Although the number of vehicles was less than a regular year so much has happened and just to have Showbus back at all was fantastic and a chance to meet up with so many friends, viewers and customers and many of you fit all three categories. It is humbling to find that we kept so many people sane in the lock downs working their way through our thousands of advertising clips on Youtube. Remember that the end result which helps us survive is to sell the DVD or digital downloads. The latter reminds me I've some catching up to do. Its been a long day so lets just cut to the chase and have a look at some arrivals early this morning at the Herts Showground at St Albans.

Our bags are packed and we are ready to go, Mandy is just  putting some clothes in the weekend bay, I've added some lucky dip boxes as we seem to have plenty of room in the car. We can actually carry 30 boxes of DVD stock but I've only put in 21, we are just getting used to being in the back of a car again, lucky Mandy's Jazz carries quite a lot. It really suits our age now, my hernia and crumbling spine. At least the hernia gets fixed 25th October, not much they can do about a spine, I just get a little bit shorter each year.

Household maintenance took up some time today but I've finished the OTA cine scanning ready to return when I go down to Shrewsbury in October. I've another collection to re-do to HD scan and thats going to take some time. When its Detling weekend I'll pop in and see my friend John Bishop and probably swap around some cine to again re-scan to HD.

We had a huge delivery of media today, discs and cases, the office looks very full good job it was bin day, got rid of all the cardboard. They are going to charge us soon for taking the garden waste but as the council has waste land untended at the back of our garden I think it would make an ad hoc compost heap. Anyway back to discs and DVDs we should be safe if there are interruptions to the supply chain, probably enough to see us through to the spring.

I had to touch up the lounge paint after the fitting of the new wall lamps, much better light suitable for ageing eyes. We did our normally Friday banking and I put a contribution through to our local platinum jubilee celebrations for next June. All DVD orders were sent out this morning, next posting Monday. Probably see some people out with cameras the next couple of days, don't be afraid of saying hello!

With space to spare I've put a few more promotional archive features in and that will be it. Not a big stand mind you just 6' booked so we might have to scramble under the table, fingers crossed they aren't too tight with the space in the traders marquee.
We can also announce two more archive productions behind the next part on London Transport, these will be firstly on the replacement of the first generation of ex LT tube stock on the IOW with the third generation now going over and having some film I decided to use it. The other will be nobody does nostalgia like Britain, three sections buses on the London to Bright ( all new images) then trains on preserved steam railways and finally trams in action at Blackpool all from the 1970's.

Remembering Showbuses past that's the slide show tonight, next blog Monday.

A hard slog today getting the gap filled with DVDs produced before Covid right up to date and we shall aim to have 20 DVD boxes plus some Lucky Dip Bus Boxes and promotions of archive stock introduced during the lockdowns. We have several bags of goodies ready fort those who have pre ordered their DVDs to collect on the day. We have decided that the weather looks good for the weekend and will be down on Friday and Saturday filming prior to Showbus. Possible locations include Milton Keynes, Aylesbury, Watford, Hemel Hempstead, Luton, Stevenage and St Albans. We won't have time for them all but we'll so our best to to get as much as possible. I've been busy scanning more cine film and I was hoping to get the latest London Transport era added to the series I seem to have wandered in to in lock down. This will be 1970-84 the LTE GLC era with the country routes going to the NBC and chopped up into new districts. I've plenty of material and it will be made but I doubt if I have time tomorrow to get it done for Showbus.

The Lebanese electrician came today to install our new lounge lighting, the sparkie was really bowled over by my models and diramas. The new lights give much better illumination and hopefully last longer than the rubbish we got from John Lewis. We were glad to hear that the RNCM is at last opening for concerts and I was frustrated to find that the main pop event was within a week of my operation and I wouldn't want to be uncomfortable. The opera dates are released and we hope that Brodskys restaurant opens up by then.I have a plethora of jobs to do before the operation as we have new carpets coming and the main bedroom wants decorating before then and all the drawers and cupboards in the lounge need moving.

So with the time whizzing by and boy do I need a rest I leave you with a look at Hertsfordshire and Bucks buses and perhaps hope to meet at least some of you at Showbus, it's about time it got back to the prestigious event it once was.

A day of non stop catch up with thousand upon thousand of photos added to the PMP Sumgmug shop, links via the shop landing page , we are now back to spring 2021 and closing in on the previous uploads. I've also been tackling the mammoth task of producing sales stock to fill the 2 year gap of the Corona pandemic when we had no shop sales at the counter and didn't replenish old or add new stock. This has now been corrected and tomorrow I'll be putting covers on hundreds of DVDs which will slot into our rally sales stock. This will form the basis of our offering at Showbus on Sunday and also we shall have special displays of some of the archive films we brought out during the pandemic and a few of our very popular lucky dip boxes which have now started getting repeat orders and I'll add some quotes on those who were kind enough to feed back on them. I think they will be ideal for Christmas presents.

