No place like Dome

Sailing down the Thames this weekend - a gentle start in the sun to a horrific gale tossed battle across the North Sea up to Shotley marina by Harwich - we inevitably passed by the Millemmium Dome, or the O2 as it now is. And that reminded me, once again, of the excitement and the battles, of being part of the Dome's birth.

Looking back it seems curious that so much of the Dome focussed - rather as the Festival of Britain had apparently done years before in 1951 with its Skylon - on what had gone before, when in fact we were about to begin a decade of unprecedented change and surprise.

In fact, I liked the Dome so much I tried to buy it - we made the last 5 (in fact the last 3 I think), but our bid wasn't finally chosen. With hindsight, perhaps it was probably as well!