An earluy start to beat the worst of the rush hour traffic, I left Mandy behind to start the battle with VW about the broken down van and the 4th fuel injector. She spoke to their head office who agreed that it all sounded a horror story and the Manchester VW van centre have 24 hours to come up with a response to our complaint before the head office takes over the case. I think the blatant lies are the worse part of the saga. Anyway hopefully we'll get the van moved to Manchester even if the AA have to come back to complete the journey, as they were shut Saturday afternoon when we got back and there is nowhere to leave the vehicle we were stuck with it. If we get it away for a week or two it will help when I'm doing the restoration work on the drives. I need to go out and pick up some readimix mortar, I've now got the concrete repair kit as well. Mandy and i will take it in turns going out until we've got the van sorted.
Anyway back to today, I had a steady run up the M6 and across to Scotch Corner on the A66, the sky was clearing as I reached Co Durham so i decided I'd cover Darlington first as it's closest. The sun was fully out which isn't too much of a problem by the market for photography. There was precious little new and really the bus scene there with almost entirely Arriva is pretty dire and not that busy just a couple of core routes with similar vehicles which give continuity. Marks & Spencers have started to open their cafe later , 30 mins later to 9am which is a bitch as we often get a brew and cake before i start filming, all part of the steady decline of M&S, give them another decade and they will have gone the way of Woolworths etc. After completing an hour or so of film on Darlington I moved on to Middlesbrough refueling as I went. The sun was out pretty much all the time, still photos are a bitcvh as the light is usually to one side straight on but video was easy, as busy as ever but declining number of deckers and even here variety is limited and litle or nothing new to see. A couple of other enthusiasts around but neither looked like having a chat. The last stop of the day saw me up the A1 at Durham where variety and new buses were the by word of the day which made up for earlier boredom. This does leave parts of Co Durham still to be covered Chester le Street, Stanley, Conssett, Bishop Auckland all in my sights this year. We are having a few days up in Northumberland to cover the north of the region up to the border. It was sunny at times then cloudy and a few spots of rain, I thought the A1 south would be clear as they were working on the upgrade years ago but I slipped up, they are making it a lifetime's work and so 50mph for nearly all the way to Leeds. Sorry photo loader not working ( again!) At home the bids on the cine film have mounted up all day so several hundreds of pounds certain to be coming in which is a good job with the van to sort. I'll try photos again in the morning. I'm not sure what happened to the photos yesterday anyway the Reading plus Hants film is finished and I must get the cover done so i can put it up on the shops. It's a fairly busy schedule this week, we've got all the DVD and cine film orders ready to send off. If Mandy hasn't heard from VW first things she will chase them to pick up the van and get it fixed. I'm off up to Teesside / Co Durham. Tyneside and Northumberland will be covered in our of our summer trips. I'm going up to finish the Cumbrian bus film on Wednesday and hopefully if as sunny as promised I'll get some trucks filmed up there. A trip out on Friday but not too far and content weather dependent. We are at a folk night Friday at Clonter.Early next week sees us on a major jaunt to cover most of South Wales bus scene. The following weekend then will be the bank holiday with Llandudno and Truckfest among the delights on offer. Some photos today from Reading. One thing I know never in the rest of our life time would we ever have a VW product, the quality is disgusting and the service and back up scandalously poor, lies and confusion, bills and shoddy workmanship all the way through. This was the 4th time we arrived home after breaking down on motorways via AA relay. This time we were on the M25 just on our way to film in Bromley after the night from hell in Premier inn at Farnborough in Hampshire. Well we did get Reading filmed and it will come with a bonus from the other odds and ends at Bracknell and Farnborough which i shot between showers in the afternoon.
The weather this morning was atrocious and not per the forecast which said just cloudy with a shower late afternoon. The drunken chavs arrived at the hotel at about 1am, they had to call the police twice and we were surrounded by them occupying several room, I thought they'd banned big groups some years back but the desire for money outweighs the comfort and safety of staff and guests. We moved room 3am to a quieter part of the hotel. The internet at the hotel was very poor thus the truncated blog last night. Anyway we spent the whole day getting back home with the van, very pleasant AA drivers on the lorries. VW are ringing Monday and will pick it up from home, I'll give it another clean tomorrow as i think they respect them, more when tidy, mucky weather though and they are soon filthy again. Mandy has just been round the shop to pick up some milk. Obviously we have failed to attend Cobham and lost the stand fee and any taking plus today's filming. I'm ready to quit the rally scene as it's getting to be too much hassle, at home we have had a bumper two days with a stack of orders to get ready. I've unloaded the van into the garage, it's bright sunshine in Lower Peover, not sure about tomorrow but may try and get the brick mortar done as we have the sealant for the drive surface but not the repair kit although it may be in the green house although no note through the door. A weekend best forgotten, it was the fist time it broke down before the event we were attending up to now its been on the return leg. Their service clerk advised that the 4th and final fuel injector had not been replaced as they swore it had and if we had known we would never had ventured out in it until rectofied. Words cannot express my contempt for their so called service, Mandy wants to go in her wheel chair and tackle their UK CEO or even drive to Germany and picket them. Anyway here are some shots from yesterday We said goodbye to Hil and Sean this morning, we had picked a glorious day yesterday for our trip around Derbyshire. Today was a different beast with clouds and showers and not mild at all. We got the orders away in the morning and I did another batch later on while Mandy was at the local Polio Fellowship meeting in Ellesmere Port. The new curtains for the landing arrived and Mandy picked