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.

Fairly heavy snowfall here overnight and the road conditions first thing were dire with the non gritted local roads like ice rings. The salt I put down last night seems to have worked and I've topped it up again so the big freeze expected tonight doesn't leave Mandy marooned. I've a dentist appointment to get a filling repaired tomorrow at 9.30am , Mandy says we should go in her car. All hope today of getting out for more snow scenes was forlorn and I decided to press on with making the Oldham Bus Spot film which I completed about 4pm. Through the day the snow melted and I got out to take the post and to Knutsford to do the banking.

After we get back from the dentist tomorrow if it isn't too bad I'll go up to Buxton where hopefully the roads will have been cleared and see if I can get some scenes to match the brilliant shots over Woodhead. There is nowhere near the same volume of traffic at Buxton but there are still a good few ERFs and Fodens if you are lucky. We had a flock of Redwings land in the garden this morning after I'd topped up all the bird feeders, only seen them here once before although they aren't that rare on the agricultural land. The developers we are having the hassle with are supposed to be using the Middlewich road entrance as they always should have done from the second week in February. I'm just about to load up the trailers for the new Oldham film. Orders are just starting to pick up again after the lull over the past week. I'm not 100% certain what the next Bus Spot Ultra location will be, I might stick close with Rochdale but Canterbury keeps coming into mind! So its East Kent RCC tonight.

I spent yesterday evening and all this morning trying to resolve a problem on the editing suite with burning the DVDs, there was something not right but I gave up trying last night and continued this morning. The Edius support was non existent, they don't support queries on operational issues which is strange as what else can go wrong other than the programme not working as it should so a suitable riposte going on Trust pilot. I found that Siren at Oldham who supplied all my equipment and who trained me had sold out some years ago, my last contact was 2014 when I got a new computer and upgraded to Edius 7. The company which took them over is I think the media supplier we use in Barnsley who do not have any support for users, they just flog the stuff which in any case you can buy on the net whereas originally the change from tape to digital meant a huge new business and now the bubble has well and truely burst, thankfully one chap has survived albeit now as a lone player near Brighton and was able to guide me through the very quick and simple remedy probably caused in the first place by hitting a wrong key, easily fixed if you know what to do. Anyway I've safely and securely saved his contact details and when I need to upgrade or replace I will know where to go and we did discuss the logistic viz Cheshire-Sussex but he could get everything set up ready to go and do a training session if and when the time comes. If computers and the people who write programmes are so clever how do we get in such a fix and we no way out, the manual for the programmes is worse than useless as it doesn't address going wrong just what to do in the first place.

We went to Ellesmere Port as I'd missed the chance of stocking up on bird food and getting my hair cut when we had an unexpected visitor on the day of the January Polio Fellowship meeting at the Port. We got our fruit for dieting days and Mandy picked up a new coat, I passed on looking at coats, not in the mood at all for clothes thats if I ever in such a frame of mind. Anyway with everything back up and running the three DVDs from the A50 Uttoxeter filming ( again our slide show this evening) all finished, covers to make. It remains a quiet spell, I guess until folk get their January pay through, I remember that we got paid early for Christmas then it was a long run through to the end of January, thankfully in retirement we have no such worries.  Tomorrow the weather looks rough again, if the roads are open I may try to get through to Buxton and get more snow scenes but it looks difficult through to Thursday and Friday, not much going to happen on the bus side thias week but I will try and get a couple of Bus Spot Ultra production finished, I'm just about to start on Oldham.

Another three hours of truck film on the A50, I did try the roundabouts on the M1 junction for the new rail interchange by the East Midlands airport but the lay by seems to have vanished or I was in the wrong spot plus the light was the wrong way even if it had worked out as planned , I also went on the road up to the power station as there seemed to be a lot of lorries on it but it was a jam for miles due to a crash, lost 30 minutes messing about with that, total time wasted nearly an hour and I got back to my normal spot on the Uttoxeter roundabout and the light was fine and the lorry traffic was never ending, it just seems to get better and better each time I go, lots of aves and hoots from the drivers. I was well wrapped up against the cold and even felt a tiny bit of heat from the sun, not one cloud in the sky all day. I think the week goes downhill now! Here are some shots, there are thousands to get sorted and unwanted ones deleted.

