We visited Orpington and Kingston upon Thames today and finished up at Uxbridge, I thought at first it was third time lucky but the cloud turned to rain and I had hassle with a group of youths. Gave up, deleted Uxbridge from my to do list, there are plenty of other places to cover - I just don't need the aggravation so it joins the likes of Loughborough as places not to touch with a barge pole. Some shots from Essex to start at Colchester. Plenty of editing to be getting on with. My back problem has now moved to the hip. hobbling around a bit and night time is hell wake every time I try to move. If I can manage it I want to get cracking caulking the shelf unit frames. All the shelves are stored ready in the shed.

Even allowing for a major accident and closure of the a14  we managed a quick diversion and got to Cambridge and traffic to Colchester was fairly light. I filmed at Colchester, it was warm and sunny, then on to Chelmsford slightly overcasts but temperature had risen to 26c. Next and last was Southend then back along Essex coast to the Dartford crossing, traffic chaos the opposite direction but our hotel is overlooking the bridge and an island of tranquility amidst the inferno of the M25. Tomorrow we'll be covering locations south of London dependent on looking up weather in detail.

Two days on the road coming up, I was down in Shrewsbury spending lunch with a friend from the OTA and collecting some old cine to inspect and log details of contents and in the process convert to a digital copy. We are leaving early tomorrow and filming at Colchester Southend and Chelmsford then staying overnight in Dartford and then covering areas to south of London several possibles such as Bromley, Orpington,Croydon, Kingston we'll just play it be ear and see how we get on. Back home Saturday night. Monday I'll be caulking the shelf units and getting ready to paint and trim the shelves to precise sizes. Anyway next blog Saturday night or more likely Sunday morning!

A wet day which is what was promised so glad I had already decided to use it as a catch up day. All covers are made to date and ditto DVDs, I've filed the master covers and copies plus started on sorting out the last two weeks still photo haul. The orders have started flowing through post bank holiday weekend.
I Went to the builders merchants in Northwich and got all the shelves required for the new room, this meant a lot of timber but at least the professional places charge and small percentage of B&Q rip off rates for this sort of thing. The shed is now full of timber, not a drop of rain shall touch it after we lost nearly all the actual shelf pieces I'd recovered from the old units. The cost of this stage was £179, we were amazed that although cut to size as promised they did it all by hand, at least I've got an electric saw for final trimming to size. We'll paint the shelving before installing it, a mass of caulking to go before I reach that stage but its looking good, here is a shot taken yesterday, remember it will be painted white most of this was recycled. There is another section out of shot to the left. The square door is to the electric consumer unit which I'll have to build round.

Here are the latest DVD covers, all going on the shop tonight if my energy last out long enough.

Back to the filming today, the weather dictated the direction of travel and east was best for heat and sunshine although i didn't want to be going all the way south so the spot I'd tried last winter where the A1 links up with several roads near Newark on Trent seemed ideal and a gamble which paid off in style as it was more or less non stop lorry action including two classic Fodens hard at work still. It looks as if we will be heading down south at the weekend with Friday and Saturday to sweep up more of the locations either around London or in Hampshire.

We need to sit down and pencil in some concerts for the autumn season and I'll hopefully get the Indonesian trip booked tomorrow. After the work building the basis for the shelving in the new room I'll be taking advantage of being local tomorrow and call at the builders merchant in Northwich and see what they can offer by way of timber. Roughly speaking the footage of shelving 272 foot of shelf space in the first 50% of the wall space. The next section will be a large display space for more free standing dioramas or grouping for displays. Anyway without further ado here are some shots from todays outing at Newark.

An exhausting four days cracking on with the shelf units in the new study. display room. This afternoon I had a grand tidy up having completed the framework and then the next stage caulking out the joints and then undercoat and top coat and painting shelves before sticking in place, they are supported by doweling studs. As there was so much damage to the stored timber salvaged from the old display units when we had the floods I've had to put aside a lot of the lengths which otherwise would have been selves. Thus I'm going to have to by a fairly large number, saving on cutting to size myself as they are a standard 48" length, I've packed each section to bring it down from 49". I'll price up on the net and then try the builders merchants in Northwich who were so helpful with the sheets of hard board.

I'm just going to get the DVD orders prepared to send out in the morning, I'm hoping to have a filming day tomorrow but any hopes of this area seem to have faded as rain looks set in after lunch and much of Wednesday as well so I'll be looking to the east. Pretty shattered but still found residual strength to get the lawns mowed after sweeping the drive and paths and vacuuming up the offices. This week I need to make a start on booking Indonesian trip for October. I think I might have missed one of the destinations covered recently  but I cant remember which so you get Luton whether you have already seen it or not, fingers crossed we have new material tomorrow. Thursday I'm picking up some film to revue and digitise from the Online Archive , hopefully I'll get my new cine scanner in time to use to make copies.

My bad back came to a crescendo yesterday after shelf building all day but closing the blind in the bedroom last night the disc popped back in so just took a couple of paracetamol  this morning and although very stiff and aching it has seen me through both church this morning and then shelf building from 12.30-17.45 ish. I'm scraping the barrel a bit on timber but the units Elton chucked out of next door have come in handy and I should have the whole of the carcass for the units done tomorrow and then start on caulking up to smarten and get that built in look and then it will be the shelving. The shelves are 48" and I've got the makings of a lot, the unfortunate thing is the spaces are 49" but I'll put a spacer upright in as it would be criminal after all this recycling to have to go and by fresh timber.

