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readership took a dive over the past few days thus with not much interest at present there seems little point in spending too much time rambling on. Everyone who ordered a forthcoming ice cream van in 1/72 scale from Hattons received a 1/43 scale model instead, they had to phone around to everyone to explain, mine was already boxed up to be returned. I did get a nice little parcel of models from a now regular supplier in China at very reasonable rates for Atlas related items this time two of the world trams plus my first of the French railcar series which actually looks very good and with a fair chunk of metal seems good value as well. I might go for a few more of these when the paypal account gets replenished. It's been mainly orders from Amazon this week for some unknown reason. As promised the viewing stats from Youtube for the past month, first of all the most popular clips and Mansfield stays way out in front with two listings and thats a drop as it usually has three visits featured. MANSFIELD BUSES FEBRUARY 2010 MANSFIELD BUSES MARCH 12 DERBY BUSES JANUARY 2011 SUNDERLAND BUSES APRIL 2011 MIDDLESBROUGH BUSES MARCH 2013 ORAN TRAMS SEPTEMBER 2013 FELIXSTOWE HARBOUR LORRIES JULY 2010 OLYMPIC VILLAGE BUS SERVICES LONDON AUGUST 2012 GREAT ORME VINTAGE VEHICLE RUN MAY 2013 STOBART LORRIES AT WIDNES PORT JUNE 201 and what were the top viewing countries? Vietnam United States Germany Italy France Singapore Romania Argentina Ireland Malaysia Turkey India Brazil Hong Kong Spain any surprises for you there, I don't mention UK out front by miles but Vietnam in front of USA whopeee. And Singapore really giving Hong Kong fans a battering. Tomorrow we'll be covering trials on the Manchester Metrolink line to the airport prior to it's opening on Monday, lets hope that there is a little more action than there was on Wednesday! In recognition of all our Vietnamese views lets have some truck shots from there!
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almost but not quite a non news day, my back sorted itself out and just left with some aching muscles in the buttock but I'll have to be extra careful setting up and dismantling the stand on Sunday at Lincoln. Mandy saw her first tram at the airport today. It was dead at work, very few people about, I spent most of the day covering calls and visitors and raising the barrier for deliveries, yes mind blowing stuff eh. Well after all that back to the world of transport and tonight I've made a start on Salisbury archive, not that many visits but it bridges quite an exciting decade or two. I did some work on the Bangladesh trip in February and having got that lined up I'm trying to get an extra quote on Mexico for comparison. Not a lot to tell you about, there have been higher numbers of orders than usual coming through which we hope is the start of the Christmas rush plus of course it's pay day time of month for many of our customers. I got the replacement for the broken M&D coach via Hattons, remarkable that Oxford have almost got Southdown and M&D with the same shade of green, they need to watch out as work gets around quickly if it doesn't just 'look' right although I'm sure the now much awaited M&D Leyland PD2/12 will sell whatever it looks like. There are a couple of EFE releases out this week from 'my' areas so more boxes in the greenhouse. I'd better get upstairs and sort out the next clip to download from the Salisbury selection and of course being thursday it's pub night although as its the last one in the month I fear its quizz night, talking of which Mandy had me download a couple of quizzes for the Polio group meeting in a couple of weeks. The broken Christmas cake has sorted itself out a bit so back to one big 'un rather than two smaller cakes. Some nice smells wafting out from the kitchen! I'll try and keep you up to speed with recent releases, everything goes straight on to the PMP shop, remember lots of stills shots on our Smugmug site just follow the links and they are from just 50p a go. Tomorrow night the Youtube viewing stats for the month as we head towards yet another million viewers. Our first frosty morning of the autumn as the temperature was just 2 when I left for work, the novelty unwanted at that of deicing the windscreen. It was a funny sort of day, sunny this morning but be afternoon dreary in the extreme and a dampness in the atmosphere. I had all garden kit in the boot of the little IQ ready for doing the autumn care on the Hardy family graves at Southern Cemetery in Manchester, its the second largest cemetery in Europe and biggest in the UK and has seen a bit or a upturn in it's fortunes as it's benefits are revealed such as wild life, history plus a place of peace and quiet although someone came in on a noisy big motorbike. My friend Tony O'Mahony is now know as the bird man of the Southern Cem and recently featured on TV, talking of which it was rather weird watching the Jeff Lynne story the other night with all those stars of rock and pop not least Paul McCartney et al and just to see our clip of Birmingham buses winging by for a couple of seconds and then a nice mention in the credits. The graves were in a bit of a state as the warm autumn meant the grass kept growing, the new battery operated strimmer came into its own and soon had the area around the graves looking reasonably spruced up, there were lots of grass roots to extract and I had bulbs and bedding to put in, whilst putting the waste into the Sussex trug basket I