Hello to you all world wide, we have about 1500 regular readers and about 15k hits a week on the blog, somewhat below the figures for Youtube although since we lost our funding there I don't look very often but usually about 50-70k hits a day. Since going back in Facebook but not really active other than posting copies of my blog please remember I do not use Messenger so if you want to contact me use the regular email per the PMP site. I've spent the morning painting, two thirds of the office is complete other than the wood work, I ordered the additional two shelving units yesterday evening before we went to the pub.

We are getting up at 4am tomorrow and straight down to London and I hope to cover at least three locations, I hope there are no disruptive demos or sports events, the neighbours yesterday decided to share the sport on tv or radio so loud I thought it was a loud speaker van, mind you I haven't seen one of them for many years. We are still waiting for a sign of good weather in Ireland for our much waited tour. I'm also waiting for good weather to get some more truck films done. If I remember rightly it is Gaydon vintage trucks the weekend after this, possibly filming at Kirkby on Sunday but the weather outlook seems grim. Looking forwards to 27 degrees in London tomorrow, wear my shorts and sandals for the first time since Asia.

As we are think8ing of London lets have a dip in my archives for the capital

Forgot to mention the weasel we saw opposite The Crown on our way back from Sale yesterday. We cleared quite a big batch of DVD orders this morning and dropped off everything at the post before starting decorating. Getting everything covered up was quite a task. The light blueish grey colour looks really good, it's nearly dry at tea time and then then small brush work to join to ceiling and around windows and the like. I've uncovered all the equipment and shelving, tables and what have you so normal operations are resumed. I was hoping to get out to do some truck filming tomorrow but the weather outlook in the north is not brilliant but we will be down in London filming on Saturday so say hello if you are in the usual haunts and spot me.

We'll be up 4am and park in the disabled spot at the back of M&S on Oxford St. It will be shots weather I hope. I'm looking out for the sun in Ireland but nothing on the horizon. Sunday we shall be filming at Kirkby but not with the stand, it never made a profit the first few times we tried and ties Mandy to a cold gloomy shed all day. Plenty of bus action and a great running day though but annoyed last year when I had my mini stroke and double vision that when directed to sit at a card table at the cafe to drink and eat it all went on the floor and I didn't even get offered a replacement. The Ribble 100 DVDs have been available for some time on the shop both DVD and as digital download, no one DVD has been bought by anyone other than subscription clients who buy all UK bus DVDs we make. I only mention this as people were asking if I would be selling them at KIrkby running day. Perhaps I'll have to put a few in the boot! No word yet on the PMP van. Chap coming to service and extend the alarm system tomorrow but I'll carry on with the painting as filming looks iffy. Next week also looks grim but I keep checking, Ireland is now a top priority.

A couple of shots of work earlier in the day in the office, it looks much brighter with a lighter colour and clean windows! While I'm talking about sales and offices etc I must remind people that in slack times Amazon costs us more to host than revenue taken, EBay is better but to help us directly maintain the PMP Archive use the PMP shop , no postage, world wide and digital downloads for past year.

After getting the DVD orders cleared we dropped them at the post offic3e then called at Kwik Fit to see what had happened with the PMP van which was still in their yard but the chap with the garage nearby was arranging to get it towed round to his garage and should be able to report back on Friday. The weather outlook is so varied it is hard to find a week for our Ireland visit so I might do Belfast as a day trip by air from Manchester or Liverpool,  perhaps even similar with Dublin then we would be able to concentrate on the other bits later and also get some time to visit Dunmanway and my O'Grady'O'Sullivan/Driscoll family in West Cork.

After the garage we continued on to Southern Cemetery the cemetery people had recently cut the grass and done the road edges, the Hardy plots looked in good order considering we haven't been for a while. The main memorial looks startling in clean white marble and the Hasting memorial look much better after treatment, the Robert Joseph memorial will get treated next, we already have the liquid to do it. We put in geraniums at all the plots and tidied up and strimmed the grass etc, looked really good. Tidied up around the Hardy memorial bench and cleaned bird muck off, needs another dose of varnish on our next visit.

Then we popped in to see Trish and Derek at Sale, Trish has now made a splendid recovery from the fall down the stairs and broken vertebra. After a brew and chat we went back and I got cracking caulking the new door between office and showroom that should have been done by the builders and other blemishes which have appeared over the years since the office was added behind the then garage. All the furniture is pulled out and ready for painting to start, we've had a good clean and treated the edges of the carpet that weeren't accessible when the carpet cleaners came. Its all a bit topsy turvety at present so that is enough for tonight as the desk is a bit squashed in, not comfortable for typing. Wednesday is our second fasting day each week but sweetened by pineapple and dates!

Took delivery of the new computer editing desk which took about 30 minutes to unpack and install, very pleased with it , very sturdy it weighs an awful lot when you are turning over and into position. There will be a right hand sister desk next door. The showroom is now full though, soon after this shot the media supplies arrived which I've left stacked up there, our first delivery through the new door. We've now moved a lot of things into the new room including DVD duplicating machines and all the DVD cover files which had enjoyed a precarious life on the shelving I constructed, that will be down tomorrow some time and we are ready to start painting in the original office, half done we shall then move stuff around to do the other half then it will be time to move down the fitted furniture from the old editing suite on its route back to the third bedroom. This will go against the wall with the new packing bench and then the existing shelf units and two more will go opposite. There will be loads more room to work in.

