I spy with my big blue eye...

The other day when I walked through the communal door into my flat building, I was concurrently choked and blinded.

It seems some old bugger had taken it upon himself to start welding renovations outside the unused ground floor flat. Which is rather inconveniently located at the foot of the stairs, and directly opposite the lift.

Like a train crash, it was hard not to look. And let's just say the work-safe practices aren't exactly high priority in Ukraine.

So, Mr DIY had simply plugged a welder into the powerpoint and started to buzz away, with little regard for the eye and lung-health of people walked past. Or, for that matter, his own.

After dodging the flames and sparks, I made my way up to the apartment with black spots in my eyes and double vision. Opening the door, I went from choking smoke to chokingly bad smell, as the stink from the welding had seeped through the two doors into the flat.

The other alarming side-effect was that, being the enterprising fellows that they are, the renovators didn't organise to get any special three-phase power hooked up, choosing instead to plug the welder straight into a normal powerpoint.

So we've had power outages on and off for the past week. And when the power's been on, it's been strobe light effect. Party on man.

Asking a local about why these guys had taken upon themselves to renovate the foyer (keeping in mind, there's no such thing as strata or body corporate over here), he said, "Many people get very frustrated with the fact there is no definition around the services the municipal council provides. So they just do it themselves."

All I wonder is why they don't take it upon themselves to turn down the darn heating?