Here’s a question for you: where were you when you first heard about plans to open an offshoot of the V&A in Dundee?
I can tell you exactly where I was: listening to former First Minister Jack McConnell confirming plans for a feasibility study into the plans while on the campaign trail in Dundee ahead of the 2007 Scottish Parliament elections.
He was in Dundee to bolster the campaign of the then Labour council leader Jill Shimi, who was running in Dundee West in a seat vacated by Kate MacLean.
In fact, the announcement itself was overshadowed by whether Labour were trying to piggyback on the project for their election campaign rather than the potential of the project itself.
The whole thing seemed so far removed from the concerns of the day that the announcement didn’t even warrant the front page of that evening’s paper, much to the chagrin of the reporter who wrote the story (me).
But it’s worth remembering, now the V&A’s opening date of September 15 has been revealed, just how far we have come since then.
Within a few days, Labour would lose control of both Dundee City Council and the Scottish Parliament where they had been the senior party in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats since 1999.
Since then, the SNP has seized control of Dundee and remains, by some distance, the largest party in Scotland.
Constitutional politics, which were rarely at the forefront of anyone’s mind back in those carefree days, continue to dominate the Scottish political agenda, despite the Yes campaign’s defeat in the 2014 referendum.
Dundee itself is barely recognisable now that carbuncles like Tayside House and the old Hilton are nothing but memories. The old Olympia, obviously, gets a pass because of the flumes.
Nevertheless, despite all the political upheavals at Holyrood, Wetminster and Brussels, the V&A project has sailed onward, if never quite as serenely as might have hoped.
There have been delays — the original plans was for it to open in 2014, a year before construction even began — and a near-catastrophic rise in cost.
And yet, we now stand just a few months away from the official opening date.
The overwhelming response has been one of excitement but some have asked why it isn’t opening earlier in the year in order to capitalise on summer tourism.
It’s a valid question but like a dog the V&A is not just for Christmas.
The museum’s success will not be measured in the number of people who pass through its doors in 2018 but on its impact over the next five, 10 and 20 years.
Eleven years ago, many doubted the V&A would really happen in Dundee.
Now its opening in September promises to be one of the defining moments in Dundee’s long and proud history. And that really is front page news.