We have our eye on a week not too distant to visit Ireland, monitoring the weather as we really don't want to have constant rain, a lot of sun or light cloud and whatever temperature crops up we shall not complain. I've got the itinerary with visits for buses and lorries taking in Dublin, Belfast,Derry,Galway,Limerick,Cork,Waterford, I know there are lots of new vehicles just waiting for us to film them. This week we might well end up in London some time, possibly Saturday. We have the burglar alarm people before that extending the alarm system to the new room and also we want to get the family plots at Southern Cemetery in Manchester ready for summer, the plants are just outside the back door. No news from the garage on the PMP van, we'll call by on our way to the cemetery and see whats happening if we don't get a call before.

All the latest DVDs are now loaded on the shop so you can purchase at just £8 as digital downloads, its good to be up to date with it with all the extra work we have in hand. Next week I hope to fit in a day or two filming trucks in the UK plus there is a long list of bus film destinations to cover. Some shots from the trip to Kent and Sussex next.

Busy day like normal, I got all the DVD covers up to date, had fun getting printer head cleaned but got there in the end. The digital downloads are certainly taking off, a much easier way of doing things, I'll try and get these latest releases on over next two days. I got Mandys car unloaded after having to use it for the Ribble 100 event, Kwik Fit at Northwich have a chap round the corner who may be able to sort out our van, given up getting VW van centre at Trafford Park, Manchester to repair it as it always goes wrong again. The new computer editing desk arrives tomorrow morning, the new showroom will start to take shape as we then move in the tape media cabinets. Then we can start to move around to get the old office decorated and new shelving installed as well as a new packing table, the whole thing should give us more space. I checked 'remarks' on Youtube while uploading, mostly thanks and praise but one nasty message, as usual some weirdo who worships hard and menacing 'music' and plays with computers all the time.

I've got the stock to take to Gaydon ready and it will is needs be fit into Mandys car although hopefully the van will be sorted before then. The garden here at No17 is looking stunning in the back and so happy at having a good watering from above.

What about the election results, I wonder if we'll end up having a civil war, Britian and Europe are moving to extremes everywhere, the fascists in Britain got the most votes but hopefully the democrats will be able to unite and fend off the zenophobes and racist nationalists. It is a can of worms opened by the Tories, the death of their party is surely a real home goal - they can't blame Labour or the Liberals for this one.

A really good weekend at Morecambe although it was of course tinged with annoyance at the latest in a chain of breakdowns with the most unreliable Volkswagen van ever. As it has to go back to the meain dealer in Manchester and is presently at Kwik Fit in Northwich we'll have to get hold of the RAC to do the move on Tuesday as the dealership doesn't open other than standard working days, for those outside UK its a public holiday here on Monday. I managed to get the Stagecoach open day at Morecambe edited and ready to sell last night and managed to shift 66% of the stock made so we've a few left for the initial run of orders. The weather today was abysmal to start although yet again not a drop had fallen in our garden. We had set up the stand last night so after a quick brew it was outside to see the early bus arrivals including the unloading of the eldest exhibits.

The Morecambe Football Stadium was a superb venue and really worked well other than getting the stock up to the 1st floor in a tiny lift but they did us all proud with on urn ready all day for brewing up. It hurled it down and the wind howled, I managed to keep the cameras dry and got shots of most arrivals and then later in the day caught up with a couple I missed and then as the sun finally broke through in the afternoon got the company vehicles with commemorative liveries on the promenade and buses on the various free shuttle services.

The organisation was efficient without being heavy handed and over marshalled, just right. We met many old and new friends and bumped into folk we'd not seen for a while. Sales came out quite well by the end of the day, the new Ribble book from MDS next to us obviously soaked up a lot of peoples money at £38 a go. Anyway we managed to get packed up and bid the usual round of good byes, it was a bit of a blast from the past working from an ordinary family car, perhaps we've gone full round now. So other than the van lots of events coming up, we'll be at Gaydon for the vintage trucks in a couple of weeks time even if using the car again and attending the Kelsall event as a punter. The Kirkby running day is next Sunday which I hope to get to.

Plenty of editing to do, a nice long running DVD will come from today's coverage, still got the Folkestone film to do and Crawley. Anyway I'd better crack on, here are the first batch of shots from a wild, windy but friendly day celebrating 100 years of Ribble Motors at Morecambe. Here we go a double dollop as a treat!

