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TICKETS for the Millennium Dome have been on sale for just a couple of weeks, but already it's begun to look like more trouble than it is worth. First off, you have the tickets, which must be ordered in advance. Then there's getting to the Dome, which means the traffic on the A2 must miraculously subside seeing as the Dome is just off it. Thirdly, what is the Dome, but a lucky dip of unconfirmed attractions? Tourists might be the only ones to put their hand in.
The bosses fear this. So they are drilling us Brits through the entrance line. Not only have we been made to feel that to not buy a ticket is anti-social and anti-British. (Aptly, lottery giant Camelot sells the Dome tickets.) But we must now plan a trip to the Dome like a school trip, when everyone must keep together.
Which, of course, is what the Dome is about: community. It's all just a little bit enforced, however.
An unlikely getaway from all this can be found on the streets of Maze Hill. It's an area unaffected by the Dome - rarely even mentioned in the same breath, in fact - even though it's literally next door. Maze Hill might be missed out in most chatter, but it has some of the most interesting view of the Dome.
Down the streets of Maze Hill, filled with your usual suburban mix of mainstream shops, the chattering reached a ferocious pitch last month when the main road was closed down and some businesses were making as little as 50p a week. Nothing to do with the Dome, but it got the blame.
The feelings about the Dome here are that everything is to do with it. I live here, and I quite like the Dome, but I wanted the main road fiasco so badly to be the fault of the Dome.
Of...