At the Tennis and Leisure centre in Audlett Drive this evening (Friday) the first exhibitors were starting to set up the. Abingdon Model Railway Show which hits town fully tomorrow.

This is a big show with twenty different railway layouts, and a lot of trade stalls for anyone interested in modelling. The crowded picture above is from 2009.

Noreen and Aidan took over running the Kings Head and Bell in December, and will be holding a charity beer festival over St Patrick’s weekend 16th – 19th March. They will be donating 10p for each pint of real ale or cider sold over the four days towards the Air Ambulance.

This picture is from St Patrick’s Day, 2010, in the Kings Head and Bell.

Looking at the notice boards in town there are some interesting events in Abingdon next week

The ABCD Film Society have their annual Silent Movie with piano accompaniment.

A Russian Orthodox Male Voice Choir will perform at St Helen’ Church.

Brief Encounter is to be performed by Abingdon Drama Club.

A large number of Abingdon people went to Preston Road Community Centre throughout the day to give blood. When I got there, people were seated in 4 rows of chairs waiting their turn. There is an appointment system and the blood service can almost guarantee to get you in and out of the door within an hour – so long as you have an appointment. The ladies behind me were talking about getting chips afterwards. After some discussion, that included the chip shops in Didcot, they decided on the Chinese Takeaway in Reynolds Way. One of them said they did very good chips – better than Smarts.

Eventually I got called and, behind the screens, I was asked a follow up question, on top of the twenty I had already ticked on the questionnaire. It was ‘Have you had sex with anybody who has contracted the Zika virus?’

I answered matter-of-factly that I hadn’t.

The assistant took a small blood sample from my middle finger, and timed the drop as it floated down through green liquid in a test tube. It was a bit slow so she took another sample and tried that. Again, slow.

‘Have you ever had low iron?’

‘ No’ I said.

So she went for some more equipment, and took a larger amount of blood from my right arm. It turned out to be fine. We decided that washing my hands, with soap, before I left the house, had caused the test to fail.

I was then given a large cup of water to drink and got first sat, and then laid back, in one of the swivelling chairs, to give blood. Chap next to me worked out at the gym and the assistant admired his prominent veins.

My blood is not rare – just A+. Giving the blood took about ten minutes.

There followed a nice cup of tea, sitting round a table with other donors. Normally at around that time I recognise a number or people, but on this occasion didn’t see anybody I knew, apart from the assistants.

As I left, 45 minutes after arriving, the four rows of chairs held a new set of Abingdon people, waiting their turn. One of them had left a Brompton bike folded into a small square package just inside the door.