We set out in good time this morning with the PMP sales stock in the van and had passed over the Mersey canal viaduct on the M6 and then coming up to the M62 junction the fuel injector went for the fith time and the van has only done 44k since new and is specially adapted for Mandy to drive with all hand controls. We purchased Volkswaghen as we expected something reliable but at about 9000 miles per breakdown to has been a horror story. We limped off the motorway and managed to get back home via Warrington at slow speed, thankfully there aren't too many hills around here. Then we loaded a basic amount of DVD stock into Mandys Honda Jazz and then took the van to Northwich to the garage and then started out again for Morecambe. By now the weather had gone downhill and was wet for most of the afternoon.

It was a good show at the Stagecoach depot although the Arriva commemorative bus was parked poorly for photography, was that on purpose?  I managed to get an hour of film and will have the DVD on sale tomorrow at the Ribble Centenary show at the football stadium in Morecambe, we are nice and cosy with a reasonable selection of recent stock although not the cheapos we couldn't fit in the car. The stand is on the first floor and it is warm and dry something you may be glad of if the rain hits in the morning. A warm welcome however awaits you and all sales of the DVD Bus Spot Ultra Lancaster with Morecambe will help get the PMP Film Archive van back on the road. We saw lots of friends at the open day and look forward to seeing even more tomorrow. The disc for the open day DVD is ready to copy and I'll now get the cover made, phew!!

Always great to see the back,of a Tory prime minister this one was as bad as Cameroons who created the mess, May took on a cause she detested just to become prime minister. The chances are a Tory elected leader will be worse than May and polarise the country around the extremes. I would guess that results from the EU election Sunday night will demonstrate the drift to the extreme candidates, there were parties and people on the ballot paper who I had never heard of. Perhaps if Lord Sutch was still screaming the Monster Raving Luney Party would have said its time had come.

I popped up to Lymm services this morning and got a swift DVD worth of film but of course there is so much happening this weekend that I've had to concentrate obn getting ready or Morecambe. I've got lots of the new DVD rerady and all the recent DVD releases are in stock. I'll be filming the Stagecoach running/open day and then in the evening setting up the PMP stand at the football stadium ready for the main Sunday event although the weather outlook isn't that good. Thankfully we shall be inside.

I've edited two of the DVDs from the five lots of film we took in Kent and Sussex, already done but no cover at the moment is Canterbury and Dover docks. next will be Brighton, then Crawley and finally Ashford and Folkestone. We thought for a short while that I'd lost the memory card with the Ashford and Folkestone fiolm but after searching high and low it was in Mandys car  boot.  Lets keep it simple tonight and concentrate on the Kent scenes as we move to Folkestone and then Ashford. On Monday we'll be starting to get the new showroom ready for the arrival of the computer corner desk and start to move editing to the new location then put all the tape media cabinets down the side of the room, the large display cases will then be constructed above them, about 11 ft long. The other side will be shallower cabinets but 18ft long.

I've done quite a bit of gardening, the back garden has never looked so good in late spring but its very dry. We finished delivering the leaflets for decorate a gate in commemoration of 750 years of Lower Peover church, St Oswalds. I've painted the gate we are using in the front island border and also tidied up the bird bath whiole I had the paint out.

We are now busy getting lots of lovely copies of the 120 minutes Bus Spot Ultra Lancaster ( with Morecambe) ready for the official launch at the Ribble 100 rally at Morecambe football ground on Sunday. We shall be inside so even if the weather breaks you can come and get your copy and take a look at the many other recent releases from the PMP Film Archive. If you want to be 100% sure of your copy of the Lancaster DVD why not ask beforehand and I'll put one aside or you will find it is already on the PMP shop. Lots of domestic tasks completed today, its pub night but I'll try and make a start on editing the new films from Kent and Sussex. After Canterbury we carried on to Dover dock and nearby and this provides tonights slide show.

We are busy making copies of the Lancaster Bus Spot DVD and getting recent sales stock updated and all in the van ready to set up, in addition to present day stock we'll have the amazing stock clearance sale with 5 DVDs for just £20 from the special selection. Remember you can buy the past years output on digital downloads at just £8 each.

Missed us over the past two days? We've been down in Kent and Sussex and have material for 5 new DVDs featuring Canterbury, Dover Docks for trucks, Folkestone and Ashford, Brighton and Crawley. First today I'm editing the final parts of the new Bus Spot Ultra on Lancaster ready to launch at Ribble 100 on Sunday at Morecambe and then get the cover done and make a start on all the new programmes, hopefully they will all be ready for the weekend. We'll be out and about with the camera on the Saturday for the Stagecoach open day and then setting up Saturday evening at the football ground ready for the rally on Sunday thus giving us maximum time to soak up the atmosphere and get the best never to be repeated shots at the rally and running day at what promises to be a terrific weekend. I see there are a couple of reruns of the event in the Lakes and at Heaton Park later on. The weather looks dry Saturday but showers on Sunday thankfully we are under cover and no tent to put up. If you want to be certain of picking up the new Bus Spot best give me an email as I'm only bringing 20 copies along and if its like the Big Orange at Boyle St they'll sell out on the day although they'll be on the shop plus the digital download at just £8. Great to see so many people are now using this facility. I'll give you two slide shos today with another one this evening. Shots of the new showroom before anything went in and after the carpet was laid.

Photos from Canterbury