I like the variety of signs shopkeepers choose to advertise their business. Who wouldn’t want to eat at a place frequented by a sheep (or is it a goat?). The hand-written notice on the window lets one know that they are open.

I also like inadvertent signs, like this bit of graffitti. Perhaps “Tents” is a band, or is it just an enigmatic sticker someone made? I don’t know, but someone else with a marker was compelled to answer.

Then there are the ancient signs, faded, but faintly visible still. I have no idea when this business was here, it’s been a bar for the past 30 years or so.

This sign was a lovely invitation to enter (or at least it was those many years ago when it was first put up). Gadgets! Gizmos! and Electronics! Just the sort of place to offer a vision of the future, now it seems incredibly quaint. But it is still here to remind us of another time.

That brings us to the present, and the Alien in the shop window. Safely behind glass, one hopes that this is not a sign of the times. Or maybe it is.