ajft

Several years ago Jo and I joked about needing to do a weekly audit of the shops — and especially the cafés and restaurants — along Bridge road in Richmond. You would think that you knew what was where, but a new place would appear and all of a sudden we found we couldn't remember what was there previously. Now that we don't live so close and only see a smaller set of the shops less frequently, it seems even more changeable. Tonight a pre-dinner walk from Church street to Burnley street showed changes we knew, and some we didn't!

There are old favourites that seem to be a permanent part of the landscape, and there are newcomers that seem to open, struggle on for a few weeks or months then close. On the other hand, there are old favourites that suddenly vanish, leaving a sadness and a hole and the nagging feeling that we wish we knew where they'd gone, or why, whether they've moved or closed....

Starting at the corner of Church street and Bridge road with a ceremonial beer in the Vine, then off to take notes, mental notes at least.... Vietnam Town still there, check, even if the sign-writing does make it look as though it says Vietnam Tour. The crap local photo-processor who stuffed up my films from the 2001 trip still there, check. Blue Heaven still there, although we've no idea what happened to Rainer who used to own, run and manage the place.... Silvio's still there (phew! not sure what I'd do if it closed, definitely my favourite pizza). Oh, the clothes shop next door down has emptied; Bar Humbug is now Plan B but otherwise looks unchanged, Rainbow Silence Heart still as oddly empty and uncomfortable looking as always; then on and on....

Richmond Continental has a new name but doesn't look much different, only two customers and they don't look real happy, it looks as though the kiss of death has visited. I think there really are too many restaurants along here.

Mr Tandoor has vanished, a month or so ago it seemed to be shut on a Thursday night, then we saw it was shut on the following Thursday, this week there's a new Indian restaurant in its spot with different staff... maybe I should go in and ask them if they know anything about their predecessor, which some friends of mine say they can remember visiting back in the 1980's.

The Dover Hotel Richmond has had a major rebuild; no longer a casual scruffy corner pub, they've gone all up-market, polished timber and bright lights, gasto-pub meets wine-bar sadly it now reminds me of the Bridge, the Vine or Spargos. The regulars all seem to have moved up the road to the Spreadeagle.

Saragossa has closed too; that was definitely a favourite, a restaurant that when it opened sometime around 2000 I thought would never last — wrong side of Bridge road, I thought. Excellent food and fond memories of the waiter who suggested one night we try a Pedro Ximinez as an appropriate drink after the desert. Mr Tandoor had started these thoughts turning around, it was seeing Saragossa closed that prompted me to write all this, I guess I should keep reading through the restaurant sections of the newspaper and see whether there's mention of staff from one place opening another.

It was a sleepy Sunday, as a result of last night neither of us got out of bed before noon!

I decided to attack my unsorted photos and finish putting them in albums, so I jumped on the bike and headed off to buy another album from the photo shop on Swan Street. It was shut, so was the other photo shop on Swan Street. Halfway home I thought I might as well visit the one on Bridge Road, he'd made a hash of my last photos, but maybe buying an album was ok. He didn't have any. One last chance as I tried the shop in the Richmond Plaza, only to find that they were also shut on Sundays.

The gods must be against me, I came back home and put the rest of my photos from 2000 and 2001 into the existing albums, discovering that I didn't really need a new album after all. I must do something about scanning the outstanding APS films though.

Late in the afternoon it was time for some exercise and a little exploration of the far side of the river bank. The natives appeared friendly, and the architecture impressive. We had tried to walk down along the river from Hawthorn Bridge to Swan Street, but found ourselves stopped by private property in several locations. We did find a number of very impressive sized old mansions. A back alleyway as a short-cut turned into a dead end, but the gap in the fence at the end lead into the rail embankment, a brief scramble through the bushes and we could scurry through a hole in the wire fence and back out onto the street. Somewhat further along we finally did get back down to the river, at Power Street Reserve, the park which we'd both been thinking of in the first place! With our breath fogging the air, wet elms all around and people everywhere walking their dogs, it had the feel of a winter's afternoon in an English park.

If only there was a public right-of-way along the river we could have made it the rest of the way to the Boulevarde, but as it stands the private schools own the river frontage, so we could either walk east all the way to Glennferrie road then back along the bike path bridge, or retrace our steps to Swan Street. We chose to go back, stopping to peer in the windows of Watermark Appartments, the appartment development on the old tramways depot. Interesting to see the old depot under the new apartments, we're wondering what they'll do with it. Not so impressed to see apartments with windows at street level, two metres from Power street, with only a single pane of glass between them and the traffic!

sigh. I'm getting sick of either the lights or the wiring in this place. Just replaced two bulbs, one in each bedroom, and then discovered that one in the entry foyer has blown. There's 24 bulbs in the place, I've replaced at least nine in nine months, and two work only intermittently!