AND still we appear to be waiting for the city's movers and shakers to do far more moving and shaking . . .
ECHO readers know when the city's big day will be upon us because we spell it out on the front page every day with our "... days to go" symbol (it's 42 as I write this. Yes, the big 800th falls on August 28 - soon creeps up on you, doesn't it? No, it doesn't - it takes 800 years).
But there is still a general and genuine feeling among many that not enough is being done by our city fathers - and mothers - in the public awareness stakes.
Events have been planned by the city council - see previous blog entries - but how well are these being pushed, presented and sold to us?
Not very.
There may - again, as I've reported before - be an indecent amount of apathy and negativity surrounding the birthday, but a lot of this is probably down to the fact that so few people in positions of authority are taking a lead.
This is underlined in a missive I've just received from Liam Fogarty, chair of amayorforliverpool.org
In it, he asks, not unreasonably, "Where's the party?"
He adds: "Liverpool is supposed to be celebrating the 800th anniversary of its charter in 2007. But you'd barely know it. The Council says this year is a 'dry run' for Capital of Culture, 2008. Am I the only person who find this less than re-assuring?
"Logging onto the Liverpool City Council website you find precisely NOTHING to indicate that this is our 800th birthday: no logo, no links, and no message from our civic leaders.
"And to visit the Liverpool Culture Company site (www.liverpool08.com) is to become lost in a Kafkaesque maze of non-information. Visitors who insist in finding out about birthday events are advised:
"Download a 2007 calendar of Liverpool Culture Company creative commissions and partnerships (MS Word [92.5Kb]. Download time 21 seconds based on a 56k modem. Will open a new browser window.) Or a list of Merseyside-wide key cultural events for 2007 (MS Word [185Kb]. Download time 43 seconds based on a 56k modem. Will open a new browser window.)... " and so on in a similar vein for several paragraphs.
"Eventually a line-up of 16 events is listed, the first six of which have already taken place. And all 2007-related material has not been updated since it was clearly written last year.
"Pathetic. But, hey, if no-one's actually in charge of this thing we shouldn't be surprised..."
And yet, taking the big day, itself, in isolation, it isn't too late to ensure that August 28 will be a day to remember.
But the powers-that-be better start shouting about their birthday plans sooner rather than later.
If not, people will make other plans - and find other parties to go to.
