Originally Posted by Globaliser

And there are many ways of doing this. Coming from an oriental culture in which circumlocution is everything, I sometimes try something like "I'm sorry if this is a bad time to ask, but if I want to go to bed in the next five or ten minutes, might you have a moment to help me make up my bed, please?" Almost always, the answer is along the lines of "Of course, I'll do that straight away".