It all seems very quiet out there , it usually picks up when Buses magazine appears. We have had some wild weather this week so fingers crossed it picks up after the weekend. It is the Leyland running day on Sunday, light rain expected but if it really is I hope my brolly does the trick. I've been scanning more cine films, both buses and trams, yes two at a time who says men can't multi task. I am also digitising some film I took in Minsk in 2006, I actually remember filming this when they had the rather brutal looking conversion on the Riga built trams. A good mixture and there will be clips on Youtube plus digital downloads on the shop. we are still waiting for the fibre to be connected to give us enough speed to upload to the shop, masses of films now lined up for that. I should have the cover for the latest London archive ready tomorrow. A shorter day then as we are off to Bridgewater hall for dinner before Mark Elder does his bit with the Halle in his last season. Belarus provides tonights slide show The next London archive feature will have three parts all in colour, trams, trolleys and buses representing the 1950's, 60's, 70's three decades in my life so while in a reflective mood here are some colourised pictures from my family Backing up data is an essential part of our world but it is always such a pain when dealing with moving images where external drives can take days to back up. I've also downloaded another drive of material with file names in script and these have been added to the archive listing which like the DVD spreadsheet has a link on our shop front page. There is another drive to similarly treat which if the rains continues plus strong winds I'll be processing that as well. There are a few to which we have no copyright at all but can keep them in mind to direct people in the right way . There are thousands of hours released in the 70's and 80's, even 90's which no longer have attribution links alive so it is a good plan to have then conserved. Another job to do is getting this years still photo files loaded on to our Smugmug shop. I finished the railway film for Unique publications which are distributed by Railscene. I don't think that trains are really my 'thing' but a change is as good as a rest they say but it never felt like it. Anyway I'm scanning two films at a time now so plenty entering the pool of resources. I'm also scanning the work of one of our friends from Essex which will produce a lot of London bus material in the 1970's, RTs galore. I still ant/need to get more clips on Youtube to restore our presence there which has been in decline since the end of the Corona pandemic. So surrounded by little flashing lights the work goes on. What next then, well the trip to Alexandria draws near and we will be booking the Senegal trip soon. My friend in China has just released some delightful new trolleybus models with a standard of detail that sets new levels of excellence. I can't wait until we can point you in the direction of their UK material coming later this year. Talking of China I can bring you some shots from one of our tours there. Our thoughts and prayers were today particularly directed our our lovely cousin Jeff and his partner David. He suffered a stroke which hit his right side but he is left handed so a dominant left side but had a second bleed at hospital. He is coming round for shorts times and is holding hos own over infections which are always a big worry. So every telephone call and email leaves us with hearts jumping. The weather is not so bad but generally the week ahead is not so good for filming albeit Monday the 24th I'll be out whatever for the first full day of franchised services in Manchester covering Wigan and Bolton. Meanwhile we still have many locations in our sights. I'm going to try and get a few archives finished this week and some more Youtube films loaded. Still no news on broadcast date for the channel 4 documentary. It was a blow to see that Oxford like all other UK model makers will have no new bus castings in 2024, our friends venture look assured of great success given that only HK and China companies are initiating new models. So what for tonight, well how about something really different than of late lets take a trip to San Francisco We had the Polio Fellowship AGM at York today then we are at our lovely neighbours tonight for supper. Tomorrow I hope to finish the DVD for Unique Productions which will come out through Railscene. We are both a bit tired as it has been so hectic. As we get close to the tram visit to Alexandria here are some shots on previous Egypt trips It is strange how your plans can suddenly go out of the window, it was a bit like that yesterday with the cleaners car battering our planter. Getting a replacement for the super heavy concrete based planter took three visits to different garden centres but we struck lucky in the end but at a price. I also noticed that a small dent on the bottom of my Toyota IQ which had received a lump of concrete splinter, it was the section which recently got repainted when it had the 100,00 mile refurb, we are hoping that being in a fairly out of the way place a cheap repair option might be possible. Then the search for the hand rail, the one we bought wasn't that out of the way but there seems to be nobody supplying them now so it will come with an elbow rather than a nice curved bend. I did manage to get a new garden seat cover ordered not part of the apocalypse now event but needed to be done. I also took advantage of the fine weather to tidy around ours and adjacent houses where the gutters are not tended by the council, then strimming the from lawn edges the last batch of blades for the strimmer must have been a Chinese conspiracy to drive me mad, I'm searching ebay for a more quality product. I also ties in with our friend whom I'm making a railway video for which will go out via Railscene, just a few final tweaks to finish it. I'm not wandering too far for tonight's slide show so just another look at Southampton buses last week. It was the monthly Polio Fellowship meeting, very busy at present so up early to keep on top of jobs, cleaner due while we were out. We get a phone call from our lovely neighbours that the cleaner has hit the wrong pedal and gone into the house but the huge flower pot about half a ton had seen the car off although now in 10 pieces or was that the car. The neighbours banded together and cleaned off the drive after the low loader took the car away. No one injured that's the main thing but urgent new hand rail for Mandy to get up the small steps outside my editing /showroom. A nice afternoon tea at the Grosvenor Garden centre, a couple of members went up the wring drive and nearly had tea with the Duke of Westminster. I completed the work for Unique productions save for any tweaks required. I was thinking of filming tomorrow but other things to do now particularly the new hand rail. Here are some more shots from the Bournemouth visit, no idea if I posted them before a bit of a day all round. Due to enormous increase in Large Letter Royal Mail orders as of today will go out second class to avoid passing it on to customers.
As Rapido has withdrawn from the model bus market and ditto EFE, Corgi haven't done a new casting for years it it will be great news when the new manufacturer of UK models announces its first release. Superb weekend with family in Hampshire for my nephews wedding and today visiting cousins in Surry. Quite a good run up from London to home and all DVD orders will be sent out tomorrow. Meanwhile enjoy the variety at Bournemouth last Thursday, more tomorrow. I was working a little over the comfort zone today trying to clear the decks as we head down to Hampshire for the weekend.I won't have the covers done for the latest truck films until we return but at least the discs and files are finished. I never strayed outside further than to clean my car windows, all outside jobs were at the back of the queue. I've been scanning cine film which when progressing well is no bother just does it in the background. I'm also nearly through a 48 hours colourisation of some old London film. When I return Monday night I'll be waking to getting the car in for a service at the main dealer our chap at the little garage passed away. Then we have compilation of the train archive film which is an outside production I'm helping with. I've now got charity buttons on the shop for dionating to charities we are working with, NWVRT, The British Polio Fellowship and The Online Archive, if you would consider supporting any or all of these the buttons are on the landing page to our shop. I've also had to create a privacy notice for the website/shop, all out of my experience but muddle through. Meanwhile I'll give you another treat from Lincolnshire with more truck scenes from yesterday. Next blog Tuesday |
PMP Sponsors the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust at Kirkby.
Categories |