I'll probably turn out to have spoken too soon on the subject of power cuts but just one more front to go over us and we are through the current series of storms from storm Tom, Dick and Harry etc. It's been fun watching the colours in the sky and the leaves whirling high above the house but not a day to go out filming but thankfully tomorrow looks promising. Originally I had the distribution depots down on the M6 M1 area scheduled for investigation but that looks as if it must wait another few days. In all likelihood at present the cloud cover suggests the Leicester area as one of the achievable targets on our hit list. I'm standing by for Friday morning with more locals possibilities not wanting to be too far away as we have John and Maureen Bishop on their way up from Sussex on Friday.

I did manage to get a lot more of the archive cine films put on to Youtube and to sell off on EBay. We have several bids in now for the first batch we put up and this will enable further purchases as we sift through them for transport interest and early in the process we hope to come up with a lorry vintage special with all street scenes. I think we would be about half way there now. Hundreds more reels to be gone through, John is going to lend me a decent sound projector for standard and super 8. There is first a lot more 16mm to be finished before I do the minnows. There was a few clashes on Youtube over copyright with Pathe claiming the Austin advertising film which would have been out of UK copyright well over a decade ago. I think its more a case of who puts it up first rather than legal rights. Where it is just sound or music and you would be amazed at some of the crap people claim as in their music sections I just mute it and replace with a Youtube copyright free tune which may or may not suit the subject, no time to piss about further the Hobart film is an instance of this , still well worth while watching.

So tonight i bring you links to some of these releases. I intend to update all our shops tomorrow evening and get outstanding DVD covers finished. Lets hope we have kinder weather next week.

It was our 'cultural' day of the week, as we fall into a rhythm or something like that into me retirement well having just the one business to look after which really in most respects seems to have expanded to fill any gaps in our life. We got up around 8 , I still have a little guilt pang at the thought of all those years getting up 75 minutes earlier but we enjoy the rest.  The weather as expected started dull but as the day went by our latest little storm in a teacup which now bear in a sort of US mannerism god help us, Storm Tinkerbell or whatever, the weather forecasters on the v delight in such crap to fill their acting ambitions and widen their dialogue, as time goes by the storms which stir but not shake the autumnal leaf fall will grow arms and legs and before we know it a warm spell in the summer will be named Oscar.

Our first port of call was the village shop to get shot of the post aka the DVD orders. This done we headed up to Manchester stopping off at Aldi in Knutsford which folks is stocked Priorat wine from our friend Albert's family village region in the Catalonian Pyrenees. At 9.99 it will probably be worth splashing out it is usually a sure fire winner from all others we have tasted, full marks for looking out of the box or wine rack to Aldi. We then visited the Imperial War Museum North at Salford. A modern building which at times is expounded above the subject matter which really is a sort of display for young children who have little concept of the two world wars and anything older than the last United City derby football match. Anyway we did meet an elderly D-Day veteran in his 90s who was being introduced to visitors as something of an oddity or celebrity I'm not sure what, I though it a little demeaning but I'm sure he welcomed the chance to chat with diverse ages and nationalities. All in all an apology for the wars our kin have been forced into by the actions of our own and foreign egos which took over from reality. A pity that the same thing in micro is still happening now but if they have a museum display there in 20 years we'll be patting the ISIS crown on the head and discussing how misunderstood they all were. Perhaps we'll see the machine guns they used and fragments of the bombs in the Russian airliner downed by the muslimists.

We returned home, dropped off the shopping ( wine) and after a quck snooze headed back into Knutsford to the little cinema at the civic centre to see Lady In The Van, we both thoroughly enjoyed the film and as its so so British and unlikely to ever get a showing in the USA can we start bombing New York now, better not say that as it will be picked up out of context at Cheltenham. We were chatting to a bloke in the pub the other night who worked at GCHQ and he was telling us all sorts of things that would make your hair curl. In fact the girl at the hair dressers in Ellesmere Port last week is now so afraid of them taking control of peoples mobile telephonics that she won't walk around her flat unless fully clothed. Of course it all absolute nonsense, nice lass and all that but want to see her naked, now that is pushing it a bit far. Anyway great film really enjoyed it, glad we made the effort and hereby celebrate two great cultural days under our belt.

