A quickie as it has been a long busy day with virtually non stop phone calls for DVD orders and friends etc and i've been trying to clear the last of the HEC Piercey films that needed scanning, they are overloaded reels which are a pig to deal with but nearly finished. Tomorrow early morning we head to Somerset with West and Taunton then straight down to Cornwall where we stay mid county so it is easy to get around in all directions on Thursday including Penzance, Truro and Newquay. Then we head to Plympton near Plymouth where we overnight and then Friday cover PLymouth, Torquay and Exeter where we stay. Then come back up with some early filming if required in Exeter and then back home stopping en route at my friend Martins to see his new tram on the garden railway. The remainder of the weekend starting editing and getting DVD orders done. Tuesday next week over to Shrewsbury to meet up with Peter Waller at OTA dropping off and collecting films. Hopefully with some decent weather I can get some lorry film done and I'll try to fit in a London bus trip. Meanwhile some South West memories from past trips. A little bit overstated as my friend John Bishop still has some of Terry Barkers oldest films for doing his presentations but now a large volume of cine reels scanned and ready to pass to Peter Walker at OTS in Shrewsbury next Tuesday. After thinking the DVD side had gone quiet it went mad today and the phone never stopped although little on the internet. We have now got our South West trip organised which will see us pass through Somerset taking in Taunton and Weston super Mare and then straight down to Cornwall taking in Penzance, Truro and Newquay at the least. Then back up country with Plymouth then Torquay and Exeter. We leave ealy Wednesday morning and get home on Saturday evening after calling in at friend and traveling companion Martin Rickitt and fingers crossed for weather that allows a short drive of his new 'tram'. Once again the shops will go on holiday settings, so EBay is still available, our shop never shuts but Amazon has to be suspended as the penalties fort not sending out immediately are severe, little room for the creative world with time to make whatever they sell. I did some tidying in the garden in advance of the Devon and Cornwall trip, I know the weather isn't going to be great but there are ever lessening days available this summer and we still have much to cover. When the travel rules allow I'll take in Ireland north and ROI and Scotland plus Wales. I'm not sure what the situation is in each it all seems so complicated and makes our English situation quite simple. I've filed away the recent photos but another load now to go on our Smugmug still photo site. Our slideshow tonight takes us to Orpington and Croydon last week. I'll get the remainder on the PMP shop tomorrow. It was a bit of a slog today getting through everything, I've even mowed the lawns and tidied the borders, helped with putting out the washing and done vaccing and dusting on top of getting the DVD clips on Youtube and getting four more films scanned. I discovered that the fault with the video camera sound wasn't the mic but the setting jumped to minus 10 instead of a neutral zero, fingers crossed it never does it again, I've never even had to delve into mic settings before, hopefully it won't spoil the DVD much as I've been able to enhance the weak sound. We don't normally like to get too coarse on the blog but I couldn't help but share this from Tunbridge Wells, we had key workers, we had heroes and now we have Hams Travel ( again) they have form. This is despite a friendly smile, a wave and a thumbs up - perhaps they have their own fears but I would rather they weren't driving buses around who knows what their erratic behaviours will lead to. I must commend especially all the lovely drivers at Croydon who all showed such a friendly welcome and who represent London and their companies so well, perhaps there are really heroes and people worth clapping why do we always remember the bad , they are like worms though which go round in your mind. I can't believe it has rained day and night yet again, so glad we had a reminder of summer in the south. I got Buses ma sometime while we were away, I had to laugh at the article on social distancing which cited at least one we had fought against, Deansgate in Manchester, I've recorded many other not mentioned. I think that as a rule of thumb those who did little to upset the town or city centre existing balance and just used a bit of cheap promo and stencils has had the better return of normality and business taking off again. The wreckers like Wolverhampton or Doncaster, Middlesbrough or Sunderland, Watford or in our case Knutsford caused mayhem and lost the traders a fortune. Everyone suffered, disabled people suffered, pedestrians suffered, bus operators suffered, business suffered. Now at last scraggy head and his local luny cohorts left and right are at last forced to accept that we need to start getting back to normal, not some stupid North Korean Pyongyang sort