It would be easy to think that Christmas might be low key this year but really it is probably more important to people than ever and that is why it is pervading the subdued consumer market. The garden centres have their full displays and Santa come off his furlough soon. I've got the November dated magazine adverts in place and as we head towards the beginning of October it has been an incredible month for us on Youtube with perhaps record breaking stats. Good that some things are going well then although the elephant in the room is the big hit we took on our property bonds where the company went bust, still not much we can do about that. Still waiting for the credit to come through from China ref the scanning machine, quick to take it slow to give it back.

The rain never stopped hammering down until this evening, damp and cold and windy as well. Tomorrow I hope to be filming at Mansfield and Chesterfield although both are hard to park in despite the lack of people in towns parking is still seldom easy. I have also managed to get the first in our new series down Your Way, inspired by the old BBC radio programme. It offers portmanteau visits to locations this time in Yorkshire dating between 1958 and 87, covers buses, trams,trolleys,trains. Should suit those with a wide interest in transport in all or particular areas. That took most of today to finally piece together. As with all our archive cine derived productions it will not go to Youtube, only video as they really don't like very old material as advertisers can't relate to it. We called at High Leigh garden centre, had tea and cake albeit dieting day. As we are in in Mansfield and Chesterfield here are some pictures from past visits. I'll get the editing done on Cambridge tomorrow.

We were up at 5.30 and it was a lousy damp dark morning to drive to Cambridge where we were heading on the back of the weather forecast for light cloud and dry and sunny later. I n the event it just rained all the time but I had my cheap Chinese brolly with me and it was just about enough cover although it is fairly horrendous using video, still camera and trying to keep under the umbrella. Lots to see, almost green allover now, plenty of the busway three axle jobs and after covering Cambridge we had a brief stop at Neots, very little bus activity and a bit better at St Ives. Cambridge was dead, the usual shut down shops all through the town, M&S lift broken- urban decay big time.  then coming back from St ives the A14 suddenly finished with no warning or diversion, we took ages to try and get in the right route by which time the school runs had started and gridlock around Godmanchester and Huntingdon.

Finally got on the A14 again and home not much after 6pm. Just three DVD orders today so nothing demanding to catch up with. The weather tomorrow looks wet everywhere so Mansfield and Chesterfield are on hold. I'll carry on editing a couple of archive films in the Down Your Way series under the Tickety Boo label, the first on West Yorkshire and the second will be Scotland with a mix of trams, trolleys, buses, trains etc. Anyway needless to say Cambridge is the focus for tonights slide show. I'll edit Cambridge when I've finished the archive feature.

The first frost of the autumn, very low temperatures last night and it still hasn't climbed into double digits. I'm going to try and take up the bedding plant on the one remaining front border and put in the winter violas which should take us to next summer, any bulbs will be in small clumps but some severe cutting back of rear borders is required  before I get that far but I got the back hedge trimmed yesterday and filled the bird feeders, I need to order more seed. I'm trying to get time to make progress on the Down Your Way production under the Tickety Boo production  label which is based on West and North Yorkshire with some superb footage of trams,trolleybuses, buses and preserved rail 1958-87. I just need time to site and concentrate for a while with no interruptions. We were very busy on the PMP DVD sales this weekend, the last few orders will go out when Mandy returns with some stamps shortly.

As we are intending to be in Cambridge tomorrow I thought I should whet your appetite with some scenes of past visit so here we go.

Sorry I couldn't get the blog done yesterday, time just ran away. I'm slowly getting together the material and resources to build the first diorama in the new display cabinet in our show room. This can be absorbing but time wasting if you get sidetracked. As you can see we haven't journeyed down to High Wycombe to watch the buses go by at Showbus, I think there are about 30 each way but the way they have assessed the risks is banal, take forty miles and divide by two metres equals 30 thousand people at safe distance whereas most will be where the stalls are and buses pause in the old market in town. This like Truckfest seems to fly in the face all all commonsense and at a vulnerable age I am not putting myself and Mandy at extra risk. When I'm out filming, I'm on my own and usually well away from others and that is the way it will stay. I'm not sure about the weather this week it is difficult to pick anything suitable but I'm sure we'll get something.

