Time has flashed by today, the dentist was the main feature of the morning, another round of penicillin and back again next Tuesday for root canal excavations hopefully it will be over in one session, grim stuff eh! We have now settled down to prepping dinner, an emergency trip to the village shop for potatoes which seem to have dropped off the shopping list. Lots of cheating as time was so short that we purchased casserole type meals from the farm shop and Mandy's hopes of cake baking weren't fulfilled so it will have to be biscuits if sweet boosts are required. We learnt from Yvonne that I now have another grand nephew down in Hampshire. Tonights slide show covers material taken on our recent Irish trip and takes us to Limerick which was quite an interesting stop Two more milestones achieved whilst we were in Ireland filming last week. We now have over 10,000 subscribers to our Youtube channel and 24 million hits on our film trailers - I suppose that brings into focus the fact that so few are actually PMP customers and many watching the clips use ad blocking apps both of which are very much against our interests and do nothing at all to add to our archive and support it. Do not use ad blockers, the very reverse watch an add a little this raises our revenue and buy the DVDs. I do appreciate that folk in some circumstances just could never afford to but if they have the means of watching Youtube they must have something going for them. We have been extra busy, we cleared all the DVD orders including a couple of large ones received first thing while we were working our way through last weeks backlog. Then there were the 16mm cine films which had gone at auction, there will be a lot more of these to go tomorrow. Strange events include Paypal removing the download button which enabled you to take money to put in your own bank, they have hidden it under the transfer section but never told anyone, their support team phones have been buzzing, without actually using the words the staff informed me that they worked for a load of plonkers, getting money out of people by trying to hang on to it only works for a short time before people get pissed off. I've got the first three Irish DVDs finished, when I've done the covers I'll add them to the shops. I've another charity event to make a poster and tickets for, hopefully I'll get this done this evening. I've been out and mowed the lawns and tidied up but autumn leaves are upon us in more ways than one. My sister Yvonne and Graham arrive tomorrow afternoon, we nipped out and did some shopping but as you'll gather time was at a premium, tomorrow I also go to the dentist to see what can be done for the wretched thing and my painkillers and penicillin run out as well. The weather looks mixed at the weekend which sees Showerbus on Sunday, please, please let it be dry for this. We move on through scenics on the Sligo Galway coastlines and Sligo city for tonight's slide show. greetings to everyone, yes here I am home from our travels once more, we've just sorted out our washing etc and the avalanche of orders for DVDs and cine film at auction. Thus is is pleasant to know that much of our costs are covered but we have a very busy catch up day ahead tomorrow made al the more urgent as my sister and brother in law are with us arriving Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday also sees me at the dentist trying to resolve the problem which developed whilst in Galway, the antibiotics also finish Tuesday. It's been well under control and hasn't really spoilt the trip at all. All the filming objectives were eventually received which as may be expected in Ireland was no thanks to the weather. The past two days have been spent with our friends in Co Tipperary and the county town remains one of the last towns not to have any bypass and the trucks still grind through the tiny main street. We sat out last night under a clearing sky and the day before full moon in almost daylight with a roaring fire, wine and good friends what more could we ask. Well fed and watered it's a lot less stressful getting back with the motorways in Ireland. I've noted several ordinary roads which have heavy concentrations of lorries for future reference particularly after the poor results up in Sligo, Co Cork and South Tipp are much better hunting grounds! WE seem to have done very well on the order front, lots of the DVDs which I got pictures uploaded for have or will go at auction by tomorrow so a lot of parcels to get packed. I still need to add photos to the remainder and perhaps relist some of the golden oldies which are lingering too long in the shed. We received a thank you email during the trip for the film night we pit on which raised £500 for charity.Over the winter I'm going to prepare a transport film evening which could be used at various locations. I suppose I'd better sign off lots to do before bed so lets go back to Galway at the start of the trip. we had a good meal stbthe airport hotel and enjoyed our enormous executive suite. i woke inbthe early hours with mybtooth avhe but afterca tramafol pain killer ibwas quickly bavk to sleep and woke refreshed and fullnofbthe joys of autumn at about eight fifteen. our scedulevafter having completed cork bus film last night was tontravel down west to toomore wheremy fathers family came from. it wasxa miserable damp and goggy morning andcstsyed likevthstballbthe way until wecwere justca couple of miles away from schull andvthen the sun finally broke through and it wasca migical scene which awaited us there. at goleen the next village down to mizzen head there is a new visitors centre and they putbus in touch with a lively lsdy who is the font of knoeledge on all things associsted with toormore. as it was lunch time we said we would visit mizzen head and then see ournew friend on our return, ee noted thst the postboffice mandy hadvcalled at on her firdt vidit was closed eight yesrs and still up for sale. st mizzen head there is a very good exhibition, viditors centre, cafe etc. it is about four pounds for pensioners to go through to the old wireless ststion overbthe smsll bridge etc, lots of steps and look outs over amazing viewd, we realky enjoyed it although certainly not suited for thode ogf impaired mobility. then we called at our friend in toormoor, at eightybeight years old she was truly amazing inbhervrecollections ut hsving only moved tonthe village in 1948 she was atvthe efge of her memories with my fajily although there were sullivans who had the forge. we dhall msintain contact and investigate furthet. it wasvthe firstvtime we had hadvthe ,tea, exoerience with the full mobty and a table full. then the jaunt bavk to cork . tkmorrow we are heading over to waterford, buses first then any spare time trying to complete a truck film.
