Incurable romantic

A casual rummage through the internet reveals at least half a dozen different tales of how the tradition - of using padlocks to affirm eternal love - first arose.

This particular collection of locks for the love-lorn hangs on a bridge in Italy, but I have seen them in many corners of the continent. Messrs Yale and Union must be making a small fortune from this practise, and I guess at some point a local council worker with a set of bolt cutters gets some gainful employment when the shackles are periodically culled.

But I confess to quietly approving of it all... maybe the romantic in this ageing curmudgeon isn't quite dead yet.

AJL-29072 Locked Together, Forever