The second photo on my 'new' Cannon G16, at least it is a bus that I'd have possibly ravelled on we did several excursions  on Southdown with her, hoping I wasn't more hindrance than help and everyone seemed to know what they are doi9ng. It will of necessity be a bit of a different open day and running day not by our own choice but we think you'll find it just as good, maybe even better who knows. So what was the first shot, now thats a secret which will be revealed Sunday evening when we have the end of show evening.

We do have a logo for PMP which many of you might or might not have spotted, here it is.

I'm over at Kirkby tomorrow to help with the setting up for our open and running day Sunday, on Saturday I'll be at Boyle Street in Manchester for their 2nd instalment of Manchester 200th anniversary of the first bus service. It has been no less hectic  day after day, when one thing goes wrong there always seems to be a few more to follow. The trip to the pub tonight is more than welcome. I had a quick visit this afternoon from Roger Turner to sort out some potential probs with the looked film for the display on D-Day at St Oswalds, They have done a huge tableaux on the village green of a landing craft and soldiers coming ashore.  Then our friend Linda popped round and we've rescheduled a social evening ( piss up?)  until a little later as we all seem to have our plates full. While Mandy is in Ireland next week I'm heading to the North East to cover a region I never got to last year, later we'll get to S West, Kent and North Wales. The weather has been so against filming this year and no sits in the garden although Mandy managed a couple while I was busy getting robbed in Belgium.

Anyway enough of all that yet another dip into the Spencer archive on the event of our 50th wedding anniversary.

One of Mandy's family was a fairly well known photographer who married into the Hardy family, their studio was a Brookes Bar right outside their place, obviously early on the scene with colour ( only joking I've colourised it). Suits the 200th anniversary of Manchester's buses, this photo is not on display there!

A photo from my collection at Chorlton cum Hardy, notice the telephone boxes, the concrete ones were mainly used for cities and didn't last long, I think just 2 survive in situ.

I hasten to add that these are from really tatty black and white prints colourised and enhanced, not the most flattering of photos I know but as they say they were strange times, what's that Dave was puffing at then?

Working on some rather poor cine but really interesting content circa 1961 includes brief scenes from Eastbourne, Cheltenham & Dist, Southampton, Silver Star , H&D, Eastern National etc. Meanwhile yet another dip into the past 50 years celebrated 28th June 2024 since Dave and Mandy married in Manchester

As hoped or expected there were quite a few delivery drivers arriving, so if I use my old Billingham camera bag for a couple of weeks as the supplier of my new one is on holiday I've already got a tripod, new still camera, 2 replacement videos, pic, batteries. Enough memory cards kicking around to see me through until order arrives. Even got my new brolly today. All of which is good but we had to go to the bank and unscramble my current account which I'd used instead of the business account. The afternoon went booking the car hire for Albania and getting our car insurance wrapped up in  a new policy which gives a lot more cover including all the house car and contents and any damage with many items covered world wide, you could say I should have claimed for the stolen items but I wanted to feel I'd mover on which I really have. The weather hasn't gone away though, another day of rain all the time but temperature has risen a little. New advert for Buses, you see it here first.

Yet another reminder for the NWVRT open and running day on Sunday and a reminder that my replaced kit will be in action at Manchester on Saturday.

And as if you haven't guessed another 50th wedding anniversary collection of photos from those 50 glorious years.

It has been good having something to get my teeth into getting home early and the robbery etc, seemed like all the plans were going up the creek but really I'm on top of it. I've been working through some more of the donated material which was passed to John Bishop, its not material I've scanned before albeit quality overall is a bit iffy to say the least. I'm just putting the Sussex film through the NEAT process so it is all sparklingly clean and sharp. I've dedicated it to Dick Gilbert who died last year, he ran the skyline aviation website which had the best and most up to date calender on it. Thankfully the baton has been passed on with the blessing of his family. Dick was born in South london like me, he moved to Eastbourne like me, he went to Eastbourne Grammar school like me, he served in the Royal Observer Corps like me, he was in an adjacent post, Willingdon I think, he loved buses like me and worked in the aviation industry with small airlines, I was involved with Casair when in Ireland it was sold on to Danair. We got to know each other through the website, Dick was 5 years older which is why we never met when we were younger.

Anyway that's sad stuff out the way, Mandy and I continue our 50 glorious years of our marriage coverage with some more photos through the years. Please come and meet us both at Kirkby on Sunday next, it promises to be better weather and loads to see and ride on.

Thunder is rolling around outside, how very bank holiday it is, glad I have nothing planned, today I should have arrived in Luxembourg but thank goodness Martin and myself were unscathed and it was my first robbery in all the years of globe trotting. Well the latest archive which required a small bit of colourisation is making progress and covers a wide swathe of interests. I've delved into some of the collections John Bishop and I acquired over the years there is quite a lot of rubbish but I've a few unseen Southdown and Brighton shots not all being long in fact many quite brief but it adds to the total. Anyway lets hope next weekend is a lot better and we shall be at Kirkby next Sunday for the NWVRT running and open day. Next Saturday which is of course the best day to go we'll be at the second of the Manchester bus museums 200th anniversary of Manchester buses. The rain is now tropical the thunder and lightening overhead, hail now covers the garden. As we head towards our 50th wedding anniversary another dip into those 50 glorious years!

Well all my ducks are in the air and hopefully a series of delivery vans next week will see me up and running before the busy weekend ahead. I'm still hoping to follow that swiftly with a trip to the North East which I missed altogether in 2023. We are still getting neighbours coming round to offer support following the news of our misadventures but everyone is of one accord that I should just carry on as it is the first time anything has happened in a life time of overseas travel. I've been getting scenes assembled for the next archive film which will cover Sussex with multi forms of transport featured but will include buses of course. The weather has remained cloudy and windy but I did get a huge amount of weeding done in the back garden. Anyway with such an enormous archive to draw on lets celebrate happy day in Sussex with a random pot pourri of shots and remember a week tomorrow we should all be at Kirkby. We are also heading very rapidly to our 50th wedding anniversary.

Some of the Sussex shots are from our friend John Bishop, also to note that my friend and fellow traveller Martin has sent still photos taken on our erstwhile Belgian trip.