TARGET

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This is the old variable height gasometer viewed from South Lotts Road. Over a period of about twenty years I passed it in the train, going to and from school and then work. Some days it was high with lots of gas. Other days it was low with less.

It was not clear what would happen to it once it became obsolete. Would it vanish like the gasometer on the Gas Company's land on the South Quays?

But then, the most amazing thing happened. It was converted into apartments and those of us who remembered it could still rejoice in its nostalgic outline.

My son told me I could take a short cut around it between South Lotts Road and the Dart station at Barrow Street and when I found myself in the area the other day, that's exactly what I did.

I had never seen it up close before and it turned out to be a very impressive and imposing structure.

Both a new experience and a trip down memory lane all at once.

But then I started to get a little uneasy. Something was amiss. It took me a while to identify the cause of my unease. I had just passed by the gasometer when I noticed a small red spot appearing on the underside of the peak of the baseball cap I was wearing.

I thought at first it might have been something reflecting in my glasses, but no. It was definitely a spot of light and it moved around on the underside of the peak. When I stopped moving it went away and when I started up again it reappeared.

I looked left and then right, but it was still there. I just couldn't figure it out. I hoped it was some sort of motion detector and not a local sniper taking aim. It defied all logic and, for the life of me, I couldn't pin down it's source. All a bit scary.

And then my eye caught another red spot of light - the source. I had a laser pointer in the inside pocket of my jacket and a heavy camera strap over my shoulder. When I moved, the pressure of the strap turned on the pointer.

What a relief. I felt as foolish as someone who thought they were being followed and it turned out to be by their own shadow.

I took a last lingering look back as I headed for Barrow Street station with my adrenaline count slowly returning to normal.