Monthly Archives: June 2011

The Show

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The Show
Exhibit 1 has a cot surrounded with logos. On the mobile over the cot, M for Macdonalds circles round Adidas, Apple, Puma…

The final year show for the Foundation Art and Design course at Abingdon and Witney College can be seen for three days more… Tuesday 10am-7pm, Wednesday 10am-5pm, Thursday 10am-7pm.
The Show
The building is fairly easy to find. It has the word SHOW in the big window at the front
The Show
and what look like large 3d Tetris blocks up the side.
The Show
We visited while the tutors were going round assessing the work. All the electronic devices were working perfectly. An animatronics birdy-type-thing in a cage was breathing.

In order to assess the final major projects tutors look as much for the development of the idea as the final piece of art.   Sketch pads are there for reference beneath the final piece.
The Show
Exhibit 2 is one of four famous works of art redone with a modern commercial theme. This one is Van Gogh in Burberry.

Down and Out in Sutton Courtney

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Historcal Bike Ride
We went on a historical bike ride today as part of Bike Week.
Historcal Bike Ride
We visited The Abbey Gateway, St Helen’s Wharf, remains of the Canal, the new Jubilee Junction, Sutton Courtney, Culham Lock, and Old Culham Bridge (where there was a Civil War battle).
Historcal Bike Ride
In Sutton Courtney we visited the churchyard where Eric Blair is buried (aka George Orwell – the author of Down and Out in Paris and London). Somebody had left three Canadian flags, a note that read “Nothing had changed, and a poem by Orwell …

“Sharply the menacing wind sweeps over
The bending poplars, newly bare,
And the dark ribbons of the chimneys
Veer downward; flicked by whips of air,

Torn posters flutter; coldly sound
The boom of trains and the rattle of hooves,
And the clerks who hurry to the station
Look, shuddering, over the eastern rooves,

Thinking, each one, ‘Here comes the winter!
Please God I keep my job this year!’
And bleakly, as the cold strikes through
Their entrails like an icy spear,

They think of rent, rates, season tickets,
Insurance, coal, the skivvy’s wages,
Boots, school-bills, and the next instalment
Upon the two twin beds from Drage’s….
Historcal Bike Ride
It was unusual to find a country church open in this day and age, when nothing was apparently going on inside. I looked inside but didn’t go too far – so as not to disturb the man asleep on the pew.

Election of The Mayor of Ock Street – featuring Boerke Naas

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Mayor of Ock Street 2011
It was good to see our friends from Sint Niklaas – the Boerke Naas – here in Abingdon for the election of the Mayor of Ock Street.
Mayor of Ock Street 2011
Lesley Argyle a former Mayor of Ock Street was also there for the day.
Mayor of Ock Street 2011
Todays candidates were Rob Beaver who has been dancing since age 8.  His dad and brother dance alongside.
Mayor of Ock Street 2011
Also up for the election were Roger Cox who has been Mayor since 2007. His great uncle was Mayor in 1896. And on the ballet paper was Harry Knight who came very close last year to winning. He was lead dancer in the 1970s when the Abingdon Traditional Morris Dancers won the Europa Prize for Folk Art at the Albert Hall.
Mayor of Ock Street 2011
Here is Isabel demonstrating how to vote.
Mayor of Ock Street 2011
At 4 PM the papers were counted in the back room of the Brewery Tap. They let a few of us photographers in at the start but asked us to leave before it got really exciting.

Stuart Jackson was the returning officer this year, and he announced the results.
Mayor of Ock Street 2011
Congratulations to the Mayor of Ock Street.
Mayor of Ock Street 2011
It had been too windy for the Boerke Naas to do much flag throwing on the Market Place at lunch time but they got to do some as the Mayor was paraded up and down Ock Street. The nearest flag is, of course, Abingdon’s.
Mayor of Ock Street 2011
As to Rob Beaver,  the disappointment may have been a little too much for him and it looks like he might be off to join the Boerke Naas. The beer is very good in Belgium.

The Mayor did not attend.

Local permits now available

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Fishing Season
People won’t have to go quite so far for a fishing permit. During the close season anglers might have had to go to Didcot to get a fishing permit to fish an ex gravel pit in South Abingdon.

From 16 June residents permits and season tickets for the 2011/2012 fishing season are available for river fishing from Abingdon Town Council.