The bathroom in this house had a curved external wall of which some surfaces were not vertical. When the tiler put the tiles onto the wall, he started at one end following the line of the junction with the adjacent wall. He then continued fixing subsequent tiles without checking their verticality and they became increasingly out of perpendicular as seen in this photo.

It was really quite disorientating when walking into the room as one's brain tried to adjust to the line of the tiles on the assumption that they were vertical. One tended to lurch to the right in sympathy, almost like walking on a floor that is not level.

During the time of Malcolm's stay in this lodging, there had been a problem with a leak in the plumbing which caused the floor to get flooded. The manager instructed the maintenance man to fix the problem. There was the sound of hammering and banging all day until the maintenance man reported that he had fixed the problem. The manager was astounded to find that a hole had been knocked through the outer wall to allow the flooding water to escape! Everyone in the building thought it was hilarious.