8. More odd things...

Tonight has been the strangest so far.

Half an hour ago the lights went all funny.

I was in the kitchen cooking poached eggs for tea, my wife was helping, the boys were watching telly in the living room and my wee girl was upstairs in her bedroom. She shouted down that her light kept going off, so my wife went to see if she was okay. She turned on the switch for the landing light at the top of the stairs - and the downstairs hall light came on. She called me to check, so I came into the hall and turned on the hall light - and Katy (my daughter) shouted that her bedroom light came on.
We checked the switches and it seems that the downstairs hall switch now controls all the bedrooms and the bathroom lights upstairs. The upstairs landing switch controls the downstairs hall light and god know what turns on the landing light.
What's odd is that an hour earlier they were all working perfectly.

Now I know what you're thinking - it's probably a short circuit. That's exactly what I thought too except for two small points.

Firstly, if it was a short then surely it would throw the trip to prevent a shock? The trips are still set and there isn't the sort of fizzing sound that you usually associate with a short at the switch (my Dad's an electrician so I'm used to the workings of a ring main).

Secondly - and here's wher it gets rather odder - the upstairs lights and the downstairs light are on separate circuits. The system is designed that way so that if there is a problem with the upstairs lights, it doesn't affect the downstairs ones (well at least they didn't).

So if anyone has any ideas how to sort this (short of getting an electrician in - which I'm going to have to do on Monday anyway) or what could have caused it, please let me know.