managed to twist my back and suffered an instant herniated disc which to some relief popped back in but had done it's limited damage and I'm now floating on a mix of Tramadols and Diazapan. Anyway I struggled on to get the jobs done, the worst bit was staggering with the full basket half a dozen times to the waste bin by the chapel, one of those no longer used, just one out of three remains active as the price of plots means most people go up in smoke at the crem these days. I'd intended carryning on a few yards down the road and looking at the trams on shadow service to the airport, the suin was just right and I waited and waited, eventually about 4 trams came within minutes then nothing but over the horizon came Ralph Garnett and friend, we had a chat and waited and waited then went to Jacksons boat, got a couple of shots of them going over the new viaduct over the diminutive Mersey more like a Canal at that spot, then we carried on to the new stop serving Sale Water Park. Public service starts MOnday the 3rd November, a year or more ahead of schedule!So no surprise then that I have a couple of pictures from this, plus tonight the Bucks and Herts DVDs will be ready and clips going on Youtube and available on our shop ( see this sites shop page.) I'm sute that Oxford diecasts adventure into buses is gathering momentum as they head towards the release of their first double deck model bus. The subject chosen seems a pretty safe choice with oodles of scope for variations and liveries. It's the Leyland Titan PD2/12 the 8' version and with rear doors based on the Maidstone & District preserved bus. This was a common enough prototype and will give lots of scope, the price will be a little more than the single deckers but still way under the EFE or Corgi price and lets hope it is really successful and they go for something a little more exotic for the next release, other than this its just livery variations after the Southdown Duple Panorama, I was amazed that the Commer Commander has so many variations up it's sleeve! I think this is the biggest news on forthcoming models. I've still got a trickle of the Atlas and associated company releases coming through from eastern europe and China. The post from China is outstanding and has never failed yet. I took the van to work today so that I could visit the garage and get the trolley tyres inflated, the air machine now costs 50p a shot, I'm sure it was 20p last time I visited but at least fuel is falling in price, I filled it up while I was there ready for the run over to Lincoln which will mean an early start next Sunday. I hope that the selfish so and so's who made life a misery for other traders are taking a break as they really left a sour taste last year. I'm not sure how the weather is going to pan out but if it remains as mild as it is now we'll be a little less frozen than usual. It's gone off the boil in Malta but should pick up again a bit before I go a week Friday, four days to capture the government bus fleet perhaps over the Saturday and Sunday then Monday and Tuesday to do the trucks with perhaps even a trip over to Gozo, I assume it will be school term and there will be lots of student services. I followed through on the family history topic raised yesterday and found an email address for someone looking at the wider O'Sullivan family in relation to the events of 1922, it will be interesting to see what comes of it. I'm still doing battle with Hattons over the returned goods which arrived smashed, pricipally the Maidstone & District Royal Tiger, what I saw of it looked good and seems to have provided a link for the decker release discussed above. I had a run over to Birkenhead to drop off PPE for a new apprentice at the college but it was nearly dark mid afternoon, the rain then bucketed down as I headed home. Also did some manual handling training for the youngsters, I can speak as an expert on the results of back injury. Subjects to write about pop up in my mind all day then when I come to type away it all evaporates. I'm just about to start assembling the archive bus DVDs on Herts and Bucks, there may be enough for two volumes. A M&D interlude then tonight! We had a very pleasant evening last night have a lazy time listening to music on my mpeg3 player, yes aren't I the modern one and then catching up with the last of the Who Do You Think You Are? recordings which we'd missed. This neatly takes us to the title of tonight's blog, ugly word isn't it, blog. Actually I divert for a few seconds as I heard from Albert in Barcelona today, he sent a photo of the small American bus they have restored, it's had some professional mechanic attention and paint job and looks a dream, Albert is also due to become a grandad in the near future. So that's back to families, well as many will know I hunted my birth father down for years and then got the brush off after an enthusiast start, amongst the small nuggets of information came the news that we weren't really O'Gradys but actually O'Sullivans as my grandfather had changed his name. If we wind back the clock then its amazing that the trail takes us to 1922 and London where Joseph O'Sullivan.... well if you are sufficiently interested it won't take too long to find out what happened. I'm not sure 100% of the tie in whether he was directly my great grandfather or great great uncle but it does explain why my grandfather changed the family name especially as he served in the British army. Beware what you find when you start searching in the attic. I've caught up on all