of normal with marshalls berating pedestrians for being on the wrong pavement. Learning of more madness in buses makes me even more cynical than ever, for who do these local government morons work if not for their own ego. Take a look at the crowds at Hastings, the revelers in Maidstone, the hum of business in Croydon. Many a mess is one thing, sticking with it another. Even our own corrupt Cheshire councils faced with a judicial review backed down and ammended their wrecking to open up to motorists, shame they couldn't shift the plastic jungle as well in Knutsford. I've made a lot of progress with the new DVDs but there is a lot to do and getting it to flow when it takes forwever getting clips on Youtube is difficult even when you still have the energy. The rain never stopped here tomorrow I hope to get the gardens tidy and feed the birds whilst still carrying on editing. Some shots from Dover docks for the truck fans, the cruise ship is Disney Magic cruise vessel. We are supporting our local pub by eating there tonight, after three nights eating out and staying in hotels we are becoming quite the experts in Corona requirements and how it varies from place to place. A long day and nearly ready for bed, we have all the DVD orders printed out and collated ready to prepare, they will all be posted Monday morning. We hope to be making our South West trip Wed to Sat next week. I'll start editing the South East trip in the morning, the weather up in Cheshire isn't going to be that brilliant. The birds have polished off all the food in our myriad feeders and the lawns need a mow. Anyway as a taster some shots from the trip to whet your appetites. The Chatham part of the trip was ace, nice folk, friendly drivers interesting buses what more could we ask. WeCWe hadhhad a splendid meal withtwith John andeand Maureen last night at the Italian just off the war memorial roundabout. We were up sheepish and Mandy waited while I filmed the well error rush hour at Eastbourne. The buses are running a one way system which is the same as in place in the building works last year. Buses were far and few between and we had enough by nine am and headed across to Brighton. Words cannot describe the fall of Brighton which must now rank among the greatest dumps I. Europe. It is filthy squalid and full of druggies, wineoes and rough sleepers plus general strange people wandering at fandom. I had a hassle with two such people one of which was an American, do we really want that sort of reject from another country, sender a visa thing to visit them they can send anyone they want to get shot of. I didn't utter one word to this loathsome duo, as luck would have it a police car came slowly through Churchill square which I stopped. I said the sight of me speaking to the police would probably give them a fright but as they had little to do they pulled one and then went off to find the other who had hobbled off. There were lots of the new electric buses and lots of their colourful themed buses. With the little bit of Eastbourne I'd already got I had soon got enough film. Our favourite cafe at the theatre was shut as was half the town, rubbish was oiled up, pavements unswept. We then headed up to Crawley which was actually the best of the three and I suppose at a low starting place the only way for Crawley was upwards although the partial closure of Gatwick must be destroying the local economy. Marks cafe was shut, their lift broken but found a nice cafe. Got shut three quarters of an hour and then we went to Horsham nearby. It has changed out of all recognition since our last visit about thirty years ago, even has a tiny bus station now. Southern transit were doing a raklreplzcent which produced the best buses. We found the hotel which would normally be noisy from the planes but we have only heard one. Tomorrow we go to Tunbridge Wells then maybe Croydon. Then onwards to home. You can start ordering again now dvds will go out Monday. Next week we go to the south west on Wednesday
We did well today filming firstly at Dover docks, I managed to find the footpath which goes up to look down on the docks and curved access road. Up there is was covered in flowers with a lot of orchids and butterflies. No hassle up there on the national trust land,great views of the ferries as well as lorries, it started sunny and ended cloudy. Then on to Folkestone bus station, got shots of one newlivery saw another in engineers yard at old romney so perhaps that should have been on Hastings service. Then it was in to Sussex where I filmed at Hastings station bus stops. The drivers were all so friendly, really it was great to be moving on back to my old territory bus arriving at Eastbourne the scene is awful, the town has gone so downhill. Amazingly we saw no Corona pandemic social distancing measures at any of the town's towClick he almost nobody uses masks, so different from the dramatic measure in Mandy town's from Watford to Sunderland. To orris film Eastbourne then Brighton and up to Crawley. Having dinner tonight with my old mate John bishop. edit.
