Had a pleasant evening with Yvonne's cfriend from cansds who we have net before, then tidsy independent several hours at southSoutha docks ,it was mostly cloudy but still bright and went warm by lunch time. Nonhasslescatvall, decade just getting ready to go out for a meal, tomorrow I'm going out with grahaG for breakfast then we pickup the desserts and birthday banners ballonscetc and go and get set up at the party venue. The do starts at three pm and later there is a BBQ. The weather forecast has picked up a bit, they got it wrong today it remained dry and the thunfer never materialised. Sunday we carry on down to France.
Greetings friends and customers worldwide, it's good to be able to catch up with you all. Yesterday we got up early and I drove to Brighton, we met one of our bus friendsf there, lovely warm sunshire and wife fresh, mot as muggy as it's been at home the last couple of weeks. Then wecdrove to Portsmouth, again clear blue sky and pleasant at the new buscstatiob at the hard. Then timed it nearly spot on to yconnY,s place in Hythe. Today the girls went to a shopping centre near biurnemouth, inwentb to Bournemouth and filmed, weather showery but warmed up a bit but more rain returning to Southampton. Eventually got an hour or more of film, it certainly isn't anywhere like as busy there. As it was but guess that's the story everywhere. Shepherd's pie tonight here to edit.tomorrow if the weather plays ball I'll be down at the docks filming trucks.After years of searching I'm now getting to grips with my natural father's ancestry, he actually comes from a Townland called Tonafora near Dunmanway, Co Cork. At the 1910 census it held persons with all the elements required to put together my family, notably Sullivan, Driscol and in the village O'Grady. It has taken so much effort including trips to the wrong location although it was a beautiful place and I don't regret the time spent there! When I get my dads birth cert it will enable me to try again for the Irish passport. It should all start to fall into place as soon as I know a bit more about my grandmother Driscoll. I am related via her to quite a few people on Ancestry. I can see a trip to West Cork coming up asap . Meanwhile we are about to start our travels for the next week, hopefully as ever I'll be able to blog on the road and we are back a week Thursday. I've put our Ebay shop om holiday mode, Amazon has to be suspended while away, our shop on this site is fully operational. as usual. WEll lots to do still, we leave very early tomorrow morning, straight down to Brighton then Portsmouth. Here are the covers for the latest round of DVD releases all on our shop. Last chance for DVD orders before later next week as we prepare for our trip to Hampshire and on to France. The weather forcaste isn't as good as the recent fine weather might have indicated but it could change, we are sticking to our planned schedule with Brighton and Portsmouth to lead off then Southampton and Bournemouth on the potentially cloudy Thursday and Friday Southampton docks with hopefully the sun back in place. It's my sister's birthday party on Saturday and Sunday we carry on down to France. Back home late Wednesday. Today we caught up on home jobs plus the huge pile of DVD orders was cleared and I've edited both the NWVRT Running Day and Cumbrian bus DVDs. I still need to do the covers, possibly this evening. I've also tried to insert the O'Driscoll family history tree into my own and ready to try and link in the the O'Dricoll family through my grandmother, I've sent off for my father's birth certificate which when received I'll pass on to the minister in ROI looking after my appeal for an Irish passport. This afternoon we were at the RNCM in Manchester for a sponsors concert and met a lovely young soprano Caroline Taylor who I missed at Clonter Spring Gala when I was in Russia. I've got my Ukraine railway tickets at little more than standard price and given up on RealRussia who got the Russian ticket for me who wanted a 300% mark up for the Ukraine ticket. I've got the Cumbrian bus DVD finished and just running off the master for the bus running day Sunday. I need to check all the bus connections for the Russian trip. Somewhere in the busy day I printed off to photo grade glossy paper two of the nicest pictures of the Crown which is now firmly back as the village pub for everyone, to top it off when I called in to drop off the photos on our way back from Clonter I found out we had won the weekly raffle prize, as we weren't there Friday to collect the winning voucher it goes to a charity of our choice, The British Polio Fellowship, it stays on the Crown notice board and anyone not knowing who to donate to might pick up on the previous which would be ours. Unusual as we don't usually win