Trailers for all these are already on Youtube..

I am still getting the latest cine film collection scanned and downloading the old telecine copies which had the soundtrack to comb8ine on the editing suite. Shame we cannot have the £100k machine that can accept soundtrack, the machines that government sponsored archives can afford. Here it must be costing a fortune to keep Boris in wine each week. I suppose looking on the good side he could be killing himself drinking too much.

Quite a lot on the to do list, I'll be posting our dates for travels in the coming week to assist with urgent orders for upcoming birthdays which as it happens includes myself arriving at the ripe old age of 70 on 16th March. We'll hopefully be in Mexico at that time. Then in July we will be on a wildlife trip in Brazil. There will probably be a brief Romania transport trip and if Cyprus opens up more I may be on a quick flit to see the old British lorries on the potato harvest late spring. There may well be other trips as we make up for lost time. I'll try and update the rally and events we shall attend. Certainly among the earlier ones will be Detling and Brooklands.

I should be in a position to release some more Tickety Boo archives films soon.

A tiring day even though I wasn't that far away. The weather held at light cloud for filming buses in Preston, there are vaccination and testing centres outside the bus station there. Quite a variety in the buses really this has always been a good place for a spotting session. Shame I managed to forget my still camera but a few shots which I haven't tidied up yet taken on the video camera. I then headed down to Bolton where the sky cleared and photography would be a nightmare in low sun but I got half way to another programme so it will save time next week if I get suitable weather to finish there and tick off another Manchester location. At least I have got Birmingham and Preston this week.

It is starting to look like we'll be in Mexico for my 70th birthday in March, we also looked at returning to Cuba again or maybe a proper visit to Costa Rica , we only had a day last time. Really Mexico offers extreme good value at present and has flights from Manchester. Here we go with the Preston scenes.

We mustered a respectable gathering for our Polio Fellowship branch meeting at Ellesmere Port this afternoon after getting my hair cut by Zoe recently returned after long term illness and we had a good natter to catch up. Good to see Fellowship members and again catch up and a few things for me to follow on with for events this year. I'm compiling a short list of potential trips to various locations easily accessible to UK visitors at the moment.They need to have some transport interest for myself plus swimming pool and heat for the girls.

I'm still running off the scans for the Bubb family cine films and this is the prelude to downloading the original analogue tape copies which had the sound track to make one new HD Digital copy with sound. The scenes seem to be coming out really well from views of the monitoring screen. The whole collection of cine isn't too onerous although I'm waiting for the second try at a Super VHS player which I've found on Ebay, the first received wasn't S VHS at all despite clearly stating it was in their listing, they have finally agreed to issue a credit - I should have noted their terrible score on feedback, I cannot believe they are still allowed to trade with 34 negative reviews live. I'm really trying hard to avoid EBay now and of course Amazon is a thing of the past.

Weather for tomorrows filming, going downhill fast as it approaches with sunny periods now in the mix. I'm still uncertain but wouldn't venture too far away with such mixed data coming through now, re assess at bed time! We have plenty of Youtube clips on schedule to appear each day and intend to follow on from the Uruguay clips with other distant locations following on soon. We have plenty to go at!

Preston was one location we had considered for tomorrow who knows what will come of these plans with our fickle weather, shots from past visits there.

I should have stayed in bed all day and avoided the constant hassle. Anyway here we are with it all behind us. Tonight I will have finished editing all three of the lorry DVDs from the Penrith visit yesterday. Tomorrow we have our second Thursday of the month Polio Fellowship meeting at Ellesmere Port, I can get my hair trimmed and stock up on bird foods plus do the weekly shop at M&S. I think our numbers will be thin this month.

I'm making progress with scanning the Bubb familty films to HD digital, then I will have to match up and download the analogue copies I made many years back which have the sound, I can then combine and end up with an HD sound copy, simple- I wish. Friday it is still looking good for filming buses. Some more shots from Penrith yesterday.

Wrong again BBC weather, really it doesn't seem to have progressed much since we hung a bit of seaweed outside the back door when I was a little kid in Eastbourne. I can't remember what was supposed to happen but when the BBC got rid of the Met centre the next outfit isn't any better, not that we are looking ahead much just the next day would be good. It was early afternoon that the sun appeared at Penrith but no matter some good shots and three hours of film in the bag. The outlook tomorrow is full sunshine so I'll have a catch up editing day. I'm still scanning the Bubb family cine, when I've got the digital files I must upload the old analogue tapes which have the sound which matches, the only other alternative is to go up to the loft and get the projector down which has sound. I'm also waiting for a S VHS C machine I've got off EBay.

Hows this for magic, the same Amazon that I ended our shop with due to their bullying tactics with small sellers, now they send me marketing to sell bigger and better in the USA!! I stick pins in a doll each night named Amazon and hope it ends badly for them, well actually I don't but perhaps I should it might be calming. Every time I see the flying banana it makes my blood boil.

Anyone see Boatty Mc Boat Face last night on Channel 5, it was a documentary ( may not, it could be a comedy) about a British war ship heading out into the arctic tracking a Russian submarine. Only problem was that when the weather gets rough the boats leaks, but they have the solution, lots of buckets. Then the radar doesn't work so they get a chap from the kitchen who know a bloke back home who knows someone who fixes computers to talk over the phone but the Russians intercept the call and as a gesture of fraternal navy types offers to fix their broken kit. Lovely isn't it. The captain was a new girl who had never been on a ship before, I think she was about 12 year old. Weird was it just a bad dream, have a look on catch up if you don't believe me.

