on one side of the contraption were the switches to turn it off and on, hotter or colder, but on the other side the corresponding area had nothing but an open space and I wondered what was up there. What did I do? I told you I was bored - well I stuck my hand up into the space….I got a big shock in more ways than one to discover that there was a heck-of-a-lot of electricity going through that area and I sort of intercepted it. It went into my hand, up my arm. So much so that it is a wonder my hair didn’t stand straight up. Remember also that my hair was still damp and if I recall it rightly the curlers used then were metal…..did I tell my sister - no, I didn’t tell anyone and thankfully my hand soon felt normal again. Kept it out of unknown spaces after that.

The second time I was shocked was when I was using an electric toaster and some crumbs had caught on the element and had started to burn. Without thinking, I knocked them off the still switched-on toaster with the knife I was holding……and was thrown backwards when the knife and the element connected. Can I blame being young for this stupidity - no, I was about 40 by then. Some people just never learn…