A perfect day for filming on this the shortest day of the year and we covered Barnsley and Rotherham and got some really good shots and home by mid afternoon to find the local roads jammed with a M6 closure so what's new there. Tomorrow we have Peterborough schedules, it may be a tad cloudier than wanted by late morning but we'll have to keep our fingers crossed on that. There is a link on the model bus zone news to a pre production model with Yardley Wood of the new Northcord MMC which is now being heavily advertised and much anticipated, the colours and livery for Nat Express W Midlands version look spot on. No hassles filming in Yorkshire today, I got some superb shots and I'm editing them right now and clips will be on Youtube later this evening, I should get Rotherham edited as well. We continue to break new records nearly every day on Youtube as the channel squeezes out all suspect films and gets to the family friendly original content creators like ourselves. Here are shots at Barnsley earlier today. We had a wonderful evening at Ged and Yvonne's house last night at their annual carol supper party. A catch up day but back to filming tomorrow when it looks like Barnsley and Rotherham of course subject to last minute weather changes and the condition of my back for which I'm now back on the pills especially as we are out at a party this evening. I have managed to get all my course reading for my next assignment completed and will start the essay this week hopefully getting it submitted before Christmas. I did an article on our experiences setting up and running Messy Church sessions at St Oswald's in Lower Peover. We also had little Sam and Daisy visit with friend Emma, Sam is well into trucks so enjoys a hunt around my 'office' although the over crowding of the models with unopened boxes stacked high isn't very user friendly at any age. Mandy too the DVD orders to the post, it's much quieter now although it seems to creep up in the evenings. I've now got all our recent releases on our Amazon shop and there is a sale coming on EBay. Here are the covers for recent DVD releases We return to the shots at Lymm two days ago on foggy Monday, we often find ourselves there just before Christmas, this year we went back at night as I'd lost my wallet with all my cards, searching by torchlight to no avail and ditto in church where I'd put my coat during the carol service - turned out I'd put it in my trousers so I didn't lose it then popped it in my camera bag when I was getting undressed, hey ho the joys of getting old, mind you I've always been a bit forgetful. In the end it was Blackpool which worked out quite well despite a very dark sky going up the M6 this morning, by the seaside it was less dark although later on some drizzle mid afternoon. The town is smothered in road works with roads blocked, diverted, bus lanes, temporary roads and anything else you can think off. I had a look at the rail replacement work just the latest Blackpool deckers plus Tyrers although I got some Archers and cross hire on a huge children's outing. Not a lot more I can add really, they had free parking to encourage Christmas shoppers but why they would come to Blackpool I don't know. The promenade was really empty looked like it had been nuked. Nice back drops of builders work cutting road and pavement, tamping asphalt. I got my proposal form for my next course essay back late last night, really just as I submitted it with no added extras so a bit of reading to do and tomorrow afternoon I intend getting on with the bones of it, just 2000 words and referencing already done. Photos this evening from Blackpool , I'll get back to Lymm trucks tomorrow. Hopefully filming Thursday and Friday this week dependent on weather. I've added the latest DVDs to our shop and attempting to add to Amazon which as usual is a law unto itself. It looks like being a maybe week as the weather forcaste won't stand still and Blackpool looked like coming out sunny although perhaps it stayed foggy just like Cheshire. I ended up sticking close to home and did lorries at Middlewich and Lymm services, three programmes with one 2 hour scene at Lymm which is a record and shows how busy it is out there. My back wasn't bad first thing but has ceased up a bit now. Photos first from hectic Middlewich which is very close to home for us, foggy, damp and cold but not freezing. Tomorrow at present it looks favourite for light cloud in Shrewsbury/Telford. Photos from Middlewich this morning. No college tonight, Christmas holidays but I need to start putting my next assignment together. I noticed that our daily blog now attracts up to 1400 people each week and 10k plus individual hits so it is pleasant to wish everyone of you where ever you are located a very Happy Christmas and wish you well for the New Year and of course Chinese