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THe title facility still doesn't work on Weebly but I guess the date does the job. The agony goes on and on and the Mexico trip will also be blighted by worry about the S******* issue and I have to go up to O*** at the end of April, it's not much fun being something like the Greek ( or now Dubai) plane spotters entering a through the looking glass world. It would be nice to think that is some quarters a campaign would be under way but from my experience after the run in with the nasty side of the hobby in Yorkshire and death threats from Rochdale last year I'd probably get yet more hassle. Mandy has banned me from mentioning anything about places beginning with S other than Stockport or Sodom and pillars of salt take on a nice warm glow as retribution when it's all over. This really wipes out all the good stuff and with the clips on Youtube gaining more momentum I'm bidding for another couple of collections of cine covering several countries hoping for some street scenes which at least can go on the Youtube channel and at best may yield some transport in the background. Eastern European destination feature and these usually get a good reception, some lovely comments continue to flow in on the Romanian films, thanks at least there are some good people in the world. With the weather still in full storm mode, it was a very rough night, a lot of fence panels out, the new neighbours have got a job on there! I don't know if the balloon flight will happen on Thursday morning, there is a chance it will get a little better for a few hours but we don't want to be on an Atlantic crossing until I'm on my way to Mexico. John like me is going to try for hand lugguage only. There isn't a lounge we can use at Heathrow so much for marvellous terminal 5, I'll have to get down in good time but I won't want to be sat there too long, we'll check in before hand. Anyway whats going to happen Thursday and Friday, if we had a camper van we could take our own food, drink and bed and cover Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Edinburgh and the Borders as planned Friday and Saturday without having to spend any money there. The same situation now faces us for getting to the Cultra rally and then having to be back at the O place on the Tuesday, hopefully we can spend as much time as possible in Northern Ireland and take sandwiches and a flask for the return journey. I'm still busy editing the Isle of Man , thankfully I believe photography is still welcome there. It would be interesting to compile a list of countries where it is banned and see how the place that I can't mention fits in. Back to sound then on the MER.... For another day the blog title feature isn't working but too busy to let it worry me too much. The weather continues to be bleak, damp,cold,miserable which takes us from winter through to spring and at this rate on to summer. I've just been messing about on EBay looking for a cine collection of Turkish films in black and white which was quite old and plentiful, I spotted on EBay at work but I can't find it at home. I did notice that the old Paris/Lyon type Renault TN6CZ is released from Atlas and there are quite a few on EBay already, there should be other buses in the French collection soon but their French website only shows the one bus at the moment so keep you eyes open and report in if there are developments on that front. Talking of model buses I put my latest acquisitions in the display cabinets last night, the new Oxford for the Southdown 100 special release look better than the first attempt at either of the models and now they even get the colours correct. There was a delivery in the post but they took it away, hopefully it will arrive again tomorrow, no idea what on earth it can be I don't think I've got anything due yet from EBay etc. Big day tomorrow, the Scottish court case hopefully will happen in my absence, new laws coming out all the time, watch your step there folks remember if you take an image of someone and they object you could go down for 5 years at worst, I bet the Scottish tourist board don't mention that in their adverts. Hopefully my fine will be relatively small but you never know it was racism against the English which prompted the whole issue started by Scottish police at the Commonwealth games, you'd trust them about as far as you dcould throw them, perhaps a new highland sport. The Youtube hits are coming fast and furious and I'm adding clips every evening to maintain the winning strewak, please click on adverts each time you visit , it encourages me to load more and offsets some of the coasts of travel. I've bid on a collection of 1960s ciine on EBay with titles in eastern europe, hoping there are some streeet scenes these can all go on youtube. Meanwhile here are some of the recent releases including the new Isle of Man archive DVD with trailers already uploaded. I also sorted out the PMP shop page which had got jumbled plus there is a short sale of our selected DVDs on EBay this week. Well the sun has finally come out although its still blowing a gale outside, what a horrid weekend it has been for weather, cold, damp and windy and the spring has