ajft

When reading a book about the Oxford English Dictionary I might expect to find a largish vocabulary, even in a popular book such as Simon Winchester's The Surgeon of Crowthorne there are words that make me pause for a moment — but rarely am I completely at a loss. Today was one of those days.

But their beards and moustaches were the most obvious similarity — in both cases white and long and nicely swallow-tailed beards, with thick moustaches and sideburns and ample bugger grips.

Ample WHATS? The term provokes far too vivid an idea, but its a term that I've never heard before...

Another old shop looks destined to close, the wonderful old-world looking Violineri, presided over by a white-haired gentleman who looks to be straight out of the 19th century. A sign appeared in the window today announcing that they're closing soon and moving to Ballarat. I fear that old timber front will go and another bland and shiny new premises will open — or worse, yet another café.

I can't stop some of these places closing, or being bulldozed, but I'm making a concerted effort to try and record them in pictures... The old Tennyson building last December, the ruins that hid behind a wall in Bridge road for so long. Now gone and more slickness in their place.