The biggest surprise came with confirmation that we will get an arena, just not quite where and how we thought we would get it.

Instead of two potential sites on the edge of Leeds, the city council now proposes building it on a prime spot in the north of the city centre and it looks like the local authority are going to build it themselves.

But aren't these sudden changes a little bit unsettling? Have they independently decided to scrap the original plan or was a change forced by everything not quite going to plan?

It's symptomatic of the way things seem to happen in Leeds. Some projects we pull off, others just go off the rails. Either way since most of the deliberations seem to go on behind closed doors none of us are ever too sure how an outcome is reached.

It was a similar story with the £800m Eastgate Quarter shopping centre as developers this week moved to allay fears it was being seriously delayed. Unfortunately they didn't do it terribly convincingly since they want to open in 2012 but work on the massive scheme won't start until the middle of next year.

Which, again, is rather disconcerting. It's now viewed as being a vital part of the evolution of Leeds city centre mainly because it will create our only genuine department store.

While it's positive to hear the developers say they're still 'committed' to the project what does that mean in practice? Will that prevent us from suffering the same fate as people in Bradford city centre who, instead of staring at a Westfield shopping complex, are still staring at a huge hole in the ground?

Meanwhile a third announcement this week raised even more questions, the main one being: just what will happen to the massive Tetley's brewery site which has now been earmarked for closure in three years time?

The south bank city living island created between the inner ring road, Crown Point Bridge and Leeds Bridge is currently only half occupied by new apartments – will that spread into the other half currently occupied by the beer plant?

Whether the market can support it or not will be the ultimate test of whether the city living bubble has burst.

Maybe it's just coincidence but, particularly as a question mark was already lingering over Lumiere and the Clarence Dock scheme, there's now an inescapable sense that the fate of Leeds hangs in the balance.

There's no doubt we're on the cusp of whole new chapter in our history, but it's not clear whether it will be an even more prosperous one or just a prolonged period of treading water.

The only silver lining to the current cloud of uncertainty is the fact that, as a city, we are at least striving to evolve and for the first time in years we're showing some genuine big league ambition.

So even if we endeavour and ultimately fail no one can say we didn't try – but let's just pray it doesn't come to that.


My fears for Obama

OK, I'm going to be the ultimate cynic now but as much I join the rest of the world in celebrating the election of Obama as US President I can't help but feel an impending, if perhaps misplaced, sense of doom.

There's a clandestine minority in America which isn't hot on politicians who try to tip the balance of power.

Just look what happened to JFK and his poor brother Bobby and as for African-American figures who threaten the status quo look no further than Malcolm X and Martin Luther King.

I'm not a big conspiracy theorist but it seems a pretty big coincidence that these four men were all assassinated and even if it wasn't the result of some CIA plot such heinous acts must still have been committed by extremists.

Either way it doesn't really matter.

If those pulling the trigger disliked the idea of a reformer in the White House or a black man with revolutionary ideas, I wouldn't feel too secure if I was Obama.

Of course I pray it doesn't happen, not least because America would erupt into a scene of terrifying tumult the likes of which hasn't been seen since the Rodney King trial.

But above all else it would be the death of the essential belief in change.


Premium Bond

IT didn't take me much converting but after seeing Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace I've decided I really rather like him as 007.

And I reckon the film ranks up there among my favourite James Bond flicks of all time, even if it is a further departure from the somewhat hammy Roger Moore era which will forever hold a special place in this writer's heart.

One small point though is that this new chapter of Bond is incredibly close to the Jason Bourne movies which convinced the producers that the man with the licence to kill had to be a more convincing killer.

And there are moments in Quantum of Solace, most notably the rooftop chase scene, which are so close to The Bourne Ultimatum it's quite cheeky.

Still you know what they say about imitation, I reckon the makers of the Bourne flicks should feel very flattered.