Getting Your Fingers Burnt

One of the bulbs in my light fitting has just gone. I knew it was going to go soon. It was flickering a couple of days ago so I knew our time was short.
Now changing the bulb in a light fitting that only has one bulb is fairly simple.
You suddenly find yourself sat in the dark, you swear, you go and fix problem etc.

Now as you can see my light fitting has three lights and the bulbs are halogen bulbs. Which seem to get even hotter than ordinary bulbs and take longer to cool down.

This brings me on to the point of this post. Something that I learnt the hard way. I can't remember how long ago this happened, it was over a year ago for definite, but one of the bulbs in the aforementioned light fitting blew. I didn't have a new bulb so I had to wait until the next day to get one.
When I got home it was dark so I put the light on. Then knowing I had to change the bulb I went and got a step ladder and a torch. I then switched off the lights, to avoid blinding or electrocuting myself.

So because the bulb had gone the day before it wasn't hot, so I removed it and put the new bulb in.

But it seemed a little loose.

'I wonder if the other bulbs sit in the fitting in the same way,' I said to myself. So I reached round and put the index and middle fingers of my right hand on one of the other bulbs to see if they were sat in the fitting in the same way.

The same bulb that had been switched on not two minutes before. I discovered that the bulb I had put in was in correctly but then nearly fell off the step ladder when I burnt my fingers on the still hot bulb that hadn't blown. I then went tearing off to the bathroom to put my fingers under cold water - it hurt a lot but at least I knew my nerve endings were in tact.

So a word to the wise - light bulbs get very hot!