After a fairly hefty sleep it was back to the grind stone with many tasks finished including getting all three North East films finished and clips from the four locations on Youtube. I'm now compiling the covers. I have transferred some of the digitised films to the OTS external drive with the remainder going on overnight starting around 9.30 tonight, it will take quite a few hours. I had to get the temporary storage freed up as it was full. When I've got the OTA drive done I'll transfer back to my new PMP ext drive which like the OTA one has both photo and digital films included. My own digitised films should go on as raw archive on the shop which I will do but there are quite a few recent releases that need loading for digital downloading on the PMP shop plus I must get Amazon and EBay updated.

The other task that I interwove with the above was getting all the data on my royal lineage on to my Ancestry tree, this was about 26 pages of data hand balled on, I haven't time yet to see how it all links in but somewhere I'm up to about 40x grand parents. It has rained all day and been quite chilly , the weeds are growing well but the lawns haven't looked so good in years particularly the front garden. DVD orders were moderate overnight, light today at present but at night all the online ones come through. I will be watching out for news on which countries we can now visit with a view to late summer trips and a winter break together with next years schedule.

I can't believe some of the events now listed as being on for late summer, really Truckfest at Peterborough with 15 thousand people over the bank holiday weekend, I don't think I'll be booking any time soon. Showbus I am certain has been postponed to next year although their site still showed nothing about it until recently. Keeping an eye on the weather so if it is fine and hotels are available we might to to the more distant parts of England. Tonighrs slide show comes from the visit yesterday to Gateshead .

Frightening times to live through but fingers crossed we'll all make it through. I don't think I'll be going to China any time soon, nice to see Thailand and Vietnam are on the possible travel corridor arrangement we'll be looking for somewhere to go early in New Year 21. I've been busy getting the scanned cine film files digitised and filed away - I do want to get them copied to the OTA external disc storage asap. I've been looking at the weather and although cloudy the North East looks a good bet for tomorrow, it will be interesting to see how yet another part of the country reacts to the social distancing etc. I looked up our local pub sites and there is nothing to be seen about reopening this weekend, I'm sure somewhere is open for trade.

I've managed to get the Hertfordshire film trailers on Youtube this afternoon. We had quite a pile of DVD orders to get prepared this morning. I've filled up the car ready for another early start tomorrow. If and when we get a fine sunny day I'll get some more lorry film done, plenty on the to do list. We still have our eye on the back end of next week should the weather be good we will go to the south east as we have a lot to cover there. It would be Thurs, Fri Sat and perhaps through to include Monday but we would have to shut Amazon shop down as they won't allow such a gap, Ebay still has the holiday setting. At PMP the shop never closes, you just get it when we can do it.

Tonights slide show from Hemel Hempstead yesterday.

Up at 4.45 this morning and at Watford by 8am, well out of all the places I've been this surely had the worst atmosphere and was depressing in the extreme although I started at the worst and worked bacj up so it wasn't all bad. Watford, all the main car parks were closed and several central roads blocked off. The high street has security ( badged safety ho ho) at all access points and unless you are a bus, postie or chummie with the blokes on duty you won't be able to drive through, even buses have to wait for cones to be booted aside. There are monitors on duty to ball out at anyone walking up the wrong side of the street, a few just ignore them. It really is a bit like Pyong Yang, North Korea, the worst possible response to the pandemic and economic recovery plus they have a nice shiny new shopping mall guess who owns it, yes they went bust. Few people around and apparently nobody much at work. The visiting technicians for whatever had ended up in the same small car park as me down a labyrinth of back alleys, took three circuits of ring road to find the entrance. Very few buses, it was really hard work and the weather was wet which isn't what I expected from the various forecasts. A nice mix of buses just that there were periods of up to 10 minutes without any buses, transport is being killed off as is business, shops etc. What kind of morons run this dump don't they realise that recovery is vital.

I was pleased to say that Hemel Hempstead looked a picture, the flower borders along the river would have been spectacular if the sun had been shining, not a bit of litter anywhere and lots of tidy little family groups enjoying it. The usual ignorant white van men at the bus stops bend. Plenty of buses other than longer distance stuff which is still off pretty well everywhere, I heard August mentioned for National Express coaches I hope it is sooner. Everyone seemed more friendly although when a Group4 van stopped right in front of me I felt like letting the tyres down, selfish I rule the world attitude. Friendly bus drivers there, most waved, still wet at times. Then I went to St Albans, with some approach roads to centre blocked off I parked at the multi story which was mostly empty. I thought perhaps the centre would be car free but constant jam blocking views of buses as usual, I'll put the shots I got with Hemel Hempstead. Bustling thriving shopping centre good feel to it, other than the narrow roads blocked off there wasn't anything else noticeably Corona orientated and people certainly weren't being balled out for walking the wrong way like Watford. It looked as busy as ever so commercially coming through it all ok, perhaps Watford council needs to visit, mind you what are the attraction of Watford, yes its a bit like a day trip to Pyong Yang without the visa and hassle and no flights required.