been like that pretty well every day. It certainly seems to have put a lot of people off coming along to Boyle st, the sense of friendship is as alive as ever but can the event survive at this low ebb. Sunday is always the quieter day but this one was beyond description and it isn't really worth the fuel going along. I was thus amazed to see that more people are trying to drag events out over two days such as the Dublin Port rally and new Bridgeton at Glasgow are prolonging the agony and doubling the cost as we'd need two nights accomodation rather than one plus eating out and you can be sure that there won't be double the sales to match it. The same happens at most events over a day, I can think also of Gaydon Saturday is the quiet day, Truckfest-Sunday they start leaving at 11am, Llandudno Monday is gone home day. This will all mean a review yet again of what we can attend, Lathalmond for instance has long been an act of charitable support staying for the two days, with the draconian new drink drive laws in Scotland you can't even risk going for a meal out . I've just finished the first of the two Isle of Man archive features , I've put the rest of the sound track on and the DVD is burning. I want to get the other one edited later. I've also put a few more Crimea trolleybus clips on Youtube, the Isle of Man clips will be there too before the evening is out. I might try and get the coaching holidays to Scotland on DVD, I've a reel I bought off EBay to get sorted . So much coming up in the next few weeks. I really hope this weather packs in soon. I did battle with the weather at Manchester today and snatched a couple of photo of the few visiting buses. I tried last night to post the blog but just as tonight it wouldn't let me type the title in it just shuts down the box but everything else seems to work so as I'm so busy I just carry on without and see if it gets fixed, I assume it's known problem. We had a very nice evening yesterday, I came back from work picked Mandy up from home jumped in the PMP van and then straight up to Boyle St transport museum in Manchester where they have a rather smart new red plaque commemorating the old tram depot next door. We were the first there and quickly set up with the swift intervention of the pallet truck which shifts our entire van load in a couple of trips. We'd only taken enough just to fill the tables and I could fit another three in which I took with me this morning. We then headed to the RNCM where we had a coffee and then sat chatting until we felt up to eating as Bronskys restaurant at the college which was fully reserved with it being an opera evening. With Mandy being disabled we can park just outside the door at the rear its really close and handy, had a nice meal and then it was Ben Britten's Midsummer Nights Dream, it was about 10.50 pm when we got home and time for bed after I'd had a go at the blog and downloaded orders. It's been very mild but damp, some flooding, we had water ingress over the stand at the museum which damaged some covers and I've put a waterproof sheet on for tonight as well as a towel and normal covers., it was very wet driving home. Not the best days trading, very few people there, a lot less stands. Several people did Detling, I hope they had a better day than at Manchester but it's always good to catch up with all out friends there so a nice social event even if not making our fortune! There weren't many buses there today , I stuck my head out and did these few shots, I was at the dentists at Partington this afternoon, blustery wind and a bit of sunshine otherwise a pretty horrid day, tomorrow I meet Mandy after work and we go up to Manchester in the PMP van to set up at Boyle St museum and then to the RNCM in Manchester for an evening concert, having dinner at the college. I've put out a couple of feelers for a short visit to Pakistan to film the 'jingle' buses and trucks which have fascinated me for years but the security situation has always put me off. Now that I'm of the firm conviction that hell on earth lays directly north of England I am really up for anything. Partington has been bestowed with a row of modern shops , the dentist Gary Knowles was telling me that the village is getting more houses but at least he has room to expand the dental practice but like Holmes Chapel the doctors surgery is already over subscribed. I suppose we'll be getting election stuff down our throat in the coming weeks, I'll just put Classic fm on the radio, meanwhile what about the German plane crash, I guess everyone is asking the same question about the co pilot which was very noticeably skipped away from by the French judge. I'm still up to my eyes in Isle of Man archive films and now I've got everything uploaded I'll start on the editing side, I've no idea how long it will all last until I've seen what I can discard, at present there must be a couple of hours at least. I managed to trim up the black and white pictures I'd digitised the last couple of nights between telly and editing. The amount of Greater Manchester shots is growing, I like my views taken in Ireland back in the day, I was not adverse to climbing the odd mountain, I'd leave the car, door unlocked at the