Trucking fans your time will come, in fact if it snowed we were going to get scenes on the Woodhead Pass for you but it's starting to look doubtful if we'll get anything at all. The wind which has howled through the night and all day should go overnight. I think it will be bitter in the arctic weather coming down to us but I can wrap up well against that. I'm looking at Yorkshire again for buses tomorrow, east should be best for light cloud, Hull is possible but so is Sheffield. I'll be getting back into the trucks once there is a bit more height to the sun and of course there are always our old fall backs like Lymm poplar services, always something good and the action never stops. remember we have lots of new locations coming up this year for those who like their action lorry shaped! We shall also be attending vintage lorry rallies en masse with Kelsall, Gaydon and Llandudno, dependent on the weather of course. There will be a different look to our rally schedule this year, some we'll just attend to film the action others will be events we haven't been to for a while and a return to areas such as Wales which haven't featured in our rally coverage for a while. We've also got more archive rally coverage which still has yet to go on to DVD. Also not yet on DVD are our German tram archives, that's a big project alone. I'm still working on my Southdown/Susex project from the 1920-60's covering decades where coverage has been hitherto absent. I've also got other projects under way, I'm preparing some film shows which would appeal to several audiences. I'm doing a feature on Windmills and another on the vintage streets of Sussex. These will go to the capable hands of my old pal John Bishop to show and I'm doing a show in October for one of his car clubs. I may let the Sussex project go first at the Eastbourne bus society. Some shots only have buses in the background but they are mostly unseen footage by transport fans. I had a chat last night with another old friend, Dave Vaughan, once again from Sussex, Dave still keeps rattling out the articles for the vintage vehicle press. I'm giving you a selection of the Huddersfield shots from yesterday, I've half started getting them files, remember we have many thousands of still shots on our Smugmug site where you can select and purchase prints from 50p each. The latest Yorkshire bus DVDs are already on our shop. I seemed to dodge most of the problems today. I got up at 6.30, Mandy went swimming at the club at Cranage Hall while I headed up the M6, I'd only got to the first junction at Lymm, there were flames flicking up into the still dark sky. There was a lorry pulled hard onto the shoulder and the fire brigade had just arrived. As I was so close to the incident I managed to get past before they shut the road, it wasn't helped as it was at the point where all the Lymm Poplar services traffic plus Stobarts UK road base all pour onto the motorway. Anyway north of this traffic was all but absent until I got on to the M60/M62, not too bad to the west of the Pennines but over in Yorkshire the time was rocketing by, there had been a problem on a nearby A road and traffic was worse than normal but eventually I got onto the ring road and into the city right where i wanted to be and parked up in the expensive but very convenient Victoria centre car park. It's next to the bus station, not that the facility is itself useful, in fact up there with Slough as useless to the enthusiast unless you are just ticking of numbers. The lift in the car park said Lewes was on the 6th floor so up I went, so where is the cafe, on the third floor, oh so I've got to go back down, oh no it's a floor up. Weird, weird that's what modern Britain is. A cafe where they couldn't plan a piss up in a brewery and nowhere to put the card machine other than on a ribbed counter where it bobbles about, no contact payment- it's almost Victorian in concept as well as name and whoever came up with the lift numbering wants shooting.Thankfully the buses were plain sailing, really friendly drivers, lots of new stuff plus three of First heritage liveried fleet. The light was spot on, I did so well I just kept going until lunch time, well over the hour of film. The only tramps or winos I saw were at the post office other than than Leeds outshone both Birmingham and Liverpool, I suppose it's day had to come someday. Then it was on to Huddersfield, brightish with light cloud, just right. Only minus were millions of teenagers wandering around, they seemed English - what were they, who were they - I didn't know there were that many young people alive in the UK. Needless to say tonights slides are from Leeds, tomorrow grounded due to very high winds. Thursday looks on go albeit possibility of snow which could almost be a positive. Looking at the latest weather updates Leeds and or Huddersfield is now looking favourite replacing Wakefield which had been pencilled in. I've been working most of the day on my Sussex project which is starting to gain shape with yet more war time film of Southdown coming to light. I don't know if it will be