Yes at last an opportunity to film buses, in Nottingham it was almost dry, just a few spots of rain when I used the brolley. It was quite busy, there seems to be more deckers these day and even post rush hours it was quite hectic. As usual a very friendly place for bus drivers, I helped one adjust his wing mirrors. I hope to be editing that later today. At present I've the Down Your Way London cover to put together plus I've a couple of clips for Youtube and some from our latest Ukraine trip in 2019. The rain is now tropical, fingers crossed it doesn't flood. Anyway lets have some shots from Nottingham this morning. Still to come this week we hope to cover Manchester and Liverpool.

I have at last managed to get one of our archive features through the system and the master disc is being burnt as I type. This is the golden age with end days heading towards us as we see various types coming to the end but others emerging. The section with the Bubb family archive has real sound, hows that for a treat with RTs RFs etc with stunning scenes in HD digital brought to a wide screen. The cover should be ready tomorrow and listed on the shop very soon.

I took intercession prayers at church this morning and was able to add the words of our two arch bishops to the prayers for Ukraine, I was almost in tears. I have made six tours of Ukraine covering most of the country from 1995 to 2019. The crossing by foot border point between Ukraine and Poland I remember all too well as we were nearly crushed by a stampeded of Ukrainians trying to break through the Polish border check points, we had to prompt the Polish guards to restore order, as pistols were drawn behaviour improved but now it is a far more belligerent force that is trying to beak into Ukraine. Nearly every clip on TV is of somewhere I have visited. I also have friends in Russia, how awful to be put alongside a monster like Putin , to speak out in Russia now is a inviting a beating and imprisonment.

Today the spectre of nuclear war was alluded to by Putin, something most younger readers can scarcely have known about, the doctrine of MAD well described mutually assured destruction should the missiles be unleashed.

I will be posting peaceful scenes from  Ukraine over the 27 years I have been visiting, these should start tomorrow. If the weather holds I'll be filming in Nottingham tomorrow plus Manchester and Liverpool later in the week. I hope to get another archive film ready before we leave for Mexico.

Those who like to explore our website and find the links page will soon find another shop lurking there, this is for the Ecwid software which will be initially set up with 1000 of the latest DVD releases and will serve to support PMP Films which will appear on several media sources and take PMP into a whole post Amazon experience. The items will have the briefest of descriptions and at first just generic photos, as I add more items they can be added with the actual cover image. This will hopefully kick start our recovery after getting shot of Amazon. They are still trying to charge us a monthly fee for a shop which finished last summer. We had it all blocked at the Halifax but then Amazon changed its name regularly to get round this sort of thing, to me this is pure fraud. Please never use Amazon, I know it is easy but there are usually alternatives. High streets world wide have been ruined by US Malls and online shops, they pay hardly any UK tax.

I have been getting the rest of the Bubb family discs ready and am pretty well on schedule but only just and have had no time to start the archive projects. The next one to come out will be Down Your Way - London, from Trolleybuses to RTs and RFs are just some high lights of what promises to be a real classiic trip down memory lane.

I will soon be putting cliops from Ukraine on our Facebook site. Meanwhile here are some more still shots

I'm coming towards the end of digitising the Bubb family film collections, cine and video these I can then drop off the viewing copies plus the commercially transferred DVDs loaned but unable to download at all. This will neatly fit in with my Thursday visit to Peter Waller of OTA next week. I will deposit the transport related material masters with the OTA. I should be getting a start on some archive Down Your Way volumes this weekend. More Youtube clips coming possibly Ukraine.

It is hard for young people now to realise that us oldies grew up with the continued threat of nuclear way, I served in the Royal Observer Corps which despite its WWII ( and indeed further back) origins it had by the 1960s become part of the UK Warning and Monitoring Organisation linked into a chain of NATO countries to warn, monitor and record nuclear warfare. There were public information films made about how to survive, some never shown for fear of the terror they would cause even then the reality was assured mutual destruction MAD as it was well named. It is hard to believe that not content with invading Ukraine Putin has threatened nuclear retaliation. He now enters the world realms of North Korea, Belarus, Turkmenistan, China as the darkest dictatorships. Beware at home though Johnson has many ties to Russia, our 'punitive' sanctions carefully crafted to avoid his billionaire friends from Russia. Trump also had / has similar relationships.

We enjoyed several trips around sections of Ukraine having been visiting since the 1990's. we bring you some scenes and hope that we stand up to be counted amongst the more noble of nations rather than the Munich appeasement which so far imitates Britain and Germany in 1939.

I've been working hard to catch up today and have great news for London buses lovers we will shortly be releasing a new compilation of films which have never appeared on HD scanned images before and lots are 100% new to PMP, these scenes will even include London trolleybuses up to the last day and events around the demise of the RT and some of their last working days.

There will be the slightly delayed Youtube uploads of our 2015 visit to Bangladesh for those who like their bus double decked and painted red! There are around 15 clips appearing over the next few days.

Our latest DVD of present day UK bus scene will feature Guildford where Stagecoach have picked routes up from Arriva. plus a visit to see the rail replacement buses at Lewes in Sussex.

