Someone's been sitting in my chair

Well I knew the latest "drainage problem" would be a saga, didn't I? We were not totally surprised (though a little annoyed) to come home and find cigarette butts in the toilet. We know the landlord has a key and we expected that he might be letting the plumbers in during our absence - although, honestly, there is no water leaking or visible at all inside the apartment. And in the process of fooling around in our tiny bathroom they managed to break the door off the bathroom cabinet - well, these things happen.

After our previous (two) experiences firstly of the landlord actually unlocking the front door with his own key and walking in on me in the shower, and then another day ringing the doorbell and getting us out of bed in the morning (just because I said the words "we should be ready for the angry mob to return"?), it was with great trepidation that I stepped into the shower yesterday morning. The water had warmed up and I was just beginning to relax and enjoy myself ... yeah, the doorbell rang. Peter (in his pajamas) held them off at the front door until I could get out of the way and decent. So I did rather expect that they would be back later in the day after we went out to work.

When I came home I knew they had been in again because my key wouldn't work at first - they do something to the lock that means you have to turn the key around six times before it engages and opens the door. At first it was not obvious that anything else had been touched except that the lid of the little floor drain in the bathroom was open - understandable. But I remembered leaving the computer on when I went out, and it was off now. Then I tried to turn the air conditioner on - because of the complications of fiddling with controls in Chinese we usually leave it set how we like it and just switch off the power - and couldn't get it sorted for a while because someone had been adjusting it. I nearly tripped over the stool next to the phone - someone had been using the phone.

But the final straw was when I came to do a load of washing - and the washing powder was all used up! What was the "plumber" doing? Did he bring over a load of washing to do in my machine, or did he just fill his pockets with washing powder and take it with him??

I did notice yesterday that the stairwell wall outside apartment 102 is as wet as it is outside ours ... I probably should be doing my civic duty and ringing their doorbell (late at night and early morning is apparently the approved time) and pointing out to them that they also have a problem.

Don't get me wrong, its all part of the fun. We have spoken to our liaison person and asked her to speak to the landlord - who, by the way seems really nice and unlikely to be guilty of detergent theft! We don't want to have to change the locks, but it looks like we are going to have to.