finished this year, I'll give it my best shot. I've had a match on my DNA at Ancestry which could be to a first or second cousin, no link to a published tree or anything, I'd looked in as it had been that infrequent that I added anything and found this match had come up in December, mind you they didn't contact me either! Fingers crossed as Jim O'Grady down in Dover hasn't responded to the latest round of contact through super sleuth Pat Peacock. Might be that I really do need to get a private eye on his case. I did get around to doing the cover for the Birmingham bus DVD which is now listed on the PMP shop. It's continued dismal and very wet today, lots of post went out this morning with a lot of DVD orders plus cine film going around the world. I need to get our photos done soon for the Indian visa, it's only a month but you can't apply until it's 30 days minimum, it's all electronic these days. I've checked on a map and all the double deck bus locations around Mumbai seem to be within easy reach of the hotel mostly north or South from the Victoria terminal area, no replay from BEST on my request for a depot visit, I guess it will be down to getting the hotel concierge to try for me, can't say I'm that surprised. Here are some of the other shots from Birmingham on Saturday, thankfully all should be calm after kids return to school and I can film weekdays. Thanks to our customer who spotted a problem with our still photo sales site hosted by Smugmug which had a photo of an Algerian tram instead of a watermark on many of the galleries which blocked the whole of the photos, this has now been rectified throughout the entire site. Remember that shots are being added every week. A damp day again, the coming week looks like being a hard one in which to prejudge the weather and towards the back of the week some wintry conditions seem set to return. My car is booked in for service on Friday and Monday looks very wet so I've Tues wed and Thursday to play with. I've continued downloading films which may well produce an interesting feature on buses in Sussex, well Southdown really plus a few bits and pieces on the way. Mandy has a rotten cold yet again, more like the throat and chest virus I got rather than the nasty head cold she caught in December. Guess it's all going around in circles. I haven't really got anything in particular done today, that said lots of emails on various topics floating around and I had a catch up chat with John Bishop down in Sussex. I've some film from the Sussex windmill trust which i need to copy before I go down there for Detling in March. The days just seem to whizz by, we are having drinks before dinner with a good bottle of Sancerre to help the chicken on its way, we have whats left in a risotto on Monday. Without anything in particular to offer but mindfull that I'm promoting the Smugmug site which is way underutilised at present here is a random dip now where will i land. Well bless me its the Stobart file in our commercial section More weather changes meant that Leeds was going to have unwanted sunshine todayso we swapped Leeds for Birmingham and complete our early year coverage in the city today. It was damp and even foggy on the way down, worst at/near home. It wasn't bad in the city centre, we had a Costa drink and bakewell tart before I got cracking. Mandy took a shirt back to Whitestaff shop which was one of two we purchased in Southampton but they'd given me a tailored fit instead of regular hence it wouldn't go round me, annoying as we were talking about the fit with the young chap who served us and how M&S sizes had shrunk . There was a party of bus enthusiasts gathered at the stops at the rear of M&S in Birmingham, despite waving , smiling, blah blah no reaction and they never let on to the bus drivers at all, no wonder the drivers get pee'd off with such miserable admirers! Anyway I ploughed on and got well over an hour of film, I'm just about to burn the master disc and get the cover done plus get clips on Youtube. Once again plenty of new buses I hadn't seen yet and it looks as if Coventry is getting the upgrade treatment. Most buses are in one of the current liveries , if not all. What I had noticed in Liverpool with all the dossers and general scruffiness was repeated in Birmingham. I cannot remember a place or indeed places going downhill so fast. The cafes for instance are run/staffed by people from many countries while the derelicts in the doorways seem to be mainly British. The begging and drinking was only surpassed by the presence of football hooligans by lunch time, not knowing the ins and outs of such things, is there a brummie equivilent to Man United? Anyway they were very intimidating, drunk, swearing etc , lots of police about. All goes to show that weather apart I try to do filming on weekdays now I'm retired from the day job at least it means that we are free from these sort of problems but also underlines just how awful our country is, I also got racial abuse from a ragged black chap near the market. We are looking at the weather next week, at present Tuesday looks