Our house purchase is moving rapidly ahead. After weeks when it seemed like it was stuck on some inscrutable detail of negotiation, everything has finally been unblocked. The last sticking point was, it seems, something about indemnity in case the land is found to be contaminated. As it turns out, this can be sorted by the simple expedient of paying £265 for an indemnity policy. Would we like to do that? Yes we would, especially as getting this sorted will save us five figures of stamp duty if we complete the purchase by the end of June.

I went to the dental hygienist to have the tea stains removed from my teeth. They weren’t too bad in terms of plaque, but they didn’t look great. It feels good to catch up on personal life admin. On the ride home I stopped off at a cute little café in the wilds of Bermondsey that I’d passed many times before but never stepped into.

I ate or drank indoors four times this week. It’s been the first time that’s been possible since December, and although the remaining capacity restrictions make it hard to go anywhere without having a booking, it’s not impossible if you’re lucky – or if it’s daytime on a weekday.

London feels a lot more local these days. There seem to be more little shops around the place – especially growing outwards from previous nodes like the railway arches along Maltby Street – and more people in them. I think this has been helped a lot by the dedication of more of the streetscape to cycling and foot traffic. It’s much more pleasant to cycle around these days, and it feels livelier when you do.

Eurovision was fun as ever, if you like that sort of thing, which, of course, I do. It’s hard to know whether the UK’s zero – double zero, really – was due to an undistinguished entry or the astonishing deterioration of the country’s soft power since 2016 or both, but it was objectively absolutely hilarious to see.