I'm still trying to make headway with the 16mm films, should be more on EBay and clips on Youtube later this evening although more films arrived in the post. Not really sure what i can bring you tonight, I did some work for the 1/86 tram model  releases in Scandinavia via my contact in Peru, oh yes we are very international here, just waiting for the rushes from the master to provide sub titles in Serbo Croat, no end to my talents, sorry that should have read English sub titles must be the onion in the soup tonight. Lets have Sacndinavia anyway!

we had a good sleep through to 8am, the joys of being retired. I had a call from a former colleague first thing telling me the my former company had let all the ECITB approved training I had develop lapse and no longer had a licence to present it. At least this met the terms of understanding under which I left albeit it had taken a couple of months to come to fruition. A shame to see a lot of hard work go down the river but then why should I care now. I went up to Oldham after rush hour while Mandy went to the club for a swim. The weather was more sunny than forecast but I left it a while and it was satisfactory. There were thousands of youngsters from all types of country about, needless to say non observed the minute silence at 11m our time. I think a lot of the islamic ones are living in cloud cuckoo land still speaking and dressing as they do the kick back will start eventually and it was little surprise to hear that the French terrorists were home grown much as ours have been in te past. You have to ask why they come here in the first place if the hate us all that much. The buses were pretty much as they were last year with no further influx of new machines, the old First Mercs still carry the old livery and certainly don't owe anybody anything.

When I got bacjk Mandy had only just finished getting the post sorted as she had to get some stationery from Smiths in Northwich, well it was just parcel tape really but we can't operate without it, I'm sure we've got a stock somewhere. I went out and fed the birds, he pigeons never stop eating.  I decided to get some more of the 16mm film copied, there were some absolute gems amongst them including Air Parade a 1951 Festival of Britain production by Shell celebrating British aviation up to 1951. There were also programme on the Fatstock Marketing Corporation with some of there lorry fleet near the end which reallt dated it early. There was also a lengthy Hong Kong tourist board fiolm. Lots more all will feature on our youtube site. Aldi has Priorat Wine from our friend Albert's village in the Pyrenees region of Spain, it's superb wine. The photo show tonight needless to say from Oldham.

Whilst the weather has continued wet and windy we've stayed as much as possible warm indoors and this afternoon whilst wading my way through lots more of the 16mm films I came across some real gems which include an Austin advert mid 1930s which has the coach station with East Kent, Southdown,M&D, E.> National etc plus some golden oldie buses around London and on top of this aircraft and ships as they celebrate Britains transport heritage and some of the then latest Austin cars you could invest in. Then there was another gem about Hobart, Tasmania which in addition to being an all round good quality film included shots of the trolleybuses. I'm still putting the films on EBay and the first few have now got bids against them . I was bidding for several films which ended today, I got about half, I think Mandy will be more understanding when they are providing money coming back the other way as well as going out.The 16mm professional films are usually the best source, there was also a 1951 film on the launch of a tanker at Haverton Hill on Teesside which when I was at work was one of the shipyards we bought, I think at some stage the directors of the plant division had set up a little job on the side converting a fishi9ng boat to a cabin cruiser.

Tomorrow the weather looks less awful than suggested at the end of last week and as I've not had time to arrange anything in our schedule I'll do a quickie run up to Oldham, I hadn't realised about 18 months had passed since I was last there. On the waiting list there is Nottingham, Leicester, Mansfield, Northampton, Keighley, Barnsley, York and many more. London would have been ideal this week but not at the last minute we have to plan things out with an eye to Mandy's transport between places, its ok on a weekend she can park with the disabled disc all day but its time limited on a working day. We spoke to my sister in Northampton today and managed to get a date set for a Christmas dinner together mid December. The DVD orders were flooding in up to lunch time today and I've got them all ready to be posted in the morning. In keeping with right minded people everywhere we are at one with Paris , I guess next time I go with the camera paranoia will have spread there. There is a minutes silence for the victims at 11 UK time to fit in with the French one at 12.00. St Oswalds had a French flag and candle, the bishop of Chester who was visiting tonight said he wished they had been able to organise something at the cathedral in Chester. Staying with France we look there for tonight's medley of photos.

