We started our UK bus coverage again today with a trip to Lincoln. A minor hiccup was that the memory stock had some file or another on it and the reading overstated what had been recorded, that said it came out at 50 minutes a little shorter than normal so I'll try and make up for the tomorrow when we intend to go down to Worcester to film subject to another look at the weather. More cine films received today, lots from the old Pan Am collection which I guess must have been from their UK office but covers a wide range. Eventually we'll be releasing all the material we have accumulated in themed DVDs ie aircraft, France, UK manufacturing, Old lorries etc etc. There will be lots to come perhaps in the autumn.

We are going to start decorating the house soon and probably go and get some colour samples on Sunday. We are starting with the easy bits upstairs then the first big challenge to my back and knee with the hall stairs and landing. Then will be the lounge and dining room which will also be re-carpeted and finally the PMP office which will be a nightmare. The drive over to Lincoln is great with the new road through Nottingham finished and I'm looking forward to filming the Nottingham tram extensions soon.

The Ukraine tour is now confirmed as being late August we are working on a programme for that. Not that much in the post today but large orders on the net and by phone it really varies day to day but certainly for 2016 we are looking at the rally scene in light of its comparative small returns compared to internet, post etc and will only book a couple a month maximum concentrating on those we like best. The Dublin rally is at the beginning of Oct, not sure what we'll do perhaps go in the car with a smaller stock, sales were really pathetic last year and it would not be viable to take the PMP van again, still not sure on Cultra although we like NI and it would give us a chance to film whilst we are there. Some shots from Lincoln today, the DVD will be ready later this evening. Also going to resume work listing the Super8 cine on EBay and clips on Youtube. On the way back had a bird strike on the card and it cracked the wing mirror indicator perspex so another job taking it in to get fixed / ordered. PC Coaches had a motley collection of buses in service!

Once again with time at a premium I start all over again so keeping it all very short on this bloody Weebly outfit, we had a moderately busy day, got the PMP orders done dropped them at post office carried on to Knutsford did banking, Mandy asked if I'd got all the docs I needed for Prof Jari this evening, I then remembered that I'd forgotten them. Returned home to pick up details of Xrays positions required, missed call from hospital asking if we could bring the consultation forward,. Then up to Manchester, went to new Chinese consulate visa application centre, Manchester is a nightmare to drive around at present. Did this pick it up next Tuesday. Then we went to Marks for a coffee and cake, again nightmare navigating around the squalor of Manchester why anyone others beats me Liverpool gets a 100% more visitors now. Anyway then went to Harvey Niocolls picked up[ some Manchester Gin, yes Mothers ruin is now Manchester and Cheshire specialty. Then Mandy bought new handbag. Oh missed out important bit, Stephans ( as in son of Stan) got the ring sorted out to house the Colombian Emerald Mandy bought on the trip. Then had a potter around shops pick up fennel biscuits which Harvey Nichols stopped doing then to Spire Hosp. Surprised that we got the call to see Prof Jari about 5.20, which is of course the time they'd phoned to give us but we didn't know. Decided to go to eat at Horse & Jockey at Cholrton, very old haunt of ours, it had gone downhill fast, had pint thjen carried on to the Dog at Over Peover superb meal great atmosphere as usual. Catching up getting ready orders and tomorrow off on bus film trip.

a vastly condensed version of our visit to Medellin in Colombia, Translohr under test, cable cars public and tourist plus trucks and buses including BRT.

It's very pleasant to be at home in the weekdays even if its bad weather or work which keeps me here so I can glance at the bird feeders in the back garden and note anything unusual. We do have regular visitors and the warblers are no exception but always welcome in fact we had flocks of Green Finches and even a lot of sparrows which believe it or not these days are unusual when the most common bird is a Goldfinch. Lots of work done, another heap of DVDs dispatched and lots of old 16mm cine arriving in several parcels plus our new credit cards machine which is supposed to be all singing dancing etc and should get a better signal at events.