Saw lots of cops with machine guns in Birmingham yesterday and helicopters overhead. A coup perhaps, Boris facies being prime minister, why doesn't somebody tell him he already is and he needs to act like it for a change. Weird times we are living through, so glad I grew up back in the day. Mind you lots of fighter jets over Cumbria today, I think its part of the campaign they started in lock own to ensure nobody from those nasty cities goes near their open air, bit like Derbyshire, boycott both they deserve no tourism at all. Frightening isn't it, the moment you grow up is when you realise that there is nobody out there that knows any better than you about anything!

Some shots from Penrith, almost in Yorkshire Dales national park now, see what happens when you are nasty to people in clock downs you get sent to Yorkshire.

Mandy went down with me to Birmingham, deserted tatty city centre, shops now lost all remaining trade from Coronas, Brexit, transport disruption now congestion charges. John Lewis who were the flagship store at the Bull Ring have now closed their store, it seems people have abandoned Birmingham for Solihull.. Manchester looks to be next to introduce this madness which proves that even the great left hope Andy Burnham has got it as wrong as the Tories. We seem to be in a self destruct mode as a country! Shots from Birmingham this morning. Tomorrow I'll be at our favourite spot in Penrith by the fire station roundabout.

As we approach the new working week we are travell8ing to Birmingham on Monday, one location, Mandy will be coming as well and that will see off the dreaded congestion charge. Then it may be Stoke on Tuesday and Preston Friday. I need more clarity before allocating Wednesday. Thursday is our Polio Fellowship meeting at Ellesmere Port. Today we got the dvd orders ready to post on our return from Birmingham Monday, I also got a lot more clips to go on Youtube from our 2011 Uruguay visit, I'll be putting some straight on others scheduled over the coming week. Any requests for the next lot of bulk uploads, we have viewers worldwide to consider. After the UK Vietnam is the next highest viewership then Indonesia. We went to viisit Trish and Derek at Sale near Manchester this afternoon.

The cine films scanners are unpacked and ready to start work over coming months. It looks very tidy in the front office /showroom at present, I'm sure I can soon change all that. We are starting to look at travel destinations for February and considering how to mark my 70th birthday in March. Meanwhile lets remind ourselves of previous West Midlands including Birmingham visits!

One last comment ref family history, given the rip off rates being charged by Find My Past for the 1921 census I'm going to wait until it goes on My Heritage and Ancestry to which I already subscribe. I look at Find My Past once and couldn't figure out how it worked, Ancestry is easiest but My Heritage has found more links for us.

We shall be ticking a few of the top bus locations in the coming week with up to four trips out starting on Monday with Birmingham, Mandy has a disabled pass for the congestion zone so that isn't a problem. I don't know if the trams are still off, let alone how they are getting on with the extensions, we'll see what we see as they say that we say ( if you see what I mean). Well a few hints that I need to put pen to paper as it were and get a few more articles out there in the wild press zone. It won't be Buses mag though as they really brassed me off with the hatchet job on our sponsorship of the NWVRT. We got a super mention though in Coach and Bus weekly.

I've now started a series of clips on Youtube from our 2011 visit to Uruguay, unedited in the order it was filmed rather than bunching all the lorries, buses, cars etc on separate clips although that's how the DVDs come so something a bit more like the Cuban films we already uploaded. WE are looking at te likes of Cuba and Mexico as destinations for some much awaited warmth and a bit of transport interest thrown in for good measure.

There are plenty of locations which have great content and if I stick to our early HD digital images we could also look back on Myanmar and our journey to Moulmein which I rate as the best lads weekend away ever and some of my all time favourite transport scenes. See below!

A tidy up underway, I've now finished my diorama modelling for this winter I'll try and get the whole project wrapped up for next year. Cleaning up, clearing out, scanning and discarding paper it is an early spring clean. Fingers crossed that I can get lots of bus filming done next week. The lady to measure for lounge curtains went to No7 and not 17 so never arrived, embarrassed she discovered her error after getting back to her shop so she is returning tomorrow. On Sunday afternoon we'll call in to see cousin Trish and Derek in Sale.

I'm going to contact all the folk we haven't heard of in a long time to see if we can get any more old cine film scanned to digital and preserved for posterity at the Online Transport Forum currently based in Shrewsbury. I'm also going to scan all the notes made by various  people of the films over the years. This should keep me busy. I must also file away photos in readiness for next week bus bonanza film trips. I'm also scanning some of the old adverts from early 1950's I collected for making posters on my 1952 era railway which ran in the 1980's before the PMP office became permanent.

This week has been a bit of a wipe out for filming buses with either sun, wind or snow often at the same time. I'm two DVDs into the three shot at Goole these came out well considering the difficult conditions. Anyway I'll redress the balance as next week looks much better for buses. I've quite a list to go at and I'll try and get some of the top spots covered.

I have had a bit of time to devote to getting the two diorama sections of port and distribution centre done and just leaving the left side which will be an A road in the 1960's -80's with a greasy spoon transport cafe and a rough and tumble storage facility. The scale model scenery has been a boon in the project. As cutting card and scanning cine film don't mix I will be putting away all the modelling kit at the weekend, get all the cupboards cleaned and doors screwed firmly in position.

Some more scenes from Goole