However, the logistics of getting a scythe at such short notice proved too tricky, so I went back to my desk, and instead started worrying about whether I was now going to go blind. Combine that with a few well-chosen phrases through a megaphone, like ‘The end is nigh…’, and there could have been panic in the streets. The most surprising thing was how it actually did get significantly colder - otherwise, it was tempting to go up to an overlooking roof-top, and lob a few burning tennis balls off the top, while dangling a colleague, clad in a black cape and wielding a scythe, over the edge. For it really is a remarkably boring event: it’s like a glacier, impressive to see, but not something you’d want to watch. Once the sun went out (or the 96.8% out we got here), that was it. Next time, though, they’ll probably have worked out some way to make it pay-per-view. It was a nicely communal activity though, I’ve not seen so many city workers standing around being entertained since the Stop the City protest. The moon just about got there, though the clouds soon meant that pinholed cardboard was a waste of effort, while those wearing the special shades merely looked silly. Not that I need really have bothered, as it soon became apparent that it was a race between the clouds and the moon to see which would cover the sun first. So come eleven o’clock, I abandoned my desk and left the building, in the biggest exodus since the last fire drill, to stand around in the streets with everyone else, pieces of cardboard in hand. It probably helped that I’d stoically ignored all the hype, and was thus expecting not very much to happen: no apocalypse (unlike certain French fashion designers, who must now be feeling very silly after predicting the Mir space-station would fall on Paris), no massive display of fireworks, just the moon covering most of the sun for a bit. Well, it’s perhaps not quite up on the same level as historic events like, er, the death of Princess Diana, but after a long period of ennui leading up to the event, I must confess it wasn’t bad. In years to come, people will ask each other “Where were *you* during the eclipse of 1999?”.
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