A busy day as ever with a lot done including a lot of hours spent on the paintwork in our main bedroom which is now more or less finished save putting everything back in place after the paint has dried tomorrow. First thing I managed to trim up the covers for the last tranche of DVDs and get them filed and put several on digital download. We are now working on editing the films from our trip to the Sth West last week and this provides our photo section this evening with shots from Plymouth. I'm hoping that the weather will allow some work in the garden tomorrow as well as reinstating our bedroom. The next big job and the one I've been waiting for is the display cases for our new room aka the old garage. I've a couple of jobs to do first electric sockets in our bedroom to save clambering under the bed and an extension lead socket in the display room to allow electrics at the front end. I'm almost half way through editing the Devon and Somerset DVDs, so lots to go on the shop. A double selection of views tonight with latest DVDs and shorts from Plymouth.

A great meal at the Halle restaurant last night and then the RNCM symphony orchestra playing Rachmaninov's Symphony No2 with Elim Chan conducting. The concert also featured a world premiere and Like Jones at the piano with Ravel's Piano Concerto for left hand. We caught up with some tele before bed and then woke to another full day of concerted decorating with both ceiling and walls of our bedroom finished and the window surrounds and wrinkled paper sorted and restored.  Managed a few minutes between hot showers indoors and out at 4pm to 5 in the garden, my shoulders ache but other than general tiredness the work does get the better of the arthritis . Raining outside yet again, some watering that I won't need to do, it's like a hot tap coming on its so muggy. Looking ahead at possible fuilming opportunites and will try and catch the countryfile BBC weather on Sunday.

I hope to try and catch up with the DVD covers and listing on our shop, always so much to do. Anyway I've put a few clips of Carlisle and Kelsall lorries on Youtube, still no word from them on our monetisation for the Youtube PMP channel its been more than the estimated month now. Our media suppliers are putting together a new duplicater for DVD's , awaiting a refund on the broken one I got on EBay. Meanwhile photos from Exeter.

All DVD orders sent out today and a few niggles arisen , the 'new' DVD duplicator purchased via EBay was a duffer, certainly not new and didn't work sent rattling around a big all box and no instructions, packing etc and damaged, scratched so now on its return journey. Riveira Media in Yorkshire have enough parts around to make us one up next week, they did send the wrong DVD covers, we'd not opened up the boxes because of the office refurb and when we did after using last cover we found them to be wrong. The replacements will be here Monday and I'll take the others back when the copier is ready and perhaps tie in with some filming in Yorkshire.

we've now cleared out our main bedroom and taken rubbish to the tip in the van, a lot less hidden under the bed now. I'll do the ceiling tomorrow morning then concentrate on remedial work on the crinkled lining paper and problems with damp around the replacement,  triple glazed, windows. We picked up another large tub of matt white paint and  plastic sheets to cover the bed which is too big to do anything more than a few inches shifted to allow painting access. The weather going forward beyond next week which has St Oswalds 750th celebration, fete and flower festival diesn't look great but Wednesday is a possible for Belfast on a day trip by air. Some more shots from the South West trip, I'll start editing between painting etc and the Kelsall DVDs are ready , all 6, need to make covers though.

We have just got home after the short film trip to Dorset, Devon and Somerset which went just about to plan. We started in Bournemouth then on to Poole staying overnight at Wetherspoons in Bridport then on to Exeter and on to Torquay and then down to Plymouth staying overnight at a lovelt inn at Moretonhamptead  on Dartmoor. Then today we drove up to Barnstaple and acreoos to Taunton finishing at Bridgwater which was really a dead loss but otherwise we did well considering that so many rural bus services have vanished. Both First and Stagecoach in the west looked awful and in Plymouth even rush hour failed to produce many buses and the road works were causing chaos but made parking easier.  Just going to sit down with a coffee, we'll clear DVD orders in the morning then start clearing our bedroom for redecoration and I'll get the rubbish to the tip. Still editing Kelsall , I think I have two to do and then 6 from this S West trip. Photos from a cool damp Bournemouth on Tuesday.

A catch up day after the marvelous but exhausting Kelsall rally over the weekend. Today I got a couple of bathroom fittings strengthened as they kept wobbling, got the bird feeders filled yet again, got some photos filed, got some Kelsall film edited, did some gardening, got ready for our trip to the South West etc. We are filming at Bournemouth, Poole, Weymouth, Exeter, Plymouth, Barnstaple, Taunton and Bridgewater. Remember to come and say hello if you spot us. I won't bother blogging on the road as it always seems to get messed up working on an ipad. I'll get all the DVD orders cleared on Friday, we arrive back home late Thursday evening.

Friday marks our Sapphire wedding anniversary, thats 45 years, we shall be at the end of term RNCM concert at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester with a pre concert meal at the Halle restaurant. This coming weekend we shall start decorating the main bedroom using the now empty but decorated small bedroom for furniture removed for the work. Hoping to get this finished by the Monday. We'll be looking at the weather for Ireland, East of England, South Central, Aberdeen and Jersey. I've got some photo files tided up and filed away a lot more to do. Meanwhile some more shots from Kelsall

It certainly wasn't as hot and sunny but the numbers held up and yesterday there were about 4000 visitors and the tally is about 700 lorries have attended. Today the departures started around 3pm and I covered them until it has considerably thinned out and only a trickle were leaving. I guess a good few were either staying overnight or waiting until traffic cleared. Anyway thats two really long days and masses of film to edit. This week we'll be concentrating on bus film probably the same for the week after and coming up will be another stab at getting to Ireland for both buses and lorries. More shots from Kelsall.

