Beijing Noise Pollution Blues (2)

I am under noise attack by day as well.   For the last several weeks there have been renovation works going on in my building.   They have at least been observing the not-working-unsocial-hours regulations.  But between about 7 or 8am and 7 or 8pm there has been a more or less continuous thump and clatter of dropped building materials and chipped off tiles, and the intermittent but persistent brrr-brrr-brrr of drills.   At first, I think, it was a unit on one of the lower floors being converted into new office space.  Then it was an apartment one or two floors below me being extensively re-fitted.  (Are the workmen just hanging around the building, hoping to find new commissions every few weeks?)   Now (I judge from all the dust and debris on the steps) they're doing something down in the basement.  Funny - the drills still sound as if they are directly below my bed and study.   Lie-ins are near impossible.  Working productively at the computer is difficult, with this din - albeit a fairly muted din - almost constantly going on in the background, thrumming through the floor below my work desk, vibrating through my skull.   The drill is the worst thing.  It's one of those terrible SLOW drills.  Slow, and getting slower as it bites into something - horribly reminiscent of the dentist's instruments of torture.  And it's just a few seconds at a time; then a pause; then a repeat; then a pause....  It's like a constant stream of surreptitious farts reverberating through my apartment.