The ever changing weather outlook causes so many problems at this time of year and some of our target locations are so far away you really don't want to get it wrong. At the moment it looks as if it will get increasingly cloudy but light cloud near home and with a usual pre christmas homage to Lymm Poplar Services an all time most popular truck film location we can't let the opportunity pass us by if the weather is right. It is only a few minutes drive away so even with motorways gridlocked we can get there via the back roads. I#d really like to be filming in Newcastle first thing on Tuesday, we'll be glued to the weather updates.

A busy day editing well actually downloading the material for Bus Spot Ultra Derby, it is also necessary to make decisions about what to include, I think that the Midland General Group can go on a future Mansfields Bus Spot and then the likes of Stevensons on with Burton and the remainder such as Hulleys on with Chesterfield. We has a surfeit of material for this area and it would work well evening it out like this. So all the film to edit is now on the computer, I'll start stitching it all together later this evening. It is a shame we don't really have much on the NBC era although with scenes on video from 1989 there wasn't much difference only the livery which again wasn't that changed on Trent. The Trent scenes are nearly all by Robin Hannay pre video era, he did so much brilliant work which was by then near home. His knowledge of the bus industry and Guy in particular knows no match. Sometimes I really struggle with some locations and have to do a lot of research, I think the Midland General group had a particularly interesting history which well rewards looking it up on the net or buying a book!

On Wednesday this week we have the post operation check up on Mandy's tear duct intervention, it seems to have come out quite well although one eye is better than the other. Most of our Christmas cards have now been sent out and we are pretty well on the count down to Christmas although it is very low key here as we are going down to Hampshire on the Saturday prior, there seems little sense in getting too festive as we'll only be getting back felling it needs to be tided away, stuff the 12th night racket! All the DVD orders continue to be sent out by return. I got a few earlier DVDs on digital download while I was uploading material for the Derby volume. So plenty of work going into things at our end. The net is bubbling away nicely but breaking no records.

Numbers of views per day seem more or less set at 49-51k views, the areas producing most Youtube views continue as the last year with the UK at the top and places like Indonesia and Vietnam for second and third. No sign of anything European or American budging the Asia countries, what is up you people come on now there must be transport fans in the Americas and Europe. Remember though it is an English language site, do your best it isn't a test - anything prejudice , racial hatred, violent etc will see the poster banned from commenting on our site, family friendly it is and will stay. Tonight we go to Tyneside is hoped we'll be there Tuesday

Some areas of UK bus interest have been covered on film very well and Derby is certainly one of them with many hours of film in the PMP archive alone particularly the trolleybuses but going back to the tram era which were quite short lived I've only a few brief shots but they were gone in the early 1930's replaced mainly by the trolleybuses. As well as the Derby municipal fleet this volume will also feature big on Trent plus Barton and Midland Blue and shots of independents. I started filming in Derbyshire at the end of the 1980s so coming forwards there is an almost annual visit which takes us through to the takeover of municipal operations, Trent and Barton untied, the pedestrianisation and of course the controversy over destroying the popular and iconic bus station.  I've got masses of old Video 8 and Hi 8 tapes plus miniDv to go through, I've only just started.

We had a superb visit to the RNCM yesterday with a very filling Christmas meal in Brodskys and yet more outlandish gins for the girls from their ever expanding range. We had a drink reception in the interval. Got home quite late but caught up with Corrie then bed but disturbed by the fierce wind and heavy rain which came down overnight. It was not too bad this morning but as the day wore on it went downhill again. We had to go to John Leves's to buy a new iron, had lunch there and then took the new road from Handforth Dean which links up the bottle necked A6 and you wonder why they did it as yet again you stuff the traffic down the toothpaste tube but it still comes out at even more congested junctions. Turned off back through Macclesfield and home then started getting out all the tapes to copy. With Derby in mind a dip tonight into the archive. I'm still looking constantly at possible film locations Monday and Tuesday as the outlook keeps changing.

