There has been a large volume of orders in all directions today for both DVDs, cine films and a bus stop sign. Mandy is going to have a busy time tomorrow while I'm in London. As I won't be home until midnight the next blog post will be Friday afternoon, we are off to the opening night of the Spring RNCM opera plus reception and we are there again Friday evening as ordinary punters plus we are having dinner there. I must have a quick look at a map for London, I land at Euston station before my bus pass is valid but I'm sure there must be some rush hour bus action nearby until I get back on my regular beat at Oxford St, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Waterloo perhaps maybe Victoria, lets see how time goes. Here are the clips I loaded today on Youtube of lorries in the snow near Buxton on Monday.
A short post today as I've been painting since 8am and have now finished the walls in the hall stairs and landing. There will be a few bit of touching up required plus I've the massive amount of gloss on numerous doors and skirting boards etc and the hazardous task of doing the staircase with carpet in situ. Anyway it looks clean enough and the cupboard with the silver and family tea services is back in place, not to mention the tea set liberated by British soldiers from a bungalow in Rye during the war whilst the occupants were evacuated. There has been a large volume of orders in all directions today for both DVDs, cine films and a bus stop sign. Mandy is going to have a busy time tomorrow while I'm in London. As I won't be home until midnight the next blog post will be Friday afternoon, we are off to the opening night of the Spring RNCM opera plus reception and we are there again Friday evening as ordinary punters plus we are having dinner there. I must have a quick look at a map for London, I land at Euston station before my bus pass is valid but I'm sure there must be some rush hour bus action nearby until I get back on my regular beat at Oxford St, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Waterloo perhaps maybe Victoria, lets see how time goes. Here are the clips I loaded today on Youtube of lorries in the snow near Buxton on Monday. Another grey paint day although now I've got most of the hallway finished but need to get the radiator roller out and then there are lots of 'edges' to do on the stairs and mainly the landing which is the tricky bit on ladders but not as bad as we thought it would be. So far we are very pleased with the finish although Mandy had to go back to Farrow & Ball at Wilmslow to get another pot of pain, they only had the 2.5ltrs buit at least with two they 'only' charged for the 5 litre size which is quite dear enough, it would make B&Q wince to think of the price they sell at and the shop is always busy but that's Cheshire for you. Tonight I've got a sample of the DVDs taken on the Cat & Fiddle pass on Monday the results look great and both the DVDs are long running at around 70 mins or more. We've quite a lot of orders in the post and on telephone but not so much on the net. EBay wants all DVDs to have EAN or barcode numbers this month or they won't get relisted but with 300 to do and no particular order and no easy spreadsheet I think life is too short to worry. I've updated the PMP list again for those who get printed orders forms with their posted DVD orders. Another hefty consignment of 16mm cine arrived today from Cleethorpes Classic films, more from the Pan Am aircraft collection. A lot of bids on films on EBay but mainly 16mm, not going to touch stand unless its Eastbourne, Malta or Hong Kong or specific transport film. No m,ore signs of the trolley film that got listed and I missed, supposed to be a big collection. We went to Knutsford to have a break from painting, Mandy did the banking at Nat West and then we went to the railway station so I could print out my tickets for the London trip on Thursday. I'm getting my camera bag sorted now as we are at the premier of the RNCM spring opera tomorrow evening. It will be a very early start on Thursday as the train is at 5.20, not back until very late, perhaps I'll take a book for the train journey, I think it should be a slower one which means you can see stuff out of the window unlike the Virgin rockets. We'll possibly do some filming on Saturday subject as usual to weather, lots of possibilities. slightly truncated visit but a very full day in London on Thursday with the promise of light cloud which should be spot on for filming. I arrive around 8am and don't leave until evening so perhaps some night shots as well. Today I went up to the Peak district and filmed the lorries in the snow which was still about 18" deep although the road itself was mainly clear but I wouldn't have risked the speeds some were taking to bends at. It was a glorious sunny day for the most part cloudless until a few gentlel fluffy bits appeared on the fringes. It all makes for some wonderful film and has produced two 70 minute DVDs. When I got home Mandy had got the tin of grey paint from Farrow & Ball and we thought it a good idea to put the first coat on as far as possible ready then tomorrow for the top coat and hopefully in the afternoon the gloss paintwork. I got most of the walls but not all covered, we had one of Mandys fabulous curries and I'm just breaking off now for a rice pudding with lashings of jam.... yes superb, hardly feel like doing anything else but I've over 100 listings on EBay which need renewing, I've sold 9 of the cine films today which is handy but I've ordered up a rake of Mini Dv tapes and when the round of decorating is dine I'll start on the 16mm films which fetch the bigger