toilets

I am a big fan of toilets. Honestly, I wish I had a camera with me each time I discovered a brilliant design in a restaurant or a hotel. Some of them are genuine pieces of art as the owners tried to make the eating/drinking experience more exciting and rewarding in general. One of the most amazing toilets I've seen was in an Indian restaurant in Soho, London. It had a mirror and smoke thing about it mixed with an Indian touch of Orientalism.
I remember the sink clearly as it was a continuous common channel, like a cow troughbut inventively stylish. The problem was with pressure. The faucets were a deranged sort of squirting wells and the woman next to me managed to soak me head to toe not once but two times while trying to wash her hand. By mere chance, she was completely unharmed. But I do remember that one toilet among the many others I have been in awe of.
Now, the work toilets are another story.
I worked in a building off Wall Street for a while and even then, when we opened the bathroom window to air out, there was a strange dude in an opposite skyscraper who happened to be staring in your direction at that exact same moment. I even heard a story in that office ( that was full of weirdos, by the way) that they saw a guy from the opposite building peeing from a very high floor on the passers by. The wonders of NYC! The next two jobs I had were for documentary film companies. One was on Upper West side and dwelled in a brownstone and its bathrooms were small and uninteresting. I always thought the tub was a bit creepy as there may have been someone behind the shower curtain that I can assuredly say was useless as no one takes baths at their office. There was a nice award for a documentary as paper support on the sink which I quite liked. The director had enough statues anyway.
The other place was somewhere in Soho and although the office was nice and charmingly laid out allowing us to talk incessantly through the day instead of doing our work, the bathrooms were outside and you needed to get a key and prop the main door so you didn't have to be buzzed in. Charming!
Ok, so I moved back to Romania after this. And here comes the episode with me stuck in the bathroom. This building I was working in was beautiful. Still is.Built in a very specific gaudiesque/surrealistic style. The toilet wasn't fancy on the inside but it was clean. They had just changed the locks that day as apparently the older ones were not working properly any more.
The janitor comes in and tells me the accountant, who I was sharing the office with during that movie, was stuck in the bathroom. And that I should come and translate her isntructions in English so she can get out. Well, long story short, the Irish lady comes out red-faced. I was like "The thing is so simple. How could you get locked in?"
Next day, I need to use the facilities. I take my phone with me as the producer doesn't care I have physiological needs when he wants to get hold of me. I get in, and I pull the lock all the way left like I never do, because generally I am paranoid I will get stuck in, like I did in a nightclub once. When I try to get out, the thing wouldn't move. I pull harder and harder. My mom, who was supposed to meet me outside to give me some food ( I am still fed by my parents when they come into town) before she went to the train station, calls me. Where are you? It's 4, I am downstairs in the reception area. Um, Mom, I am stuck in the bathroom. Can you please ask the receptionist to send the janitor up to get me out? Floor 2A. The janitor, a very impressive woman, who's the queen of the castle around that building, comes in a matter of seconds and starts telling me to push it a bit up and then right. I and do.And as embarassed as I am, I can't open it. She had to push down the door to get me out. I even became famous on the higher level because the owner of the company wouldn't believe he had to pay for another door repair in the same bathroom. But trust me, that lock was a killer!
Now I am working in a building that's from communist era. The hallway on my floor is 600 feet long, at least. I work in the middle of everything so going to HR on one end, or going to financial department on the other end is a trip in itself. What I discovered is that there are four different toilets along those hallways. One used to be for guests of the studio, but now in use for the mortals. Another one looks like has been hybernating since the 1980's and the other two are clean and normal looking by standards but they always lack toilet paper...
I still don't lock the door, even though I've been walked on by a Chinese professor when I was in college.
God, I love toilets!Other people's.