The latest DVDs on trucks at Liverpool docks are both now in the shops as DVDs and digital downloads plus the Bus Spot Ultra Tunbridge Wells and I've uploaded the very latest DVD list this morning. The slide show today is from Liverpool docks lorries taken yesterday . We are out at the RNCM this evening for the end of term and Christmas opera opening night two one act Puccini works , Sue has arrived and I'm just about to get changed, we have dinner at Brodskys restaurant at the college and there is a reception in the interval. I'm gathering material together for my next Bus Spot Ultra which will cover Derby, lots of material to sort through. We are looking at the weather for Monday and Tuesday for possible openings in the film schedule but not looking that promising , too much sunshine in winter is bad for photography, low light, shadows etc.

As it turned out this morning on checking the weather we could have got away with filming at Newcastle but it wasn't much help them changing the forecast at the last minute when they can look out of the window, not so much a forcast rather just a report. Anyway I'd already decided that I'd take a punt on going to Liverpool docks which were supposed to be dry and have light cloud, actually other than some drizzle to start it wasn't far off the mark and the temperature was a very mild 14 degrees so although I started out with scarf and hat I soon 'stripped' down to a coat. I was at the Cargill side of the docks where it is foodstuffs, crap,steel,oil etc and this sees a very different collection of lorries than the main entrance with containers et. I think I spotted at least three paint jobs and a nice classic ERF. The drivers as ever oh so friendly and plenty of waves, toots and flashing lights. It has almost become a tradition to have a good session at Lymm Poplar services just before Christmas and we'll certainly have a go. Next week we are just available Monday and Tuesday so it is really getting to be an outside chance of Tyneside and Kent but never say never. I've updated the DVD list again and must get covers done for these very latest releases at least I'll have some lorry clips to put on Youtube. It seems to be climbing nicely although not perhaps as good as last year, the average hit seems to be bouncing around the 50k a day mark.

We got a delivery of DVD discs and covers and have ordered up the labels we use on return order envelopes and on the outside as sender details thats another couple of hundred spent and the discs goodness knows, I don't want to look. The prices are shooting up not just as raw materials are increasing in cost but we are told be the supplier that there are less manufacturers making dvd blanks as they are afraid that demand will soon dry up as people are mainly downloading the films they want. This is where I saw the market going and why we have introduced digital downloads at just £8 each. THere is a steady trickle of orders although of course there is only a limited amount there on the shop. Going back into the thousands of releases will take more than the remainder of my life I would think but at least we have started. The commercial use licence is also on the shop and I shall start to put the archives unedited masters on as downloads for research or commercial use, I don't think there is a great demand for old trams and trolleybuses but at least we'll be putting it out there for future generations. Needless to say tonights slide show is the first selection from our visit to Liverpool docks today

 A day of torrential rain , non stop damp, cold and gusty, not the sort of day to go out filming mid winter but we do have our eyes on next week for either Kent or Tyneside or just maybe both. It didn't seem a big ask having just two locations to fit in before Christmas but the weather is either sunny, wet or both. Anyway we will get to both eventually and will soon be starting on our 2019 destination list, yes it all starts again the PMP annual merry- go-round. I decided to do what I thought would be a quick edit for a bus Spot Ultra, Tunbridge Wells, I haven't really got much old archive only a few seconds but I do have early 1988 shots of a Sunday when Southdown had got tendered routes there, taken on an old two part system of camera and recorder, really heavy kit, bought it for about £100 , the stuff cost a fortune at this time, you can get state of the art HD cameras for the price of an early video 8 or VHS camcorder back in those days. The scenes are probably unique for the location and then are followed up through the 1990s and to the present day with frequent visits to what is one of my favourite places for variety of operators, liveries and vehicles. Without boring you it all got a bit involved when you need to cut bits out and try to get to a specified length etc, one of the visits was taken when the camcorder didn't like Arriva livery and got it bright green, I keep trying to tweak it but it looks quite awful, I had to get shot of the camera well before it was due for replacement as it was wasting time and money.

