Hi,
I'm clearly a total novice when it comes to electrical wiring since I nearly electrocuted myself the other day.
Context: I had a ceiling light needing moving, so I switched the light off at the wall, then exposed it's entrails and measured the voltage between live and neutral. As expected I found 0 Volt (yes, my meter does work.., switching the light on produced the expected 220V). So I thought it was safe to proceed with work on the cable with the switch back in the OFF position.
I needed to cut the cable to shorten it, so when I took my cutting pliers to the cable, and pressed hard to cut, I got a loud bang, a spark, and fried cabling. The fuse luckily blew. So clearly I got a short-circuit.
Why? The light is connected with a standard, modern 3-core cable (live, neutral, earth).
Luckily my metal cutting pliers were insulated, so I never got an electric shock.. though I did get a plain shock !!!