Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Sixteen

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Sixteen

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..

    Barrow Man

    The dictionary defines this as “a man under sentence of transportation; alluding to the convicts at Woolwich, who are principally employed in wheeling barrows full of brick or dirt”. Another dictionary from the period defines this, as well as a wheelbarrow man, as being anyone sentenced to work maintaining the roads. I’m not sure why the definition seems limited to Woolwich, although there were prison ships, or hulks, that were moored there during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, so I imagine it’s that.

    The surname Barrowman during the middle of the nineteenth century was nearly entirely limited to London and Essex (with the one exception being the Newcastle area), which might also explain the limited usage of the phrase outside of the capital.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Fifteen

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Fifteen

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..

    Barker

    The dictionary defines this word as “the shopman of a bow-wow shop, or dealer in second hand clothes, particularly about Monmouth Street, who walks before his master’s door, and deafens every passenger with his cries of ‘clothes, coats or gowns – what d’ye want gemmen? what d’ye buy?”.

    The bow-wow shop is, according to the dictionary, a shop where the servant bites and the master barks, an interesting thought….

    Monmouth Street in the eighteenth century was known for its clothes shops, later being lost and becoming Shaftesbury Avenue when that street was expanded. In a bid to bring back the name, Great St. Andrew Street was renamed as Monmouth Street in the 1930s.

  • Florence – Column of Justice

    Florence – Column of Justice

    This 11 metre high column (or in Italian, the Colonna della Giustizia) is located at Piazza Santa Trinita and it has a much longer history than I realised at the time. It’s a Roman column that was at the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, but which was given by Pope Pius IV to Cosimo I de’ Medici. This gift perhaps makes more sense when taking into account the Pope’s name before he took on the role, which was Giovanni Angelo Medici.

    The move from Rome to Florence sounds a bloody nuisance, they could only move it a few hundred metres a day and it took well over a year to get the column to the city. I wonder whether a more practical present could have been offered than a 50-ton column, perhaps a flock of sheep or something. Or maybe just a book. When the column finally arrived in Florence in 1563, they were able to get it standing on the pedestal in just a few hours, although then they had to work out what they were going to put on top.

    For just over a decade there was a wooden statue plonked on the top, although to be fair, it’s so high they could have got away with nearly anything. In 1580, a statue of Justice designed by Ammannati was installed, comprised of three fragments of Roman sculptures. Shortly after the statue was installed some boys were accused of stealing from a jewellers nearby and were banned from the Ponte Vecchio where the shop was located. The boys denied the theft, although they weren’t believed, but the thefts continued. A long time after, the stones were discovered on the scales of the statue on the top of the column, they had been stolen by magpies who liked the bright colours.

    It’s an impressive column, but it’s perhaps a shame that they can’t reduce the traffic which goes by it. Although not on a main road, there were numerous vehicles driving down and the column deserves some more peaceful surroundings.

  • Nashville – The Seeing Eye

    Nashville – The Seeing Eye

    Nashville is where The Seeing Eye guide dog organisation started from in January 1929, the first in the United States. Dorothy Harrison Eustis was a Swiss resident, although had been born in America, who had bred German shepherd dogs for police use and it was discovered that they could help the German war veterans who had lose eyesight during the First World War. In 1927, The Saturday Evening Post wrote an article about her work, which led Nashville resident Morris Frank to write to her and between them they were able to establish The Seeing Eye.

  • Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Fourteen

    Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue – Day Fourteen

    The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue was first published at the end of the eighteenth century, and given that the Coronavirus crisis is giving too much time to read books, I thought I’d pick a daily word from it until I got bored…..

    Banyan Day

    The dictionary defines this as “a sea term for those days on which no meat is allowed to the sailors. The term is borrowed from the Banyans in the East Indies, a cast that eat nothing that had life”. I’ve never heard of this phrase, but it was in common usage in the nineteenth century, and no doubt in the eighteenth century, and was sometimes used not just in naval terms but also for anyone not eating meat on a certain day. And apparently it’s still a phrase used today on ships, but it just refers to a general picnic.

