One Friday evening we received a call from a Madam who needed an emergency plumber ASAP. They had a burst flexible hose in one their rooms that was spraying everywhere, and she was unable to isolate the water main at the front of the property as the isolation lever was jammed in position.
After a few quick questions we found out that a hot flexible hose had burst underneath one of the vanities. I told her to head to her hot water system quickly to isolate the water line connected to the unit. It was a bank of 4 instantaneous hot water units and she isolated all 4 units with assistance over the phone. I told her that we would be there within the hour to fix it all.
On arrival I grabbed my tool bag out of the van and headed up the stairs. I had to stand in front of a huge metal door and pressed the security buzzer. I was buzzed inside, and the lady asked me to have a seat on one of the couches as the Madam would be out shortly. There were not many seating options and I sat down opposite some bloke. He was looking down at the ground and had a baseball cap on and oversized sunglasses. It would have been a crack up if I had known him but I didn’t and he was just a stranger that didn’t want to make eye contact. I had a bit of a laugh inside at the disguise he was wearing but then thought what he might be thinking of me. Maybe he was having a laugh at me like I was some tradie coming into the Brothel to play out some fantasy.
The Madam was out to say gday quickly. She said that room 5 was fully booked for the night and asked me nicely to get it done fast as she had clients arriving shortly. I was escorted into room 5 and sure enough the basin mixer that had a burst flexible hose, it was a cheapo $50 Estilo basin mixer from Bunnings. These particular flexible hoses that come packaged in the box are bent in half in order to save on packaging costs, it’s a common site to see these hoses burst! It was a straight forward job as I could only replace the hot flexible hose as the cold water supply could not be isolated. I turned all the hot water units back on, tested the mixer and it was all good.
I packed up the tools and headed on down to the office to finalise the paperwork and collect payment. The place was an absolute fortress and in the office there were about 12 TV screens up on the walls all showing 4 different camera angles on each screen. When I went to collect the payment she made the comment that we get paid more than her girls which made me laugh, I really didn’t have a come back for that. I wished her all the best and drove home wondering how to tell my pregnant wife at the time why I had been to a brothel. Luckily for me she has a great sense of humour and had a good laugh about it.