the editing and DVD covers, we had quite a shower of orders came in over the weekend and I really did get all the shops updates, as I write both Amazon and our own shop on this site have got all our DVDs on board, EBay has the latest plus a selection of some of the favourites over the years although I drop as many as I upload as its so expensive to keep going. I implore prospective purchasers to use our own shop. Mandy has done a really nice rice pudding using up the rest of the cream from last nights meal whilst we had a taste of the home made chocolate she had bought with the fudge in Wales.... just broke off to eat it, it was as good as it both smelt and looked. I'm editing some of the last knockings of our video archives and tonight I'm downloading the Bucks and Herts material of which there isn't a great deal but it goes back to the late 1980s from our good friend Tim Bubb and features amongst other areas Stevenage, St Albans and Hemel Hempstead. The weather is still mild but it was pretty gloomy this morning and thus little benefit from messing around with the clocks. Not a lot then that I can bring you as yet but I do have links to the North Wales clips on Youtube from our outing on Saturday. THe dark afternoons are upon us with that wretched habit of changing the clocks rather than just leave them, in a world so full of technology and again nature which follows it's own clock why should we be subject to this twice yearly ritual which upsets our own internal body clocks and submits us us to this depressing darkness morning and evening. Wouldn't it be great if we were all to leave well alone again, I thought it was superb when they left it for a couple of years. Anyway here we are dark and its still the autumn, winter comes and leaves us in a more sombre mood although so far the cold has been lacking although wind and rain are abundant. What good does the cold dark winter do, I ask you if I were to be in charge it would be pleasantly warm, a bit like the north of New Zealand all through the months from September to March. The clocks this morning were all over the place, when I woke I assumed the bedside clock which always resets itself automatically was showing 9am, so as instructed I set about altering the other clocks and then found out that we were now 2 hours adrift from the rest of Britain as it had failed to alter. After resetting everything it altered mid morning and thus another reset. Given up and driven to drink we've had some delicious olives asnan aperitif with my Pastis and Mandys G&T, a mellow feeling sets in pre dinner, roast chicken tonight. Its been a fairly productive day although the strimmer gave up the ghost after the line kept breaking, its umteen years old so after church I decided to go to B&Q at Northwich and get another, it's a battery model with no line but a solid disc but although it sort of works it really hasn't the guts that the old one had but I hope I'll get to grips with it. With the grass cut there now lays the issue of cutting down the spent bedding and perennials as it all dies back, with the mild autumn some plants are going into flower again. I pushed on with the editing and now have everything right up to yesterday done and all DVD covers made. All DVDs are on the PMP Shop, Amazon and the latest issues join the samples on EBay, I've deleted an equal ammount as EBay is so expensive to maintain compared to Amazon and of course our own shop which is post free world wide. There have been quire a few orders yesterday and overnight but slackened off now. I'm going to load up the clips from the North Wales DVD and then sit back and relax with some wine and dinner. I was going to give links to some of the latest clips but the site seems not to be working cxorrectly so in keeping with yesterday some more North Wales shots as hinted we did go to North West Wales today, we got up at our normal time and set the satnav for Aberystwyth and got there about 9.35 which wasn't bad really as its quite a cross country jaunt. It was mainly damp and rained a fair bit whilst we were there. We had a splendid breakfast, coffee and cake sort that is and will go there again if we can remember it next time around. The draw of course is the retreat of Arriva from the area and now the operations are all in the hands of smaller independent companies of which I saw buses from five operatots, a bit too much white I must say, a little bit of a splash out on liveries wouldn't go amiss, a bit like the Dolgellau outfit, never an inch of pain but we digress and jump out of order so lets get back to cronology and why not you may ask they can't touch you for it. The rain was still being quite persistent and I'd got about 20 minutes of film before I retread to the dryness of the car. The best presented buses belonged to Celtic and Lloyds take the decker plaudit. We then started our trip up north through heavy rain, a rather beuatiful part of the world and the satnav took us on an interesting short cut or two as we wended our way on the slow haul, little bit of road widening teased us but the slog finally ended at Caernarfon where we parked up opposite the castle, the new road system makes the traffic enter past the steam railway and castle and gives a much better impression when people arrive. The sun which had now come out to make life harder with the camera decided to play nicely after all and I had clocked up another twenty minutes of film and strolled back to the car past craft shops with fudge on my mind, no particular reasojn other than I like