At about 1am Friday, an underground salt water main outside Woodland Garden on 10 MacDonnell Road burst. The pipe sent a column of water roughly two metres high straight into the building's lobby. Security guards and residents got soaked cleaning it up before the morning rush. Nobody was hurt, but the marble floor took a beating.

Here's the thing about Mid-Levels. Rent there is not cheap, and MacDonnell Road is about as established as HK addresses get. Old pipes don't care how much your flat costs. The Chief Executive was on the radio this week talking up his five-year vision for the city. Sounds great. Meanwhile the actual pipes under one of the priciest streets in town are old enough to blow a two-metre geyser into someone's lobby at 1am. Fix the boring stuff first. Nobody claps for a new water main, but everybody notices when the old one fails.