The post seems to be drying up this week, most of the DVD orders are now on the net and it has gone quiet but I expect the magazines will be out next week, the Jan issues are always really early before Christmas. We have been busy getting Christmas cards ready to post out, the overseas ones will go in the morning. This evening we will be at the Macclesfield hospital for Mandys repeated CT scan of her lung with the growth on it, we are hoping the infection which blurred the image last time will have abated enough to get a clear understanding of what it is, the original thinking was that as it showed on an xray it was probably an old calcified growth, fingers crossed on that. I can't believe that the week is racing by so quickly, I've not lifted the cameras in anger for ages, I'll be getting withdrawal symptoms. I've about 50 locations on my Bus Spot Ultra list to cover so any rainy days will be well used. I always try and get a few hours at Lymm services for lorries around Christmas. We are down in Hampshire for the holiday, leaving on the Saturday morning, the last post will go out 21st in the morning, that's the Friday. We have a couple of concerts at the RNCM coming up, end of term Christmas opera is Friday, friend Sue will join us then another the following Saturday. Lets go to Lymm for some lorry shots as we haven't had many recently, taken December 2014

I'll add the two new Bus Spots to the shop this evening. We visited cousin Trish and Derek in Sale ( Manchester) this afternoon. All the DVD orders are being sent out be return of post. We are looking at next Monday and Tuesday for our outstanding trip to Kent for Chatham and Maidstone coverage. For some reason we can't access Youtube at the moment which is a bit strange. I am also hoping to get out with the camera for some year end truck film, obviously at this time of year the weather is a big decider on locations if any. Had some time in the garden this morning got the remaining bulbs planted, then on to the dentist to get Mandy chipped tooth sorted.

So there are now two Bus Spot Ultras waiting for covers, I'd better get those done before venturing further. I also need to get the Southend clips ready for Youtube. I'm just burning the DVD master as I type. It was a hard slog through the day getting it all done and just finished at 6pm. The temperature is falling rapidly but I do want to try and get into the garden tomorrow to plant the remainder of the daffs and ornamental onions, the badgers dug up a lot this past year, not something we'd suffered from previously.

I finally managed to track down a garden shed company who could tender for the new housing for my models, at 30' long it is a very thin structure so quite specialised. I'll have to put in the insulation and interior cladding and get a sparks in to do the electrics. Mandy had seen that there was a shed place next to Quckfit tyre centre when she got her Jazz done last week, we went there today and found they really specialised in stables and had anyway shut their Northwich premises but did phone back with another company not too far away. Getting stuff done in this area is difficult as everyone seems to be well off enough not to have to bother with service. I'll go and see them before the week is out, I've a lot of money in my new car account which I can dip into as I'm hanging on to my little Toyota for the time being and its doing well under 10k a year.

Mandy lost a tooth filling over the weekend so we are going to the dentist in the morning and then if they are home on to Sale to see cousin Trish and Derek. We are looking at the weather all the time waiting for a break with light cloud but dry and not too windy to get our last destination for bus filming done, the beginning of next week might suit Kent, fingers crossed. Wednesday Mandy has her ct scan re the nodule on her lung, hopefully it won't be anything to worry about. We are just about ready to start sending out the Christmas cards, Mandy has drawn up a new list, we could do with having it on the computer. Hoping we get to Kent particularly Maidstone and Chatham so lets have a few shots in that region to whet our appitite.

Greetings to all our followers worldwide, we hope you will remain with us through 2019, after the year we've had for health issues the calendar can't turn too quickly. I've just typed out our Christmas newsletter which goes out to family and friends so we can get started on posting out our Christmas cards. I know the cards are quite a collectors piece in some households and have another from the great Rothbury collection for this year although not directly transport it is nostalgia from my childhood. I've got the computer playing a selection of my favourite music, a glass of pastis, Mandy has a G&T, with the heating on and darkness early in the day it is comforting being here writing to all of you spread so thinly across the globe.

We average about 1600 readers each day. The Youtube site produces masses of statistics, one thing is for certain the top 10 film clips are all or relate to lorries rather than buses and tram or trolleybuses feature nowhere in the list. So whatever your interests we hope we have brought you some interest, amusement or entertainment over the past year. We have only two bus destinations left on our to do list for this year, that is Tyneside and Kent but next weeks weather isnt looking that brilliant, too much sunshine but the week after could well produce the long for light cloud days. We were down at St Oswalds this morning, instead of the enormous Christmas tree which I found so hard to source last year they opted for two six footers via the Knutsford scouts and put them either side of the alter, they look richly decorated and smart and a lot easier to handle and less mess, it also stops the old church banners I put up when church warden from being obscured.