fudge, Mandy was just emerging from a home made chocolate and fudge shop and had bought her second pair of earrings of the day. Well fed and wanting of water we headed the short hop to Bangor filling up the car at Tescos and then using our spot in the car park at the side of the library, again mixed blessings with mild sun and breeze and then clouds. The camera made short work of the light, it really is pretty clever on automatic, never thought I'd utter those words. Then needless to say after a fine day out some beggar was going to spoil it, I think I've made favourable comments through the past year about Arriva nd its drivers, for all the Stagecoach hassle and some First wrecks on the roads and not to speak of West Coast Motors Polish nutters it was rather fateful that the day ended its good reputation at Bangor where of all places I've never ever had any real hassle. The big fat gross obese twit in his Arriva shirt was stalking me, where I moved he moved, I was feeling really intimidated. He finally approached me and asked what I was doing, well it was pretty obvious but I was friendly, just a bus enthusiast mate I said. He went into a rant on breaking the law, invading his civil liberties and all the other tripe. This after he'd been stalking me. Anyway I asked him on film if he was making an official statement for Arriva, of which I'm a shareholder and sort of in a round about way his employer. Needless to say he had no further comment although I attracted a crowed as I speculated on air as to what they were up to that they were afraid of an elderly bus spotter! As I've followed a policy of zero tolerence to this sort of abuse I'll write to there headquarters on Monday and see if I can ruffle a few feathers, by the way he wasn't Welsh, just a bit of rather large flotsam drifting in from Llandudno probably.  The electric has just blow so I lost the script although just the picture stayed as a 'draft' blog, anyway I'll have to pick up the thread again, most annoying. I was annoyed by the lastest offerings from Hattons which arrived smashed although the outbox and packing was undamaged , very strange perhaps it was sent like that as punishment for my complaints about poor service. What is annoying is that it all comes back to the customer to return, if one of our DVDs had arrived smashed we'd just put a replacement ion the post and wouldn't expect the customer to have to pack go to post office etc. The electric blew a fuse in one of the lounge lamps, thankfully we've got one of those new fangled switches in the garage which you just flick back up, none of the fuse wire job. I was very busy at the office this morning and looking at the orders which are starting to come through it may be the start of the Christmas rush at this end. Everything should go back out by return of post, we don't travel to Cuba until Christmas eve so all orders should always be moving straight through up to our annual holiday break. The new Oxford ERF LV Flatbed looks a tidy little model, if they would just tone down the glossy paint they would look even more perfect. The Queen Mary airforce, army trailer and Bedford should find a ready market in the cross over military, rail, truck market. I gave up trying to get the Atlas Lodekka open topper off the base, it will have to be a hack saw job as they have really gone to town trying to hide it's identity as a low quality Corgi hash up. We are still a little unsure about tomorrow, Wales seems favourite at present but I'll be checking the BBC weather reports later on. I've now finished the latest Staffordshire bus video archive programme and should have the cover done this evening. I'm just taking clips from it for Youtube before I start the last of the trilogy. It's bangers and mash for tea tonight, I think I rather destroyed the taste of the beer last night having choritso with chicken before hand, both MPA and Little Willy tasted a bit flat, I'm sure it wasn't. The log fire in the Pheasant has still to see action this winter. It was very mild travelling back from work this afternoon, after a brew we nipped into Knutsford to change over a building society account, the Cheshire has been bought out, really weird woman served us , perhaps she had throat cancer though - anyway it was still very weird, she couldn't talk about much as she had to keep repeating I cannot comment, I am not trained in this or that, couldn't even do small talk, politically correct gone mad once again. What about the europe business , I bet Farage is getting the black shirts made up, all the muslems will have to wear little crescents on their clothes . Still good for the leather industry the demand for jack boots. I suppose it's the French who have spotted an opportunity of getting us out of the EU by handing the UKIP storm troopers a bonus. The Cameroons are drifting back towards Africa , yes all at sea once more, it isn't fair, it's not nice, wake up to the real world you silly public school boy tossers, about time we had someone in parliament who had done even one day's proper work in their lives.Not a lot I can think of, oh yes had a chat with a nice folk singer / composer in Cumbria who is going to use a little slice of our M6 standstill film as part of his video on staying in his own back yard, now come on you in the back row - it's not all baaa,baa in Cumbria, think of the sausages and crappy sticky toffee pudding , ok it is all baa baa. Just a joke, oh no not the Cumberland Gap Police......aaarghh. So there we have Cumbrian photos for tonight. An