Under the Tickety Boo banner which means all the material is HD scanned from the old cine the new series Down Your Way recalls that old battle wagon of BBC radio when they descend on a town or region and interviewed people, we shall be bringing you the various modes of transport which will vary quite a lot. This first volume will concentrate on West and North Yorkshire with Trams, trolleybuses, buses and preserved rail covering the period 1958-1972. This next volume will be a different area with similar format. Also we hope to get going on the Bus Spot Ultra Series again. Lets have a loomk again at some more shots from the A50 last week, as good as it gets really for lorry coverage.

At the moment this weeks film locations are tentative with Cambridge/St Neots,St Ives on Tuesday and Mansfield and Chesterfield Wednesday. - could change if weather shifts!

A hard slog getting all these edited and covers put together but they are all ready to be sent out.

Lots of time used up but next I need to get digital downloads on the shop as we are a bit behind. We have been sorting our Irish tax out and doing a lot for the British Polio Fellowship, Mandy is branch chair and myself sec and communications. We are hoping to have an afternoon tea or lunch for our branch in October. Next some more bus views from Northern Ireland last week.

And here another slice of life on the A50 Uttoxeter Roundabout this week

My best shot this was taken in Belfast the wagon is from over the border in Donegal, very nice indeed

I was up to my eyeballs yesterday trying to straighten out the accounts with Weebly and Ebay. One customer sent a message on EBay that he had a problem ordering, it was after many hours on the phone and with support at EBay we eventually discovered it was the PMP shop he was having a problem with which turned out to be quite correct and it then take a little more time to hone in on the problem. It was quite a nasty one even for Weebly our web and shop host, they had been taken over by Square an American financial outfit. They were disabling peoples shops so they couldn't take payment cars ( paypal wasn't affected) and then recommended that you should disconnect from current payment facilitator and then reconnect. Guess what came up when you went to reconnect, yes Square the parent company. It was no point avoiding the inevitable and we were then up and running again before most people ever experienced a problem - what a bum outfit that Square must be, I'm sure their actions would be illegal under UK law, still with all the evil the bankers do it is hardly surprising and this is minnow wrong doing compared from their enormous criminal activity. No doubt all mates of Scraggy head Johnson and his wife's dubious family connections. So thus no blog last night but at least I was on top again other than the company we had property bonds in has gone bust and another huge chunk of our life savings has gone down the swanny river although thankfully some of my more profitable and perhaps less risky investments partially make up a little. The roller coaster economy that we are left and just to think come January the whole economy will be dashed against the rocks again by this nefarious government and the ill thought plans of Brexit voters.

Some interesting vehicles in Belfast as you can see, next a look at the buses

I'll leave more as time permits, we also got the web cam and mic so can take part in Zoom events and lokk into new ways of takling opportunities up within our Youtube channel. To end some Northern Ireland scenics these are in the lakes around Fermanagh

A busy day but I wanted to use the last day of warm sunny weather to best advantage so not wanting to go too far I decided on one of my all time favourite spots at Uttoxter roundabout on the A50. It is so busy now, I expect the new facility at East Midlands airport had added to the traffic, anyway the sun was spot on and super friendly drivers as always. I've got a lot of stuff to get through, I've edited the first of the Belfast truck DVDs and there should be a clip on Youtube this evening plus I've loaded another couple of Northern Ireland bus film clips. The Youtube channel is a little down than peak the week before, I think everyone is listening watching waiting to see what more of a total mess Scraggy head can make of the country.

I've never seen the country put in such jeopardy and the economy in ruins and then tell people to take some more time off and stay at home pottering in the garden aka work If we don't get a vaccine we shall have to learn to live with the virus like people have had to do in the past, we are not the super race we thought we were now push comes to shove, we have messed up the environment, screwed up the prospects for nearly every wild animal species and what are we left with. Scraggy head is without doubt the worst thing ever other than leaving the EU, how can people be so small minded that they have brought this upon us.It is a stepping stone to an authoritarian dictatorship and Britain a little feeble has been flung into the corner by a petulant child.