anything. As we are going to France things France at random from the archive. It was a perfect day for the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust's annual running and open day fronm their premises near Kirkby on Merseyside. The sky was nearly cloudless throughout the event which was as usual very friendly with a minimum of marshaling and yellow vests. The event programme was just £4 and served as the enrtrance fee although those using the free bus service were as usual invited to contribute to the vehicles upkeep through contribution on exiting the bus. There was a fine spread of buses covering the Atlantean./Olympean era . The highlight was the launch of the restored Ribble White Lay which proved a great attraction and on it's first public run has to be duplicated with National 1000 as the Atlantean was full to capacity. It was fantastic to be there free of any responsibilities other than enjoying myself and making the film to share with hobbyists worldwide on the PMP Youtube channel. It was as ever difficult to get everything right with my eyesight beuing skewed. The double vision resulting from the small stroke six weeks ago say my launch plummet to the ground as I attempted to put it on the table buy chose the wrong image! It was a shame that there weren't any half cabs operating in service showing how domininated some shows are by the youngsters who now have the energy and resources to get these relatively 'new' buses on the road. Here are some shots from today's event at Kirkby. The day has flown by, after a couple of small errands I was ready to go with Mandy to the hospital at Chesdle. It had been a rough night, the higher dosage of pain killer has several side effects as well as bunged up I had cramp something I've rarely had. Anyway at the hospital Tracey the senior opthalmologist or whatever gave me the relevant tests and I'd gone from -4 to -2 on their scale and thwe overall rating to get me to the prism adjustment was down from 45 to 30, the highest for a prism is somewhere betrween 9-11 so a way to go with the right eye blocked off for driving and being out and about. Otherwise I leave it uncovered and just muddle through that helps make the eye try to adjust. So good news. Then we went to Sale to vist Trish Mandy's cousin, Derek was out on a daytime jazz gig. We came home via Knutsford as I wanted to get some books from Waterstones, we got a fair pile including the Lonely Planet on Indonesia, I've been encouraged by the Battam Island visit this year to explore the country further. I've got enough books to last a fair whole, most are quite long and with my eyesight disability they take both more effort and consequently longer to get through so should last. When I got back the printer ink had arrived so we'll get all the orders ready to go out tomorrow morning plus I need to print off several DVD covers that we are out of in the files, I'll show Mandy how to print them as she might need top do so while I'm in Ukraine. Talking of which the trai ticket slipperier seems to have got it all mixed up and was going to charge a fortune to take m from Russia to Ukraine, I did it myself in a couple of minuts, it was only hard originally as I didnt know they only went on sale 30 days before, looking at the seat plans they were hardly full, only a few seats taken. Photos tonight from White Haven and Workington yesterday. Don't forget I'm just aiming and clicking in the directyion of the buses with the double vision! Ignoring the dire weather predictions we were up early and at Carlisle by 8am ready to film. I got quite a lot there which took the pressure off the rest of the day. Mandy took advantage of the location and did a lot of shopping. Then we headed to Workington, very friendly Stagecoach drivers, got abuse from passing taxi driver ( White English note). Workington continues to be a dump, more tattoos there per square inch than anywhere outside of Clacton.The children were on holidsay. they never seem to be at school, shame as it limits the amount of buses you see. Next we went on to Whitehave, very slow on the bus front , Mandy sat at the gardens of the burnt out church which used to be a pleasant spot, I'm sorry I left here as it turned out to be wine drinkers central, Whitehaven had looked to be on the up a few years back but has now gone into terminal decline, a pit. Last stop was at Kendal where the 5pm rush was three buses! I got a few in total eventually, got some water to take my nerve pain killers, dosage doubled again. Then down to Kirkby Lonsdale at the Plough Inn, food as good as ever, ditto beer, amazing pub. Photos starting at Carlisle continued tomorrow. |
PMP Sponsors the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust at Kirkby.
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