Sue joined us for the last day of the Festival of Brass at the RNCM, we took sandwiches and are just about to have a bacon buttie after watching Call the Midwife albeit this series can be heavy on tissues and it is strange that other than tiny errors it more or less accurately paints a picture of our younger years. The Cory finishes the festival, it is no wonder they seem to clean up on contests as they are as sharp as a razor with performance, appearance and leadership, very much a Welsh day as in the afternoon we listened to Tredegar Town Band and then young European brass players who are champions of Europe from Norway and Switzerland, the chap on the bass trombone was doing things you wouldn't believe you were hearing and seeing as notes came so fast it was dazzling.

The high winds have now subsided and the temperature is starting to dip. The weather forecast keeps changing but it looks like being sunny in certain location which suits trucks rather than buses, if that persists I'll get Bus Spot Ultra Oldham done this week and more archives on the shop as downloads. A busy weekend coming up with the symphony orchestra at the college on Friday and the opera competition at Clonter on Saturday. Very quiet for orders the latter half of this week but time to take a breather but hopefully not for too long as I'll need to get all the Asian trip airline tickest paid for next month! We've had a lot of buses for our evening slide shows so lets have some lorries for a change dipping into past classic shows lets see what I can find, a bit lucky dip!

The day is going to be short as what had been quite pleasant has now turned wintry and the afternoon light becoming night all too soon. I had a bit of a lay in this morning, it was 9am before I got dressed then tackled all the jobs I'd intended to do and the biggest was getting all the flights booked for the Asia trip. Some of the most attractive fares rose  when I added baggage to the cheapos  and compared Expedia to Skyscanner. I tried to book the Abu Dhabi Etihad flights direct with them but it suddenly turned out to be £100 dearer so ended up with Expedia on that one but the others were through Skyscanner but airlines direct rather than third parties although at the end of the day experience has shown that anyway can either turn out the best or worst. We now have two Royal Brunei flights on the schedule, as Brunei is dry perhaps the flights are, we'll find out in March- we won't die for the want of a g&t. So that is the first big job out of the way, next I need to plan transport to the hotels and at the same time pick hotels which are situated well for access to public transport and where we need to go.

Other jobs included uploading more films to the PMP shop for digital download purchases. I'm also uploading some of the recent still photos to our Smugmug sales site , links via this site. I've got a few things to put on Youtube including some of the material that I loaded for the Bus Spot Ultra on Brighton. I'm also going to put all our Vietnamese 1997 trip on as raw material on the shop  and as clips on Youtube. There are several trips which in the latest DVD edition has been vastly edited down, that includes our now famous Caucasus tram trip where so much has now vanished. The same may well be said for other films in our archive but they where necessary will be natural soundtracks as filmed, silent when the master is silent, putting tracks on from the BBC sound archive got me into trouble with Youtube last year, I had full copyrights but people in the USA have claimed them, typical Americans . Tomorrow it is the annual brass band festival at the RNCM, we'll take a packed lunch as the restaurant doesn't open weekends, they had the world's best bands there. I'm not sure what the programme will be for filming next week, very weather dependent. I'm musing over starting the next Bus Spot Ultra which will feature Oldham. The Asia trip will add three countries to my all time list, Philipines, Brunei and Taiwan, obviously the Chinese government would dispute the last of the three! If Mandy and I go to Jordan that will be another off my list. What shall we have as photos today though, why not Vietnam.... super.

I am right up to date with film releases other than putting some ditigal  downloads on the shop. Tonights pictures from Kiddermnster and Stourbridge yesterday.

I'm starting to book hotels for the Asia trip tomorrow and over the weekend hope to have uploads on the shop and some more clips on Youtube, the Woodhead Pass clips have just gone on this afternoon.

