At Mostly Books I was introduced to Alison Barrow of Transworld Publishing, a division of Penguin with a lot of new exciting books. She is seen here with Nicki Thornton, the co-owner of Mostly Books, who won this year’s Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition, and will soon have the book published.

In the window of Abingdon’s other independent bookshop, the Bookstore, the polar bears are back on show. I am still dreaming of a White Christmas despite the tabloids saying “White Christmas hopes dashed as Britain braces to be hit by three storms.”

Most of our Christmas shopping is now done. Shopping in Abingdon is easier, and on a more human scale. The crowds and queues in Oxford can make my head spin.

There is a beauty treatment place has just opened up over the road in West St Helen Street. It is early days and they have not added a sign yet. So it looks like all the shops in our road are now occupied, and in two of them you can get your nails done.

Avoid Black Friday online scams – come to retailers you know you can trust in Abingdon.

The Vale of White Horse District Council is giving people an extra incentive to shop locally for their presents this year by offering even more free parking days in the run up to Christmas.

In Abingdon that means that all the Saturdays from now until Christmas have all day free parking – 26 November and 3, 10, 17 and 24 December.

A new Co-op store opened on the Northcourt Road in Abingdon on September 1st. (It replaced one of the Budgens food stores recently taken over by the Co-op.)

I missed the launch but have just visited the new store and am now following the CoopAbingdon Twitter feed.