Ian Jelf wrote:

(snip amusing anecdotes)

People (UK again) getting *very* annoyed that the Eye wasn't next to the
Dome and wanting to know "why not" in an often quire aggressive manner.

When you say "People (UK again)" do you mean Brits, or was that a
mistype and you meant Americans?

On the flip side of all this, in the early days of the Eye they used to
have a member of staff in each Pod. The first time I took a group on,
I wandered if they'd allow me to do a commentary for my group or want to
do it themselves. I needn't have worried, the girl began her
introduction with "Don't worry if it stops while we're up there, they;re
just putting a cripple on downstairs" and ended with "Does anyone here
not know London and want to hear anything or not?"!

When I first went on the Eye just after it opened we had a most
entertaining out-of-work thespian (an emplyment status that seems to be
particularly popular of those whom have a wont to 'tread the boards')
in our pod giving us the spiel. IIRC I think he even tried to joshingly
have us on that we could see the Eiffel Tower, but as the pod was full
of Londoners he wasn't fooling anyone! I think you'd be hard pressed to
find an Eye pod (geddit) with Londoners in the majority these days, but
it was certainly the talk of the town then as many dwellers of the big
smog first saw their habitat from this novel viewpoint.