them up from the Middlewich shop guess we'll be hanging them this evening. I managed to finish the Queen's 90th birthday film, its taking hours to load it on a memory stick ready for projecting on the church walls a week today. I edited a lot of photos from Yorkshire ready for putting on the Smugmug site. There was a lone Siskin on the bird feeder nearest the house this morning just after Hil and Sean had left, they get them in their garden in Ireland but we've only had then once before although it was all winter a couple of years back. Still no sign of the hedgehogs but putting food out in hope. I chased up the Derbyshire council on the chap illegally parked in Bakewell yesterday, it turns out that he certainly had no permission to park on the disabled slots as the warden was off sick and no one covered the town yesterday, hence he got away with it but we've sent up photos of the vehicles so perhaps the warden will be keeping his eye out for them in future. I'd been a bit bothered by the Customs and Excise request for self assessment tax return but today I got it clarified that it wasn't required, it cropped up as we needed a unique tax reference as they had deleted us from the system with PMP being a not for profit organisation. We set off early tomorrow heading down to Surrey, we may well stop off at reading and hopefully if the afternoon showers aren't too bad we may cover Bracknell and Farnham / Camberley area. Some Youtube links for recent uploads. I'll be posting on the road tomorrow. It was my non transport day although very similar tomorrow as I will be compiling the 'royal' film for showing at the Queen's birthday bash at St Oswalds a week tomorrow in Lower Peover. Anyone who fanciers this super evening of entertainment you can purchase tickets at the door just £10 for all manner of delights from bubbly, flags to wave, great star singer, prolonged bell ringing session, lighting one of national beacons, birthday cake etc. The weather was stunning today and looks like being the best day of the week. Tomorrow Hil and Sean move on in their whirlwind week of visits. Today we all went up to Derbyshire, there is a slideshow of shots from out visits today especially for those viewing from far away. All taken Buxton, Bakewell, monsall Head area. In Bakewell where we took lunch two builders vans labelled Cheshire Cheese Co were parked across the disabled parking outside the cafe and even on to the zig-zag lines by the pedestrian crossing. It was good to see that the Crescent in Buxton is at last receiving some attention from the builders, the rest of the gardens and Pavilion area looked very good. I was able to supply photos to entrants in the Detling rally and also have arranged for our two yearly official visit to Swindon Thamesdown in July. A short blog today and a bit early but as we are expecting Hil and Sean to arrive from Ireland at any time I expect the rest of the day will see our minds on other things. My first job for the day was designing a poster for the Queens 90th birthday celebrations at St Oswalds 21st April, we have the singer Jo Farrow entertaining everyone. We've got the event tickets for sale in the Post Office/Country Store our local and only shop, they are also available on the door, hopefully posters will go up at the local pubs as well. Mandy dropped copies off at Jane the vicars place and I've distributed some by email. The next job is editing the film for use during the interval which will be from old cine film in our archive of the life and times of the queen. I've just finished making the DVDs of the buses in Accrington, Blackburn and Preston filmed yesterday and they are already listed on the shop pages. We are down in Surrey Friday, Sat and back Sunday night after Cobham at Brooklands. Photos here are from Blackburn yesterday. A fairly straight forward day with a reasonable weather forecast which was actually wrong I decided to cover Preston, Blackburn and Accrington. Originally I was going to Blackburn and Accrington first as it was supposed to be brighter early on and clouding over but as I drive up the M6 it looked to me that it was going to brighten later so I went straight to Preston. My first visit there post Fishwicks era and quite a lot of Rotala and Stagecoach livery but other than a dollop of Transdev very little else to be seen quite a dull stage in the evolution of Preston's buses. The bus station here stand forlorn with no sight of sany refurbishment about to start early. The next stop ioff was at Blackburn where the old buses statioonm now carries a Premier Inn and some other nondecriptt lump of modern rubbish and axcres of waster space for the kids to skate board on. The new bus station is getting the white lines painted so I guess that means its nearing completion. Quite a variety here with was a bit of a tonic after Prestonj but of course not nearly so busy. The final stop was at Accrington where Pilkington still produces a good looking veteran mix to delight the enthusiast and Transdev have a new livery on their Manchester service a bit like Hyndburn which M&M still carry on several buses. When I got home Mandy informed me that we had received Cameroons map of Africa or the stay in the EU doc which is a bit silly as I always wanted to remain in the EU but I wouldn't really want to vote the same as that pratt. A home goal really. Thje first batch of photos from the trip cover Accrington. The DVDs are being edited right now. Greetings to family and friends worldwide, it was almost spring like today as we set off after a bit of a lay in for Mossley situated on the borders between Lancashire and Yorkshire. I think our next door neighbours at home had a christening today judging by the cars about when we returned but ours was a family celebration which brought together a large slice of the relations to enjoy the event all for little Rory. We start our coverage with a couple of oldies myself and Mandy taken by cousin Mark. Some pictures below in a slideshow showing the afternoon events at church and at the get together which was very close and was a club with a photo of a certain politician gazing over our grub suffice to say it wasn't Jeremy C! So we survived this foray into enemy territory and it was lovely to be able to have a chat over drinks without fighting to be heard above music. Actually in the photo above I've neatly got my bonce in front of said person, well done Mark any embarrassment avoided. Family please feel free to grab copies from the slide show. For Hardy family readers info Rory is daughter of Ruth who is daughter of Mark who is son of Kath Hardy! Easy this family history stuff isn't it. |
PMP Sponsors the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust at Kirkby.
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