enthusiastic and vocal ending to Philip Glass's Kafka based opera The Trial at the RNCM in Manchester yesterday evening. Compelling music which keeps you on the edge of the seat just too long and a story whilst enigmatic ties in with the Nazi and Soviet experience which lay ahead for many Europeans. The ending though really takes you through the looking glass world. We slipped out after first 5 minutes of applause so we could get into the disabled lift before the hordes emerged, it was nearly a full house and watching some of the audience was entertainment in itself, avant garde 2014 style Mancunian is really outlandish although not as bad as the Japanese tourists of course. Marvelling at the mass of screens shining through the semi darkness of the interval I mused on writing an opera or novella perhaps based on an alien invasion where they come through mobile phone screens. I think its too late though and they have already taken over, no hope for planet earth. Talking of outlandish outfits, I'm an advocate of flying Air France, airside service is great, good food, good wine etc but a hassle over taking Mandy's wheelchair on the flight to Cuba, they will only stow as luggage not in the readily accessable compartment where they put pushchairs and the like, strange attitude as its quite small folded up. I've been very busy at work the day has just flown by and in the afternoon I was delivering traning to an audience of boisterous fitters who would probably rather been somewhere else . I went out at lunch time and get my car cleaned although as its so very mild still there are lots of insects over the bonnet after just returning from work, that mild in fact that the bird feeders are still full so they can wait until Sunday for a top up. I've been looking ahead at the weather for Saturday, generally quite mild, a bit of sun and cloud mixed really. Its on our minds to cover North Wales perhaps, I'd like to get over to Aberystwyth and then Carnarfon and Bangor - the North East does need attention from our camera but I don't want to risk all that travelling and then get winter shadows. I remembered just in time to request my flight for the trip to Aberdeen in a couple of weeks time, I've pretty well done it to death this year with being there for the wedding in the spring so perhaps will leave the camera at home, we'll see. I would like to call in and see how the training centre is coming along. I managed to get the cover done for the first of the Staffordshire video archives which covers 1989-1994, the next volume is 1996-98 which I've uploaded to the computer and trying to edit amidst viewing Emers but doubt if I'll be at the clips to Youtube stage for another evening as it's pub night, the roadworks have all gone on the route, hence the car wash as no more diversions down muddy farm tracks. With Staffordshire on our minds then lets have a few pohotos which all appear on our archive available for order on Smugmug, see the links page from just 50p a print. Greeting readers, friends, customers who have popped in for their daily dose of nonsense and news. We are out this evening at the opera at the RNCM in Manchester, the traffic can be pretty awful so we shall leave about 17.50 ish and I don't really want to start blogging when we get back. A little flurry of models in the post for me today, I ordered a Southdown and Brighton Atlas bus from each and I must say they are pretty crude offerings compared with the normal models but then I paid less than a £5 each so what can you expect, well quite a lot if you were to compare them to the other two packages, a neat little French fire engine from Atlas via Hungary and inevitably via China a couple of the superb little HO trams one a dinky little Cambrai tram. So Brits get the shabby end of the stick probably because they are using Corgi or EFE castings which weren't always the best on older models. All the December magazine proofs have come through and approved. Last night i managed to finish the DVD Staff volume one which lasts an hour and there will be at least one more, all Staffordshire outside Stoke, Handley centre. I loaded clips on the net overnight, I'll try and get more done tomorrow including the cover. I was very busy aat work entering up training records and lists etc and sending out certs but managed to make contact with our agent in Bangladesh and explained that travelling companion Martion still has leg / knee / ankle probs, hopefully we'll both be going but in the mean time I've firmed up my arrangements mainly because Mandy and Sue are going to South Africa and want to avoid any date clashes to ensure PMP orders keep going out. Then I need to focus on the Mexico trip, same caveats apply although friend John from Sussex has indicated he wishes to come as well, I'll take another shot at flights as direct from London its horrific prices to Mexico city. I've checked and the Dubai tram starts next month so that can join the monorail and metro for my day out in the Gulf, my first other than airports, got a good hotel deal in old city area, prices can get very steep in Dubai. Dhaka also looks to have gone through the roof on hotels so have found a B&B / Guest Housewhich comes out well with UK visitors. Allowing myself some luxury on my return at the Oberoi in Calcutta which is very conveniently placed for the tram station. Here are links to some of last nights Youtube uploads from Staffordshire. |
PMP Sponsors the North West Vehicle Restoration Trust at Kirkby.
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