Just having a wee bite of lunch after spending some time on Titanic’s slipways – the exact spot where, 101 years ago precisely, 26,000 tonnes of riveted metal scraped and screamed their way into the water in 62-seconds flat…

I had my trusty camcorder with me – the results of which will appear over the weekend.  But for now, how’s this for transformation: this day last year, as we celebrated the centenary of Titanic’s launch, the slipways were a cracked concrete wasteland and the visitor centre behind us was still a building site:

Today, the slipways are beautifully restored – a fabulous, subtle, deeply moving place to spend some time in Titanic’s footprint.  (You may remember I raved about them here.)  And here I am having lunch in the Titanic Belfast galley cafe, surrounded by hordes of visitors from all over the world.

62 seconds: pretty snappy time to launch a ship.

One year: pretty snappy time to transform a city.