The day after the PM told the nation to avoid unnecessary contact and travel, and to stay away from pubs and theatres, the social activity shutdown has begun.

Most of the churches in Abingdon will be closed next Sunday.  The Methodist church said ‘It is with sadness that we recommend that worship services in Methodist Churches are suspended for the time being in line  with Government guidance.’ The Archbishops of Canterbury and York are also calling for Church of England churches to put public worship on hold  and become a ‘different sort of church’.

At Preston Road Community Centre we met tonight and decided that this evening’s Bingo would be the last for a while. This did mean giving the Easter egg prizes away in one go rather than between now and Easter. But to compensate for that the Preston Road Jackpot of £200 will be won this evening.

A lot of the groups meeting at the community centre have already decided to stop meeting. That includes U3A, and the twinning society. The food bank will continue to operate but with social distancing measures.

The VWHDC (Vale of White Horse District Council) have announced the closure of:

• Community-based leisure events and activities at their arts centres involving older and vulnerable people
• All formal council meetings until the end of March have been postponed 

The voluntary sector is very dependent on retired volunteers, many over seventy.

Oxfam cannot handle new donations because of reduced volunteers, and are likely not to open from tomorrow because they have not enough staff.

British Heart Foundation cannot handle donations for similar reasons. They will also have closures when they do not have enough volunteers.

The town centre was busy on Monday with the Market in town. It was quieter today, Tuesday, but people were still stocking up on essentials. Items running low included: eggs, flour, pasta, long life milk, disinfectant, toilet rolls, paracetamol, tinned fruit and tinned vegetables. Waitrose got a delivery of toilet rolls but it was gone in 44 minutes. A similar thing happened at Savers.

Chemists have run out of hand sanitisers and face masks.

The two town centre surgeries are checking people before they go into the waiting room to ensure they do not have a fever or any symptoms.

The roads were quiet with people from Miele and other Abingdon companies increasingly working from home from today.

On Wednesday at Preston Road Community Centre (PRCC) the South Abingdon Partners Network met. This networking event happens about every two months and brings together people active in South Abingdon so that they can explain what they are working on and look at ways of helping each other or using each other’s service. There were over twenty people there. Every two months the makeup of attendees changes.

Here is a quick rundown of some of the groups:

• Inspiring minds – run courses (cooking) and activities (Hope Cafe)
• Study Higher ( support students from less academic backgrounds to consider higher education)
• Healthy Abingdon
• PRCC
• Abingdon Fridge ( give away unused food)
• Yellow Submarine ( activities for learning disabled teenagers)
• Vale of White Horse District Council (were promoting a Job Fair and IDEAs – digital Duke of Edinburgh awards)
• NHS – Talking Space Plus (help people get active through talking therapies, volunteering or back to work)
• DWP – Job Centre Plus (current focus on Single Parents and Women into Work)
• Employment and Training officer at Sovereign Housing (gives advise sessions)
• Carousel – South Abingdon Children’s Centre
• Abingdon Damascus youth outreach
• Vineyard Church (runs youth group and toddler group)
• PCSO – Police Community Support Officer
• Friends of Abingdon Civic Society (offer Community Freespace to groups)
• Thameside Primary School

A Job Fair will be held on April 30th. A number of the people had a direct input into that effort so that became one area of discussion and collaboration.

There was quite a lot of talk between the people interested in getting people back to work that for one reason or another needed support, and help when things go wrong.

The Disability Employment Advisor at the Job Centre talked about additional support and funding than can be provided to help people into work. Employers can become Disability Confident employers and take a community lead in giving equal opportunities to people with disabilities.

At the Salvation Army in West St Helen’s Street there is a new toddler group called Eden Tots starting on Friday.

The front room was once a charity shop and has been brightly decorated room for the toddler group. They could expand if things go well.

Also near the Monday Market, the man from the Salvation Army had the War Cry magazine. The War Cry has an article about Tom Hanks new film, playing TV Presenter Fred Rogers; another on the Women’s Rugby Six Nations; another on de-stigmatising mental health problems; and something on a very famous Liverpool footballer who was baptised two weeks ago, as shown on his own Instagram video https://www.instagram.com/p/B7WCbhRF-FZ/.

The Church in Abingdon annual quiz this year was at St Michael’s Church. St Michael’s still have the crib and Christmas decorations up. They will remove the decorations at Candlemas on February 2nd at the end of their Epiphany-tide. They also put the decorations up very late on Christmas Eve.

The church seats had been cleared and the church had tables and chairs for the different church teams. The person asking the questions was an ex teacher from Larkmead who taught our son Religious Education. He remembers her well, and puts down his enduring curiosity about the unanswerable questions of religion to her teaching. She was a very lively and entertaining hostess.

We started with picture quizzes while people gathered: one was naming properties round the Monopoly Board, the other was recognising famous people as children.

Then there were eight rounds on different topics.

There were two rounds you would not have found at pub quizzes. One was the fiendishly difficult round on women in the bible. For most teams it was the lowest scoring round. (Name one of the daughters of Job in the bible? They were: Jemimah, Keziah and Keren-Happuch).

Then there was a much easier guess the hymn tune with Glynn Butt playing the first line of each hymn on the piano. Most teams got 10 out of 10 for hymns and scored between 1-6 for women in the bible.

At the break there was a wide selection of cakes, and savouries on offer with tea and coffee, for which you could make a donation. The people of St Michael’s did us proud in hosting the evening.

The final quiz round was about Abingdon’s Twin Towns. One of our team was part of the Abingdon and District Twinning Society and that helped us a lot. There was also a Twinning Society quiz the night before at Preston Road Community Centre.

Here are the questions we had on twinning for anybody interested. I will put answers in the comments unless somebody beats me to it.

Abingdon’s twin town Argentan in France is in what region?
What fabric is Argentan well known for producing?
The twin town St Niklaas in Belgium is in what region?
What famous map maker has a museum in St Niklaas?
The twin town Colmar in France is in what region?
What product is Colmar famous for?
The twin town Schongau in Germany is in what region?
What town near Schongau has a famous passion play this year?
The twin town Lucca in Italy is in what region?
What famous composer was born in Lucca?

At the end the scores were totalled and the Trinity team just pipped the team of Christ Church in Long Furlong by 1/2 point. The team who won the women in the bible round get to host next year’s quiz. I think that is Abingdon Baptist Church but am not sure. Team’s chose cryptic names. (Update – Peachcroft are hosting it next year).