    An alternative usage of the phrase developed when sailors referred to meals being a Banyan Day when they were eating leftovers, as there was no meat left. That, in turn, led to the phrase being used to mean straitened times.

  • Accor – Platinum Status

    Accor – Platinum Status

    Wooooo – of no relevance to anyone or anything, but the changes to the Accor Limitless loyalty scheme means that I’ve reached platinum status for the first time. They made those changes due to the Coronavirus restricting people’s opportunity to travel, although I can imagine it’ll be some time before they get the IT to actually reflect the new status.

    There’s not much change from being gold, other than it means access to a free suite night upgrade once per year, but every little helps.

    As a footnote, it transpired it just took one day for their IT to update. Very impressed.

  • Lincoln – Holiday Inn Express City Centre

    Lincoln – Holiday Inn Express City Centre

    Not that it’s particularly entertaining content (although to be fair, a lot of my content isn’t) but I think it’s important for me to post about how helpful hotels were for stays that I didn’t get to make during late March and early April due to the coronavirus. Every one of those hotels must be suffering and worried about its staff, so I’m going to try and get back to all of them later this year so at least none of them lose my booking. It’s not going to be much, but the hospitality industry is going to need some considerable help, not just from the Government, but also from customers returning.

    Having posted about the other twelve or so hotels that offered me refunds for stays in late March and early April (I have another wave of hotels to contact for stays after that, but it’s too early yet for that), there was only one which didn’t reply at all to my e-mail. Which was this one, the Holiday Inn Express Lincoln, for a stay that had already completed (or not completed in this case). My follow-up e-mail to the hotel was promptly acknowledged by the management company, which is very much appreciated, but they’ve said they don’t have access to the reservation bookings.

    I have a feeling that IHG are processing refunds and are just taking some time about doing it, which is entirely understandable and they’re not the only ones doing that. I can’t imagine many customers will mind that it’s taking some time, but hotels are going to have to tell them that otherwise they’ll have a wave of chargeback claims and the lost custom will perhaps start to bite later in the year.

  • Vienna – Ibis Wien City

    Vienna – Ibis Wien City

    And yet another in my series of hotels which I didn’t get to visit because of the Coronavirus. But, I wanted to acknowledge somewhere (so, here) the very fast response from the hotel to my e-mail confirming that they’d offer a refund. I will most certainly be offering my loyalty to this hotel as soon as I can get to Austria, which is hopefully this year. Another effortlessly professional response and I remain delighted at Accor’s hotels at how they’ve handled all of this.

  • Nashville – Puckett’s

    Nashville – Puckett’s

    I went to this grocery restaurant (it used to be a grocery store and they’re played on that theme), because it was well reviewed and it also seemed quite quirky. They had a lunch offer of a salad and then a main of two different meats, along with two sides and I went for the onion rings and fries. I’m quite predictable like that.

    The pre-starter was a local dark beer and although this was before the time that I became obsessive about noting what craft beers I drank, I recall it was rich and went well with the main course.

    I had thought that the salad included in the lunch deal option, which cost in total around €10, was a little side salad rather than served as a separate starter. I remember there was a choice of dressing and I also recall that this was the honey mustard dressing as it was insanely moreish. It even made the salad taste decent, and salad isn’t designed to taste nice…..

    Beautifully tender meats (not that I can recall what they were, but I’m guessing I would have ordered chicken and pork) with the onion rings being the star of this little show.

    There’s a daily cobbler served and as far as I’m concerned, the best thing that can be put under a crumble are either peaches or blackberries. Since it was peach cobbler available as their daily special, I went for that and it was delicious.

    The grocery theme is visible within the restaurant and during the evenings there’s frequently live music played on the stage. It was a large restaurant that was busy, but the staff were helpful and they were willing to explain the menu concepts to me and there was a relaxed feel to the proceedings. The prices weren’t too bad at all, especially since I had the lunch deal, although I probably didn’t need the dessert that I ordered. All in all, very lovely.

  • Memphis – Mosaic Egg

    Memphis – Mosaic Egg

    The mosaic egg at the entrance to the Memphis Welcome Center. I’m not sure why they chose an egg, but it’s a fun thing and it’s very noticeable. Perhaps that why they chose it….