I got back from my film trip to Bath and Swindon. Bath I must comment was like Manchester back in February/ early March , the whole community seemed to be on another planet with no precautions other than shops I assume. There were all sorts of groups of people, nobody wears masks except for Chinese students. I felt as if this town thought itself untouchable. With reduced numbers as usual the dross is more obvious. Rude building workers, rude woman at train station, car park only takes coins, what a dump it is. I hope the tourists are sensible and never return. Swindon was fine, it is a pleasant dump and knows it! Bath did have some bus interest with student services and hirings in. They have put temporary bus stops where I normally stand to film but it worked out ok. It is always interesting to see what daft social distancing stuff the council have wasted money on.

The Cheshire East council gave Mandy a copy and paste response to the incident where the traffic warden said he didn't agree with the temporary disabled parking and wasn't going to stick tickets on the posh cars which now park with immunity. We suffer terribly torn between two pathetic councils either side of us.

I got a really rude and snotty message from Amazon saying my account had discrepancies and threatened all sorts of things, hold my money, stop us selling. This went on for ages last night after I got home all the way from Bath. It carried on this morning, this bullying should not happen but they have a bad reputation and seem able to get away with all that the do and all the tax they don't pay, beyond the law yet have ruined many businesses in countless communities in Britain.

By this morning i was ready to pull the plug on Amazon, some of the customers are no better. I emailed the CEO in USA Seattle, obviously he doesn't get them but has a team to sort and if stuff gets to that level something is obviously in need of sorting. Within 10 minutes of sending I got an apology and there is nothing wrong, why put small businesses through hell. I am sill considering waling away from it altogether, it is only Christmas when we get a lot of women customers and many are incredibly rude. We just don't need the hassle. The orders are still coming in droves and the disc supplier is out of stock so that is next big thing to sort.

Photos from Bath yesterday afternoon.

Thankfully we had kept up with DVD orders over the weekend so there wasn't too much to do this morning and I could resume work on the Belfast Bus Spot. I finished it late afternoon, just need to get the cover done plus I promised a friend that I would string together all the source material for Belfast trolleybuses.

On another tack I had a contact back in touch re my fathers family tree and will be speaking to her tomorrow evening. A bit  of detective work with DNA might have cracked it tracing my grand mother Dricoll's side of the family.

In between the editing today I did manage to get all the bus shelters on my diorama fitted in place and lot more little people are standing around waiting courtesy my old railway layout from way back when. The light hasn't been much good for photos but  the top photo is a taster, the background buildings are just roughly laid out pending more construction work! Note my first attempts with weathering powders. I've still got the tiny Chinese dice to make the platform locators plus I've almost identical lamps to those at Wrexham which regular readers will know was the source for the layout albeit it could accommodate buses from all sorts of locations. Shame there is little scenery for Hong Kong I'd love to give my huge HK bus collection some context.

I hope to be getting out with the camera tomorrow. We are starting to get details on the post lock down situation, I hope we aren't too high as it is a pain not going out for coffee, drinks or a meal.

Here are a few screen shots from the film, it seems  to chop bits off putting them in the blog but you'll get a good idea of what it is about.

I didn't have time to blog yesterday as I'd worked 8am to 8pm and Mandy put her foot down on any more. I did my first painting with acrylics on the diorama bus shelters a little bit more paint here and there then some weathering and they will go into position, then it will look like a real bus station.

Today has been the second round of DVD orders, we started last night, cleared the overnighters then we have another batch to go at. I want to make a start on my Belfast film in the Bus Spot Ultra series.  Excuse the rush but I must get the new Portugal film on the shop.

I have scanned yet more films today, tomorrow I hope to put the Portuguese film together. Today I also managed to make all the island platforms for the diorama so far so good and from China arrived the 4mm dice squares, these are spot on scale for the concrete shelters bus stop lines which had them at either end at Wrexham. It all fitted together, creating the drop kerbs as the pavement is the edges of the bus station wasn't too bad, the kerbing itself very fiddly with all the curves at island ends. It would a a very tight turn in in real life but models are always full of compromise. We got all the orders for DVDs sorted early on and I was able to get a few more digital downloads onto the shop. The DVDs shown above are all on the PMP shop. Ready for a sit down and rest now. Tomorrow as well as editing the Portugal programme I intend to paint the concrete bus shelters for the layout. Any orders , we've a few already will get packed as they come in so we don't get overwhelmed.

We went shopping this morning which was a bit of a hole in the day, ditto bed changing but I have managed to complete the editing of the three Ternhill DVDs and trailers will be on Youtube this evening. I also continued scanning cine film. I need to get four DVD covers made tomorrow before anything so I can load them on our shop. A moderate load of DVD orders yesterday but the magazines must have circulated now and a lot of orders all for multiple quantities. Some good to have a chat calls with people I would normally have seen at the rallies.

I did well getting another 15 films on to digital download. I also continued on the diorama in between all the other jobs. Mandy was a bit off colour today, we'll have a drink later, it is Thursday and its pub night only of course we cannot go to a pub. We had something different for tea, fish and chips from M&S, not bad really, last week we had a pizza, good to get something different now and then. I got a new battery for the bathroom scales, it seems I've now lost the best part of a stone in weight since I cut down on sugar, we still have the occasional treat but a nice M&S eclair oozing with cream is nowhere near as bad as the sugar laden stuff. Since cutting down my knee has been 100%, to think a couple of months I was worrying about having another new knee.

I've added another film to the list of imminent releases which will be on Belfast, not quite sure which format it will appear as. I will try and make a start on the Portugal archive film tomorrow. Then there are the twins Doncaster and Rotherham on the Bus Spot Ultra list so plenty to go at but obviously DVD orders take priority. The DVD list on the shop front page is updated and I also posted the information only archive file updated although there is work to lay out the latest scans by locations and dates. Thinking of Portugal we can head that way for tonights slide show.

