I’m the biggest supporter of ‘old’ there is. I really hate new houses – soul-less and poor quality is what I always think of. My views have been tainted by a house I rented some years ago in the centre of Reading, where the walls were so thin that you could hear the conversations of the neighbours through the walls but nothing I’ve ever seen, before or since will persuade me that new is good.

In this case, though, I can’t believe the developer who is going to put 150 flats and 5 shops into the space left when this 60s monstrosity is demolished, can possibly make any worse a job than it.

What I do like though, is watching this machine munching its way through concrete. What you can’t see is that it’s standing on a pile of rubble from the building next door to reach this high. Maybe I can become a concrete munching machine, trampling all in the way of my desires?

Two years ago, I was telling the story of the blossoming of a deep friendship and last year I was feeling so bullish, I was crusading!