I'm editing to file the Colombia still photos, masses of locations need putting on our Smug Mug site where you can purchase them from just 50p each. I am editing the Super8 films and listing on EBay plus copies are on our Youtube site. Hits on the adverts have fallen off due to people using apps to avoid the ads, if this continues it won't be worth uploading anything else. Mandy and I are both recording blood pressures, mine a routine check up and Mandy too high for her surgery on the tear ducts they are increasing her tablets. Tomorrow we go to arrange a ring setting for Mandys' Colombian Emerald and in the evening I see Prof Jari for the follow up on my knee. We'll probably spend the afternoon in Manchester. Clonter have an afternoon of songs from the shows with RNCM singers on my birthday afternoon.

Releases of Colombia DVDs have trailers on Youtube as normal some of them are listed here.

Sleep caught up with us last night and it was nearly 10 this morning when we got up to a chain of delivery van drivers hammering on the door and bells and piling stuff in front of the door. It was catch up time as I'd told lots of people not to send stuff until after Monday, Mandy also ordered the padded envelopes and poppy stuff for packing only yesterday afternoon here this morning. I've been really busy getting all the remainder of the Colombian DVDs done 10 in total some as much as 90 mins a couple around 50, I've tried to keep the material to one place or linked items etc. They are all on this site on our shop I'll get Amazon and eBay caught up asap. I nearly forgot it was late evening and I hadn't done the blog. Lets pick up on the trip again as we got from Santa Marta to Cartagena along the coast to the west and it was the build up to Mardi Gras.

Of course the pretty old town isn't the 'real' city and locals live in varying degrees of luxury or oterwise although from all the seafront apartments shooting up it would appear that there are plenty of rich folk around but not out on the port and industrial estates where I filmed the lorries

Another very busy day as we got all the outstanding DVD and film orders off this morning, four bags of post - Lower Peover post office didn't know what had hit it and still the orders are flooding in as our loyal viewers starved of new material for two weeks jump on our web site shop to be first in the queue. Lets get these out of the way and we'll be off on our UK visits before you know it. London still figures large in our intentions. I've just seen the new Oxford die cast look ahead and made a list to email and get them pre ordered, nothing else that I've seen yet on the model front. We had a trip to Chelford farm supplies to stock up on bird seed and then mysteriously landed at Aldi in Knutsford but I'll survive. Anyway lets look at some more piccies from Colombia as we travelled north to Santa Marta and the Tayrona National Park, wonderful hotel there, could have stayed another week! I've got a dentist check up next week and this Thursday see Prof Jari  for the long term follow up on the knee replacent last summer.

After Tayrona we moved west to Santa Marta, a seaside and port city on the Carribean ocean, getting hotter all the time. The truck traffic was at its best outside the city where the docks road and that from the town all joined the main highway with yet more industrial traffic on the east side of town although I chickened out on filming there. The road from docks to the roundabout was taboo, too quiet for safety.

See the shop for the DVDs loading them several each day at present then back to dealing with the Super8 cine films.

sI am too tired to do much writing suffice it to say there were about 76 orders which needing collating, I've got them all together and Mandy is going to get them all packed and sent off tomorrow. We went to bed about 10 last night and slept through the best part of 11 hours which was badly needed. This has taken up a lot of time and we are now ready to try a bit of catching up with our soaps on tv. After all that catching up I've downloaded more orders this evening. I'm not sure how many photos I took but it must now be approaching 2000 on the trip and I'll work through a few in coming days. We start when we arrived at Bogota with buses and a couple of their many BRT lines, I was much less adventurous on this first day although by the Sunday I was already broadening my coverage out alone. The BRT in each city is publicly owned whilst the buses otherwise are private, hence the lack of tickets its all cash in hand. We also went up the Montserrat mountain on the funicular and saw the cable car which was so inaccessible we skipped taking it down. It was also my first venture downtown with my guide Gus and there were a number of older vans and trucks passing by whilst waiting to get up the funicular on the Saturday afternoon.

