A very long day but I have enough material for three DVDS about 3.5 hours of film, it came out full sun at tea time which in a city means too many shadows so packed up filming about 5.30 and had a mean on Waterloo Rd Old Fire Station and some pleasant  IPA. London was so empty of people and traffic, no morning or evening rush hour, no extra buses , nobody by Piccadilly Fountain, two people on Trafalgar Square. It was a similar picture as previously seen in the suburbs, plastic fencing and cones all along roads everywhere, extra cycle lanes which never get used, cycles use the pavement, people on kiddies scooters riding in middle of roads. The bus drivers were all very friendly, buses generally fair to little passengers but some full denoted by card in windscreen ( no digital displays although new single deckers are digital). I hate digital displays, hard to read, impossible in sunlight, rubbish for photography.

There were roads adorned with Thank You flags and Union Jacks, I guess this is ready for Scraggy Head when he has held the coup and becomes president for life. London has been decimated, why are people still allowed to skive off work at home, service to customers is at rock bottom as most places, too much touchy feely rubbish and anyway in the south of England nobody witnessed seems to use extended walkways, people hug and shake hands in greeting. There are no apparent tube or bus restrictions on seating, people have masks hanging around necks not worn, restaurants don't ask for name and address for tracking if required. Quit this madness, back to work for everyone and destroy all displays of plastic fencing and the like, normality attracts customers / consumers. With instances of Corona at low levels the actual incidence of deaths is below the seasonal average so more people die of Corona but not as many who would have died of something else.

I covered quite a lot of territory but at £13.50 a travel card for central London must be the most expensive in the world. The tube was deserted, no staff, no directions, blocked off lifts with n alternatives, really about normal then, what a shambles it all was, most impressed. Bless the staff at the restaurants who are working so hard, thank goodness they haven't got masks on in London. Here are some shots taken yesterday, more to come. Filming Stockport tomorrow then Stobarts Widnes Friday morning, sitting in sun Friday pm.

We had to go to Oswestry this morning after dropping off the DVD orders at the post office. As the only half decent cafe there was shut we called at Grosvenor Garden Centre near Chester on the way home, a very nice tea and dessert and all at half price how unexpected, quality and low price whats not to like. Then it was mowing and strimming plus plating a couple of plants we picked up on our way out of the garden centre cafe. An early start tomorrow , I've still to work out my itinerary as it is a brighter time of year than usual, I get to Euston at 8am. Return is not until nearly 8pm, hoping I can go on filming into the early evening. I've also scanned a couple of cine films which held a few surprises on content which included Hull trolleybuses. I still need to get the DVD orders ready for Mandy to pack tomorrow morning, thankfully Mandy is dropping me at the station. A few shots from a previous London trip to set the scene.

I've also managed to get a few more items on shop as digital downloads, it really is an early in the morning job as the net gets busier the progress loading gets really slow. I've been scanning 1950s scenes including Southampton area, Scotland incl Aberdeen and Glasgow trams plus material from John Bishop incl his Bradford trolleybus film and some of the reels include sequences from the PMP archive such as scenes from HEC Piercey. Very much a labour of love but what a privilege to be watching film from over 60 years ago and it includes diverse transport subjects. These scenes will enhance the range of archive available through the OTA and in our own Tickety Boo productions.

The weather has been very kind today and we have had a sit out in the garden while this morning was the first service at st Oswalds for over four months and welcomed our new vicar and also celebrated the nearest Sunday to our patron saint St Oswald. Lovely to see so many friendly faces missing for months. Delightful weather allowed mask free catch ups outside in the grounds. I'm getting ready for my London outing for buses on Tuesday.

I should have the covers for the three recent lorry films ready tonight, everything still needs putting on our shops!

We can't even manage to get one hot sunny day here in Cheshire, it looks like thunder coming but it is supposed to come sunny again and then goes cold again and rains forever as per usual but the grass looks good, I guess that's why the borders and grass in Scotland like so well late in summer. WE had a little bit of shopping to do first thing at Waitrose in Northwich and we got the DVD orders away, by lunch time I'd pruned all the roses well dead heading and pruning here and there and we were sat in the garden sweltering. This evening I bring you a selection of lorries snapped while doing the video at Monmouth yesterday. I've been using the Ibuprofen gel more liberally on my right knee which seems to be working. Tomorrow morning its the delayed spring cleaning at St Oswalds ready for a short simple service on Sunday, our first since the lock down started. There are relations who will have restrictions from the partial lock down in Great Manchester plus Blackburn etc in Lancs and over Halifax way.

Another rake of our target locations for lorry film completed today with the weather gradually improving and ends up at 28 degC. We are planning in being sat in the garden tomorrow other than pruning roses and our new neighbours are coming round for a drink tea time, we are helping out with bathroom facilities as their shower isn't back working until tomorrow, nice to be able to help people. Our services resume Sunday at St Oswalds with a spoken morning prayer which won't take long but will enable people to meet the new incumbent.