possible for Leeds bus coverage, Monday looks very wet. I've downloaded another few hours of archive material which will go towards future programmes. I really want to get a few hours worth done while it's mid winter but I keep getting off track. I did get all the Southampton truck and Liverpool bus pictures on our SmugMug site, see links page where you can buy prints from us from just 50p a photo. Here we go with Birmingham. The Morrismen/women seemed to be having a gala Morris festival in the city! Mandy was poorly last night and this meant I was awake as well thus we were both pretty shattered and decided in the middle of the night that the alarm would be turned off and we'd leave the Birmingham trip to next week. Mandy has had a bad run of sleepless nights so will try a sleeping pill tonight, it was a shame as we had a splendid evening and meal at the Dog in Over Peover last night, we were seated near folk with two dogs who I'd met earlier in the day while unloading the tree loping kit at St Oswalds, small world, I think it was the puppy that recognised me from earlier on. Anyway we are certainly going to cover Leeds tomorrow, hopefully it will be light cloud as promised and I'll get lots of super shots and fingers crossed there are plenty of buses that are new since last year, Bradford was really worthwhile at the end of 2016. We did have a few things to get done, Mandy went swimming and then shopping after a brunch mid morning. I cracked on with downloading some more films from various locations which will go towards a couple of juicy projects I've got in the offing which will cover Southdown territory over the years, coaching in the UK plus classic lorry films. It takes a bit getting everything together, a quickie might well be some of the old Scottish footage combined for another couple of volumes in the Scenes you may remember series which I've not added to for a while. Although both exhausted this morning I'd creating the cards for the bingo raiser during the night, I need to download the random number generator. The Indian travel pass arrived today, another job done but I still need to contact BEST about a depot visit whilst I'm in Mumbai, it might also be hand to download a detailed map with the DD routes marked or at least the terminii. We've almost got Mandy's new car sorted, the final figures came through this afternoon. The charity walk clashes with Heaton Park, we are seeing if we can move it back a week but there will be a work around if that's not possible. For those who haven't seen the variety of buses in Liverpool at present here are some links, catch up tomorrow with photos from Leeds, thanks to everyone for all the New Year greetings. The glitch with Weebly for this site with the slide show not working was a known problem, must be a first, I wonder how long it will take to get rectified. These things usually happen when they start messing where messing isn't required, if it ain't broke don't fix it is a great maxin on those occasions. I was up courtesy of the alarm clock as it would be a busy morning. After getting the DVD orders cleared with yet another healthy day of business I went over to the church where we just scraped the minimum congregation and then Rodney arrived and we set to getting the huge Christmas tree down. Most time was taken up getting it cleared up, those wretched pine needles get everywhere. I think it will take a while next December getting the baubles sorted, I think a few didn't survive our onslaught this morning. A healthy bonfire will be forthcoming. Mandy went back to the Honda dealer in Crewe with the disabled VAT exemption forms but they hadn't prepared the final quote as promised so a let down already, everyone was off the one day, they've promised to email the details. There seems to be a lot of DVD orders coming in today, the snail mail and telephone orders are both picking up again after nearly 100% internet over Christmas. I made another vintage DVD today with scenes of the 1956 and 57 Mobil economy car runs plus period motor adverts plus road safety messages of a bygone era. I've still a few other archive features in mind while the weather is bad. There is a possibility that the rain tomorrow may miss Birmingham until the afternoon, I'll watch the weather forcast and see if I can get it covered, then it is Leeds on Saturday. A couple of days week are lining up as possibles, loads of locations to cover. The charity walk in Derbyshire is now scheduled for 1st to 3rd September, this clashes on the Sunday with Heaton Park bus rally but we may be able to get friend Sue to help Mandy with it while I walk, although only 39 miles I may decide to walk there from Lower Peover which would nearly double it. We are intending to do a practise session or two to survey it. I made the donation to the RNCM today for membership of the Principle's Circle cementing a relationship which goes back to my stay in a squat at the old RNCM building back in the day. Mandy is considering that any saving made with the new Jazz from Jan discounts etc could go towards a new ultra light wheelchair