I spent a couple of days finishing the new banisters. I sanded them, stained them (and repeated) and finally finished them with oil. They’re pine, but they’re now a good match for the oak floor.

I couldn’t help thinking that it would have been much easier if someone had done it before installing them.

My desks and chair were delivered and I now have 2.4 m of desk space along one wall. That gives me space for work at the computer and space to solder, make music, or anything else.

My new chair is a second-hand Steelcase Gesture. So far, I’m happy with it and I think it’s much more comfortable than the Aeron I previously owned (and which I sold to a refurbisher a few months ago).

I fitted the mudguards to my new bike and swapped the stem for a longer and higher one. It’s more comfortable and ready for some longer journeys in all weather.

We saw The Constituent at the Old Vic on Friday night. On the basis of the comedic relief he often seems to play, I’d never particularly rated James Corden, but he is in fact an astonishing actor. I was crying by the final scene, in which he returns to the stage a broken man and somehow, through physicality alone, contrives to make himself look as if he’s experienced half a decade of hard life in mere minutes of elapsed time.

It’s an emotionally exhausting story, and the ending feels too much like liberal centrist wish fulfilment given the failures of the state that lead up to that point, but it’s very, very good.

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