I can hear the rain bouncing off the roof in the office, it wasn't much better at Clonter Opera this evening but nothing could really detract from one of the strongest casts there ever for the autumn opera gala concert. With funding secured through to March 16 the call is out for cash to see them through another season, there was a sponsor for this evenings performance which further boosts the coffers and I handing over our cheque for another year as 'friends' of Clonter. We'll be there twice next week as Flossie the Co Durham cum French chanteuse sings an afternoon teatime of Piaf followed by a full evening performance a week tonight of Piaf and Brel.

We had a pleasant break or two during the day with Talking Pictures TV channel 81 which even Mandy now seems to be getting hooked on. There is something about those 1950s films in black and white and of course it just continues the work I'm engaged in at present bringing hundreds of reels of cine film to the new and developing the PMP archive.  We were up quite sharp for a wet Saturday and headed to M&S at Handforth Dean and had breakfast there before getting the clothes treatment together with some new bedding. The nicest of the shirts I forecast would be too small and it was, the sizes there and quality of clothing is so poor compared to their food.  I was disappointed that I struggled to find the latest pudding I had 'discovered' last week, it was out of stock, obviously it hit the mark with a lot of people. We got some Christmas presents for friends and relations. It looks like being another damp day Sunday and ditto Monday. Even Tuesday is looking poor although I remain on the starting block in case a film trip becomes possible.Tomorrow more films to get on EBay and Youtube, I need to recopy those I may most likely use as I got lots of flecks on the lens which show up on my copies, it really doesn't matter on a tiny screen but looks ghastly full size. DVD orders are coming through thick and fast this weekend so I'm preparing them as they arrive. Lots of cine films now listed on EBay.

no more mild autumn as the wind and rain lashes much of Britain. We had an appointment at the bank this morning to shuffle around accounts and standing orders to reflect the current status of retirement. We also put a stop to payments to Orange who used to provide our internet service but we stopped it months ago, paid a one off disconnection charge but they kept taking our money, nice work if you can get it. Not a lot in the post today although orders are now trickling in on the net and I expect the December editions of the magazines will start appearing this weekend, I've had the request for Jan 16 copy for Buses magazine. This afternoon we had to go to Winning kitchens in Northwich , they are doing our quote for a new kitchen, my office used to be very near them 16 years ago when they fitted out the current kitchen. Needless to say prices have risen a fair bit since then and we are now working with them to try and reduce the price which brought tears to our eyes. We called in at Waitrose and stocked up for the Christmas cake cooking etc.

With the forecast for heaving gales and storms tomorrow we have no plans for filming until possibly Tuesday which at present looks just cloudy but its a long time away as yet. I'm bashing my way through the cine archive films with another rake on Youtube and clips embedded here as a sample. There are several for auction on EBay and I hope to get through a lot more tomorrow ( Saturday) as we keep our heads low and warm by the radiators.  I got the Eaglemoss prototype for the Atlas style model  bus releases in Russia, I wonder if they will go ahead, there are some wonderful looking buses on the box illustrations , first was this Liaz. They are also getting reactions on truck models for Russia which again look good at first glance although I've not ordered any as yet, they'll sit fine against the buses though all in 1/72 scale.