under 4Kg. It looks as if my trip to Croatia and Bosnia is on go plus Ukraine which we hope to get assistance with from a friend from the country now living in the Netherlands, I must let him know when we are going. My arthritus is back in my right hand little finger, hurts typing. We are going out to the Dog for dinner as a treat to ourselves during these dark miserable mid winter days. It's the RSPB big garden bird watch now over three days at the end of this month, we were in Colombia for the last one, saw plenty of birds there. Glad to day the photo glitch looks cured, a building the age of St Oswalds takes some looking after and not being afraid of mice helps, taken this morning after the tree has been cleared and a good sweep up. It was -3C when we started work. We went to Honda at Crewe today who it turns out are the same company that Mandy deals with at Cheshire Oaks at Ellesmere Port which they quaintly refer to asa Chester which takes the biscuit. Anyway our plan had been to compare prices but they would be identical. As we weren't that bothered about the 'year' reg keeping Mandy's cherished plate we decided to take the January promotions offer which lops a lot off the price plus they did a great deal on the trade in. Mandy has gone for the top spec model which has a number of new features and will take a bit of getting used to. Most important is the colour of course and this is a sporty type of blue which looked good on another model in the showroom. A pityy they don't do anything really small so I'll just hang on to the IQ until something else appears on the market. We've done most of the paperwork and Mandy will go back with the disabled VAT exemption form tomorrow. I've got a poster and tickets done for the Feb St Oswalds fund raiser and must replace the bangers beans and bingo one which has vanished from the notice board at the shop. Tomorrow I'm taking the Christmas tree down with Keith after the Thursday 10am service, so overalls, sawa etc loaded in the PMP van. Our wheelbarrow is without operational tyre! We had quite a bagful of DVD post this morning, not so many cine films going out at present which we need to get shifted before I can indulge again with Phillip over in Cleethorpes. I had an interesting chat with a gent down south called Des who has an equally varied past like myself, his passion is nautical and he produces DVDs on shipping. I'm doing another golden oldie DVD at present to follow on from the OPil & Gas industry production. The next will be on old UK motor runs with two Mobil Fuel Economy trials 1956 and 57 and some period tyre adverts, it's about time I started doing more with the masses of material I've accumulated over the years. The weather forecast was a bit off mark, it was much cloudier than promised. My next potential film days are Friday and Saturday. Possible targets, Manchester, Leeds or Birmingham. There are certainly plenty of locations on my to do list. Lets take a look at some more shots from yesterday in Liverpool, the DVD is already done and on our shop page. The slide shower widget isn't working so hope this is ok for you all Really back into the swing today with an early (ish) trip over to Liverpool to catch the start of the rail replacement bus services on the cross Mersey lines. It was still quite dark but i wasn't on mt own, a lot of cameras about today and it's always handy to exchange the gen on what is happening. It seems that the Cambridge buses were busy on all sorts of routes over the weekend and even later today they strayed on to cross Mersey tunnel routes to the Wirral. The strangest of all were the park & ride buses in Cambridge livery also on Wirral routes. It was cold and breezy to start with. I concentrated on the rail replacement to get started although soon extended this to all buses. There was also a cycle bus on the replacement bus service, just the one though and a couple of smaller vehicles for wheelchair users. Liverpool was lucky to have such friendly bus drivers as there was little else other than the Costa Latte to cheer the soul, the streets were filthy and littered with dossers, more I think than the total given for the whole UK, who are they kidding we are in a mess, then it's non Brits running the cafes etc. Anyway I'll not kick off too much as it was a productive day and lots of film for a super long start to our 2017 season. Oodles of stills to be sorted as well so lets get cracking and also remember it's PMP New Year sale this week. We also got the latest archive finished, three films of the British Oil & Gas industry, the history of BP, construction and opening of Coryton and the first North Sea Oil and pipeline to Grangemouth. The Christmas trees at No17 are coming down as there are hardly any needles left and the cleaners come tomorrow and they can collect any we've missed, we'll replace both trees for next December. I'm taking the whopper down at St Oswalds Thursday with Keith, I think we have to lop the branches off and burn them, preferably on the bonfire not in the building! |
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