Works

It's about time.  Our balcony and the ones above and below us have been crumbling, and at a frighteningly increasing rate over recent months - particularly the one immediately above us.

Two days ago the footpath under our building was cordoned off with stripy tape like the police put around murder scenes.  It was there when we got back from our forest outing.

Had someone been murdered by falling concrete?  (It was a distinct possibility and Greeks like a good drama.)

24 hours later the other side of the road was also taped off like a crime scene, but it didn't stop people from backing under the tape and parking there (or under the crumbling balconies for that matter, at substantial risk to the horizontal panels on their cars).

Then the crane turned up.... 0730 on Wednesday.  Mr 5th Floor Man went out to meet the crane operators at silly o'clock in the morning and climbed into their truck to direct them how to drive around the block so as to get to the piece of one-way street in front of our building.  They parked across the street and a long arm with a big bucket on the end reached across to our balcony and two men started drilling away crumbling concrete.

What a racket.  Our building rattled and we probably rattled all our neighbours as well.

I buried my head in Stripy Friend, and put my paws over my ears.

F raced out and dragged all her plants away from the railings.  

There is broken concrete everywhere....  it is going to be a long day (or several days by the time they have done all the levels).