Monday 30^th July, 2018 1345

I am trying not to leave everything to the last minute.

With nine days left before I leave I have my list of things to pack and a mental list of things to do. Accordingly, I decided to get my holiday haircut today, a couple of spare tubes for my office light, some earplugs for Alice (I snore for England) and treat myself to a sweet pork dinner. One of the two lamps in my office light failed last week and with not being steady enough on my feet, instead of moving the desk and getting up to change it myself as I normally do, I asked Brenda if she could send a man with a ladder.

He came yesterday, took a look, went away with the defunct tube and returned with two new ones which even a three-year old could see were far too long. I gathered the school had none of the right size in stock because he was going to leave without doing anything. Good job I had my own spare in a cupboard but I thought for once I could get them to pay. It was not to be. So now I need more spares.

Tomorrow I need to do what will probably be my last BHG shop and I had planned to try and make my way to Wanda Plaza on Wednesday to see if anywhere there has my cigars. That would leave me a week with little to do bar actually pack.

Seeing as I wanted to grab an early sweet pork dinner I didn't want to go out early so never showered. It's warm and I like my hair to be clean for the barber.

Someone knocked on my door at 1145. Not a normal knock, persistent, non-stop rapping, much as one might expect in an emergency or a police dawn raid. I admit it incensed me, someone assuming it only takes me a millisecond to reach the door and open it, so I bellowed as I pulled on my shirt but he just kept on knocking. The door opens outwards so I was sure to burst it open and swing it wide in the hope it would smack whoever it was. Sadly, he was too nimble to be caught like that.

Babbling away to me, he came in and went to the bathroom. My protestations of “ting bu dong” had no effect but I sensed he had come to fix my toilet. There is nothing wrong with it so I said everything was ok. He wanted a pen and paper, on which he wrote Chinese. Very helpful. Then he left.

By now, Alice was awake early in Heidelberg, so I photographed the writing and sent it, asking what it said. I should stay home for three days. What???? No way! An email to Brenda remains as yet unresponded. In it I said if they give me times I would ensure I was home but I wasn't being placed under house arrest. Things to do, people to see etc.

A little later I decided to shower, the idea being that nobody would come before lunch ended at 1430 so perhaps I could do what I intended before then. The water was off. They had shut it off and then immediately buggered off for lunch. Unbelievable.

Probably I will get nothing done today at all. I think someone above me has the problem rather than me but in all likelihood I shall not be able to do until Wednesday what I was going to do today. I am not happy. It also brought to the fore something which has been on my mind for a month – am I going to wake up next Thursday to no water and thus no shower before I go? I can but hope.

Meanwhile the Keystone Kops who have for three days now been threading cables and trying to wall-mount a China Mobile junction box on the building opposite, displayed some excellent examples of H&S at work. The box has been mounted, taken down, mounted and taken down again. Finally they decided to enlist an army, dragged the recycling bins (no idea what is supposed to go in them) and used them for scaffolding – the wheeled type.

I had to take a picture. The cage you see in the foreground is my prison. All ground floor windows have them and it means the only egress I have in the event of a fire or an earthquake is my solitary door. And in an earthquake doors can jam.