The ABCD is currently advertised in the window of Frugal Food. (Previously Frugal Food had a half window entitled ‘Back to School’ about getting rid of headlice with natural remedies. )

This evening at 7:45 pm, the ABingdon College and District Film Society showed their first film of the autumn season.

The ABCD have been running for about thirty years but nobody really knows as records got lost in College moves and reorganisations.

The ABCD is the place to see films in Abingdon. Membership only: although you can join for just the week if the film takes your fancy, and if they have room. Tonight, the sloping lecture theatre at the college was almost full.

This evenings film was a 2004 film set in Argentina called BOMBON EL PERRO. The producer had selected a carpark attendant with just the right enigmatic expression, and not an actor, to play the lead.

At the end everybody can score the film on a little sheet: A,B,C,D,E. The rating and peoples comments are read back at the start of the following week. Last year’s highest scoring film was also set in South America: Motorcycle Diaries. You can see members’ A,B,C,D,E scoring and reactions on the ABCD site and it makes very interesting reading. Just take one for the film Ivans Childhood “Never again, please! Whatever was it all about? “

This is a better close up of the film poster. The dog is a Dogo Argentino (or Argentinian Mastiff).

The entry in Wikipedia for Abingdon is continually being added to and deleted from by different people.

In Wikipedia every adding or deleting leaves a trail, and so in the famous Abingdonian section we have among others two footballers:

# Matthew Taylor, Premiership footballer: He plays for Portsmouth FC grew up in the town.
# Dean Whitehead, Championship footballer: He plays for Sunderland AFC and is good friends with fellow Abingdonian, Matthew Taylor.

Then in comes somebody who removes Dean Whitehead saying ‘not very notable Abingdonian and suspected self publicity’

Then along comes a John Mason and re-adds Dean Whitehead with the comment ‘Dean Whitehead is notable!’

The MG Car Club HQ is housed in Kimber House along Cemetery Road at the edge of what was the MG Car Factory. Kimber House is named after Cecil Kimber, the Managing Director of MG Cars from 1935-1945.

The plaque on the wall says that the premises were opened by Lord Montagu of Beaulieu in July 1990.

The MG Car plant was closed in 1980. BL Management are blamed for this misjudgement. The MG marque has been the one part of the whole BL portofolio that is still considered viable given its worldwide popularity. But in 1980 ended 50 years of MG production in Abingdon.

The current club house is beginning to see changes this year. What looks like a new garage area is being built alongside

A little further along a wood clad building is nearing completion. This building is for Sale as Larkhill House, and has an undisturbed view over the old town cemetery.

Planning permission was granted last year for the MG club to demolish the existing buildings and construst a new glass fronted office/clubhouse building and some garages. This was granted despite protests from neighbours who thought the design looked like a car showroom, and out of keeping with Cemetary Road.

Cemetary Road is very quiet currently and such a development will bring in more traffic, during development and probably after. But looking at the bigger picture, it will keep the MG Car Club in Abingdon.

On Sunday the trees of St Helens Wharf had a full canopy of leaves and today there was not a leaf to be seen.

And yesterday I complained about all the traffic on St Helens Wharf , and this evening there was hardly a car to be seen.

What is going on? It is hard to see a pattern emerging. Sometimes the right lane of High Street is tailed back, sometimes the left. There is a huge tailback, and then fifteen minutes later it has cleared. Its like chaos.