money, I've about 150 now which is quite an investment. I'll give you today's shots tomorrow, I'm still working on the DVDs. These photos are in Bath last Thursday, I refrain from comment on the behaviour of a small section of First Group bus drivers. Another hectic day at No17 with the halls , stairs and landing ceilings painted and ready for Mandy to pick up the wall paint from Farrow and Ball at Wilmslow in the morning. We aren't going to London this Monday and Tuesday as the weather is still looking difficult with sun and rain in the mix but the Mon and Tues of the week after are still available. Not to worry though as we shall still be out and about with Nottingham trams creeping to the top of the list although I must admit the trucks over the Cat & Fiddle tomorrow is very tempting as there is plenty of scenic snow around but the road is now clear. It's hard work doing ceiling although my back which crumbles at a wrong turn or footstep is sound with all this work. It's a bit of a gamble going for the deeper grey colour on the walls but should make the rooms off it look nice and bright and will contrast with a fair amount of gloss white on the paintwork and doors. We've been offered a place for either of us on the Parish church council at St Oswalds, I think Mandy is better placed than me as I tend to have too short a fuse when there is any dispute plus I'm well known for rambling on too long, (agreement is not strictly necessary folks). I'm going to put a film together for showing at the Queens 90th birthday celebrations in the village using extracts from the many 16mm films which I've got digitised well actually on mini dv tapes which I know is a bind but they fit in better with all my other older archives. We are mindful that Boyle St Bus Museum event in Manchester is getting very close and this week we'll be getting stock replaced and loading the van in readiness. It's a busy week with an invitation to the opening night of the RNCM opea plus reception on Wednesday and we are also going Friday including a meal. The following week it's my birthday and we have a matinee songs from the shows tea at Clonter opera, a lovely way to celebrate among wonderful people. I'll also be taking a look at running days which really don't justify taking the sales stand but will be good to attend and film. I don't think I've given you a selection from the trip to Bristol and Bath yet, both the DVDs are ready, in fact I'll pop an update sheet on the news and shop pages when I've signed off. I was afflicted with arthritic pain in the night, a mixture of my shoulder, neck and elbow sufficiently to fully wake me by 2am and thus eventually I got up and got on with some tasks which it would save during the day. I finally returned to bed about 5.30am and was awake again by 8.30. I've not felt too tired but guess we won't be late to bed this evening. It was a result of doing bus visits on weekdays that we have been saved the misery of battling for parking, crowds of cars and drunks etc and reserving the weekends for other tasks which generally don't require leaving home. Thus today I continued the decorating and managed to get the bathroom and upstairs toilet painted. We are just waiting to Mandy's appointed hour 5pm when the pain should be pretty well set and will then dive the tiled walls a wash down before returning everything to its rightful place. Typically for a weekend we seem to be gathering n a few DVD and film orders which will be sorted Sunday afternoon or evening. I've been having a read of my Bill Bryson book a twenty years later follow up to notes from a small island, as usual well observed and chuckling level funny, he now has British citizenship which I suppose allows me to be in denial that I'm reading the scribblings of an American. I managed to get the covers for Bristol and Bath DVDs ready. A big job to be tackled this week is to get our DVD rally stock updated with all the releases since last December. So lets jump back now to the visit to look at Routemaster buses in Crewe and then tomorrow we can move forward again to pick up with Bristol and Bath. A couple of very busy days. Thursday as announced we went down to film at Bristol which was a pleasure and then went on to Bath which wasn't. I've only a couple of words to say FIRST GROUP AND POLISH. I'll leave you to conjecture the scene which will not be allowed to drop. I must admit at one stage yesterday I was tempted to pull the plug on buses all together and just concentrate on the lorries which seem not to attract any of the hostility and violence now being encountered with these EU nationals. Bristol and the weather was light cloud as forecast with lots of vehicles I hadn't seen and quite a change in the smaller operators including Wessex . Lots of variety about, colourful and busy. The DVD has already been made but I've yet to do a cover. Bath will be long running, about 70 minutes I think and again was interesting with plenty of variety. The police there are very friendly and I got smiles and waves from all four of their cars and vans which passed. The sun was out which now that the sun gets a lot higher in the sky is no longer the scourge it is in winter. It was a bitter blow to run into such an atmosphere after I'd had a great time jn Bristol. We are a couple of days behind in photo coverage but as today was dominated by the snow which came overnight and lasted through the day really needs some illustration particularly for the folk in warmer climes. I went to Macclesfield and Leek, I was unable to get to Buxton the only remaining road open from our direction was via Leek and this was then blocked by a jack knifed lorry, I'd