The rant: early morning construction is driving us up the walls

Photo: Flickr - rondo.babka

What sort of alarm do you use to wake you in the morning? An old-fashioned alarm clock? A clock radio? Your mobile phone? Or like most people in Shanghai do you rely on the cacophony of unwelcome noise coming from the seemingly never-ending construction work going on in your apartment that starts at the exact same time (or gradually earlier) every day?

Almost like clockwork, the sound of hammering, drilling and shouting violently rouses us from our sleep, leaving us cranky, disgruntled and far from ready to start our day. We’re given no prior warning. Nobody popped downstairs the day before to let us know that they were going to be renovating their apartment.

To be fair, I'm not quite sure how that conversation would go. ‘Hey, guys! Just to let you know, we’re gonna be drilling the shit out of some stuff upstairs for what will feel like the rest of eternity and we’re gonna start extra early on weekends. We just bought a really big sledgehammer too and are super excited to use it. Hope you like noise. Cheers!’

The thing is, it seems to go on for weeks, which begs the question: what the hell are they doing up there? Constructing a replica of Noah’s ark? Getting ready to open Shanghai’s eighth Apple Store? Holding a meeting of the Shanghai power tool enthusiasts?

Photo: Flickr - Jesper_Foto  

Granted, I know it's not your fault mister construction man. You're just doing your job. You don’t want to be assembling a doorframe or whatever at seven in the morning. I understand. You want to be at home in bed with your wife or having breakfast with your kids. Time spent with family is precious, time spent bashing stuff with a hammer while we’re downstairs nursing a hangover is less so. I appreciate that you need to make a living, but could you please make a little less noise? You know what to do: go and live your best life. Go and be happy. Go to work at 10am, maybe. Or at least ask your boss if you can stop drilling on weekends...

‘The key is to enjoy life, because they don’t want you to enjoy life’ – DJ Khaled.

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