We are nearing the end of the work for this phase of our project. I am in a fortunate position where we can start adding some additional features that were unexpected and clean up some of the things we don’t like about the way automations were implemented. Not many projects get this extra amount of time.

PY was at home today because the decorator was due to start at the front of the house. They arrived around 8:30 a.m. and explained what would be done. Callum will be on-site for the remainder of the week. It’ll be strange having somebody around all day.

While at home, PY made a last-minute suggestion that we go to see Alterations at the National Theatre, a new staging of a 1978 play. Set entirely in the upstairs alterations shop, the characters rush to complete an order, keeping them close together, with all that brings, for the duration. The playwright, Michael Abbensetts, was the first Black British writer to have a series commissioned by the BBC.

Ambitious Walker, who runs the shop, is complex, driven, and ultimately not likeable. I don’t know how close it is to the original, but it didn’t feel dated. Are the issues of identity and the complexities of Black British life the same today as they were almost 50 years ago?

There were many chatty groups in the audience and people taking photos throughout the play’s single act. I’m not sure if the photographer’s pictures were deleted, but the front-of-house staff were trying.