Day two the Sunday sees many roads in Bogota city centre closed for cyclists and runners until early afternoon, I explored alone along BRT lanes and in the safer posh areas around the hotel. The wedding car trade is alive here plus there are numbers of unexpected sightings of older cars now and then.

well the end of another pmp trip to unusual destinations. the peopke of colombia have been unfailingly friendly and kind and we have been amazed atvthe ammount of venues which have been wheelchair accesable for mandy. for everyone of the many of you whomhave ordered dvds whilst we have been away wr shall hsve thesein the post to you on monday. this blog on the ipaf ishsrd to doband has no spell check correction as im sute many of you have alresdy discovered but apologirs but im sure that most of you have managed to follow our progress which has taken us from the capital bogota up to the forests of the tayrona national psrk then west to the seaside carribean resorts odf santamarta then eest yet again to cartegina. after this we flew down tomedellin which was once one of the mostdangerous cities on the planet but since the latesnineties has reinvented itself as something odf a tourist and cultural destination although themain square full of sculputres isnext to avery dangerous area, a work in progress i think. anyeay then we flew down to the capital bogota once again and to the hilton hoyel which has such friendly staff and everyone remembered us by name and wrlcomed us back. today friday the girls went to the gold museum and other city centre attractions which included a recommended emersld dealer needless todaymandy has dineher best toboost the colombian economy and reverse the decline in world trade. as i sit tuping thisblog they are now downstairs in duty free adding to their booty. i have lost count of the photos and how many hours of film i have taken perhaps 2500 stills and 15 hours video. there will be plenty for the truck and public transport enthusiadts. we haer that paraguay isvery safe to visit now plus ecusador and peru so lts more potential latin americancoverage. the next majot trips are china in may and malta in june but other trips arevery likely now that i am retired. for my friend who collects transport tickets i report that colombian is vety barren, and the pavements do not even require sweeping there isno ticket refuge. i did howeverkeep one of tjemetro tickets i bought, the stored value cardis automatically kept by the ticket entry machine. i have also got the funicular montserrat ticket ftrom bogota. elsewhere where the buses are all private it is acash only psyment sydtem.well i need fortifyingwith yet more wine so i bid you farewell for this last report from colombia sunday i will report our safe return to lower peover god willing.

we have had a relaxing day in medellin just sitting by the pool and then hesded off to the airport at breakneck speed, avianca have put us on an earlier flight which is funny as it tookmages getting on a later flight when we arrived but the non running of the new trams changed everything. they start serving alcolhol after four pm so the wine is out in avianca vip lounge and ive just knocked off the ebay out of office etc althoigh amazon wont let me log in as per normal. tomorrow friday the girsls are viditing the gold museum and gus our driver is then taking ne up to the motorway out where trucks jam up in daily chaos.

apologies if we vavished so lets pick up when we were stuck at the airport while there was a tremendous storn here in the mountsins. we did eventuallu get away early afernoon and really too lste to get much done although i had a wander to locate the metro station got bus shots and then plucking up courage wandered of to cross over bridges and got video of the metro which is the only practical way as its fenced in all the time, the bridges give the river and mountains and are probably the modt common locations used. i got some truck shots its like the motorway runs straight through the centre of the city. i forgot to mention in cartegina we got diverted off the rouad and along the beach going to dinner one night i think this was a first even for me. well yesterday in medellin the girls did a morning city tour wgile i jumprd on the metro up to the transfer ststion withbthe translohr tram which hssnt yet started operation despite erronrous information published in press and internrt, i tnink they did a politically motivated kaunch once the major infrastructure was in. certainly no date posted for opening nbut it cant be too far away. there was no info, nobody spike any englidh but one of the french engineers who didnt speak engkish thankfully i can get by in french that there is test running after 5pm weekdays so i had to return late afternoon when light was awful and did see severalmovements not ideal for film or photosin lightthst timeof day but at least with thousands of police, contractors, meto staff and engineers all clearing the way it was safe not somewhere id wander alone in thedark even day time. meanwhile id ridden on themetro cable car above the slums and then themetro tourist liineanother cabkelineto the park in the mountsins got acabin to myself on route back down mainly good weather v hot.  then spe nttime seekingout the brt bus lines not easy highly segregatedbut didit. then did several hours filming the trucks and buses the occasional ancient lorry would appear there isv old stuff but thinonground but lots on the 40 year range. then made wayback to tram and caught taxi i. the dodgy area bavk to hotels where late appearance was causingalittleconcern. no hassles at all though spending thismorning by the pool then evening flight tobogota