We have a pile of Polio Fellowship material to go through in adavance of an online meeting next weekend which along with Mandys hospital appointment made us change the date of our trip to see my family in Hythe, Hampshire that's two weekends away I think and will give us a chance to get Hampshire covered, ie Portsmouth, Fareham, Southampton and onwards to Bornmouth, Poole and perhaps Weymouth - I expect they'll all be very crowded if the weather holds. Coming back up this afternoon from Avonmouth the M6 south bound was blocked by an accident and queues stretched back for many miles, just like normal times except there are now millions of tourists who would have gone to Spain etc on the road heading for the seaside. Here are shots from Avonmoth. I've lots to edit and get covers made for etc which will happen over this weekend.

My old knee is giving me a lot of pain this evening after the trip to the Woodhead Pass today filming lorries. Far from ideal weather but you have to take the rough with the smooth and the weather here has been terrible but we are promised better for Friday and I intend to be sitting in the garden by then. Tomorrow sticking with lorries this week I am retracing previous visits with a favourite trio with Ross on Wye, Monmouth and Avonmouth as the weather down there looks to be 100% sunny. Also booked is a cheap rail ticket to London next Tuesday so I can catch up with scenes on those quiet streets which will be very interesting in retrospect should life ever get back to normal.

I had a bit of trouble with uploads to Youtube with DVDs I'd had to tweak sound on to get a decent production but their uploaded doesn't seem to like the first attempts, reloading and all was well but I haven't got time to mess around over a couple of clips which people view for nothing, probably same folk who never even buy a DVD or download.  Similar type of thing someone wants to use my film, as I've already put a commercial use option on the shop to avoid the tedious inquiries from around the world which actually addressed to someone with a Youtube channel means they really want to use it for nothing and think you'll be pleased! Here are some shots from the stop at Whitchurch, I've edited the DVD and a clip is loading on Youtube right now.

On the way down to Shrewsbury this morning I stopped at a new location for lorry film but close to Press Heath where I had filmed before on the A41 near Whitchurch. I got over an hour of film and fingers crossed that recent microphone problems are now well and truly over. When the weather turned to rain I immediately stopped filming and carried on down to Shrewsbury where I met Peter on his way back from the barbers so we unloaded the scanned filmed and put the next batch in the boot which is quite a time range from 1958 to 1987 and that's the same collection, I'm, looking forward to the Manchester bus visit in 1958 and the extensive Glasgow section in the 50's also of note are several trolleybus visits. There is another collection with lots more trolleybus visits in the 1960s and with the scan of John Bishops collection it is a feast of trolley scanning for August. I'm looking at what is possible to film Wednesday and Thursday. Friday we are determined to have a sit in the garden, I also need to finish off the gardening started Sunday before the latest deluge series commenced, what a month. We got our half price food at the pub in Shrewsbury which was actually a day or so earlier than envisaged. Here are some shots from Exeter last week, truck photos tomorrow. I've still got a lot of editing to do.

I've just got the Devon DVD to make, it has taken forever due to the continued problems with the microphone which went to a very low setting for no apparent reason then when I adjusted it I set it way to high. Anyway tomorrow I'm going to do a few trucks in the morning on my way to Shrewsbury to drop off and pick up films from the OTA. This gives me a chance to make sure all is well. We are looking hard at possible film trips, outside Essex, London and surrounding areas we will probably take a stab at South Wales, then Northern Ireland and wait to see if the anti British sentiment in Scotland subsides and we can travel there freely if not we shall have to pass on Scotland altogether this year. That will leave us with the Channel Islands, IOM and ROI to visit is feasible. There may be opportunities for more archive features as well which went down very well in the lock down. Overseas travel at the moment looks impossible given the sudden re-imposition of quarantine from Spanish holiday travel. Meanwhile here are some shots from Plymouth last Friday.

Yes another golden oldie with the LTE era 1948-62 now finished and I move swiftly on to the South West trip and the momentous changes which have happened since our last visit. We'll pitch in tonight with Cornwall where First Group saw around 50% of their services axed when Go Ahead picked up the massive tender for a greatly enhanced series of tendered services. It now means that Go Ahead have got new buses plus moved many in from Plymouth and then back filled Plymouth with buses from along the South Coast. This forms the basis for tonights slide show. We have been busy today though sorting out a fraudulent charge come through on the Nat West credit card which we will get credited for, we will have new cards on the account, someone in London bought a load of timber on our card, strange thing really for a fraudster to purchase.

After getting the old London bus film finished it hasn't left time to do much on the South West trip but I should make progress tomorrow. Tuesday I deliver the scanned films to OTA at Shrewsbury, there are two very heavy boxes to pass on. We came home via my friend Martin Rickitt's home which has an extensive ( 1 mile) rail system of 7 1/4" gauge and has a new tram which we had the privilege of driving round, Martin kindly took a shot of Mandy and myself after completing the basic system twice.

Here we go with Cornwall filmed on Thursday, lots of notable views can't wait to get the film edited, these shots are all at Truro, next batch tomorrow night.