So much has happened this year, a difficult one for both of us but we are working hard to secure the PMP archive for posterity and access for future generations which is something most other archives have neglected to do, hopefully we have come up with solutions which could be copied although I didn't even get an acknowledgement from Buses mag when I wrote last month. Some of the magazines I receive are either like trade journals such as T&UT which I find dire as an enthusiast, an English language version of Germany based Blickpunkt Strassenbahn would be ideal, an idea mooted many years ago.

I spent some time scouring sources for a few brief clips of old transport in Southend which I could add to our archive coverage which will start the next Bus Spot Ultra release, what better days to produce it than in winter. Well I'll have a scout in the photo files for Southend and give you a taste of things to come, I might well vanish into the editing suite after finishing this evenings post.

As promised the licence for the commercial use of PMP has gone live, announced recently as part of our succession plan to ensure continuity of the archive and access to the material into the future. This really takes us into another realm compared to many sites especially those which like us are one man bands or small family enterprises. The administration or ownership of the PMP Archive will we hope be secured and the safe keeping of the material ensured but as users that is of no use without being able to get at it. This will also stop the market bartering which seems to develop following inquiries. It is only a fraction of current US film industry archive rates which equate to £40 a second. As a not for profit business all the income is use to ensure the expansion and storage of our collection which now extends to over 3000 hours of media.

We were pleased to host our friend Martin last night  attending the transport ticket collectors meeting in Manchester. Martin has many rare and unusual tickets for sale on EBay. Film of his extensive garden railway is widely viewed on Youtube. We had some time to discuss the PMP tour of Asia in March next year which will be my first expedition of 2019. Other trips envisaged or already planned include a final sweep through Ukraine and in the Autumn Indonesia following up the the short stop I made this year and the warm welcome we received when out with the camera. We shall also be updating the Channel Island film and maybe we'll actually get to the Scottish islands which have been on the back burner after the open hostility by Scotland to street photography and a rather cavalier attitude to common law rights  perhaps something thje South Yorkshire PTE shares with them.

Today I've completed the latest of our Bus Spot Ultra productions featuring Blackburn (with Darwen), Lancashire with two hours running time it covers over a century of transport in the town  and has been adjusted to widescreen and images digitally enhanced to increase the compatibility with the equipment used to view these days, i.e mobile phones and tablets. As with all our recent releases it will also be available at a digital download. I just need to get the cover made. I'm considering another Bus Spot Ultra very soon, probably again covering a North West England destination. I think you had your fill of Blackburn so lets extend around the county who knows perhaps one of the shots will be my inspiration for the next bus spot!

 Our work on the family headstones at Manchester Southern cemetery has continued. Since we discovered the remarkably reliable and effective stone restoration spray we have returned Mandy's mothers ( et al) memorial stone to almost as new condition. I had one spray left so as the weather was suitable and I had bulbs to plant at Southern ready for spring we headed down just before lunch time today. I did the usual tidy up on the plots weeding and sorting the chippings back into shape. This time we thought we would tackle the larger Hastings family granite memorial. We used up a whole tin of spray but it certainly made a good start and one more visit should have it looking a real gem. After completing that we'll get back to great great grandfather with a go at Robert Joseph's memorial which is generally in fine shape although the lower half of the large flat stone would benefit. We still need to put a second coat of varnishing stain on the Hardy family memorial bench which sits between the various family graves.

The hospital phoned today to make sure I'd recovered from yesterday's procedure, they told Mandy that it would be 3-4 weeks before they had the results on the nodules taken out , the thinking seemed to be they weren't sinister but it will be more comforting to have the final judgement. We had a few deliveries today and among these was the Hi8 camcorder I needed for our archive editing, haven't used it yet but it looks in remarkable condition, hardly used I would think, soon change that won't we. I've decided that the next Bus Spot Ultra will focus on Blackburn in Lancs, in the days of the BBC, Blackburn bus club we bought NCB167 a Guy Arab IV  straight from service. All the old meetings at the Throstles Nest made me recall those happy days.