A day for getting jobs done after a night of fierce winds. We managed to get a couple of bits of shopping done early, it was based on my sudden remembrance of a recipe Mandy hadn't cooked for years so ingredients in store we decided to do our run to the tip on Northwich which was handy as it passes Halfords and the warning light came up on the Jazz that the fob battery was low. At the tip we had the usual empty boxes, the remnants of  the 16mm cine film which hadn't sold on EBay, a shame as there were several of the Pan Am travel films and other good stuff but I've copied it all and the price of postage makes selling at a 1p unthinkable and really some of the people I encountered dealing with cine on EBay were enough to make your blood boil.

We unloaded at the tip several other goodies the toaster that was the wrong colour and only toasted one side, the printer which had a sealed unti so you couldn't clean the ink heads and some other junk, with the Jazz full that still left the old PMP stand and the false floor assemble I had made for the van. These metal jobs were heading to Keith Roden who makes all sorts of warehouse trolleys and bins amongst a thousand other things like rearing sheep. It was good to catch up with friends and it was well after 5pm when we left, Mandy is busy preparing dinner, it doesn't really matter if we run late on a Saturday.

I'm keeping an eye on the weather for filming next week, plans for Mon,Tues,Wed and Friday - Thursday is the monthly Polio Fellowship meeting at Ellesmere Port, which reminds me I'm doing the talk next month before I leave on my Asian trip. One of our possible film locations could be a two day London visit, also a quickie to Telford to get the Shropshire bus film finished and then a couple of the possible truck spots which I eyed up last week when visiting Shrewsbury. It was funny to see the old PMP stand go today, we've had it for about 25 years and it has been up from Dublin to Belfast, Plymouth to Lathalmond and lots inbetween. We have the tents now which we won't need for our first two of the years events which will be nicely under cover at Detling and Brooklands. So with talk of London why not take a peek at things past in that region.

We ended up with quite a lot of DVD orders today, it had mounted up through the net and phone with little now via ordinary post. All went of this afternoon, we gave up waiting for todays post to arrive, any more late and it would be the next days delivery. I had a text on my old phone saying it was Natwest re online banking which we don't do, the branch said just delete it its a scam. Then today Mandy gets a letter which looks a bit iffy from Nat West eventually gets their fraud line, turns out someone has opened online banking in our name and with my old email which ceased over 2 years ago. I guess it must have been from one of those mega data releases, the bank said they were inundated with enquiries but we've seen or heard nothing in the media about it, so I rang up the papers and got them on the case. It is really weird as when we asked last time we had a phishing attempt Nat West said they didn't have security in India but today online once more they said they were in India, which is of course where 99% of all scams and annoying phone calls come from. I'm suggesting to McVey our mp that the UK government with-hold all payments we still give them ( why?) until they get on top of the billion pound industry their scamming of honest hard working British people, particularly the elderly. Unlike the Brexit I could find hell for a better bunch of people in said sub continent.

We did some shopping. Putting it way I searched through for some Balloti beans which were a few years past the use by date, checked through the rest and turfed out numerous other items, problem is Mandy being short can't always see that we have them in the cupboard and puts fresh items in front of old ones. Good old Compass came up trumps with its trading results this week, worth a bottle of fizzy as we put rather a lot into them a couple of years back, I get some things right although offset by utilities and bus companies who are all at substantial loss thankfully with no huge investment. I just liked to get the upper hand when there was a problem with the likes of Stagecoach or fuel vendors.  The latest bus spot ultra DVD is ready other than the DVD cover, its on Oldham, a quicky as I had little really old material but the next is Canterbury which I've lots to sort through to get it compiled. I did put East Kent one recently so won't go there again. Lets go to lorries as the Asia trip looms mid March only a month away with hopefully all sorts of transport here are all sorts of lorries!

Wet and windy with a mix of rain, sleet and snow then just wind, eventually after flinging half the rubbish from the road in the gutter being bin day it subsided and came out sunny mid afternoon. We are expecting another dose of similar overnight and through tomorrow so no filming at all and another catch up day. I did really well today and not only are the latest releases on DVD on the shop but I'm also rapidly getting up to date on the digital download versions. I've got all the covers for them made and the first sales copies went our today fresh off the press as they say. Quite a lot of DVD orders online, by phone and post but all cleared and in the post. I've already started the next Bus Spot Ultra production which covers Rochdale after that it will be Canterbury. John Bishop kindly unearthed the list of cine films I have in my collections, about 240 in total excluding social material. In the case of the Winter collection which has already appeared on tv in Scotland it will probably need to go to the National Library of Scotland cine film collection and perhaps they will be able to scan it on their £100k machines, wish I could have one, roll on Euro lotttery eh. Tonights slide show is on Cardiff taken yesterday morning. Also the cover of the latest DVD and digital releases.