The scanning of archive cine film also continues and I'm just about ready to look at an addition to London on film series to the LTE GLC era. So a very hectic period which will continue and include decorating and emptying rooms for new carpets all before my hernia op on October 25th. I will be a visitor at Wythall for the Midland Red day which looks as if it will be a great show. Looking forward to Showbus, its a long time since it was this near to London other than the run past last year.

I suppose the biggest bus news at present is the bid by National Express to purchase the Stagecoach Group, hold the paint back then! Anyway I'll leave you will National Express for the moment.

I'm just starting to edit some London Transport bus material which takes our LT coverage to the LTE GLC era and it looks a right treat, so I'm really hoping to get it launched at Showbus. Its our last family day today with my sister returning home tomorrow. After that we'll get out the stock we completed ready for Lathalmond and replenish and extend back and forward to get the most we can for the 'stock' and we'll have the DVDs which people have asked to be reserved. We'll also have a selection of some archive material from the lock down period. Meanwhile tonight we'll draw to a close our look at Ireland on the blog, the DVDs are all on the shop.

Today we visited Tatton Park with both mansion and gardens. The house is not at all accessible although when we visited the garden the lady there reckoned they should have directed us differently and downstairs was accessible. The cafe was hidden away and we thought the takeaway was the only choice, once again the lady at the gardens pointed us in the right direction and a great afternoon tea was served and a cross country scooter was loaned at the gardens to access this part of a day which really got better as it went on and to some extent ditto the weather.

All DVD orders are complete and ready to send out in the morning, I think we are looking at Cheshire Oaks shopping outlet for tomorrow, we are just preparing for Sunday evening roast, meanwhile back on the road we are at Clonmel in Tipperary for the trucks.

The day went pretty much as planed yesterday with the weather mostly warm and sunny as we breakfasted at Plumlies just a few minutes from home then on to Salford for the new RHS garden at Salford which scores well on the garden content but abysmal on the catering which after a couple of months should have been settled in, the staff in the cafe looked like they had had enough and were forced to go there by the dole office. We also had a lovely meal last night . This morning I'm reading at church and sidesperson but when I get back at lunch time  we are going to Tatton park which we haven't visited for some years a first visit for Yvonne and Graham.

In the background to this we are sending our the DVDs and glad to say that more orders for the lucky dip selection have come through. This helps are we are getting short of space yet again and the only alternative would have been the tip. We'll be workring hard to get a selection ready for our reduced size stand at Showbus but please come and say hello. Anything you want to pick up there needs to be advised by the latest this Thursday. We may stop off to film en route and stay over but that will depend on the weather. Here are scenes from the gardens yesterday which are of course still very 'new' and will gain as the years pass. Following that another look at Dublin buses.

We are hopeful that we can win a race to get new London transport archives out for Showbus, it might be a bridge too far but they will certainly be ready for the Detling event and regardless of this we will have several months of releases of DVDs with us and a selection of the most important archives. There will certainly be the next volume of our coverage of London Transport taking us into the LTE GLC Council period 70's-80's. Meanwhile yet another scanner has bitten the dust. I'll struggle through with the current crop and then decide which to buy, the ones which took the full 400' spool were all rubbish and now withdrawn from sale it seems. I did order one direct from China but that looks like being a claim on Paypal as two months later nothing has arrived.

We are expecting my sister up from Hampshire any minute now, we had a short sit in the sun and I skipped through Buses magazine which is now out for this next month. Meanwhile we carry on our coverage of Ireland with scenes around and about Dublin.

Even getting 12 member of our polio fellowship branch together has taken many weeks of trying as folk have so many catch up things on the go. We had a splendid afternoon tea at a hotel near Chester, finding the entrance was a bit of a puzzle and a couple of folk ended up in the care home next door but we managed to pay a release fee!

Tomorrow we have family arriving from Hampshire but i still intend to get some cine film scanning done and a start on stock for Showbus and Detling which will include the last 6 months or more DVD releases and some of the archive features we released during the lock downs. Anyone wanting to collect please let us know beforehand which will need to be by next Thursday as we may be going to visit relations on the way to Showbus.

Meanwhile we go back to lorries on the Ireland trip this time we are in Tipperary, its a long way of course.

Still running to stand still but some progress has been made. I finished all that was required on Roger de Boers collection which he has entrusted to the Online Transport Archive, all scanned and ready to drop off with Peter Waller the OTA sec when we next meet. I've still got to see Robin Hannay about the long term future for his cine collection.

I've got all the latest batch of John Bishops cine scanned and am making progress through the OTA Les Collins collection. At the same time we have to start getting ready for Showbus which is only just over a week away. thanks to those who have already rang through their orders to be collected. This really helps us. We shall have stock from the past year and some special archives which will appeal to Southern audiences. I'm hoping to have at least two new releases on the day and will bring a few of our Luck Dip Boxes, great value with DVDs just over £2 each! £50 for 20 plus no post if you collect at Showbus or Detling.

Going back to Ireland we carry on with another slide show this time Waterford