There’s a drip outside the window of my study at home. A maddening, mind-zapping drip... drip... drip...

It’s from the gutter of my neighbour’s house. I’ve heard it before and it’s never caused me much worry: I don't work from home all that often, and it only drips after it rains. But now that my home office is shaping up to be my only office for the next six months, that drip will need attending to. Ditto the sharehouse two houses down who, I have discovered – and this is the big news from my week – play loud music in their backyard on a weekday afternoon.