Brevity must rule this evening as I've a lot of catching up to do and lots of emails floating around, a 5am start, horrendous traffic with a smash up before the M5 turn off but I got there almost bang on 9am. It was a little brighter than expected but I think the film should turn out well and then on to Newport which I've skipped a couple of years so a good catch up with so much to see albeit nothing that new but lots of operators, to whet your appetite I'll start the slide show from the trip with Newport and follow up tomorrow perhaps with Cardiff. Don't forget the piccies I put on blogs are unedited and taken at the same time as I'm filming, not bad considering if I say so myself, nobody else ever comments, does anyone enjoy them or am I just wasting time loading them?

 Good evening to our regulars and those popping by tempted by our eclectic life and hobbies. Today I had a prompt although not unsociable start and pottered off in the direction of Shrewsbury where I arrived quite promptly with time to get some footage at the bus station and managed to get parked in the outside car park in preference of the dreaded multi story, thankfully the bus station also has the necessary facilities which an oldie like me requires after a lengthy drive after breakfast, enough said then. It is quite strange at Shrewsbury where the man bus operator is German railways DB owned Arriva looks down at heel with elderly buses and few in the latest livery, the drivers though were very friendly which is always appreciated.

I copped four independents and a couple of N Express services then it was time to head out of the centre and find Peter's house thankfully made so much easier with one of my rare concessions to latest technology namely the Tom Tom albeit not updated since we purchased it many years ago but quite handy warning of Dick Turpin and turnpike roads as it does. Peter and I retired to a local pub which had great beer and such low prices it makes us weep here in Cheshire. We discussed many subjects and had a thoroughly pleasant lunch and even managed to get round to the business in hand, that is putting the PMP Film Archive cine into storage with OTA. Peter is custodian of the archive which moved from Surrey to Shropshire a few years back.

In mid April I'll meet up with Peter again and collect some of there deposited bus films and make these available for viewing and help the archives get more material stored digitally so there is less need to resort to the original media. Not too much to get ready be way of DVD orders tonight so I'll perhaps make a start on our next Bus Spot Ultra production, still no quotes from either builder re the conversion of the garage to a showroom for my model vehicle collection. On the way to Shropshire by a route I don't normally follow I spotted at least three potential lorry filming locations. Here are some shots from this morning.

Given the weather outlook it looks like Cardiff and Newport tomorrow.

It was supposed to be light cloud through to the early afternoon at Huddersfield but there was a lot of blue sky and sunshine. There were huge delays on all the motorways, I wished I'd headed south to cover Tamworth and Lichfield which is also on my list. I now intend covering all locations that I did last year up to the end of March before I leave for Asia on 16th March 19. Then I will be uptodate and not have to worry too much when I get back home. The plans for the trip are almost complete, I will do some print outs of metro systems to aid our progress before we leave and just one hotel for one night to talk with my travel companion Martin over. Martin of course is renowned for his 7 1/2" railway which extends overall to a real mile of track as measured by the branch line lads.

When I finally got to Huddersfield I was on the point of abandoning the trip as the sun doesn't really get well placed until well into the afternoon at this time of year, made all the more difficult when they ruined the bus exit with lights inset back in the concourse area. Then the clouds suddenly came over and stayed thus until I had an hour of film but I then went over to automatic settings and got some in the sunshine , it just means it doesn't always resolved correctly for digital destination but hey it's bonus footage. Here are some pictures from the morning.

It was the usual hectic day but not until we had had a bit of a lay in following a late night back from Clonter opera competition and then a catch up of tv albeit I had to mess with the router to get catch up, almost every time we use it something goes wrong. It was easier in the old days with the VHS recorder. The weather went really cold when we got back last night, down to nearly minus five. Today after going to St Oswalds I started on the rest of the Asia trip arrangements which took me the whole afternoon but it is nearly all ready and was quite a feat really as so much is not that readily available on the net but i found a really useful site which gave the Philippines railway info in full, all three current routes. It seems they have abandoned their BRT plan so jeepneys it remains, the docks seem close enough to where we stay.