New Year is also quite soon in 2018. The Youtube channel continues to attract vast numbers with records being smashed every few weeks and it's certainly been a major boost for the PMP Archive and we have responded by making more and more archive material available to everyone free of charge to view. We are viewed in over 200 nations each month and up to 90k hits on our films each week. The top viewing countries continue as they have been for many months with the UK followed by Vietnam and the USA. We have several clips which are over a million hits with others over 2M, fantastic and it is heart warming to have friendly messages of gratitude and greetings from around the world. We are now into our new range of Bus Spots and the very first of Bus Spot Ultras is on Nottingham, the DVD is being mastered right now and runs over 2 hours and covers something like 30 or more visits to the city. The lorry coverage has shot up to match the demand we have created, a path opened up by the huge following of Eddie Stobarts which has made the truck interest known and accepted and such positive reactions from the drivers. I hope that the next Bus Spot Ultra will be on Newcastle upon Tyne. The week ahead seems to be mainly suitable for filming at some locations and the latest news seems to indicate Blackpool for tomorrow, lets see how it turns out. My back is very bad today, I'm on the painkillers and it's been a very busy day with three services at St Oswalds so far and a 9 lessons and carols service this evening, hopefully dosed up I can look fairly straight. The Messy Church session our second was another success and was a blessing after the traumas of the week with the ministry course and general disappointing among my group on the tight marking. Here is a shot of our Messy Church meal this morning, the programme seems to be struggling with images this evening. I've managed to get some Blackpool area bus shots on the slide show. The obnoxious weather presenter just announced that the promised light cloud on Monday is replaced by sunshine with a big smirk, I cannot believe it as Victor Meldrew would have said and Tuesday we have visitors in the morning. Well I'm sure I'll get something out of the situation, perhaps Monday will be a truck film day which will please a lot of viewers. I'd forgotten about the blog if I were totally honest as I've a bad back today and elbow to match so the pain keeps thoughts focused on that alone. I've done more work on the Bus Spot Ultra Nottingham and lots more clips to appear tomorrow night on Youtube. Talking of which they are getting a lot slicker on appeals for advert refusal with the latest taking less than 24 hours in the Vietnam archive film caught by the 'crawler' or should it be trawler. I hope I'm in better fettle in the morning as we have our second Messy church with lots of activity. The orders for DVDs are now down to a trickle and the regulars have a famine with the lack of film opportunities but the Bus Spot range was always popular and with all the extra material and long running time I'm sure they'll be a success, the trolleybus era is nearly all on trailers on Youtube if you want a preview. The next Bus Spot Ultra is possibly Newcastle upon Tyne. It's freezing again outside, we went out after it had melted a bit this morning and I got a pile of books at Waterstones in Knutsford mostly with book vouchers, also called at the jewelers to get Mandy's pearls restrung as they'd dropped off in the bank earlier this week. Then we went to the beer and gin shop next door and Mandy got a Gunpowder Gin and another I can't recall the name of. So then home a bit more film editing and then to visit cousins Trish and Derek at Sale. Up early tomorrow for 8am service, 9.15 Messy Church, 11am service and 6.30pm 9 lessons and carols service, I should get a long service award! Lets then look at the North East The weather last night was very cold and we had more snow, not a lot but it froze. I checked the weather forecast in the early hours and it looked as if it could turn out sunny in Barnsley so I had to give up my plans and try and get warm again in bed. We went down to the Pheasant last night I had a couple of pints of MPA and met a few friends there, getting home I found that the course essay results had come through after all, at least I passed although they are very tight with marks. I wasn't entirely happy with it but its done now. We had a few domestic chores to do, we couldn't go out until a courier had been picking up film for BBC in Scotland which never turned up until we were back mid afternoon. As I didn't sleep very well last night I'm feeling a bit under the weather. I got my photos done at Booths ready for Mandy and myself renewing our passports. We went to John Lewis at Handforth Dean, gave up in the cafe, it was an awful experience would