already abandoned the run as too dangerous and I saw the foreign ( i think) wagon hammering through the snow, as I got back to town there were three fire and rescue vehicles heading out into white out conditions. Back home its more wet than snow. I then did some preparation work on the bathroom ready for painting tomorrow. I had to nip down to B&Q for some bathroom anti mould sealant which stinks and is very messy. On the way back from Somerset yesterday we stopped off at friends Sues place and ended up staying for dinner and didn't get back until nearly midnight. Our lovely neighbours thought we must have gone away and forgotten to tell them so closed up the curtains for us. Anyway I give you some snow scenes from this afternoon. I'm not sure what the films came out like today but the cleaners come on a Wednesday and Mandy likes me out of the way so with a couple of successful decorating jobs to my credit I took off to brave the elements. I went to Lymm as the Cat & Fiddle had seen little snow first thing, I'll hang on and if it gets a dose Friday I might go then but it looks best when heavily covered followed by road clearance and sunshine. So I took a punt on Lymm, it is a little while since I did it and being so near nothing much lost if weather turns foul. As it happened I'd only been there a short while when it started to snow. I used my PMP hi vis vest as a cover and worked under that to keep the video camera dry and only did enough stills to give a supply for the DVD covers. I got so wet and cold that i think a bit of exposure tarted to set in and I felt quite unwell but had got over an hour of film, it never got very heavy although some of the lorries had a little build up on the fronts. Nothing like spring time or a bit of snow. Anyway after defrosting in my little IQ I felt much better so headed back down the motorway to Crewe which I wanted to revisit not because I'd forgotten I'd been there last year but my visit was just before Routemaster took to the road. This time I got a while DVD out of my visit, I was very well wrapped up I might say and there was little of me uncovered. I got the two Fishwicks buses, the three deckers and a random selection of single deckers, the other local D&G Potteries First, GHA and Arriva probably passed through several times, the Tesco free bus seemed to take two minutes on it's run unless there was actually a fleet of the things! Tomorrow we hope to get down to Bristol and Bath with the promise of dry weather. The London trip is reduced in size and rescheduled to next Monday and Tuesday if the weather id going to be suitable. We have various commitments which preclude anything longer until late spring or early summer but they will eventually include Essex, East Anglia, South Wales, North East, Kent, Hampshire / Dorset, Cumbria, Scotland etc. Hopefully we'll get some more new truck locations whilst looking at buses in these various far flung parts. Also not forgotten is the need to cover IOM, CI and IOW. Scottish islands will have to wait, no great desire to spend too much time there. Shots from this morning at Lymm services mainly after the snow had left off. I'm feeling rather complacent with our decision to scrub the London trip this week in view of the awful weather, it rained nearly all night and all day at home and tonight there is heavy snow forecast. This could be an opportunity but snow is always a mixed blessing even apart from the obvious that Mandy is stranded when it snows or is icy. Buxton with trucks over the Cat & Fiddle in snow is an attractive thought or if that is impossible buses in the snow at Stockport which is also forecast getting a coating of white tomorrow morning. We'll take a check on it before bed and again in the morning and see any webcams like the Cat & Fiddle pub of course that road could well be shut. We finished the painting in the second bedroom today, awkward getting around in the small space available and my knee has suffered from it. We went to John Lewis store at Handforth this afternoon and purchased the wall lights for the lounge and looked at carpets for the front room and library / dining rooms. We actually picked one that is identical to the present carpet, another look in daylight required - it might seem a tad too samey! We then went to visit cousin Trish and Derek at Sale then had a breeze of a journey back at the start of the rush hour its a lottery whether you get through or get bogged down in traffic. Today I loaded the final batch of Super8 films on Youtube and hopefully later on I'll be able to get a start on listing them on EBay. As most of you know we don't charge for post on either our DVDs or cine films in the UK but I got a really snotty email from someone about our postage charges and I couldn't find him with a trace of ever purchasing, perhaps it was a hoax but it gets the blood pressure up sand Mandy's is still through the roof with no chance of having her operation any time near even though she has doubled the blood pressure tablets. Why is it that Ebay attracts so much hassle and such abuse from people plus they list themselves under silly names, something I abhor, I'm Dave Spencer on everything even if I have to have a number suffix. If you haven't anything to hide why wouldn't you? Thursday is still set aside for buses in Bristol and Bath. A sample of films listed today, a rather nice amateur film maker we have had some of his other films, at least it has some railway interest. I've responded to the latest listing from the home movie shop in Cleethorpes who has put up some more of the Pan Am aircraft collection they obtained. |
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