i woke in the early hours what i thoughtbwas a return of neuralgea turned out to be a possible infection and root canal problem. we mansged to get through the gslway trsffic befire it was too bad skipping breakfadt. i mansged to get seen just after eight thirty try doing thst in englsnd. i had an xray and full teeth check but the possible trestment would be long and involved so she prescribed penicillin andvpain killers and they kicked in and we had coffeecand cake before setting off dien to limerick. the traffic wasnt that bad and we found a dissabled parking spot right nesr the bus stops snd i git stuck into things and we wrrent that fsr behind the schedule thst we hsd originally intended. dublin cousches were running artics as eell as there cosches to dublin there wrre plenty of new deckerd andbi was surprised how much i got done and once again like galesy frienfdly drivers. then we headed doen to cork where i intended to get a full hour of film, once more no problems filming and although it was eell psst six thirtybi did get finished. three types of deckers and brand new single deckers made for a very interesting bus scene although competition other than airport runs was more subdued. the hotel we have is near the airportband very comfortable ee even got upgrsded to an executubve room which is huge. tomorrow we are hesding to west cork and my family origins near toormore which is by schull. mandy did go there previously but i hope to turn another psge. in my research.
it was a totally different day with a chilly but sunny start as we headed through the awful galway traffic and on north to sligo a route full of rosdcworks. the oncevattractive bridge in sligo is now a dual carrisgeway and the truck traffic has almost dried up through the recession years so sfter some frustrating hours we decided it would beca better use of our time tonenjoy a coasral toute innthe by then warmish sunshine so we headed west to balina and took in a few stops en route by the striking bright blue aylantic. we arejust eating in the hsr tonight too much the ladt two jights in the hotel restaurant more quantity than quality. tomorrow we have an early start down to limerick and film there before heading to cork
the rain sweot across galeay ladt night and although the wind dropped this morning it continued to rain through to the sfternoon. the recce yesterday snd having a few minutes filmed sunday did get me off to a good statart plus we knew exactly where to park right by eyre square bus stops. mandy did abit of shopping whilei got started under the shelter of the old tree which overlooks the busiest bus thoroughfare up from the bus station. it diesnt get a hundred prrcent but a good many. the services were much busier and there were more frequent services. it was obvious that the independents are still hammering the state buses although i read that even they were up in numbersthis year which given the traffic and parking in galway isnt that surprising. therewere afew dlightly older cosches about although the total bus eireann fleet is very young. by midday id got an hour of film even the two open top operators were on the go despite the lousy weather. we hunted out a coffee shop near the mainsquare and then decided that we,d go and hunt down a location for truck film as it was dupposed to get better so set off down the limerick road to see where most were going from gort at the end of the motorway i knew few came across from dublin wed been through all thst befirr. anyway there wrrent any to be found so gave up and drove west along the coast looking out on the arran islds which i used to visit quite often in my youth. we did asmall circular trip through connermara and then back down into galway arriving straight in to the hotel on the right road. wed spotted a pub wed eaten at msny yesrs ago but with the draconian lsaws nowin ireland you cant really get away with drink and dyive lie the old days. aowe,ll eatagain at the hotel, we,ve swapped room as the air con problem hadnt been resolved, it was on all the time and taken it frommeit isn,t needed here at present. the food is oknot what it was last time we stsyed but of course the saying is never go bavk. tomorrowwe are shooting up to sligo first thing and having another shot as trucks, i saw a lot going over the bridge there last time we were there although it was very erird at the bus station last visit as i had hassle , the only timeid had bother since we had all the cie photo passes withdrwan was in kerry. then wednesday we go straight down to limerick and also make a start on cork. thursday we do west cork investigating the area my fsther,s family came from and that leaves friday to finish filming in cork and to get to waterford.
