There you go all as promised, I'm taking some of the new Lancashire archives with me to Detling and Brooklands together with a lot of the southern archive releases. Other than that about 20 boxes of DVDs from recent times and if anyone wants to collect specifics for Saturday at Detling let me know before 7pm tonight, as we'll then be down the pub and up very early on our way to film in Kent, we shall of course also film Detling on Sunday. I'm checking out the weather for suitable locations, we had flecks of snow here this morning. I've filed away all my recent images and all the tables are clear at the end. So I'll be back with you at some stage before Monday night on return from Detling we have the NWVRT members only day at Kirkby, I'm hoping to get some shots there as well.

OK so limited time as we've been busy, last night was the church deanery synod on zoom which saw the back of the days work, early start on Mandy's birthday, well actually it was around 9am - that's a long lay in for us. The Moonpig card finally arrived after I gave them hell on their review. So Mandy with her card

We bought a lovely piece of glass sculpture in Chester after lunch at the cathedral, had a good session filming there and a pleasure to meet up with some of our viewers. The weather was spot on and a few bus surprises.

Gradually getting back into gear although I must admit sometimes now my heart isn't in it as much as it used to be. Too me threats, insults and abuses before the recent holiday soured the return. As I get into my 70's how much steam have I got left to keep up the punishing rounds of filming. I really do enjoy looking back at the scanned images from the 1950s as I recognise well the land I grew up in. I'm just about ready to get going with next Lancashire archive film. I'm also looking at the material I have on Dublin, perhaps building up to a bus spot feature there.

I filmed at Crewe bus station, nothing has changed, the town is forlorn, parking obtuse and generally weird and robbed me in one of the machines, try complaining, forget it. Talking of failures I would commend folk to avoid Moon Pig cards, they delivered the item to go with Maddys card but not the card itself, their web site makes any attempts to track items impossible and links in to a post office complaint avoidance roundabout that more or less tells you where to stick your car enquiry.

If the weather holds we are thinking of filming at Chester tomorrow and then having a birthday lunch there for Mandy. We shall be filming down south on our way to Detling on Friday, the rally Saturday and Kirbky NWVRT members day on Sunday. Nothing like a quiet week then, no nothing at all. Here are shots from Crewe, no sign of building even the temporary bus station, a decaying dump like so many British towns now.

I'm just about ready to load the Youtube clips from the Mexico trip and also I need to file the image files. The next project is getting the 1950s Lancashire DVD edited and ready for next weekend at Detling and more importantly for this volume the NWVRT members day next Sunday at Kirkby ( members only - well worth joining).
Before I file everything away lets have another Mexico selection.

The DVDs and covers are complete I'll try and get them on the PMP shop for tomorrow. Experiments with other sales outlets have fallen through, I have neither the stamina or time, thus we'll retain the small selection on Ebay, the only place you'll find them all is on the PMP site www.pmpfilms.com. The last two films from Mexico will be more trucks with a lots of passing coaches on Highway 200.

I've also scanned yet more 1950s cine films. I hope still to get the Lancashire archive film out this week.
I've also been busy in the garden. The April Cyprus trip is almost sorted, I was hoping for the open top tour to Farmagusta but it doesn't start until May. I may still drive up there, depends how much activity there is at the potato harvest and Limassol port.

I'm now downloading the Mexico material and getting ready for the next archive release which will cover Lancashire with more HD scanned images will include 1950's at Manchester Piccadilly,SLT, Liverpool Trams and so much more. Anyway for the moment another dip into those noisy Mexican trucks

There were still plenty of home grown products in Mexico covering 50 years of manufacture.

It is great to be back and welcome so many people. I've been trying to get through the mountain of emails and get the DVD orders ready to send out. We were on time at Manchester this morning but we hadn't managed to get any sleep so struggling with tiredness and jet lag this afternoon. I'll start with a few tasters from the trip, some scenics , some lorries and some buses etc. The whole trip was in Jalisco State, Mexico.

I've just finished editing the latest Scottish archive featuring trams from the 1950s, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and  of course Glasgow. I'll get the Youtube trailer ready and make the cover. Bit hard making any more progress lack of sleep and jet lag but its pub night so we'll have to show off our tans!

So the Kent Down Your Way film is now finished although I have yet to make the DVD cover for the Scottish film that will come after we get back from Mexico, effectively the PMP Shop in all its forms is now shut until the back end of March when we'll clear anything that has come in. For the Scottish film I've made it slightly differently with the picture nearer the natural size and format with a frame to take it to widescreen. This means it is much less enlarged and the early 1950s material looks all the better for that. It has been a joy putting these two volumes together. Coming along this spring will also be another Lancashire film, one on Yorkshire and perhaps a West Midland. Time though will be short as we hit the ground running with Detling and Brookland on consecutive weekends.

I did get an apology after the bullying I received, totally uncalled for in the first place and I gather his venom was next directed to his bank. Still that episode got resolved before our trip and that just leaves no driving licence which will knock out my Cyprus trip. I did run another 1950s film through the scanner today which has some Lancashire material including Manchester Piccadilly Square in 1956 with the myriad operators around it.

Well I'll throw in some Mexico shots for tonight and see you all at the end of March, thanks in advance for messages which will come through for my 70th birthday on the 16th.

I'm not sure what is happening with the computers now, I finally managed to get the editing project on Edius Green Valley to work, the on board storage in disc D was reading full but wasn't. I had to revert to one of the back up files which then worked fine and just 30% of the disc full. Sometimes the 'fix' is so random and you still don't know what the problem is. Generally it has been an awful week and I've been sorely tempted to just scrap the whole PMP thing and just do things for my own interest and share nothing on the internet. It is still alive with abuse and bullying.

The Down Your Way - Kent film is finished but I'm struggling to get anyway of putting it on Youtube, there are other Ukraine films which wouldn't upload after going for 36 hours, the internet here is pitiful. The DVLA still haven't sent the supposed 'letter', I don't know what is happening. I'll have to start to dismantle all planned trips and try and recover my deposits as all will require a driving licence. There are thousands more like me waiting for these idiots to do their job, why with have things which are crucial to English people centered in Wales I don't know, get it back to  England I say.

We are almost ready for the Mexico trip but my heart isn't in it at all after this week of hell, the DVLA and online bullying seems to be the way of the country now, I've had enough of Britain in the 21st century.

I've edited three of the 1950's vintage reels and have now got the task of editing them down to stop and jerking, wobbling etc and tone down the reds which always bleed a bit. I'm starting to put together the scenes for the new release Down Your Way - Kent. This will bridge the era from the 1950's through to the 1980's. Something for everyone as they say. I did make a little progress on the e commerce front, I have to wait 4 weeks for Facebook at accept us on to their shop platform which then also links to other e sites. Some more shots now from Ukraine.