I am just back from a trip to the hot and humid Conch Republic – The Keys and Key West – in Florida. Quite a place with plenty of tales of shipwrecks, smuggling and man’s attempts to fight the forces of nature.

Some forces can’t be battled though – including Robert the Doll…

Ghosts and Gravestones tour in Key West, Florida

It stops at the East Martello Museum

Home of an elegant funeral hearse

And perhaps one of Key West’s most famous residents….

Robert!

Be polite and ask permission to take photos – and say goodbye too. It’s very bad luck otherwise…

I was recently in Toronto, Ontario and came across a few worth a look:

Rawlinsons!

Right alongside Rawlinson was this ghost sign

So sad – a closed book shop

An adult/sex shop festooned with ghost signs old and new…

Toronto’s unusual land division means there are lots of thin houses like this; and many are old businesses…

Now the home to a restaurant…

Fresh Meat

Almost unreadable, on the side of a hotel

A recent closure…

This cigar factory isn’t closed, but this sign is very old indeed….

A quick one I saw on the UP train to the airport

When I was doing some research for my recent trip to Brisbane, I found out about one of the biggest mass murders in Australian history that happened there when 15 people died in 1973 at the Whiskey Au Go Go Club.

Amazingly it’s a story that’s still ongoing, with the case being reopened in 2017 despite two men being convicted for it years ago. Below is a picture of the building now – it’s a gym below and upstairs (where the club was) is an architect’s office.

It seems I missed the – small – plaque in the ground (only placed there in 2014), but I did later see one of the petrol cans the killers used on display at the Queensland Police Museum. Anyway, there’s an interesting website about it and for fans of history and crime, it’s worth a look.