foot of the hill, that was Ireland in 1980. Here are the covers for the last few releases all our available now on the shop pages powered by Paypal for maximum security. late onm parade i know but don't give up on me yet, we have been working very hard so you this evening. We have now empried albums of another couple of thousand sout east bus photos, the oven technique is now almost perfected as we come to the latter part of the task. These photos are still seperate from the main stock as I know we have a few die hards who just want to make a beeline for the 'fresh' stock they haven't seen before. There is certainly a mixed bag with most eras being catered for. That of course was only one pasrt of the evening, the main task so far this week has been getting the Isle of Man archive film downloaded by tomorrow evening I should be editing, there seems to be an awful lot for such a small island reflecting I suppose the affection it holds for many transport enthusiasts. I've no idea how long it will all last I was just thinking of the one volume. Yet again this was only a part of the evening. I wanted to got more of the black and white negatives copied so I've done around another 2-300 with quite a spread on content, 1979 Doncaster certainly struck a chord having just visited there this past weekend, it was curious as I couldn't recall anything of the trip. Lots of material from my days working in Ireland and of course as ever from that era a mix of Manchester area and Sussex. Mandy had a Skype chat with Tina and Max down in New Zealand and I'm just about ready for a brew before bed, nice weather today but stuck in the office with visitors till afternoon, it may be pleasant tomorrow. Next week is looking a bit mixed, I'll be surprised if we get up in the balloon a week tomorrow. Manchester Boyle St museum this weekend, loads of new stock with us so come along and say hello. Amongst the shots as yet untreated by the computer magic are these views never before seen by anyone including myself. I edited out my first version of the title bar as it wasn't 'other' animals first time around but in deference to our many friends and pleasant people I've just decided to keep my mouth shut, just this once mind you and popped a couple of beta blockers to see me through the evening. You'll gather by all this that the Scottish play has come into view again a week out from court, turns out the solicitor was actually expecting me to go there, fat chance they wait if they want me but fingers crossed that it won't get to that. The distribution of the fact sheet has already seen responses from GM police and the Scottish first minister - I also contacted the BBC last night as the foreign security guard scandal has filming against the persons involved without their permission, just a good job it wasn't in Scotland them or the film crew would have been charged. I went out today to stock up on fuel for my little noddy car as they call it at work, I then popped down to the mega pet shop near ASDA in Ellesmere Port and filled the boot with bird seed and Hedgehog nibbles, the birds have been out in force buy it will be interesting to see if the other animals emerge, scare in the village at present about the number of rats, non seen here yet but they must be out there. I was hectioc at work all day chasing around in circles for a company in Sullom Voe and our office in Aberdeen, yes haunted by the place aren't I. I'm just getting the clips from the Oswestry truck film ready to put on Youtube this evening. I'm going to check the status of Isle of Man regards any remaining footage which needs putting on DVD, there is certainly some cine archive. I'm going to have a look at The Netherlands at some stage, I keep putting off Germany as I have so much material and there were so many operating cities and many hard to tell apart by colour and types, all Duewags, well nearly all! The site wouldn't upload the black and white pictures I'd edited over the weekend and Monday so I'll have another try tonight. The shots are in Northampton and with the blowing up of the old bus station a week or so back they are quite topical, I had forgotten that I had been in that town so far back! Tomorrow evening we are going to empty the more stubborn of the Southdown shots in the albums. one of my recent acquisitions from EBay along the lines of the Atlas type magazine releases this time from Poland is one of 13 French trolleybuses by Vectra purchased by Poland in 1949 for a new trolleybus route. The model is crisp and seems accurate and it's the second trolleybus they have produced and of course we can only hope that they might turn their attention to other buses and trolleys but some double deckers would be nice. In 1/72 scale which ties in with aircraft and military models and is just a tad too big for UK releases 1/76 bus models but keep them on a seperate shelf and nobody will spot the difference. There are myriad Russian types that could be produced and certainly their military, aircraft and cars let alone commercials have been widely released in various scales so perhaps the eastward spread may catch the USSR. So another for the display shelves at Birchwood Drive. I didn't get to see much