Encounters of the Neighbourly Kind

I fully intended to be industrious this afternoon. However, it appears that I'm inadvertently responsible for cutting off the hot water supply for the entire apartment block, all nine floors of it, and a constant stream of neighbours have been thumping on my door to alert me to the fact. You see, the hot water in my shower hasn't been working, and I decided to use the water heater that is installed above the shower for just such occasions. Unbenownest to me, in my quest for a hot shower, I somehow overrode the system for the whole apartment block. So it is that I've had neighbours and maintenance men in my flat all day, all of them gesticulating wildly and speaking in accusatory tones; plus, in an unrelated incident, a woman who lives on the fifth floor chose today to ask me if I could teach her English, in exchange for Russian practice, and we just arranged to have a language lesson every Tuesday for the foreseeable future. Add to this two Skype conversations, a perfunctory visit from my team leader, and a leaking bathroom pipe, and my undone homework might be forgiven.

A pleasing antithesis to today's neighbourly encounters: someone above me is playing a piano rather beautifully. Also, there's a thunderstorm approaching the city which is about to crack open. The evening promises to ensue in a pleasant fashion.