After a much needed lay in this morning i was soon back at the grind stone and by tea time nearly all the DVDs have been burnt and all the covers are done and the new releases listed on our shop page on this site. All orders outstanding were sent off this morning. I'm already looking ahead to next week when I'm scheduled to go filming in Norfolk hopefully adding some truck material to the buses there. There will also be a heap of material to get uploaded to our Youtube channel. It's also only three weeks to go before i do my charity film show at Plumley village hall. Here are the covers for the new DVD releases We pick up where we ended with the long weekend trip at Herne Bay bus rally. The East Kent Centenary didn't really take off although vehicle attendance at the rally was as usual and there were quite a few East Kent buses plus Stagecoach supported the event with their heritage livery buses plus one of the new MMC vehicles. We did about the same as last year which was half that of previous years other than the great deluge event when we did almost nothing. It really throws up the question of whether both Herne Bay and Detling are sustainable to attend. Detling is the bigger event but sales are usually less than Herne Bay . I think we'll do Worthing rally next year as it's always done well for us, again other than the great deluge there. We've rationalised the rallies already this year with much less on the calendar but we may swap some around to get better coverage across the country. Two in Scotland seem a duplication as many customers are the same at each and the great price hike at Glasgow really knocked this event for six. We've stuck with Lathalmond as we've supported it over many years rather than go to Gaydon bus event. We've still not booked for Showbus which still asks silly money for even the cheapest of stands. A reality check is needed for some of the organisers, it's easier to stay at home and work on the net although it doesn't produce any film which in turn does promote events. Anyway it was a super day with sun throughout the afternoon and here are some stills. Another advantage of the rallies is the ability to catch up with friends which we did on Sunday night when our friend Mike came along and shared some memories with us, our fathers were great friends in the days of the Sussex Yeomanry TA band. I hope that they are looking down at our meetings with satisfaction that we try to keep their talent and friendship alive. Tomorrow we have Mandy's hospital tests in Liverpool. Thankfully I've already broken the back of many tasks in hand.
We've masses to report on, the trip to Kent and Sussex was blessed with great weather, mainly sunny every day and quite warm, it was a shock tonight getting out of the van at Lower Peover, goose pimples straight away. I suppose I need to rewind right back to the start with our journey down on Friday when we stopped off at High Wycombe and then went on to pay a very over due visit to Aylesbury where the traffic was like a race at le Mans, awful spot wouldn't want to live anywhere near there. Drivers must be on speed and all so angry, constant tooting at each other, three lanes abreast in their BMWS and that's just to the paper shop. Well High Wycombe produced a very nice meet with Malcolm Crowe where we managed to exchange observations between bus photography. Malcolm spent his early years living very near as in Cheshire although with the new by pass on the A556 I don't think he would be able to identify much in Mere. He took a shot of me in action, very rare so here you go and thanks Malcolm. No hassles at all filming there although still photography isn't that easy with the direction of the sun. So lets see what I did manage to get still shots of. Next some shots taken at Aylesbury in the afternoon, I only got 30 minutes at Aylesbury so this footage will join an hour at High Wycombe in a nice long running DVD. I'm downloading all the films tonight and all orders received over past few days will go off tomorrow, there weren't that many, guess it's holiday time now. Off to bed now! We are really looking forward to Yes it's all action now through to the autumn and hopefully we'll have lots of super film to bring you, after all there are some ultra regulars who have missed their weekly rations while I've been plodding the foot paths of northern England this past couple of weeks. Astute customers will have noticed releases of non transport topics such as our coverage of constructions in the 1960-70s. This will be followed by some aircraft material which I've started downloading today. Time now though is against me and the van is nearly ready with lots of super stock and masses of East Kent photos and our East Kent RCC centenary special offers with locals DVDs at £10 each. We've been looking at the calendar and will concentrate on the British Isles for now and then pick up with some more amazing exotic locations after Christmas. We intend visiting Norfolk mid August and then at the end of the month after the bank holiday if the weather is suitable a four day bask at trucks.. After Heaton Park rally at Manchester at the beginning of September we'll be visiting the North East and mid month a trip to Ireland. I'm keeping our plans vague for the rest of September until family commitments have been scheduled but there are plenty of great trips we'll fit in. At the end of Sept there is Donington Showbus followed by Dublin City Rally and another week on the Big Orange at Boyle St where we have been invited to have a stall and show films. A trip to our regular retreat in Piccardy is possible at the end of Oct. So lots to look forwards to including more on London this weekend plus Sussex early next week. Let the sunshine on us, I've got my shorts and sandals packed. I was hoping for a photo to share but it's vanished in the void of inter space so lets thing, I know Sussex next Monday / Tuesday lets take a dip in the archive there. There is an amazing clip on the net of Eastbourne in 1946 includes a brief shot of buses still in wartime livery.We are looking forward to being down in dear old Sussex I miss the sea air and pebbles on a beach, all that sand gets where you don't want it. http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-eastbourne-1946-1946/ I think the thing that scares me more than ISIS etc is the fact that the cops in the UK can now wander around like real robocops with their faces hidden and guns coming out of their backsides. One thing we used to hold on to was that whatever anyone did to Britain we tried to carry