This morning I did manage to make the DVD of Milton Keynes and updated the PMP list on this site plus got a couple of digital downloads ready and last night got the PMP adverts ready for the magazines. THe online orders are ready to be posted on Tuesday. No word yet on the ribble 100 do at Boyle St regarding having a stand there, if not I'll either go to film or just carry on with the shelf units. I reckon what I'll have when perspex doors are fitted is room for 700 buses of trams etc and then when the bigger display cases is completed the rest of the collection should be soaked up and perhaps room for a couple of non model collections such as the remainder of the Goss and crested giftware for East Sussex and Mandy's mothers collection of tea spoons. I've got all the Ukraine photos filed and ready to go on the Smugmug site. Lets have another look at some of the lorries I saw this year. Tuesday if its sunny I'll film at Trafford Park in Manchester. I'm looking ahead to Essex and Hampshire and outer London area as time permits over the coming weeks.

Living with back problems is something I've had to get used to over many decades, today it is medium bad as yesterday the disc popped in and out and was a few extra seconds out than usual which is enough to trigger the immune responses which cause most of the problems including being in agony and bent over, tonight after clearing up the shelving debris and locking up we finally sat down with a drink and a tramadol or two. Actually it is great to be able to rise to your feet  and not be stooped, I react well with this medication which taken very infrequently is always instant well almost instant relief from pain. Many habitual back problem sufferers and of cause many more people with a variety of co0ndirtions live in fear of the pain relief being denied all because of people abusing the drugs and the desire to save money and nanny knows best from a health system dominated by money.

The NHS alone is one huge mega company  up there with Indian railways for staffing. Since the Tories came back to haunt us they have withdrawn funding for multiple diseases and conditions yet when they or their families get something they are so anxious to share their suffering  and show how ordinary they are. This whole attitude is well documented in Sir Bert Massey's biography which is mostly his own words and finished off by his wife after his recent death. Mandy has really found so much to emphasize with as a fellow polio survivor. We met Bert several times as he was our Polio Fellowship Group president , one of his lesser undertakings.

Actually it brought it home to me that there are an awful lot of bullies out there, watching the news this evening and thinking of the democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong it is sad to see that China can do little other than be a new world order dictatorship. I enjoy the many freedoms that you do get in China, lack of crime and social harmony as the government likes to promote it, it is true but there are so many negatives and most people even in this age of information receive a jaundiced view of events but then don't we all.

The shelves are progress8ing in the new office cum show room but slowly and not helped by being in pain most of the time. I should have the 'carcass ' finished tomorrow but then there is making good all spaces and gaps with caulk and then masses of shelves to cut and fit using doweling  plugs. I will hopefully have enough strength to get the Milton Keynes DVD made tomorrow, trailer on Youtube plus there is already a backlog to put on Youtube and I need to look after this as its becoming very popular. Anyway all I can manage after typing is a few more photos this time from Aylesbury. Remember please do come and say hello if you spot me out and about!

I'll try and remember to do a few photos as I progress through the next stage of the new office cum showroom and a hot day for it and more over the holiday weekend. Fairly exhausted after a hard day getting construction started, even with the room plaster boarded first it still isn't level, so a good job I offer up the components to double check fit and I've got plenty of builders caulk to fill in any gaps. I started at B&Q but they didn't even have the hard board sheets so got them at a builders merchants I'd never really noticed, it is next to the canal boat yard and was very helpful but fitting five 8x4 sheets in the van with all our stock already in took a bit of doing. I was under way with the new electric saw but its instructions were either in half Chinese English or missing so got videos of how to fit the blade on the internet. The first 8 feet will be in two sections, the first being my learning curve for the rest. There will be a lot of making good but fingers crossed I get all the installations done on one side ready to order up the perspex for the doors.

I did manage to get the three DVDs from the Wednesday trip edited and trailers on Youtube but it was fairly quiet today for orders , many took what there was to the post office, did the banking and got some washing done. If the hot weather stays as good as they hint for Tuesday in Manchester I'll get some truck film done at Trafford Park. Another dose of pictures from the 'southern' trips of which more to come over the next couple of weeks, I'll also be booking tickets for our Indonesian trip in October. If we get a few seconds we'll have a look at concerts to book for autumn. Tonights slide show from Stevenage.

Another early start, Milton Keynes from rush hour through to about 11am then on to Aylesbury after a major detour to NT Waddesden Manor which for lunch was a bad choice as they only had outdoor seating and it was wasp central, you even got a bus ride from the car park to the house which was fine with Mandys wheelchair, actually the best bit of the visit, really we would have been better off at Starbucks for a brew. Time was against us, not sure what I'll do with Aylesbury stuff I got maybe stick it on with MK. Anyway time against me, new front, we will probably be purchasing a cine film scanner now that one is made at realistic price rather than the £100k for the one that does every size fairly fast and at a great resolution, a few compromises and niggles with the Chinese machine but it should do a better job than tele cine transfer. anyway time is short, hoping to start on the shelving in the display room tomorrow through the bank holiday. Some shots from MK this morning.