Hey ,
In my first job, I managed six science laboratories (1) at a high school.
Some of them were in a part of the school building that was very old. When students were in the rooms, sometimes there were problems, like burst water pipes.
To reduce the mess, I learned where the emergency taps were - the ones that turned off the water to a whole section of the school. The trouble was, they were outside.
We had very wet winters, so if a water pipe in the laboratory started leaking and I needed to turn off the emergency tap, I had to go outside and put my hand down into a hole filled with dirty water (and probably some litter (2)). It was disgusting! Then I needed to find somewhere that still had water and wash from my fingers to my elbow. Often I'd wash it twice, to make sure it was clean.
At the next school I worked at, my laboratories were newer. We had water leaks a couple of times, but in all the time I worked there, I didn't learn where the emergency taps were.
I haven't had water leaks in my flats. However, in a few of my flats, I had problems with the water running into the toilet. I'd flush the toilet, and the cistern (3) would fill up again, but then water would overflow into the toilet bowl and not stop running. In one flat, I ended up replacing a whole piece of the toilet pipe.
Yes, I'm a bit crazy!
The good thing about renting in Germany is that there's a Caretaker. If something goes wrong, I can always tell the Caretaker. That's been great.
Last November, the water in my toilet started running. I thought I knew what I needed to do, but I couldn't get the lid off the cistern. Because it's very old, I went upstairs and spoke to the Caretaker (4). In no time, he had fixed it. But he didn't do anything different to what I would have done.
I hope you haven't had any burst water pipes or toilets with water that runs all the time. What would you do if something like that happened? Could you stop the water until a plumber (5) arrived to fix the leak?
Have a fantastic week,
Andrea
(1) laboratory - a room where you do science experiments
(2) litter - rubbish thown on the ground, not put in a bin
(3) toilet cistern - the little tank that is filled with water used to flush the toilet
(4) Caretaker - my (British English) translation of Hausmeister'
(5) plumber - person who installs and fixes things to do with water or gas.
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