on as normal, yes all that keep calm and carry on stuff was the real world back in 1939. It's all a bit like this EU stuff, anyone heard a work about it lately, I don't think it even manages a place in the papers now. With a wannabe Maggie Thatcher in government and dreams of being as mad as Thatcher it's a grim reality if we paused to think about it, so best not perhaps and let it flow by. The wind is certainly flowing by here at a rapid rate. I think it's taken most of the week to get over the walk, today I managed to get all the photos edited and timelined to produce a DVD which may even raise a few extra pennies fr the toilet at St Oswald's kitty. Some people wonder why the C of E does't just cough up but Chester diocese doesn't get any help for that sort of thing the top dogs think we are too rich already. Of course as with anywhere that is averaging out the truth with conceals great inequalities. I also got another construction film made and on to DVD, cover done, I do need to list it on the shop. I'm looking at other compilations I can make with all the film accumulated. I really need to get some more of the old cine copied plus I've about 120 items to relist on EBay which itself seems in the doldrums due to school hols and the football etc. Why with all those blesses rubbish channels do they still insist on putting sport on main stream channels. OK I don't really like sport , I don't care about it, if people can't just enjoy playing a game and the best person wins and they have a pint or cuppa to celebrate that sounds enough to me. Once when the opposite football side got a really good goal even their opposition would politely applaud. Now its all swearing, violence and racism. A friend asked if I had one competitive bone in my body on the walk, I think competition has it's place but in how good a person we are, what we achieve, what we do, how we treat others. If that's all a race then I hope I can stick the distance. Regular readers will know that the email has been driving me mad the last couple of weeks, along comes Paul Minshull, computer services from Northwich, only he also run a garden centre and is a keen photographer. Not only does he succeed where BT failed to get my email sorted, it's now better than when than when it was first set up after the broad band arrived. We aren't finished, he didn't want payment, only asked that if I needed any plants go along to him at Blakemere. What a gent, what a star. We are getting ready for a long weekend down south, the forecast is looking good, should be trying west of London to get the least rain and most sun on Friday. Saturday it looks very sunny and we might treat ourselves to a National Trust day somewhere. Then Sunday the Eat Kent 100th at Herne Bay and Monday / Tuesday over in Sussex catching up with the places I once covered so intensely when visiting my mum in her last few years. Mandy has given the go ahead to offer some bargains at Herne Bay, all the reserved Kent stock will be going at just £10 a DVD, that day only. Second of dieting days today, always makes Thursday a good prospect! The 'walk' is fast becoming a fading memory, I've got the photos selected for a short DVD of the event which could then possibly be sold through St Oswalds to raise more money for the new toilet. ( actually not a new toilet as there isn't even an old one). Today I got several jobs on the go amongst which was get the photos trimmed up then I also made a DVD from some of the old construction films I've got which fits in with the 'saved from the skip' series I did quite a while back from 16mm films found down in Sussex. I popped down to the garden centre and got some plant food plus a couple of gap fillers for the back. Not a lot of post today but there was a fair bit sent out this morning. Back to our Tues / Weds dieting days. The computer service chap in Northwich is phoning tomorrow morning to see if he can fix the email problem. Subject to there being somewhere reasonably priced to stay we will probably be in Sussex for Sunday and Monday nights and thus the weekend programme now looks like Friday filming down around outer London, Saturday visiting NT properties in Kent, Sunday Herne Bay rally. Then Monday and Tuesday filming Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton, Worthing etc. It should be a good day at Herne Bay with the weather forecast still good, the whole car park given over to buses and perhaps we'll see some of you there. It's the 100th birthday for East Kent with Stagecoach sponsoring the rally and running day which is held in support of local charities such as the children's hospice. Lets have a look back at East Kent through some of my photos. It was satisfying to be able to turn over and try and catch a few more minutes sleep even coming up to 8am this morning. I suppose it's an anti climax situation now but it was also time to get back to outstanding jobs and none are as bad as trying to get your email fixed. All was well until we were struck by lightening a couple of weeks back while away and it knocked off our electricity ( nothing new there) plus played havoc with the BT Hub ( internet). Well I ended up on the phone all morning getting hold of BT support who are about as bad as Orange, no wonder they bought them up, soul mates I think. After all that time the BT chap gave up and said ring Orange or Outlook, I think it was desperation but of course when you as desperate you clutch at straws and these are the most flimsy straws there are. Anyway I've asked an IT repair chap from Northwich to have a look. I've had a go at getting the photos from the charity walk sorted, still quite a bit to go but if I don't do it now I never will, the moment as they say just passes. Mandy had to go out for a polio group committee meeting. I sorted out the DVD orders, got anything outstanding sorted. There are piles of 16mm cine film which need copying and listing on EBay, I've got the mini Dv tapes ready, the weather is well suited to indoor tasks here in Cheshjire, still more cold and rain but at least I don't need to water the garden. I had to remake a DVD from archive material, it had got scratched somewhere along the line and we had no usable copy . I have to go to docs for routine blood test Wednesday. We are nearly ready for the Herne Bay rally, I just need to run some copies off of recent Kent releases. If you can come along and see us next Sunday, even the weather looks as if it will be fine. A couple more shots from the walk to be going on with. |
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