After that marathon session I got the DVD orders ready, there weren't lots but several were for substantial multiple numbers but thankfully all were ready in the folders printed up and ditto the covers so Mandy will pack and send them off in the morning. The weather looks very unsettled for the coming week, I may well get Huddersfield covered tomorrow but Tuesday I'm at Shrewsbury with the deposit and hopefully borrowing of cine films. I'm still thinking about the Rochdale and Canterbury Bus Spot Ultra productions, perhaps I'll start consolidating my thoughts later after Sunday dinner. The quality of the food at Clonter last night had vastly improved on the previous caterer but still ended up with 2 minutes to drink coffee before the results session. Lets have a look at Rochdale in recent visits

Here are the latest PMP films, I've just got the covers made. We are out at the annual competition at Clonter Opera this evening, yes two musical soirees in a row but as this also includes a meal the second day of zero cooking but Mandy had a tumble yet again ( she had one a day ago) and cut her arm as she fell in the office. I've been busy with DIY, getting the cracks in the bathroom sorted and general tidying up the bathroom. We also had a go at jobs that were urgent in our bedroom which really desperately needs decorating but we'd prefer to get someone in to do it. The purchasers of the bungalow next door have been round again but we didn't see them to talk to, I guess they are property developers although what you can do with a two bed semidetached bungalow is limited without it getting our of proportion but anything is better than the shambles next door at present. The development down the road made the local paper but doesn't really tell the true story just the publicity hand out from the council. They have one week now to shift their access route to the main road and off our little estate road then if not well I suppose they will just carry on and nobody does a thing about it as they are all in each others pockets around here. Anyway here are the covers of the latest DVD releases, I'll get digitals on fairly smartish!

Sorry the blog is a wee bit late but it was a very busy day and then we had to leave at 4pm for the symphony orchestra concert at the RNCM in Manchester. As usual we dined there at Brodskys and were greeted by manager Jose, also said hello to Linda the principle of the college, I expect she is surprised at the breadth of music events we attend, ditto her in the line of work must mean it is an around the clock job similar to a university vice chancellor. Earlier in the day I went over to the Cat and Fiddle pass at Buxton, I managed to get the little IQ onto the layby which was uncleared, about 6" of snow, I aimed at some truck tracks in reverse which would give a downhill exit which all worked well. There were plenty of lorries about to start but then it closed in with snow which was blown by the stiff breeze into a blizzard, I stuck it out until I had enough for a programme, probably at the end of my cold intolerence by that time, minus 3 and with wind chill a lot lower. Later I managed to get most of the Taiwan section of my March Asia trip planned and hotels booked, takes in the two new tram lines one in the north in the capital suburbs and the other in the south at the main port where hopefully I'll also get some truck shots, joining the two together will be a high speed train ride.

First thing it was off to the dentist, the paths were quite clear, now I've got white salt stains everywhere, I hope they wash off. Some more 'weather' expected tonight but if it is sunny Friday I'll return to the Cat & Fiddle Road which was shrouded in fog at my 'spot' near Buxton- any further out and a lot of lorries go off to Leek. Given the fog I headed into Buxton and parked up and went to my favourite truck spot here in the centre by the viaduct and junction where most commercial traffic passes through. With the lorries, buses and smaller commercials down to a Dennis dust cart there was actually quite a lot to see and I'm already burning the disc for the programme. I'll be filing away January films on the external storage drives as we do wioth all the digital media we record. Added to the tapes but excluding cine we have over 4000 hours of material in our archive

. I've added a copy of our archive spread sheet to the shop front page , really for interest sake or if you are looking for something for a commercial production it makes it easier to find. I even did a little bit of inroads back through DVDs to digital down load on the PMP shop. I now enclose a leaflet with non PMP direct orders letting people know what they can find on our site. At present about 200 films are excluded on Amazon for some weird reason to do with their EAN ( bar code) number. I might reload them with a new EAN which seems more simple than dealing with yet another Amazon department, they are typically US and thus likely to induce a tendency to top oneself after dealing with them. How come they don't readily understand why so much of the world hates them. Perhaps we'll start doing things ourselves once more if this Brexit comes about although I still think staying where we are and changing from within is a better way to get things moving. I got the Oldham bus spot ultra finished yesterday, I'll have a session at the weekend getting covers created. Hopefully if the weather changes again we'll be back filming buses next week. Two lots of photos, scenic from today and trucks at Buxton.