Meanwhile on the home front the cleaners are back Thursday which is great news and I suddenly found that we had a bond for quite a lot of dosh invested only trouble is the crash in property market has sent the company into a spiral, hoping that it and creditors can reform a usable entity and we get back some of our money, this is all in addition to the losses on the stock market which was starting to right itself until the latest scraggy head whammy.

I will remove the bits and pieces that have ended up on the new display cabinet shelves but I was that tired after doing it all I decided that could wait. We have a few ideas for an initial display with some of my Eastbourne commemorative gift ware from 100 or more ago and Mandy mothers teaspoon collection that we added to. These are things well hidden away which would enjoy an airing. I had lots of other stuff to get through today and generally speaking I'm  on top of stuff. I will be carrying on editing the Northern Ireland material lots more to come, tons of trucks as well as buses.

As well as DVD editing I've a few favours asked of us that I need to investigate and if the weather is suitable warm and sunny tomorrow for the last time this year I would like to get out and film lorries. Lots of bus destinations also lined up.

While we were away the PMP Youtube channel reached new heights with well over 90k hits on one day plus subscribers now poring in, it will be nice to get 100k. The general level of performance is good considering that the economy is dragging down the need for advertising. We are well on the way to heaven knows where but with a fair wind behind us and the help of all you wonderful people out there it will be great taking the journey together.

Trucks in Belfast last Friday morning, well I'm having a bit of a relax in front of the soaps tonight with editing in the adverts.

We had very fine weather for the journey back to Scotland and then the night time drive down to Cheshire, we finally got to bed around midnight. Today was so lovely that after church I got some work done in the garden and then had perhaps a last sit in the sun for this year. I've located the perspex doors for the new display case, they ignored all instructions and ended up leaving a 10kilo package with our 90 year old neighbours, that was Tuffnells. I've mown the lawns, swept up, done some dead heading and pruning faded flowers. I've got all the DVDs out for the orders, I need to get the covers ready before we can post our the orders, Mandy tackles that side of things. I tried to get all online business done but as usual it just leaves more problems and worries. The internet and mobile phones are surely the worst inventions there ever were. Lots of photos to show you and I've edited the first bus DVD which has Ballymena and Derry buses from the start of the Northern Ireland bus days, the first two were sightseeing etc. Anyway lots of buses and even more lorries.

I'll start with some shots I took last weekend at North Antrim and our suite/bungalow at the hotel.

I'll get on to the transport shortly, these were also on the weekend before the weather really settled down

On the Sunday we had our first booked online visit to an NT property, Castle Ward was one of only two which had houses open as well as grounds, the weather had done us proud that day.

Ballymena was the start of our bus coverage, delayed though so missed a lot of school buses due to hassles with Amazon on my Ipad.

WellCWell ourhour last fulltfull dayeday of our stay cation in Northern Ireland and yet again we were blessed with fine weather yet again. Mandy visited the Ulster museum and found much of interest which filled the morning and then in the early afternoon I was walking back from the motorway and docks after a great morning of filming lorries and spotted Mandy so we had a catch up and then I continued to the Europa bus station and got area schools and mixed longer distance buses and coaches,  we spotted loads more school services on the way back out to the hotel. I guess you really have to be in the know to find  them all. With the Corona virus heading back to lock down we will be able to produce more archives to keep people amused and can load much more material to YouTube. Meanwhile week have our to do list of locations which we will follow as much as possible. When will the government realise that containing the virus is a hopeless task and it is not at all fair that infection not spots should have more restrictions what happened  to we are all in it together. I think that small tweaks would do the job such as pubs and clubs closing at say 10pm,  if sender down the second lock down route I think many people will run out of good will, thank goodness we have had this short break. We will  get Amazon shop live again, you can use eBay if you wish and our own PMP shop has always remained available and of course we have lots of digital downloads available