I am scanning yet more images and lots of super archive ready to go into production, the bad weather also has a good side for those who prefer the more mature type of bus.
Meanwhile some images from our Guildford visit yesterday

I stopped off at Lewes to see the buses on rail replacement but I guess there were a lot more perhaps at Brighton and London ends. time is now very short but I did go to Guildford to film. Challenging conditions yet again and after we've caught up with orders and IT equipment  deliveries there are more storm force winds due Thursday. Looking forward to Mexico we hope we don't get a volcano going off there are several nearby. Ill resume the daily blog now and welcome the many new friends who view the blog on Facebook. There are still people ordering our DVDs on Ebay despite all the messages I send out, please use the PMP shop NOT Ebay. It only has a tiny part of our range and the PMP shop has links to our still photos, nearly half a million and of course our full DVD list and digital downloads albeit I'm way behind on adding them.  I've now got the 14TB extension drive for backing up my digital files ad two 6TB to take on the latest digital scans of cine film for ourselves and OTA.

A short posting tonight as we are eating ( as well as drinking) at Crown tonight giving Mandy a rest and tomorrow weather permitting at some stage we should arrive at Hythe on our family visit. I guess everyone in the red zone is already bunkered down to sit our the storm.

I managed to finish the Bubb family cine archives but I've still got the video cassettes to tackle next week. All today's post orders for DVDs have already gone out. We'll be back to normal next Wednesday. I'm getting some Youtube Bangladesh transport clips ready to upload on Youtube overnight. I can also schedule some to go live while we are in Hampshire. Expect no posts until maybe next Tuesday, I'm going to try to film in Guildford Monday if the storm has gone. We are meeting John Bishop in Eastbourne on Monday night for a quick catch up.

Meanwhile lets have some sunshine in Colombia!

I got close to throwing the towel in today, a difficult, frustrating and depressing day from technology to weather. As I was nearing the end of the Bubb family cine film I noticed that several of the films would not open for editing and a couple of other had electronic glitches in them, this first came to notice when editing the Merseybus film. This has been deleted from the shop and list, I don't want any more diatribes from ebay-ites. I really wish I could rid myself of this last bastion, Ebay what a joke it all is. Getting through to understand any other outlets requires a translator from techo child American to plain English. Getting to grips with a smart phone is still at an early stage, several months have passed and I haven't managed to get it on and off without help. Now I know why the zombies walk around with them all day, it takes forever to do anything with them.

I've now recopied several of the cine film affected by the interference, they are fine now. I've formatted all my memory cards in case it is them causing the chaos, it could also be one of the smaller external drives I use as interim transport when moving between machines.. At last as the wretched day blows towards an end I am really getting to the end of the tunnel, with a nights sleep I'm sure it won't seem as bad but reality I don't need all the hassle and it is only the archives which cause the head aches and mostly used to feed the oldies brigade who know nothing of what is involved as they haven't even got within hammer distance of any computer.

The weather has been horrendous for days now, floods and fallen trees are all about. The little IQ had its MOT today. Esther McVey is on the DVLA case chasing my driving licence other wise O will not get to Cyprus for the third year. What we do about the barmy tax people I don't know, one minute they want money the next the want to give a shed load back. Corona is still blamed for anything China can't be blamed for, the reality is that after 10 years of Tory government of Brexit and prime ministerial booze ups we are on our knees.No chance of filming this week

It seems to have taken a lot of time to get where I am with the Bubb family films but they look so good compared with the old tele cine days it takes it to a new level and I am sure you'll be waiting to see them filter into some of our classic bus collections from the down your way, ticket-boo etc brandings. I think the first batch onto DVD for the family takes us from Kent to Scotland by way of Blackpool and a whole lot more and these have the added benefit of real soundtracks.

Tomorrow it is MOT day for the IQ and I hope to complete the Bubb compilations ready to drop off with Tim on my next journey back from Shrewsbury. I know its hard when the new coverage isn't emerging but it is only February. The DVLA have still not returned my licence which you have to apply for when you are 70, it won't be long that I'll need it for the Cyprus trip, I've written to our MP once again about government depts which are lack lustre at best and hope they can beat the three months it took to get Mandy's returned. The tax people have written to Mandy about the rental on the house in Ireland which she has to submit as self assessment each year. We've had some fun on that as well, twice has rollickings off the MP and this time reckon Mandys overpaid £1800!! We'll setlle for the correct sum of zero and a £50 apology cheque like last year, but only if they get my licence back as I'll have to cancel the Cyprus trip if I haven't got it.

THis coming weekend we shall be in Hampshire with my family and starting the 70th birthday celebrations a wee bit early, then on Monday it is west to Sussex to do ditto with my mate John and swap over cine film that I've scanned from his collection. Then it is back home, the weather should be better and hoping for some film work in the days running up to my Shrewsbury trip to see Peter Waller of the OTA and then our Mexico trip. Thus some Mexico shots tonight! Thats my mate John at the end of the slide show.