At the start of this week the landlord turned up at short notice to fix the heating upstairs in the flat. On the one hand this was good news – the upper floor was freezing last winter – but on the other hand we had to send the dog away (he doesn’t allow dogs in the flat) and put up with two days of disruption.

He arrived at 9am, while I was having a lie-in, accompanied by his favourite odd-job man and another two guys, one of whom turned out to be the man who sold us our dog. Tongzhou is a small world, even if there are a million people here. They banged, drilled and sawed for the next two days, and left the apartment with an extensive system of pipes, around 100m of the things, giving the upstairs floor a new industrial estate vibe. It didn’t occur to them to lay down any sheets or move furniture, so everything was covered in an inch-deep layer of plaster dust – chairs, computers, books – everything. That took the best part of the next two days to clear up. Every time you brushed and mopped the floor you’d release another layer of dust which would settle on the clean floor an hour or so later. We had to keep the baby downstairs for the whole time.

The other thing they fixed, on request, was the wiring system for our water bed. It’s been comfortable all summer, but now winter is getting close it’s almost too cold to sleep on already. The heating system it came with had a mess of frayed wires and a broken plug. The odd job man claims to have fixed it now. Have a look and see whether you think I should use it. The white part is insulating tape wrapped around a bit of frayed wire. The plug is new. Is it just me, or does it still look a bit dodgy? I’ve been assured that the water and electrics are entirely separated, but still….

Can I really trust this thing?