A very early start so Mandy had time to get ready as it takes a while with her broken foot and damaged knee. We were on the road well before five am the motorway had cleared after being at a standstill yesterday evening. The traffic though is horrendous even at this time as there are so many lorries. We got parked up at Uxbridge before the rush hour and even though it rained a little I was soon finished and then we had a breakfast in marks before heading to stained. I can't remember filming there although I suppose I might have done, plenty of interest if not that many buses so we carried on to Kingston upon Thames and filled my boots with the constant stream of buses on the high street thankfully the waterboard hadn't dug it up this time. Next we stopped at Richmond on Thames and finally we got to chiswick where we are staying. Not a bad hotel and certainly a lot better than a premier Inn, there is a fullers pub nearby I went out thinking I'd see it but it's on a side street we are eating there at seven this evening, they should have other fullers beers besides London pride which will be interesting. I'm going to get the tube from gunnersbury to Victoria station first thing and cover the buses then the coach station. Many is driving from the hotel to the British museum and I'll catch her up there and then we head home late afternoon
With little notice orange has announced it is to cease all it's long existing email services, that is a bombshell for us both for the business and family etc. I will open a new email address on Monday probably through google which at least will be modern and allow easy connection to things but the spread of people and services we connect with and places it is advertised is very wide and it will take time to get it sorted. Ebay, Paypal, energy providers, banking etc etc, this is sure to end up causing big problems so please bear with. There will hopefully be an out of office which will show our new email, will it have a forwarding facility, I doubt it as they are withdrawing the address completely, its all breaking news and the internet will be full of people with problems like ourselves. Every reference on covers, adverts and whatever will need to change. We had a busy day, Mandy is a little less in pain than yesterday as we fitted an old knee brace she had from a previous episode. We are going ahead with our London film trip tomorrow and Saturday. Any orders received from now on will go out on Monday. We still have two truck DVDs to edit from Cumbria. It was the polio fellowship meeting at Ellesmere Port, I got my glasses fixed at Specsavers and my hair cut whilst in the Port and then we had a brew in M&S and got some bits of shopping. We are packing for the weekend now. Next week I hope to have two days bus filming and one day on trucks. The locations will be from our target list already published on this site. Hopefully I will be able to post a blog from the hotel tomorrow evening. Meanwhile here are some more shots of our truck coverage mid week in Cumbria. Despite the fractures Mandy was determined to get along to the beauty salon in Holmes Chapel for her facial in fact we've been all over Cheshire banking and shopping although we have got a lot of ready made meals to eliminate the time standing to make things. Our friend Emma popped round first thing with little Daisy who is developing into a right character, Emma relieved the mountain of a few books for their holiday cottage lets. There are still many boxes full of books for the village fete, must find out where they are stored and get rid asap. We have now restored the dining room to normal, we are both well pleased with the bold move to go for deep red. Here are a few shots of the result. We've both been on our feet a lot today and are pretty shattered. I've also been chasing up a ramp for St Oswald's porch, the people I found in Norfolk never replied to the online enquiry but have picked up on my call but seem to just be putting forward a bespoke item based on their standard range which assumes the 'bridge' sits on the portal which at St Oswalds is very uneven and worn. See pics, I had to dash down and get these while Mandy was out, it was quicker than trying to find them or perhaps I never took them at all, the minds all of a twirl. I managed to download the Cumbrian truck films plus file away all Feb films but haven't had time to edit. Mandy wants me to prepare stuff for the Polio Fellowship meeting tomorrow. I'll go with Mandy to assist plus get my hair cut and see if they can mend my glasses which broke in India. Here are some shots from the second location yesterday at Penrith. Life is going to be a bit difficult in coming weeks as Mandy fell trying to get to the bank in Oswestry today, there are never any disabled places or even yellow lines where she can park but instead of using her wheelchair she set off with her walking stick which then slipped from under her on something on the pavement. She got to the bank with help from passers by and lady from the bank went to Mandy's