Post #38

Down from the hills

28th October 2003, lunch time | Comments (2)

A Swiss dentist's sign advertising false teeth

They sat there, the three of them, on the veranda of the pub and watched the traffic move past: a thin black man on a whining moped, revving furiously; a young couple in a new Renault and in mid-argument, hands and arms in flutter-flight; a huge lorry, barely able to make the turn; that damned idiot on the moped again.

Left to right, right to left, squeezing past, darting off, waiting in line.

And the three just sat there, on the veranda of the pub, and welcomed in the chaos after the calm of the mountains.

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  1. Sabrina:

    But can a pub *have* a veranda? Not that it cannot, architecturally speaking, but I just never hear that word used in the UK. In the US, a veranda is a porch located south of the Mason-Dixon line, or a porch owned by people with posh homes in the north.

    People here don't seem to have porches, either, unless you want to count those tiny little entry-way extensions people call porches. Which is silly; that's not a porch, it's a closet.

    So, perhaps it was a conservatory in which they were sitting? Inquiring minds want to know.

    Posted 3 days, 23 hours after the fact
    Inspired: ↓ Dunstan
  2. Dunstan:

    Well, it was a wooden decking area, with a sloped wooden roof, held up by wooden poles, and a just-above-waist-high wooden railing around the edge.

    Really very 'veranda'.

    Plus, it was a pub in Switzerland, so maybe veranda's are part and parcel of every day pub-design over there.

    Ve*ran"da, n. [A word brought by the English from India; of uncertain origin; cf. Skr. vara??a, Pg. varanda, Sp. baranda, Malay baranda.] (Arch.) An open, roofed gallery or portico, adjoining a dwelling house, forming an out-of-door sitting room

    http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=veranda

    I don't think I'd use the word veranda for a building in England, but when it's abroad it feels right :o)

    Posted 3 days, 23 hours after the fact
    Inspired by: ↑ Sabrina

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