A day dictated by likely weather which turned out to be more accurate than most forecasts from the BBC. Not too cold, certainly no ice or snow involved, it was about 6C at Worcester. I think the independents seem to have gained one operator or I've not spotted it before, anyway a slide show from the county town/city. I then went on to cover Kidderminster and Stourbridge. Both had things of interest. I had a good chat to an old timer more vintage than myself who remembered the Midland Red war time utility buses with wooden seats and on holiday way back he recalled Southdown and Southern Vectis, not a bus person but he thought it sounded a very interesting hobby, good for him a chap of discernment. I did have hassle with a young chap throwing his weight around, one of the do nothing but play with your phone brigade then stops bang in front of me and the camera! I was chatting with Mandy about the likes of Facebook and stuff like social media, we all have to be so carefull what we write these days, really I am almost inclined to scrap the PMP Facebook page or channel as it keeps calling up posts from people I'd rather not read about, either very radical right wing views or constant swearing. I can do without this sort of nonsense and now I'm very selective when getting friend requests, unless an obvious link to hobby , other interests or family I ditch them, quality rather than quantity and I really don't want to know what someone in China had for dinner, there is one person who seems to think the world wants to know every meal he has ever consumed.

We had the Miele repair chaps around, included the supervisor. It is according to them a first ever problem with the particular component, he suggested who to write to as it really shouldn't have failed after this short period, our last one was passed on to neighbours and is still going about 22 years on, we've only had three tumble dryers before, Hotpoint, Bosch and Miele then present Miele thats in 45 years. I've managed to get hold of the builder who did Gary and Treesa's extension next door, he happens to be doing a similar garage to room conversion very near us so he is calling by tomorrow morning first thing, they thought he would be difficult to get hold of so did well first call. No outings tomorrow as we have a funeral at St Oswalds for one of the sidespersons who looked after the evensong congregation for many years after a life as a jockey, he passed away very suddenly. I've plenty of jobs to do before and after but not one order so far today, thats the first such day since late summer last year, I bet someone throws a few in via the internet before bedtime. Come to speak og please use the PMP shop rather rthan Amazon or Ebay, then all the payments come to support the PMP Film Archive and our expeditions seeking out the best of world transport far and near. Meanwhile shots from Worcester this morning.

I will try and get some more archive material on the shop, at just 38 a download which is the price of one of the new Kelsey magazines it offers amazing value and has already attracted many overseas historians. Also I noted that the next batch of Oxford diecast model announcements came out via that blasted Facebook thing, Buried in lots of seperate postings somewhere is the relatively meagre  offering but compared with other makers it is stupendous. Shame no new bus castings and a tipper lorry old and new would be a good addition. I need to scan through and get the 001 series numbers which are the new castings, mainly cars but one lorry.

I took a chance on it, it paid off. Rotten weather at home but 30 minutes away the Woodhead Pass was in full sun, not a cloud in the sky. Snow was about 6 inches deep and if you know the area getting around is very hard even when you can see the depths between tussocks of grass, wading through in snow is fun to say the least, actually amazingly tiring. I got enough film for two DVDs and will be editing them this week. I finally got the Bus Spot Ultra Brighton finished, I need to get the cover made and then I can load it on the shop but the DVD is ready. So without further ado lets get up into th hills and on the border between  Derbyshire and Yorkshire, anything to the left is the former and to my right Yorkshire which because of the suns position includes most of the still photos. Temp was about 0 most of the time, snow overnight at home but not a lot.

 Doesn't the little IQ  blend in well, a few scenics !

I think we can honestly say that we constantly strive to widen our horizons and being patrons at the RNCM has thus far been very fulfilling. The last principles circle event was tied in with the Halle orchestras scheme for bringing young musicians through their paces with the first recently joining as a permanent member. The venue was the Bridgewater hall, strange to see Mark dressed casually ditto the orchestra. AS warned beforehand some members of the orchestra played on their phones as the session progresses. Generally it was revealing to see what a collaborative process the rehearsals are with leader Lynne exchanging ideas with Mark and the whole team discovering how they can better reflect a piece as suits the Halle style and what the composer intended. Berlioz was very 'out of the box' and presented more challenges than Sans Saens, the works can be heard at the Bridgewater this Thursday, rehearsals carry on tomorrow. We were made very welcome and other than the heavy snow fall which didn't stick it was a worthwhile outing. Keeping my eye on the weather, is snow over Woodhead or Cat & Fiddle I might get some scenic snowy shots of the lorries. The trip to Leeds features after Sir Mark and the Bridgewater Hall with Halle at full trottle.