car and brought her chair back so Mandy could make it back to her car. Then she had a blood test appointment at Holmes Chapel who had to get her in in their wheelchair, they took one look got the duty doctor and got her to Macclesfield hospital. The xray revealed several fractures and strained or torn ligaments or tendons in her knee, this time it's her 'good' leg which leaves her wheelchair bound. We had booked for London Friday but it's the logistics of parking there which make it wheelchair unfriendly as is virtually the who tube system. When you are really stuck it brings it home to you that the nasty people who are so anti disabled people abound even within the church congregation, bell ringers ect who have no idea at all what it is like to have mobility issues and the next comment I hear may well result in....( I've self edited but I'll let you use your imagination as to how we feel). I'm going to the standing committee meeting this evening, I'll do us beans on toast, I'm hoping that Mandy will have a go at a strong painkiller rather than bear the pain with paracetamol alone. We still have a lot of reinstatement from the decorating in the dining room, I'll try and get a bit done this evening. I went up to Carlisle and then Penrith, got two truck films out of it, understandably there may well be delays in service but I should be able to manage most things. Not sure what we will be able to do but we'll muddle through as best we can. This morning I met up with Keith and Rodney at the church , 8.15 so an early start - my first trip up the tower. From the top it was an instant realisation of the extent of the damage the storm had caused and lucky that the roofing felt had held the rain up until the deluge on Sunday. An area a triangle of 9x9M was ripped off by the high winds. This will be an insurance job and they have been notified, hopefully they'll instigate a speedy temporary repair to keep the building from further damage. The next job was back at home as we started to reinstate after the decorating in the dining room/library. The books as always have been a mammoth undertaking and we have a pile of boxes in the garage of books to go for the village fete. I did unearth in a book I must have been reading in the 1980's on our first trip to Malta a stash of all the bus tickets I'd used on that visit. I'm now looking at the weather, if suitable I'll go out truck filming either tomorrow or Wednesday as we get back into our 2017 schedule. We'll be in London Friday and Saturday covering buses including the Victoria coach station event. Photos tonight of myself, Keith, Rodney and the views of the shattered roof and surrounding soggy landscape this morning. Another very wet day which was soon a real nuisance as a roof slate has fallen into the gulley at St Oswalds and we had an internal deluge over the font area with two christenings scheduled in the afternoon. We've spotted the fallen slate and three of us are meeting Monday morning at 08.15 to take a look at it close up, yes roofer one day, dogs body the next. The home decorating is nearly done, a few bits to touch up in the morning perhaps but just about ready to put the books back, we are going to prune them out a bit with excess going to village fete. It's about 6.30 pm and I haven't stopped working all day. s a busy month coming up but we'll be back filming once the dining room cum library is reinstated. The disabled parking at St Oswalds reared it's head again last night when some silly beggar at the Comberbach trust raised the possibility of an Exocet letter hitting Jane the vicar which Jane rather nicely swerved and bounced back so that any action by them against our legally obliged signage would bounce back entirely on the lady in question, I think that was advantage Jane if not set and match. All this office politics is something i'd left far behind me although I'll be doing battle with the government pensions squad over my missing £10 a week, that's two pints at the Pheasant, ( 3 anywhere else)
After being driven to distraction so many times by email auction bidders I've decided not to actively pursue this side of the cine archive, of course we've still quite a large stock of films to dispose of and I've got the PMP archive itself with hundreds of hours of old cine film in it going back to the 1940's. I'd like to get rid of the old film and if I could raise money to explore more locations I would but such rarities won't go for nothing. Of course the BFI and N W Film archive would always be happy to have it but wouldn't pay although it would be fantastic to see it all scanned on their equipment, I lack the £10K needed for that. The old grumps who inhabit the cine film would really are beyond the pale, I've always hated the ebay format but like Amazon lots of people use it so no reason to cut the old nose off etc. It's been a very quiet week so far although there is a scattering of orders which I'll send out on Monday. Anyone wanting cine bargains will find quite a few although since listing earlier today