(All except one of the pictures on this post were taken during the late afternoon rush hour. )

(and Happy 18th Birthday Gemma from the Drayton Road / Caldecott Road roundabout.)

There is more AbITs work to complete. But since Stratton Way went 2 way there have been high expectations and some people are saying “I told you it would never work!“

The queues have been erratic, and long at times, particularly along Ock Street (that yellow bus is the Abingdon Town bus). I expect the final stage in November to December will see matters improve but we will have to wait and see. Traffic engineers say such changes usually take months to settle down.

A comment from one Driving Instructor writing to the Abingdon Herald:

“… I can now take a complete novice to the Spring Road roundabouts and, by the time we reach Coxeter’s, the learner driver has acquired the clutch control capability of Fernando Alonso!…”

Here are some other short extracts from the Herald Letters page since Stratton Way went 2 way. ( see their site to read more.)

Letters from Week 1: (Two pictures from Stratton Way at different times)

“…Either the consultants who produced the plan for AbITS were incompetent – which I doubt – or the council, fixated on the idea of reducing the traffic in the town centre, just didn’t want to hear the consultants’ warnings…”
“…Whilst having nothing against Abingdon Fair, after all it is an old custom lasting only two days, I did used to grumble about the traffic problems it caused. But not this year – I say thank goodness for two days’ respite from the chaos…“

Week 2: (Ock Street and High Street pictured)

“…If the traffic jams do subside, this will be because everyone is deserting the town…What a way to ruin a town!“

“…However long ago it was, and however many thousands of pounds ago it was, I stood in Abingdon market place at the exhibition of the plans for the new traffic system and I told the planners and the councillors that it would never work….”

Week 3 (High Street pictured)

“… the phase one implementation is not yet complete and so it is no surprise that limitations to the system in its current state are painfully obvious to all. The electronic system linking together all signals within the town centre will not be fully operational or fully effective until the final set of signals, to be installed in Bridge Street, is introduced….”

That is a glimmer of hope.

The humans are celebrating a very important event tonight. It began with a party downstairs with balloons and games and cakes for the human children. Lots of nice crumbs were dropped.

Then when the human children were all gone and everything was cleared away downstairs – except for a few crumbs under the seats – the librarians all went upstairs. They are talking much more loudly than usual among the history books and the local studies.

We just scampered down and across the little area where human children go to find their picture books. There was a cube of cheese down there.

All is quiet and there are NO humans at the desk. So I can explain what is what. But we must be careful with the lights so bright.

There are so many places to hide in a library. No humans would ever disturb the large collection of hard back Science Fiction books. But never ever sleep behind a Harry Potter book!

The humans have put up a board full of pictures showing how the library looked back when our
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Grandmother was alive.

She never knew or heard tell of internets, photocopiers, CDs or the like. Back then she only knew books, and some nice yellow nibbly books at that.

There is a board that is supposed to tell of more distant times in Abingdon before there was a library here. That was back in the ice-age before radiators.

Its is a lovely cosy library and we are all very happy here.

The librarians deserve a good party. They are usually so quiet. But it just doesn’t feel very safe being out in the open with the lights on… Even though we know they are letting their hair down upstairs.

Well actually it is out of town in a field on the perimeter of Abingdon near the Wootton Road. Over this half-term week, the ‘Bid Kid’ Circus can be seen in the large big top with the bright lights on top. It looks bigger and better than some of the circuses that I have seen in Abingdon over the years.

They boast acts from the Moscow, Ukraine and Bulgarian State Circuses. Which does make me wonder what ever happened to the home grown plate-spinning acts. (Does anybody else remember watching Billy Smart’s Circus on TV and then going out to light fireworks on November 5th or am I older than everybody out there?)

Still, here, at the big top, in Abingdon, ex-olympic gymnasts are leaping at high speed from bar to bar. And I had better lift the words straight from The Big Kid Circus site because they puts it in a way I never could better…

“SERGUEI & KHASSAN – In their very individual Russian version of Last Night at the Proms! Will have you rockin’ with laughter”

“…gorgeous NADIA. Watch this fiery beauty perform her enthralling act whilst suspended only by her hair…”

“…Beautiful JULIA the ‘Russian Butterfly’…“

“…an adrenaline pumping display of high-speed gymnastic stunts – guaranteed to leave their audience wide-eyed in amazement !!…“

…not just that but “it has a pulsating storyline” for all the Kids and Big Kids out there.

I don’t know if other countries have this phenomena of writing Happy Birthday on bedsheets and setting them up for the person to see on traffic roundabouts or in a prominent location. Here is one example from Abingdon 2006 on the Dunmore Road.

I passed this bungalow in South Abingdon one day, and saw one A4 computer print saying “Jesus left me when I needed him most.” I felt like knocking on the door to find out what it was about. But next day, the A4 sheets had multiplied. I’ve cut off a couple which were more inflammatory.

Blogging is another form of self expression. We can all do it and its easy and democratic. Chris Evans, on Radio 2, recently said that blogging is the 2006 version of Trainspotting.