So a day which was marked by poor weather and strange reactions to Corona recovery period. Photos start with Pyong Yang ( used to be Watford).

It was just the weather for indoor jobs, it was also the day for getting the car windscreen replaced which they did manage despite the weather. I managed to scan another 4 400' reels of cine which I no need to get digitised and filed, then I need to do an overnight filing job with all the films thus treated put on to the OTA external drive which I've also got my photo collection on for OTA. I managed to finish the work on the really old London bus DVD 1896-1933 when the LPTB was created and London Transport was created. It took some putting together but I got there in the end and with all the checking on dates I'm quite an expert on the history of London buses and trolleys until I forget it all again.

Tomorrow I'll be up very early and heading down the M! and see how I am directed, I've a few ideas!

I did get some jobs done today albeit the weather has been abysmal on this our 46th wedding anniversary and we missed being able to have someone else cook our dinner by a week. I've got all my photos filed up to date and am busy with the intricate work of editing numerous old film of London buses to bring you the London bus up to the formation of the LPTB in 1933, yes from horse buses and tram to the near ancestors of the vehicles you see today. This should with luck be finished tomorrow but its already taken three sessions and many hours. I've scanned more old cine film from the Terry Barker collection. We have got all the DVD orders ready with few coming through today. The film days next week look like Tuesday and Thursday both for buses. The back end of the next week with hotels and restaurants open will see us filming in the south east. Our slide show celebrates those 46 years with some family pictures alongside memorable trip.

Torrential rain, getting very chilly for time of year and my back isn't so good. I got the DVD covers finished and these are now on the PMP shop. Uploaded a couple more as digital download options then net started to go slow. I've done some more work on my latest archive feature which covers London up to formation of LPTB in 1933. I've scanned some more of the terry Barker collection and helped Mandy with house cleaning. Other than that a quiet day although DVD orders are still buoyant and Youtube is returning better results than ever so we are getting something right. Here are the latest DVD releases

With Truckfest taking place at August Bank Holiday weekend which surprises me as the size of the even would far exceed anything so far authorised but if it is legal then it would open the way to the remainder of the bus rally season which has far fewer ( alas) people attending events but bodes well for Showbus if that is still scheduled. I must admit I haven't looked at the rally calendar for weeks, the 'cancelled' notices are too bleak to contemplate.

To day I was in Staffordshire , most of the action is in Burton On Trent and then I carried on across country to Stafford and the whole day has been stitched together with brief visits to Lichfield  etc which I took a couple of weeks back. The slide show tonight features the shots at Burton which also recently featured in our bus spot ultra production. The weather for the week ahead looks challenging but the end of the next week when hotels are open is at present looking settled, warm and sunny. No doubt that will all change but we are monitoring the situation regards filming in the South of England. I do have a half finished new London film in the making which may well see the light of day in the next week and takes us way back to the early years of London buses before the LPTB was formed in 1933. Also planned is the LTE period from the 1948-1962.

Busy day as ever, got the windscreen renewal booked for Monday afternoon, the burglar alarm chap came for service and then we went to M&S shopping came back via Wilmslow as Mandy can't get to our local bank now disabled drivers are banned by the council. Mandy got her new blue parking badge, issued for just one year as that is when PIP expired only they changed it as over 67 you don't need reviews but council must be on another planet, both Cheshire councils are fanatically anti disabled not surprising as Esther McFee is our MP who given the chance would send disabled to gas chambers, she is a bitch beyond compare! I unfollowed or blocked a few more on Facebook, our hobby attracts some very frightening people I'm sorry to say.

Large post bag went off this morning, I'm getting today's orders ready to post, not sure on weather tomorrow, I know the heatwave is over, two hot days and a thunderstorm a definition of English summer . Anything tomorrow will probably be local, tonights slide show is from yesterday afternoon at Norwich. Just spent 30 mins on phone with EBay as they move away from Paypal, they split about 6 years back and now will be 100% free of them treating them as just another bank so seller payments will go straight to your own business account. Of course being EBay it has gaping holes in the process when translated from US to UK market.

A very long day, roll on the hotels re opening, I was up at 4.45 this morning and at 9.15pm I've just finished downloading internet DVD orders hows that for a hobby. Anyway the weather was very hot 30plus and hotter at home tomorrow. Just skyped Max and Tina in New Zealand and I'll have to water the garden about 10.30 tonight when it has cooled off a bit. Got a huge crack in the windscreen which needs sorting tomorrow and apart from that I'm just exhausted. Tonights slide show from Ipswich this morning, not much variety not many buses, hardly any people that was a Wednesday, it is like the lock down finished and nobody told East Anglia.