The meteoric climb to success has taken a logarithmic stride and the event has reached enormous proportions and attendance  egged on by wonderful hot sunny dry weather saw the grounds packed although not so many public wander to the ERF and Foden fields and beyond. The ERF content continues to be astronomic and by comparison I thought the Foden content with seats and stands in front of the most obvious lorries which in the ERF line up mark the perimeter was little but snooty, cigar puffing toffs compared with grafters over the 'road'. There was a large presence of Northern Irish lorries and loads down from Scotland and people from not only Britain but from overseas such has the acclaim spread and what was perhaps an open secret is no longer concealed.

You could have fitted the lorries from Gaydon and Llandudno within  the Kelsall boundaries and still have room for more. I never got as far as the steamers or cars, perhaps tomorrow I'll sit at the ring for a while and then get the departures, I had 9 hours on my feet filming today, had to take a painkiller for the muscle pain at midday. Met several friends, missed others. Wonderful day, everything went so well looking forwards to tomorrow. Mandy had a sit in the garden this afternoon after Sue had gone. We have a sketchy plan for bus filming in the south Tues to Thurs. The Fri-Mon decorate our bedroom and then that just leaves me to get the cupboards made for my models and we can sit back and have a rest, some luck there I bet! Photos from today at Kelsall

A hard day today not too early a start but still outside by 8am mowing the lawns. For weather probably the best day of the summer so far in Lower Peover. It was a completion day for several things including getting almost everything set up in the PMP office other than the work top which has another week or so before delivery but other than that I managed with some cheap units from B&Q to get the rest of the kit back in the office and working including swapping the old dining table from Mandy's mum's place for the new corner computer table which I'm now typing from.

The other machines were the disc printer, general printer and the disc duplication copies and amazingly everything moved over worked just fine as we place each wire carefully through the lead portals in the desk top to the new sockets. Some tidying up of electrics required but mostly well out of sight. A second tier of machines from shredders to DVD player followed.

Then I cleared a long space atop the file cabinets with master tapes in the showroom and moved the thousand models buses, lorries and cars into their new home albeit boxed up but at least they are in the room the display cases will occupy. We also finished moving clothes and bedding back ijn to the family wardrobe in the small bedroom. Sue arrived before lunch and came with us to B&Q for the shelf units, I'm now planning to pint some white and use in the display cabinets when constructed, it will be a quick and cheap way to get things set up and I think repainted they'll lose their black cheapo looks.

A few boxes of 'stuff' for future sorting are littering the floor in the show room but some can go into the loft. Some shots I took this evening, the longest day with a clear sky no less, Tomorrow is due to be warm and sunny, shorts weather, at Kelsall lorry gathering and steam event near home, hoping to spend all day Sunday there as well then later say Tues/Wed/Thurs next week we'll be bus filming in South of England, precise destinations weather reliant. I'm also going to finalise the Ukraine trip hotels etc this coming week and make a start on the November Indonesia trip.

We are off to the Crown this evening for a couple of well earned pints  after another very long day on the office and associated moves. The small bedroom former editing suite now has a carpet and the Hardy family wardrobe restored and filled  and the room looks quite tidy. The last thing in there after patching up the paint on the wall, I curse whoever put that wrinkled lining paper on. The silicon filler has successfully sealed the lose lining paper, a realm messy job, getting through my box of 100 latex gloves. I've touched up the paintwork on the landing and painted the third bedroom door to finish it all off. I learned about carpet laying from one of my pals back in Eastbourne in the 1960's, I do however lack the correct tools.

Anyway the day ploughed on, the cleaners came early so we went to do food shopping at M&S near the airport and called at B&Q for some all purpose glue for our main bedroom walls and ceiling repaired, yes we are going to continue with the decorating right through to our room which is really desperate for a makeover. The lining paper is wrinkled and needs sorting. Otherwise fairly straight forward, we'll not put a bed into the small bedroom until we've done so we can stash stuff there from the main bedroom while we decorate. We called at John Lewes for a new office chair which comes next week, the blinds for the new showroom got damaged in transit so are now being remade after being forgotten, its taking about a month and the window is quite tiny.

I hope to get the main office desk up in place tomorrow and then when I know the precise gap between it and the shelf units I can see if a cheap shelf unit from B&Q will fit to take the printer, DVD printer and DVD duplicators. This weekend is Kelsall, I'll be there aws long as the weather is good, certainly Saturday perhaps Sunday if it stays good long enough ore rain on its way. If there is a break in the weather next week we'll have a couple of days away filming eith South, S West or East depending! Our friend Sue is staying over tomorrow, trying to get some normality before she arrives, I'll get some photos on as soon as it looks presentable, the work surface is due next Friday. Here is a taste of Kelsall 2018

a long tiring day but we've almost got the small bedroom finished just need to touch up one of the colours and then return furniture, we need to buy a single bed for the room. I also managed to get the new corner computer desk assembled but not fitted as yet, ran out of time and Mandy banned me from doing any more today. I'm going to have a look for tomorrow and see if there is anywhere feasible to do some bus filming. Some more shots from Carlisle.