Today, instead of showing solidarity with Whitney and getting up before she left for work at a place where people somehow think that 9am is a good time to start work on a weekday, I allowed myself to lie in. At about quarter past eight I was suddenly roused by what I thought was increasingly panicked knocking on the door, so I threw on things to make myself look no scruffier than usual and went out to investigate. It turned out not to be anyone knocking, but someone in the cupboard with the air conditioner outside the flat. I have no idea how you could fix an air conditioner by hitting it repeatedly with a mallet, but in my half asleep state I thought no more about it.

All was well until about a minute before I planned to leave for work, which was when somebody began sledgehammering through the bathroom wall. At least, that was what I first recognized the sound as, and I had my doubts about it, but there was a distinct heavy thumping punctuating a constant dusty noise of falling plaster coming from behind the tiles at the back of the shower. When the frantic knocking started up again, at my door this time, I answered it to some workmen and found that sledgehammering through the wall was exactly what they were doing. They told me that there was a leak coming from our bathroom, so I let them in and they all came through to tut at it a bit before saying that the whole thing would need to be resealed. While they were there I also told them about the bathtub that leaked down into the apartment below - the people who own the place have known about this for some time and never bothered to do anything about it, so they went off downstairs to investigate.

They couldn't work on the shower while it was still wet from the morning, so they say they're coming back tomorrow morning to pull it to pieces. This means that we can't use the shower, and indeed will be without an operational bathroom, for an indeterminate amount of time tomorrow. So I might find a cheap hotel (or just fall asleep on my keyboard at work) if no alternative arrangements can be made. It's all slightly stressful.