there is not one bid and they are priced to sell like hot cakes and get the garage cleared ready for painting that. The dining room decorating has lasted today since 8am, I've nearly finished the emulsion and the ceiling is also done, there may be a few bits to touch up and then the gloss paintwork to do Sunday afternoon. I'm keeping an eye open on the weather as we are hoping to be down in London again for Friday and Saturday, it's the 85th anniversary of Victoria coach station we had a stand there at the last do. It just means there will be less hassle having a camera there although my TfL permit does cover Victoria coach station and all London bus station. There is quite a lot happening this month, I was hoping to go to London on Thursday but it's the polio fellowship meeting at Ellesmere Port and with Mandy the chair there are precious few members well enough to get to meetings without Mandy dropping out. The big 65th birthday is looming fast another week to go. I'm having a set to with the state pension people as the sum they are paying is £11 a week less than I was told by them three years back although they have renamed and made it all online so I guess they want me to pay for it, I know its only a couple of pints a week but better in my pocket! I'm still working on the Indian trip photos, all the DVDs from the trip are on our shop. Pictures today all from Kochi, India. Not a lot I can report on as we've both been tied up with decorating all day and are just having a shepherds pie out the freezer and feet up with some telly. We've finally got one first coat on the walls which with all the bookshelves takes forever and gobbles up the pain. Fingers crossed we've enough left for the final coats as its a deep red over light colours so it's a nightmare getting a good coverage. I got the latest DVD clips as trailers on Youtube, all the Indian releases are on our shop page. We broke through the 17M mark on Youtube and have over 11.5 Thousand subscribers. Here are links to some of the clips. For more visit our Youtube channel and of course you could always buy the DVD and get the full coverage. We've stripped out the lounge / library of all furnishing, books, records etc and we are ready to decorate. A long hard day for the both of us but it will be refreshing to see a tidy and warm room. We need to divest ourselves of many books which can go for the village fete this summer. We can confirm that we'll be in London for the Victoria coach station event this moth, just the Friday and Saturday but this sees us keeping our promise to devote several trips to updating our London coverage throughout the year. We shall also be down in Devon for the Exeter running day and take the opportunity of getting on update on Devon whilst in that corner of the world. We've trimmed back our Boyle St, Manchester coverage at the spring transport festival to attending just the Saturday possibly in a new location within the museum. I've got all the Indian DVDs ready, the shop is updates and so are the lists on shop front and news page. The trip to Croatia and Bosnia is booked. The planning for Ukraine is still underway and we are looking at other exciting locations for this years tram coverage which will see the Manchester system updated now it has opened the 2nd city crossing line. Germany and Belgium are also likely to feature. This morning we got the disabled access / parking signs up at St Oswalds as well as a step warning sign - the whole task not helped as the toilet bricks arrived and were plonked in front of the wall, Rodney and his workman managed to sort it all. All the photos from our recent London trip are on our Smugmug site where you can purchase them from 50p a print. I'm about to upload clips from all the Indian DVDs on our Youtube site and download the photos for editing. Then we are going to put our feet up for the evening ready for a hectic Friday and weekend decorating. After that back to filming. It's the big 65 coming up on the 16th but as I'm retired from the day job and hectic in the business it's just the state doshing out the beer money each week which will change. Here are some more photos from India, these are from Kochi in Kerala state. Putting the signs up at St Oswald's this morning and the bricks! Pancake evening and quiz last Tuesday The foundation metalwork going into place at St Oswalds for the toilet block, we've achieved 50% PPE compliance! 'Just a quick one this evening as I attempt to get back to normal after the Indian holiday which is leading straight into decorating the lounge and dining room and today we had a spring clean of the office. I can,t stop shivering its so cold here. I did get all the Indian DVDs finished just two covers to go. I've also filed and uploaded to our Smugmug site all my recent London photos nearly 450 from one day. Martin and I have booked our flights for the May trip to Croatia and Bosnia which will cover Zagreb, Osijek and Sarajevo. |
PMP Sponsors the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust at Kirkby.
Categories |