The brown rat is nocturnal and is a good swimmer, and so rats are never that far away when you are by the riverside. Rattus Norvegicus can often be seen in the Margaret Brown Gardens at the end of the day, and does not appear that concerned when people are about.
The one in this short video does take fright at the sound of a motor bike. Like pigeons they are a very successful urban species.
The Oxfordshire County Council cuts to the town’s subsidised bus services will happen in the next two weeks. This will make it more difficult for elderly people, without their own transport, to get into town and to the community hospital. Most effected are villages, and areas in North Abingdon away from the Oxford Road. I was approached by one elderly person yesterday in town who felt very angry about the cuts, and said that they, and others they know, will feel more isolated.
Cutting bus subsidies is being done because of cuts to local government finances imposed by central government with the aim of having a budget surplus by 2020, a target that the chancellor of the exchequer has had to abandon after the Brexit vote.
Today there was Rainbow Cake on sale at the Whippet Kichen at Abingdon Lock.
Abingdon Town Council had voted by 6-5 to not fly a Rainbow flag as part of Oxford Pride next year. Since then a petition has been raised, and the story has gone national. So now Abingdon is fast becoming a rainbow town.
The proposal to fly the Rainbow flag had been put forward by the Lib-Dems on the Council and opposed by Conservatives. There was a Lib-Dem tombola on the Market Place this morning.
On Bridge Street the barber has a new sign and the new name of ‘Istanbul Barber’. While one customer is having a white shave, another customer is having a hot towel. Both appear to be in different parts of Aladdin’s cave and between them is the Bosphorus Bridge at night. Looks a good Movie!
Over the road the Broad Face pub has been closed for a couple of months, and somebody has started to use the blackboard as a poetry forum. The first poem is about a man buying a pig at Abingdon Market and has an amusing ending. I look forward to reading more.