What next for Blockbuster?

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What next for Blockbuster?
Blockbuster UK entered administration today, casting doubt over the future of the last video (DVD and games) rental shop in Abingdon (at Peachcroft shops).

Back in the 1990s every row of shops seemed to have a video rental business.

Commentators say that business has been lost to online rentals. But, if our family is anything to go by, business has also been lost to a return to watching films at the cinema.
What next for Blockbuster?
Nearby, outside Budgens, beside the big peas, I see that Abingdon Town Council could take over from the Vale of White Horse District Council as the main fund provider for the Abingdon Arts Festival from 2014 and save it from administration.

Below, I see that HMV have a big sale, as they too have just gone into administration. You can read on the Not Abingdon Blog how HMV Christmas gift cards have been declared worthless by the heartless administrator Deloitte.

Gravity Defying 1960s design on Ock Street

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Gravity Defying Hardware Shop
F Knight & Son, on Ock Street, have a modern looking building in the 1960s sense of the word modern. Earlier the building was used by Ballards who, if I remember rightly, traded in agricultural and garden machinery, and then changed to Ballards top end of the market car sales.
Gravity Defying Hardware Shop
According to the name scratched into the girders the shop was built by a local builder, J Drew and Son.

Knights is a shops used by tradesmen and the general public for buying tools fixings, electrical, plumbing and decorating supplies.

Monday Morning Snowfall

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Monday Morning Snowfall
It was one of those Monday mornings when I could not find the car. I cut through the gap near the church and was surprised to find the car was not in the parking area by the River Ock.

Returning along St Helen’s Close, I cast an eye over West St Helen’s Street Carpark, before finding the car two doors up from our house, in West St Helen’s Street – covered in snow.

I suspect Alzheimer’s is a bit like that – as stronger memories take over from the more immediate past.

Blessing of the Waters of the River Thames

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This morning St Helen’s Church began their 10:30 am service on St Helen’s Wharf. The service was the “Blessing of the Waters & festival of the Baptism of Christ”. The Blessing of the waters is an ancient tradition but this could be the first time it has been done beside the River Thames in Abingdon.

The service began with the congregation gathered on the wharf. They were then joined by the officiants and choir processing with the cross.

The Rector then greeted everybody… “Dear Friends in Christ, we gather today to celebrate the Baptism of Christ…”
Blessing of the Waters
After a hymn, some prayers, and bible readings, water was brought up from the River Thames and poured into the holy water bucket and then carried back to the church for the rest of the service.