Claire McNeilly | Evening Standard standard.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from standard.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
You know things have changed dramatically in Belfast city centre when there are more pigeons than people on the pavements.
No tumbleweeds blowing down the streets just yet, but take a stroll through Northern Ireland s busiest shopping area and you would be forgiven to thinking that the end of retail as we know it is nigh.
Yes, those pigeons have little to coo about.
Six months ago, I was staggered by the number of empty units on the city s main shopping thoroughfare.
That sunny bank holiday at the end of August - just over five months into the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic - signs of decline were everywhere, with 34 vacant premises where thriving outlets used to be.
I m sure we ve all fantasised about what we d do if we won millions in the Lottery. The day job would be the first to go. You can just see yourself breaking the happy news to envious whey-faced colleagues before heading off to a hastily arranged news conference.
Clutching that outsized cheque and glugging champagne for the whirring cameras, you ve already drawn up the wish-list: big house, flashy cars, designer clothes, Cartier watch, a small army of flunkies who ll laugh at your pathetic jokes.
Of course, you d show some largesse. After all, that s one of the most enjoyable parts of the fantasy, working out whose life you d change. and whose you wouldn t.