of the day, I seemed to be emailing most of the time which in a good direction has meant that my trainer due for redundancy can come back as a self employed provider thus at least filling a void although there is a lot of detail to sort. It does remove a few of my worries anyway. I've managed to trim up and get about 200 ogf my old black and white photos done, they are the first impressions to be produced, still to be printeed and cover the likes of Northampton, Morroco, Hampshire, Cambridge to name but a few. Even some nice lorries in amongst the buses in Morroco, I'd long forgotten that I took them and of course once more pushes my truck credentials back to the late 1970s so I'm no newcomer to the scene albeit I wish I'd have done a whole lot more. I've also got the recent photos from Yorkshire and South Wales and truck shots in Cheshire and Shropshire filed away. I'm just finishing the second of the Yorkshire DVDs as I ran out of time yesterday , our friend Sue called by. She looks like coming with Mandy and me on our Colombian trip. We have nearly everyone confirmed for the 2016 China trip which is good. A 2017 trip may see Martin and I in Taiwan, South Korea and Philippines. Another trip under investigation with Mandy is to Ethiopia and another possibility Zimbabwe. Must go Mandys done fish and chips home made for dinner tonight!  At last a taste of real spring and although freezing early on as the sun came out it felt almost warm but in the shade it was still winter. I've had a good tidy in the garden, last night before bed we were pleased to see that the hedgehogs have come through their hibernation, there was one in the garden with a fox stood in the back hedge watching it. I'll get some more special feed for them as I've also used up all the bird food, the pigeons are looking very well fed as are the hooded crows. I've pruned the roses, sprayed the weeds growing through the paths etc and then collected more faded foliage from last summers growth. I've strimmed the edges. Indoors I've finished editing the 4 volumes of DVD covering the 1993 Manx Electric 100th anniversary week. I've also spent some more time sorting through negs which have never been printed up, especially my black and white shots. I've got another couple of photo albums stripped and found some bits and pieces to put into our new posterity box that now lives in the dining room under the family cutlery table.Mandy is still talking about decorating this year, it looks as if the whole house is going to need doing plus we need new carpets downstairs those which are in go back to 1993 just like the Manx films! I'll get the Yorkshire DVDs from yesterday edited and bring you some Doncaster shots tomorrow meanwhile lets see some of the clips from the MER 100 celebration in 93. Its sometimes hard trying to decide where our film destinations for a Saturday will be, the weather, distance,time, other commitments all play a part. Our decision was made in the car park of the Church inn at Mobberley last night before Trish and Derek arrived. What a splendid evening it was, superb food the panacotta was to die for and the treacle beef was enormou, we even had Mexican wine which I must admit I'd no idea they could make good wine and this bodes well for our visit in April. So we decided on Sheffield as I needed to cover there and it's a main centre of bus activity which normally gets annual coverage and then Doncaster as I haven't done it for a couple of years and again lots of buses but it's a difficult place with the awful bus station they built, far worse than the old one underground, dark,gloomy and the old one is still not used for anything else at all. Now things go in two ways but it's only really practical to get about 70 or 80 percent from the main side and with cloudy weather I did pretty well and got hundreds of buses in some great shots. First has still got oodles of buses in the old barbie livery which is quite rare elsewhere in the country, Streetlites seem to be everywhere. Stagecoach had r reg deckers out, I thought it was preserved at first. Sheffield presented no hassles but the old market is coming down and I couldn't use my elevated vantage point but nevertheless I got some pretty good shots in about four main locations in the city centre and caught up with developments quite well. First commerative or heritage liveries seem all the range in South Yorkshire, there must be hundreds or was it that I saw the same buses come around several times, I expect the latter is true.I managed to get Mandy's birthday card, we had coffee in Marks and usual Bakewell tart. We even found a nice clean cafe in Doncaster and had no problems filming there, very friendly drivers at both locations. It makes a change to report back on largely ok trip to this part of Yorkshire although I had an old fellow first thing at Sheffield who gave me a mouth full as he walked past, mental illness who knows? Anyway slide show tonight from Sheffield. I've got the first 2 of the Manx Electric 100 week in 1993 ready and clips will be on Youtube this evening. Just had one of Mandy's home made curries and waiting for a rice pudding to brown up. |
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