we had a swift journey from home to holyhead at five this morning and the boat left promptly with scarcely any passengers. it wasca calm crossing and dublin was equalky quiet at lunch time as we headed west on the motorway to galway , it was very very windy asvthe frontvwith torrential rain due over night and dreadedly in themorming. lets hope it goes nirth and misses galway but weve already got about 15 mins if film, city centre lots of deckers none more than two years old, fingers crossed for tomortow and weather. we are inbthe good old westwood on outskirts wevecstayed here befire and hoping good things for dinner. seems a high speed internet connection hoping you can all read it perhaps give some indication and then ill carry on each evening.
The suitcase is already in Mandy's car as we get prepared for our week in Ireland. The weather forecast for tomorrow isn't quite as bad as originally thought and we may escape a lot of the rain on on our way to Galway after the ferry across from Holyhead to Dublin. The first thing to do on Monday is the buses in Galway city and if time permits some lorries if there is much traffic, last time it was very light coming off the motorway. Then on Tuesday we are going up to Sligo for the lorries coming over the bridge in the middle of the town. I had hassle there last time I did the buses, strange really never a problem before. Today I've been out in the garden while the weather is good and thinned out some of the perennials and shrubs in the borders and rearranged a bit plus a lot of weeding. Next door kid must be having a party hundreds of cars, not even a polite hope you don't mind all the cars outside our garden but then hey don't even weed their garden and the promised felling of the tree overhanging us never happened. With luck they'll need a bigger house and move on. I got the still shots from 5 hours of the cine film already copied to minidv and loaded them to the relevant items on EBay. Last night I managed to get all the last months DVDs on EBay and Amazon. Amazon is suspended for the trip to Ireland and EBay on holiday setting but you can still order. Our shop is always available. I'm hoping to get a few more hours so treated but I'm sorry the exercise won't be finished before the first round of auctions. Here are a few clips from our recent Youtube loadings The charity film show last night was a great success, I must admit I was nervous right up to the start but as the clock ticket on after tea time and we plus the fabulous charity committee so experienced in 'do's' helped and it wasn't that long before the village hall at Plumley was looking like a little cabaret cum cinema. There was a 'kiosk' with ice cream and popcorn and Keith manned the bar. Mandy with the help of Felicity did the tickets and greetings. There were people from our village who aren't regulars at St Oswalds which was brilliant, so good to help bridge the gap between lots of residents and a church which is held to be very snooty and WI orientated whereas the reality is that there is a wide spectrum of people from all backgrounds and many different perspectives on life but old events linger a long time. With lots of people just going into autopilot it really did mean that all I had to do was press a switch on the lap top and we were on go mode albeit when Mandy turned it off we didn't really know how to get it going again quickly suffice it to say two lost minutes were not exactly noticeable! I think the content was very well targeted to the age profile although Ged bless him turned up with the largest party but the grand sons had received urgent texts by the interval and vanished, can't say I blamed them as the nostalgia wave was probably a bit intense. I managed half a bottle of wine and a pint of bitter, nobody got the quiz question which related to the K3 phone box in my film of the village near Dorking which as most of my learned readers will know was mainly constructed from concrete but they mostly vanished with a few at museums now . ... Time has flown and what started at 6pm has nearly reached 10pm but lots of constructive work. I've now updated EBay and Amazon with the DVDs made this past month. I'll have to suspend Amazon now though as we are off to Ireland Sunday for week. EBay I can just make a holiday setting that says there will be a delay sending things out. As the adverts all appear next week no doubt it will go mad while we aren't here. The next week my sister Yvonne and Graham are with us which will be lovely but obviously time is going to race by, October looms laerge and is even more busy than September. Tonights slide show from yesterday on the A500 near Crewe. ( the DVDs are ready) |
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