I've just got the cover to make for the new London Down Your Way archive, it was a bit of a beast to get sorted, I had to discard a lot of the material even HD can't work miracles. Anyway I'll get the cover done tomorrow. I'm still bus scanning cine films and for once managed to get a few more digital uploads on to the PMP shop. I'm going to work on the Portugal DVD archive next and then the next bus spot. Horrendous weather, gales and torrential rain, more of the same again tomorrow. I started work again on the diorama with more roads in situ and trying to get my head around the bus station which is a bit of a challenge but the trouble with working from a real  one is that you feel you should make an effort to respect the layout even if you have to compromise the space and size. Anyway bottom line it's all coming together. Looking to the next phase a modern setting, I got a new kit, well 2 actually for distribution centre and a modern bus station which should be handy for the present day, Johns Model Railways, good price and simple construction  but superb photo work. I'll bring you some photos tomorrow plus the cover of the new London film.

The London inspired bus garage on my diorama has moved forward a lot from yesterday, I've removed branding though so it can cover for any scene I want to set around it. The pavements and road in front has also been put in place since taking these shots this afternoon. I was also copying some more films, the London Transport film from our friend John Bishop actually features a lot of clips from my own collection from the likes of Terry Barker. These weren't the best of quality and really not viewable until scanned into HD. This has allowed a lot of tweaking on the editing deck and I've accumulated nearly an hour with more to go mostly early 60's as much of the RT roof box stock was there and also the RTWs are on another film covering their last days in service. It's been a hard slog sometimes working to half a second in the editing. It contains some important material which not overall as good as the rest of the Spot On London it does cover a lot earlier era. Plenty on London Trolleybuses which I know have a big following. I hope to have this finished in the next few days.

I'm keeping on eye open for the weather as I don't think tomorrow is going to be great for filming with high winds, all very frustrating especially if it was wrong and I could have done a trip. Lots to do if I don't go out and at least the London DVD will progress a lot. We had a bit of a catch up session with letter writing to MP and local councils regarding their various anti disabled antics. Anyway having a rest now, the least DVD orders since early March today so there is a bit of a rest from that but I expect the magazine adverts will be out very soon.

In the mean time here are some more shots from Ternhill  for which I need to edit the three DVDs.

I was in Shropshire filming today at Ternhill, my latest favourite spot, first time I've tackled it in anything but fair weather and it was great, as busy as usual and although a bit too much brightness at times it did eventually settle down to just cloudy and a steady level of illumination. The difference is how hard it is to make constant adjustments. A couple of classics spotted. Tomorrow we will be over in North Lincolnshire, light cloud forecast.

When I got home mid afternoon after a brew I tackled the roof to the model bus depot. This turned our to be a challenge to far and it was really going wrong so I decided that getting the structure solid and level should be No1 priority and then I can apply the sheets of printed detail afterwards, saves hacking away at lots more card and also means that I could reuse and complete the one which I got upside down, believe me it sound daft but it could have looked ok either way, I unearthed the illustration and realised I'd made a mistake. I had a big clear up and am leaving the structure to set solid before I tackle it again. My acrylic paints have arrived, this means I can tackle the concrete bus stops when the depot is complete.

Obviously this evenings slide show is from Tern Hill!

It took a bit of doing, all afternoon editing but I got there in the end, it will be on the PMP shop tomorrow. As promised there will be a volume on London and also a Portugal archive feature as well as bus Spot Ultra (s) - yes there may be two. While the weather is more suitable for filming tomorrow and Tuesday I will get out and about with the camera, Tern Hill tomorrow then over North Lincs tomorrow, obviously subject to weather etc. Then I can get back too editing the other archive features later in the week.

I also tackled the roof for the model bus depot, it was a bit hard doing that while editing and scanning more cine plus getting phone calls and DVD orders coming through. All the orders are ready to post in the morning. I'm a bit shattered now and there is some wine left a lovely Beaune, mmmm delicious. Well hope that you haven't all been blow away with these wretched winds - more from me tomorrow,.

This is my bus garage  for the diorama, designed to fit in with the availble space and allow a good number of bus to be seen. Kingsway kit then copied and garage name removed and create extra parts to widen rather than add depth, that is covered using their garage wall sheet and the interior download which give an impression of depth. Hard to get it in a photo. It is all quite sturdy and it was done while it digitised film file was being saved. There does seem to be quite a heap of card though. Next comes the roof and then detailing the interior with doors, clocking in clock , clock , notices etc. I though some pickets outside would convey the olden golden days very well, just prototype say in London or Dublin!

I treat all the cine carefully but especially so for my pal John Bishop, I can't fathom these sticky tape things, got some from China but the illustrations and writing  might as well be in Chinese, oh it is. I think it was meant to be English. Anyway the old ways are often the best and you only give up one frome by splicing the old way with the special cement. It works particularly well with Kodak and thats the best and he used it right through to that day when the cine camera was laid up to rest.

I managed to get a lot of clips on to Youtube overnight. It must seem thin picking this week for DVDs but all the work has been preparation, tomorrow I'll start to file them in the main archive and then I can easily sort them to a particular location. I am still on track to do South Yorkshire, London, Sussex and Portugal. Identifying some of the collections which have a lot of rail content is hard for me, one 400' reel had about 8 locations from several preserved railways to a few seconds on the IOW tube stock. It looked rough over 40 years ago! I've been working since 8am so I think a rest is now in order. We have got all the DVDs ready for posting received up to this morning, the rest will be done Sunday evening. It is relatively quiet compared to last week.