Just a reminder that we shall be away for a week from tomorrow 4th  October returning 11th Oct. This is to attend the funeral of our dear friend Sean and help Hil in the difficult days ahead. Mandy will also get the new bank account in ROI up and running as Ulster Bank ( Nat West) have pulled out of the country. We were going to attend to this sort of stuff in November but events have taken over. Mandy should have been flying out with our friend Sue for a girlie week in the sun tomorrow but again alas events have taken us in another direction. I could well find a little time to get the camera out, the batteries are charged!

On a very positive note I've got all the Bubb family videos downloaded and files retitled to reflect the contents, these will be upgraded to HD 60 fps. The only job left on these is putting sound on the scanned cine mostly railways which were shot in sound and I managed to get sound copies done many years back but don't have a S8 projector these day that does sound.

Today we have a long list of chores to get through before we depart very early tomorrow via Holyhead to Dublin, then through the Dublin  tunnel and out onto the motorways, it is so much easier these days. If I cannot get online don't worry we'll be back next week. We are now on TalkUK for the internet and phones, there was a doubling of our internet speed promised still nothing like cable but fingers crossed for an improvement. Some photos from last years trip to Ireland. See you all again soon.

We all met up in the 1970s, they married the same year as Mandy and I 1974. A friendship which has lasted 48 years. It was a relatively short illness with reduced ability to withstand infections after cancer treatment Sean succumbed to double pneumonia and passed away around 12 midday today just a few weeks into his 81st year. Mandy and I have sat and watched through some of our family photos so many with Sean and Hil. We can only pray for Hil for comfort at this time and hope to be able to help in any positive practical ways we can. Thankfully she has many friends around her in Ireland.

Rest in peace Sean 1942-2022 lets hope there are horses, dogs, leather and wood a plenty in heaven.

Yes it was best to be snug indoors today as the rain lashed by fierce winds against the house. I've finished scanning the remainder of the Bubb family cine films and some found footage. I've nearly finished download the VHS tapes, so far around 100 hours of material. I've tied in with John Bishop regarding dropping off his latest round of scanned cine next week if plans go ahead, we are still at the starting blocks should anything happen to our friend in Ireland.. We have a 50th wedding anniversary do on Sunday afternoon so it leaves Saturday to tie up some more editing chores. I'm get all my very early video on VHS downloaded to digital, it has been on tape previously but any chance to digitise is now taken. I'll leave my two external drives updating from each other overnight and staying safe. Lots of new films planned for the winter when I get a free moment or two!

As I'm off to the IOW if plans go ahead I'll fit in normal services as well as the running days. With all that in mind lets taken a look at previous trips.

We have a best friend in Ireland who is now critically poorly and all plans and trips are subject to alteration. Also we won't be able to get to the Birkenhead event Sunday as we have a good friends 50th wedding anniversary which I hadn't got on my calendar. We were at Southern Cemetery today, the autumn clean up and spring flowers put in, I was a bit whacked after that but we went on to do the weekly household shop at Handforth Dean and then to Northwich to get some birthday and anniversary cards. Along the line we have a new door bell fitted and a new home weather station set up. We also attended the RNCM 50 launch event in Manchester which was a chance to catch up with friends there and all a taster of some of the music to come in the next academic year.

On the transport front I had a bit of a bash at Stobarts Widnes port yesterday and some pictures from that today. I'm nearing completion of loading all the Bubb family cine and video to digital files. Some superb S8 film taken in mid 80'd in Germany. I'm proceeding on the basis of going to see Peter Waller at Shrewsbury next Thursday.

We should have our new router working on Friday with luck this will give a slight speed advantage but the real deal will be if fibre ever gets to Lower Peover.  I had a brief trip to Stobarts Widnes Port, quite a mix but seemed very low level of activity compared with Stobart days. I would have stayed longer but it became a mix of sun and cloud which isn't my best lighting option for film work.

I'm trying to get some of the recent releases uploaded on the PMP shop as digital downloads, it takes ages to upload stuff. Anyway here are some of our latest DVD releases all will eventually have clips on Youtube and downloads on the shop, just constraints on broadband.

Sorry the text all vanished .
Anyway I'll give you a slide show from Showbus which has produced three long running films from the last in the present series of Showbus events, will it re-emerge under new management next year.

A great weekend, filmed at Milton Keynes and St Albans and got masses of footage at Showbus. Although the last under the present team who have hosted 50 Showbus rallies there remains the possibility that the name could live on under a new team possibly linked to an existing event. We learnt that Coach & bus has reduced to fortnightly. I had no end of selfies with our lovely viewers and met lots of regulars although many seem to have vanished from the scene at the older end. We struggle with the preparation and attendance at events and most long distance venues see us attend at a loss which doesn't bode well as we don't make any profit in the first place.

We continue to worry about one of our closest friends in Ireland but we have to soldier on. We still have stall at the NWVRT Kirkby in November at the Nocturnal event and at Boyle St Christmas Cracker in Manchester. I'm hoping to get more archives done this winter and to finish off my sequence of dioramas in the display room. Meanwhile here are sone shots from Showbus 50.

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We have got the old PMP Editing deck working again, it is downloading from video, using the old machine which has multiple ports for all types of sockets is ideal as it means the super computer beast can do all the hard stuff and the old one costs nothing other than the little monitoring screen and a new keyboard, had to go to Currys for that as the EBay purchase didn't work, gone for wired now as opposed to wireless.

 We can edit from VHS S-VHS VHS-C Video 8and  Hi8 plus of course any digital source. From cine we can copy Std8 and S8 plus tele-cine 16mm.

We have announced a date for dropping DVDs if not done before it will be 16th March 2032. We will then have downloads or streaming as we cannot really manage all the heavy boxes now and less so when I'm 80. Perhaps I won't survive that long but everything will go to the safe hands of OTA.

We can arrange commercial access to their film, our own is already available online as analogue downloads or discs, this will swing over to HD as time goes by. We have around 400,000 still in addition to many thousand hours of footage

The car is packed ready for Showbus, we will leave early tomorrow and film at Milton Keynes and St Albans. Lets have a good turn out for the last of the event, their 50th. Our attendance at rallies is decreasing but we will probably attend more country wide to film at.

Hoping to get more upgraded 60fps HD clips on Youtube in the coming week.

So much happening and so little time thus short blog narrative ! I went to Bury and filmed the quite colourful bus scene with several operators now including Vision. I went on to Wigan, parked up at random and located road to bus station, it then went into monsoon mode so never even got started. Wigan a forlorn hole if there ever was one, town now marooned in ring roads and centre blocked off, most shops shut, one bit was like the no man's land in Cyprus, almost Victorian time machine.

Pulling my hair out with Paypal, they are worse than scammers we have had constant battles with them since they split from Ebay  and I've now found that the money held did not come via Ebay but our own PMP shop. Do not use Paypal we have not received any payment made via them for the past month. Impossible to talk to them they are absolute scum.

Today I filmed on the Woodhead Pass but it rained and I had to retreat back down to Hyde roundabout and got three programmes on the lorries in total ( I hope). Here are some shots I took. I'm also working on the 1990's coverage of the heavy lift on Hastings seafront which will go on Youtube at 60 fps HD.