The Monday Market remains relatively unchanged year after year. As Christmas approaches, the plant stall had lots of wreathes and the vendor was calling out ‘Olly, Olly, Olly’.

The fish van had a long queue. The baker and the fruit and veg were busy. More people come to Abingdon on Monday.

Several customer gathered round the butchers van where hanging from hooks were large cuts of meat, such as joints and ribs, while the counter below was arranged with sausages, steaks, and other packaged cuts.

But some things have changed. The post-box no longer gets a crochet topper, and I read in the news, Royal Mail takeover by Czech billionaire approved.

Given the latest posting dates for Christmas and the price of first class stamps (first-class stamps are £1.65 and second-class 85p) our main batch of Christmas Cards, most of them going to the northern counties of England, were sent second class, with some time to spare, from the Market Place post box.

The stamps have pictures of the King and not the Queen. And year by year, we send and receive fewer. But at least we don’t have to rig up a series of lines to peg them all up the wall. They can all be displayed on the top of a sideboard.