never go there again, nearly as bad as M&S, we could do with some more upmarket cafes around, the nearest I know are in Derbyshire. I decided to embark on the first in our new series of Bus Spots which will cover Nottingham and run for 90 minutes and cover about 30 visits from early Edwardian trams to the end of the war and earl;y post war then the bus and trolley fleets in colour plus West Bridgeford UDC and some Barton - the Trent was put on with Derby some time ago. Clips from this work will go on Youtube. I envisage it taking through to next week. I need to get an idea of the weather ahead, this was the worst week for filming since last winter. Nottingham shots as I'm on the subject! I had better not say its been a hectic day as that's near enough normal any day. It should have been the polio Fellowship meeting at Ellesmere Port but most couldn't make it so it was cancelled first thing this morning but we headed off there anyway as I wanted to get my hair cut and to pick up bird food at Jollies. Then we headed to M&S and had a cake and coffee. We met a couple who came from near reading, Berks in the cafe, had ages chatting to them. Got back and I nipped round to St Oswald's and got a couple of small jobs done and then back home and cracked on with the DVD orders, the postman doesn't get too us until nearly 4pm at the moment with Christmas post. The results of my first ministry course marked essay was delayed until next Monday teatime, I'm not worried it will pass but its nice to know though anyway. The weather for Peterborough tomorrow looks uncertain with brightness likely late morning so have decided on Barnsley and a couple of nearby locations such as Rotherham or Doncaster should I have the time and it is light cloud as predicted but the BBC get it wrong so often. This evening I've booking my next overseas trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, just a quick flit round and hopeful;ly catch up with buses and trucks. I've booked the flights and hotels just one hop between KL and Singapore to book but they are hourly so shouldn't be a problem. NatWest blocked our credit card on the flights so I still haven't had the e ticket through as I had to resend the card details. I guess it was a random check but took ages on the phone to get them to release it and really it is similar to our spending patterns in the past. Something then to look forwards to at the beginning of February although rain is the only risk in Asia at that time, plenty of heat and humidity though. The rain only lasts a short time normally so fingers crossed. Spoke to John in Eastbourne who is getting over his fall in his garden, a few chipped teeth and cuts and bruises, we don't bounce so well getting old! Lets see if I can find any relevent photos for this next expedition. We had a good time at the RNCM and MMUSU last night, it was quite strange in some ways as the groups coming through the colleges popular music course sounded on the whole quite retro with a female John Denver and a good solid jazz / rock band, the last one with female lead and keyboard was harder to relate to, suffice to say it was the nudge to head home. Andy Burnham at the pre concert reception at the RNCM threw in lots of errs and kept referring back to the 1980s as if they were ancient history. The beer was good at the university with Punk IPA! Here are some shots from the evening. Today was cold, windy and wet, it wasn't worth going too far and it was wet but blowing from behind so I did manage to get a programme out of my visit to Lymm, taken on the Stobart depot side of the motorway which gets more Stobart lorries than the service station where I usually film. Photos from there nothing pretty, a filthy day. Tomorrow is our Polio Fellowship meeting at Ellesmere Port, I can get my hair cut there and stock up on bird food. Friday looks optimistic for getting some bus film work done. Just about to set off for Manchester, a cold day but dry, warming but rain coming tomorrow which will affect all locations I need to visit so may have to settle fort something very local. Tonight we have a concert at the MUMSU starting out with a reception at the RNCM with mayor Andy Burnham. The old eardrums may take a bit of a bashing by the end of the night. We delivered the Christmas gifts to the Salvation Army in Northwich this morning, amazing seeing the who present operation in full swing so many agencies, secular and church organisations involved, a shame so many kids need this sort of support. Here are a couple of shots there. I also finished the images for my archive truck film, just soundtrack to add. Among other jobs treated woodworm at St Oswalds and reorganised the notice board. |
PMP Sponsors the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust at Kirkby.
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