We were up at five forty-five this morning and arrived at Canterbury about eight thirty. I was hoping to get stuck straight into the buses but my usual vantage point has been ruined by parking the driver trainer buses at the entrance. I saw a couple of buses in the new livery shots were mostly at the exit which does the job but awful traffic there. I found it fairly awful, only four friendly drivers and abuse thrown at me by taxi drivers and a car driver pretending to sneeze out at me as he passed which I think is a criminal offence at the moment. Really we were quite glad to leave Canterbury, mostly it was still shut up and even public toilets locked off. About half the shops and most cafes seem to have gone bust, notCnot someeherehsomewhere people would want to visittvisit now. Chatham was hectic with bus add have a decker which was a surprise, also lots of nu venture and even a chalkwells. some fairly old rough Africa but guess deckers are replacing some saloons, they can now carry slot more passengers with one metre social distancing. the last stop was at Maidstone, interesting buses well Arica same mix with added nu venture who have gone on to second hand enviro teo hundreds now. friendly drivers and met PMP fans at chatham and Maidstone Maidstone was awful regards rough people about, drunks,druggies etc. tomorrow trucks at Dover and then buses at Folkestone and Hastings.edit.
Here we go then, like a lamb sheared with this mornings hair cut we are ready to hit the road early tomorrow morning and buoyed up by the first cuppa and cake at M&S for four months I think the South east is ready for us. I gather that Stagecoach East Kent might be better served than the Arriva territory but fingers crossed it is a worthwhile visit. I'm hoping for buses in the new stagecoach livery as a starter at Canterbury then after that we move on to Chatham and if time permits finish at Maidstone where we stay overnight at a nearby country village pub which we have used twice before. We have sketched out a rough schedule for our catch up on the British Isles transport scene up to the autumn with time for some lorries here and there and even perhaps a trip abroad. I think we have everything covered, the Amazon shop is off and holiday settings on EBay, our shop remains as normal but no orders go out now until a week today. Hopefully I'll catch up editing at the weekend. I've also been storing the scanned cine film from the last week and have also put the finishing touches to the latest archive spread sheet which although info only does show the material I've scanned which we can recover in seconds ready for editing a project. As a taster for the remainder of the trip lets look back at Eastbourne where we will be filming Thursday. There may be few if any blogs and any there are will be text only as I'm not one of the mobile phone generation! So back with you next weekend! We are really looking forwards to resuming our coverage of transport in the South East starting with Kent then Sussex which will take us through to Friday evening. Meanwhile I've got all the DVD orders from the weekend ready to post after I've been to Ellesmere Port for my haircut, four months since the last one. We were at the Vicarage decorating again this morning but I made sure we were back home at lunch time and able to have a really nice pleasant relaxing sit in the sunshine. The flights from nearby Manchester and Liverpool airport really started to make an impact, actually although nice to have no vapour trails and noise it is time for normality to kick in. I'm just trying to clear photos from the still camera, in the back ground I am getting sorted for the third volume covering the progress of London bus operations, the next will be the LTE 1948 to 58. I'll knock Amazon off line tomorrow morning, EBay goes on holiday settings and our shop is there always although orders won't go out until a week tomorrow. It says this on our shop front page but I bet people still ask. I gave you some Kent shots yesterday of buses what about some lorries, here we go to Dover. No blogs after Monday until Friday at earliest. |
PMP Sponsors the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust at Kirkby.
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