There goes the Bride

This play - written by Roy Cooney in the 1970s - was performed by the Abingdon Drama Club at the Unicorn Theatre.

The father of the bride gets a bang on the head on the wedding day of his daughter. What had been his business idea - to come up with an advertising campaign for a bra company - is transformed into reality when only he starts to see the 1920s girl who was supposed to front the campaign. Things turn to utter farce as he lives out his dream with his devoted 1920s flapper girl, and tries to explain it to the people who cannot see her.

Polly, the 1920s flapper girl is in all the publicity shots. The father of the bride was very funny but may have occassionaly lapsed into doing a John Cleese. Mr Babcock the angry confused red-faced millionare father-of-the-groom, was a great foil standing open mouthed at the madness that follows. It was also good to see Eileen Bagsaw as Daphne. Eileen has helped out in every school production at Larkmead over the last 30 years or so.

Class of 2006

Two limosines drew up this evening at Longfellow Drive to whisk away some of our sixteen year olds to their Leavers Ball.

GCSEs are all finished, and these young people will either go on to sixth form, college, or work. But tonight is their big night.

Saxton Road Community Centre Land

On this spot once stood Saxton Road Community Centre, and across the way the Family Centre. The Community Centre eventually had to be demolished. It was not in a safe state. It was never the most beautiful of buildings, but it was cheap and rough and ready - which was what was needed.

It is where our daughter went to playgroup, and I remember many times waiting outside with other mums or dads for cubs or brownies to finish. After it closed, there were no more cubs, brownies, scouts or guides in South Abingdon. However the family centre found a new home in Caldecott Road.

The well kept flats for elderly people at Lady Eleanor Court is behind. In the next year or so they are going to have most of the kitchens replaced.

Tribute Tree

Two lifelong friends, studying together at Abingdon College, were killed in a car crash on March 27th. One girl had hoped to become a beauty therapist and the other a journalist. This tree at the college helps their friends to remember them.

Escapade and the Jungle

Escapade at 8 High Street has closed down, so there is a little less fun to go around. It was a gift shop selling jewellery, and candles and incence sticks and stone ornaments and colourful cards. There was a room downstairs with a glass counter where you could examine jewellery, and a back room up some steps where they kept second hand books, and adult games (some a little risky).

Another shop that recently closed was one of of the four shops on the Wootton Road. It sold live pets of the jungle variety: amphibians, spiders, chamileans, and insects. It has moved to the Cowley Road in Oxford.

Skin Obsession

Abingdon's own tattoo shop, Skin Obsession, was forced to move from Ock Street to Stert Street last year when the previous shop premises was sold for housing.

It is a tattoo, body piercing and jewellery shop.

Not everybody was too keen on a Tattoo Shop opening in Stert Street. But there is another side to that. I see a comment on one Alternative website called the Knowhere guide says "Skin obsession in abingdon, not too sure bout the place but the tattooist is lovely!"

Unfortuneately, her partner is not there to help anymore. There was a motor-cycle accident last year, and she will be moving soon.