I’m not sure if ‘awkward’ is the right word for this, but anyway…
It’s the late 2000s. My OH and I have been living in London since the 1980s. We’ve loved it, but we’re working towards moving out of the capital to… somewhere. We haven’t quite worked out where yet. OH is from East Yorkshire and has a bit of a yen to go back, so one place we’re considering is Scarborough. We drive up there to do some house-viewing: get a feel for what’s available in our budget.
One of the properties on our list seems unusually good value for the money - almost too good. The estate agent takes us there - well, nearly there: for reasons best known to herself, she parks a fair distance from the house itself and walks us up to it.
As we approach the house, we notice that quite a few people from the rest of the street are out in front of their houses and watching us: they seem to be taking a keen interest in our presence. Well… it’s a quiet street, we figure: any new faces must be news round here.
The owner of the house is a very nice middle-aged lady - very cheerful, full of smiles - and introduces us to her family, which appears to consist entirely of adult daughters, all rather pretty, none of whom particularly look like sisters. Different dads, perhaps… or maybe she adopts?
The house itself is certainly large enough, if a bit run down and shabby, but the decor… it’s atrocious! Every one of the six bedrooms is painted in a different shade of lurid: mostly mixtures of red, purple and black. My immediate conclusion is “Ahh… hippies!”
One useful feature we notice is that every bedroom has its own washbasin, and a couple of them have en-suite shower rooms - very handy for guests!
On the lookout for any structural issues that might explain the low asking price, I examine the rooms carefully …and notice one oddity: in every bedroom, there is at least one heavy metal ring, bolted into the ceiling joists…
…and finally the penny drops. We are being shown round the local knocking-shop, which - by the look of it - specialises in BDSM. No wonder the locals were interested in our visit: probably keen to know whether we were planning on continuing with business-as-usual!