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 Three hours of lorry film accomplished at Goole, all my weather protection was used until the gloves and socks batteries gave out, then I did a little bit more relying on hat, scarf,gloves etc without heating. The weather line up this week for buses in useless, freezing, sunny, snow,wind so I will try and get another archive feature finished. I have made some more progress on the diorama but I've decided that I'll pause until next winter after the end of the week as the other things to do become more a priority and I can't start film scanning again until I've cleared all the modelling kit away, cutting card makes for major dust problems and that is just what I don't need with scanners. I'm not sure if the Topaz people will get anywhere with making the AI work on our masters from way back and there won't be any speed up unless I spend major money on a state of the art graphics card. Tomorrow it is going to be a chiller, sunny so not much use for bus filming but ok for lorries so I'll be at Goole from around 08.30, give me a toot or two and help keep me sane in this crazy roller coaster weather. All the electrics are charged up so I should make it through to lunch time at least. When the gloves and socks give out on batteries it will probably be too cold to carry on. There may be snow by the end of the week, Thursday now seems best prospect for any bus filming. Fingers crossed then, suits us as we have the lady from the Middlewich fabric shop coming to measure up for the new curtains in the lounge, we've gone for some dramatic deep blue fabric embroidered and some dazzling colours as hi lights. So I wonder what I'll get a Goole tomorrow, I'll give you a few shots from last years visit. I will be putting some more clips on Youtube but have already got some more Cuba scenes scheduled to come on each day through to the weekend. About to go on the PMP shop now the DVD with two superb cab rides and a long running time from the New Year Bus Running day at Chester, set to be a regular event. I had a good chat with Dave Forrect over a couple of coffees this afternoon so I could get a more authoritative cover note to the Merseyside Independents DVD which should be available from tomorrow. I also managed some more progress on the diorama and have now got three of the port entry booths complete, there were only two when I took a picture yesterday. I made some progress on several fronts today, especially as the net was quiet early morning and I got the trailer for the Wrexham Road P&R running day on Youtube and the DVD is complete, I'll get the cover done tomorrow. The Merseyside Independents DVD is also now complete and a trailer on Youtube and again I'll get the cover done tomorrow. Looking at the week ahead the weather is far from settled but roughly speaking a truck film Wednesday and buses Friday somewhere east such as Wakefield or Hull. The Youtube site had a reasonable month in December, I'll try and keep the pace up with more clips, I'm thinking of following the Vietnam and Cuban excerpts with Uruquay which had plenty of UK machines on our visit. This year see me turning 70 in March, we are still hanging on to see how much and how easy travel will be, I must admit a repeat of Mandy's tent in the garden last year is not my ideal even though we did manage a very good party with our neighbours as Covid restrictions had eased a little at that time. If I'm still office bound much of the coming week I'll get the 'Road to MTL' my third in a trilogy of DVDs celebrating my relationship with the NWVRT at Kirkby, remeber they are always looking out for new members and bus owners there need a lot of help even in the not so skilled fronts but bus engineers very welcome nonetheless!! So with South America almost on our minds lets take a look in that direction for our slide show tonight with Argentina, the year I went alone and travelled over the Andes to Argentina from Chile which followed the camera theft and recovery then on to Brazil. Yes our first event of the year has already been filmed and also here are the initial film destinations for buses from Jan to March plus trucks and any overseas trips which become feasible. Blackburn Cannock Preston Stoke Leeds Wakefield Birmingham Hull Liverpool Sheffield Worcester Manchester Keighley Huddersfield Bury Bolton Salford Dudley West Bromwich Wigan Walsall Leicester Derby Chester Crewe Macclesfield Oldham Rochdale I was on the first batch of buses out to Chester from the Wrexham Rd Park & Ride which was the hub of the running day after Covid restrictions made relocation to Chester from Wrexham necessary. A good event with lots of potential and temperatures of 16degC. Light cloud at first ideal for film or photography but sun came out at lunch time. I think I caught all the buses on film at some time or other, cab rides in RM and Chester Guy No1. The day was slightly spoilt by some young yobbish elements who thought they could just jump in front of us oldies without a care then abuse us! I don't suppose they have been brought up to know any better. I managed to get some more work done on the diorama yesterday and now have the downloads to construct the entrance area.
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PMP Sponsors the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust at Kirkby.
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