Adrian first noticed the distinctively intrusive sound of the fans in his neighbour's bathroom above, while in his bathroom bellow, enjoying a few precious seconds of peace and quiet, as his doctor had prescribed. Unlike many a new noise, this one immediately annoyed Adrian, who made a snap comment to himself about how the new neighbour had now discovered the bathroom and what an annoying coincidence it was that he was using his at the same time. The noise was not invasive enough to put Adrian off when he turned on the radio and he gave the matter no more attention because he was soon irritated to hear the comments of the radio presenter.

Then, a few days later, while briefly sitting in silence, attempting to replicate favourably uncomfortable conditions for meditation, as, the fans started up and intruded upon his brief peace. Adrian had been told, again by his doctor, that meditation was an alternative remedy to the stress levels, as he was on the verge of high blood pressure and wanted to prevent a likely heart attack. The sudden intrusion seemed more invasive than before, and there was no chance Adrian was going to be able to meditate with such a rumbling vibrating racket coming through the walls and falling from the ceiling. He got up from his uncomfortable cross-legged position and watched the TV instead, almost instantly forgetting the matter. But, as he was climbing into bed and considering an early night to be a good thing, he heard the fans start up yet again and the only way he could sleep was by watching the TV until he nodded off, and TV watching had been identified as one of the contributing factors to his poor health and high stress levels  Adrian particularly resented having to resort to a necessary evil and began to resent everything about his neighbour upstairs; the way he talked so load on the phone, the way he stomped up the stairs, and now the smell of his Nigerian cooking that he had begun to notice. Why should he have to accept this?

The next day Adrian attempted to make the point to his neighbour, but the language barrier and the complete lack of interest about the matter from the neighbour, meant nothing changed. As it became increasingly evident the neighbour was not going to change, there grew a battle in Adrian's mind between a desire to act and a wish to accept the situation for the sake of his mental health. Yet, the noise seemed to get louder and more intrusive with every turn of the oscillating fans; the sound was at its most intrusive when Adrian was trying to get to sleep. Slowly, with every vibration of the fans oscillations there seemed to be a negative, mocking, insulting, and increasingly personal message of distain, directed to Adrian. He tried once more to talk to his neighbour, but was met with incredulity, as the neighbour claimed the noise could not even be heard. Even though Adrian went to great gesticulating lengths to explain to the neighbour that the noise was invasive, the neighbour seemed unconcerned, “What do you want me to do, go without the fan?” replied the irritated neighbour. More annoying for Adrian was that the neighbour seemed to find the noise of no consequence himself and claimed he could hardly hear it when Adrian knew he could.

The adversarial attitude of the neighbour was now the tipping point in Adrian's head; he knew he had to take direct action and silence the fans in this man’s bathrooms somehow. At first, he dismissed this idea out of hand, due mainly because he feared the blow-back should he be caught in the act, but after paying attention to the man’s movements, Adrian realized there was a brief window of about 30 minutes between Adrian getting home and his neighbour getting home and a brief window after the neighbour leaving for work and Adrian leaving for work. If he was going to act, he knew when.  

In the meantime, Adrian vainly tried other methods to mask the noise, such as ear plugs, but when he put them in, he resented having to do this for a man he suspected was trying to deliberately annoy him. In fact, every time Adrian thought of a noise cancelling idea, he’d immediately resent having to even think about it as this seemed some form of capitulation. Thus, it seemed there was no other option, but to take direct action. Even then Adrian was reticent, until one day when his neighbour left the fans on all night.  He had spent several times trying to get to sleep and when he finally did, he awoke soon after to the sound of his own alarm clock and the fans still running in the background, as his neighbour was getting ready to go to work. Now was the time. Adrian grabbed the pliers form his toolbox and awaited the movements of his neighbour, this time caring nothing about consequences or the morals of breaking and entering another man’s abode, as he sat on his bed, awaiting the neighbour's departure.

And when he finally heard his neighbour leave for work, Adrian walked silently upstairs and kicked the door in, expecting the smash the lock in the process. To his surprise, the door flung open, and Adrian soon realized his neighbour had forgot to lock it. This seemed to be proof of the neighbour's arrogance, so, without hesitation, Adrian took out his pliers and walked to the bathroom, where he spotted the two fans and snipped the wires where the cable entered the fan. The cuts were clean and when Adrian turned on the light, the bathroom was illuminated but there were no irritating fans. Looking about and making sure he had left no mess behind the door where it had flung open, Adrian put the lock on and let the door close shut behind him. After pushing the door to make sure it was locked, Adrian walked downstairs, got ready for work, and left.

Only when Adrian was entering the complex and saw the police, did he realize he should have worn gloves.