Just remembered another one
A few years ago my ex and I bought a house, decided to splurge the profit from our previous house on a shiny new kitchen.

It was all done, plastered and tiled, and looked fucking ace, apart from the rubbish old plastic wall sockets just above the worktop.

So I went off to B&Q and bought some lovely new brushed stainless steel sockets.

Brought them home, unwrapped them, and carefully unscrewed one of the old ones from the wall. Pulling it slowly out, I saw that it was only a case of unscrewing 2* wires and screwing them into the new socket.

At this point, I guess you're all thinking that I started unscrewing one and gave myself a comedy electric shock. Nope! I killed the fuse at the consumer unit (just for the sockets, I needed the lights on) and removed one of the old sockets, fitted a new one, then screwed it all back together and turned the power back on.

Then I plugged the kettle in to make sure the sockets worked, which they did.

I continued in this fashion, killing the power and replacing the socket, then turning it back on and testing my work, until I got to the last socket, which I'd left to last as it was the awkward one, right underneath a glass-fronted wall unit full of glasses. This time, I forgot to kill the power again. All was going swimmingly, I'd unscrewed the socket, removed one of the wires, and was busily unscrewing the remaining wire, my head right underneath the wall unit, when my screwdriver simultaneously touched the wire I was unscrewing and the wire I'd already unscrewed.

There was a fucking huge bang, a gigantic spark right in front of my face and the lights went out. I of course nearly shit myself with fright, but unbelievably managed not to twat my head into the wall unit, which would have (a) hurt and (b) probably broken some of the glass therein.

It all ended okay, I went and reset the trip switch, killed the fuse for the sockets again and finished the job, but I had to go and get another screwdriver as I'd melted the blade of the one I started with. Lucky? I'd say so!

*possibly 3, I can't remember
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Tue 8 Apr 2008, 17:46, 2 replies)

I'd hope
there were 3 wires - live, neutral and earth. Or hot, cold and ground for the Americans among us.

Otherwise your sockets were not earthed, and this can be a tad dangerous.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Wed 9 Apr 2008, 8:37, closed)

@ K2k6
With his level of luck will it matter if they aren't earthed ;-)
(Biff..., Wed 9 Apr 2008, 14:44, closed)