I find myself half a dozen or so floors up at a client in Canary Wharf and sat by the window in one of their cafés trying to find a working power socket. I'm in dire need of charge for my hungry iPad before my next appointment, but to no avail. I can find sockets but they don't seem to want to charge anything, curses!
The buildings over the way catch my eye, there’s a few bursts of late afternoon sun as I spot the Millennium Dome (or are we supposed to say O2 Arena now?) playing peek-a-boo from behind the skyscrapers.
I recall the dome being built and visiting my customer in a building with a more unobstructed view of the proceedings (one Canada Square, the big pointy one) and he was regularly taking pictures of the dome emerging. I can't recall if he took daily pictures or weekly but he was planning to catalogue every stage, really just because he could.
I'm glad I visited the Dome in its original Millennium showcase mode. To be be frank the actual stuff inside wasn't amazing, it was huge, glossy (my favourite things were the display of diamonds (huge shock there!) and the Cirque du Soleil). There was too much branding from the various sponsors, a bit too ’style over content’ but I'm still glad I experienced it.
I visited only once and on leaving we thought we'd board the boat near the Gormley sculpture and return to the city via the Thames instead. It was a balmy day, with the bluest of skies. The Millennium Bridge had just opened and it was still the “wobbly bridge”, we cruised under it with masses of people waving and looking a little sea-sick (and that's on the bridge!) The boat docked by the London Eye so it seemed only appropriate we’d try that out for the first time too. The lovely day meant we could see for miles and miles and the recent guided boat trip meant we also knew some of the landmarks we were soaring over. It was a proper London unashamedly touristy day. Very happy memories!
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