It turned out to be a bit of a rough night with long periods of cramping in my muscles as the new knee manages to make me aware that it is constantly changing and improving but side effects are often suffered as progress is made. Thus the night passed slowly with at least four periods awake. I'd planned to be up early to do the planned truck filming and when I got up at 7 it was a clear sky and sun starting to rise. This meant I was on go mode and so I got up and handed over the DVD post to Mandy, had breakfast and then pottered off down the M6 amidst the morning traffic chaos in my little Toyota IQ. I went round the roundabout at junction 16 carefully weighing up the directio of the sun and decided to carry on to the Nantwich crewe junction on the A500. This roundabout is something special and I would guess is always likely to produce results whatever time of day and season.

There was a really good mix of lorries hurtling past, in summer i think you could get a spot to catch them in both directs, a lot of the photos need tidying up and join thousands of others which are slowly going through the sausage machine that is my photo trimming software and what I do if I have a few moments when I don't want to start anything afresh and can easily turn it off. I was luck to catch one of the famous Mornflake Scanias, then an old Foden on the back of another truck and anything classic only I can't remember what it was. The one that got away was a loco heading to Crewe railway museum on the back of a low loader , it came from behind when I had moved location down to junction 16 of the motorway, another new spot, no hassles there at all despite lots of police and highways agency who in fact had a chat. I did have only my second ever bad experience with a commercial driver albeit a drain gulper not an artic, he followed me when I returned to my car to move locations blocked me in and was quite threatening. I would imagine its on contract to the council although typically pikey it just had a mobile number, up to no good I would think.

Ehen I got back the clouds began to gather, Mandy had gone off to her Polio meeting and I washed my car and the van then the window surrounds with the remainder of the soapy water. I then filled up the freshly emptied recycle bin by hacking back at more dead foliage in the borders and then topped up the bird feeders. I had watched the Sparrowhawk munch its way through yet another Goldfinch, its favourite and may I say plentiful food. Clips on Youtube for today's trucks. The first of the 16mm films on EBay has its first bid, sods law the shortest and cheapest.

Mandy arrived home safely from Ireland last night, I slept very well after the night awake right through on Monday. There were several things which needed our attention today, Mandy had a dental appointment so I stuck with doing the DVD orders and got them posted. There was then a flurry of phone calls for more DVDs plus some in the post, I've got a head start on getting them ready as tomorrow morning if it is sunny as promised in the unreliable BBC forecast I will be out quite early. Mandy has her polio group meeting at Ellesmere Port tomorrow afternoon so I'll make sure I'm back by then . I seem at last to have crossed the final hurdles with Amazon although they say the verification process takes up to 10 days I'm not sure what it is that they are actually attempting to check, what an outfit to deal with make every other bunch of baboons out there look incredibly smart in comparison , its such a shame they have a stranglehold along with EBay over so much of the sales market place.

I've got another batch of old cine films on Youtube plus the films listed for resale on EBay, there are some gems amongst them and tonight I bring you a link to my favourite. Also some shots yesterday at Stafford before I set off home early afternoon. The cramping in my knee seems to be getting worse, well actually it is in the muscles below. I think that it is stronger in itself and I can get up and down stairs very fast still at the end of the day without feeling exhausted. I'm still using the bicycle machine morning and afternoon. I managed to get the lawns mowed in case the weather is bad next week, a cold snap is now expected from Friday onwards. I still hope to get out on Saturday with the camera but not too late as we are going to the opera at Clonter in the evening. Our theatre attendences really start to pick up now. Tomorrow afternoon I'll process more of the cine films. there are piles everywhere and still a lot more 16mm to copy before I can even start to think about 8 or super8.

aMandy is well on her way home now, probably bobbing up and down outside Holyhead harbour, a bit of a bumpy sale. What a scorcher it was today, really humid after all the rain and 20C in Stafford. I had a rough night with my knee, the muscles in my leg were in spasm like growing pains in a teen. This kept on until about 2.30 am , I tried a painkiller but it didn't touch it at all. In the end I decided to get up and get on with the jobs which need doing and foremost amongst these was getting the cine films on to the computer tweaked p a bit and then load them on Youtube, mission successful. Thats one pile done and about twenty more piles to tackle. It takes quite a while as I need to take still for EBay as I relist them all, getting the first one right was the hardest part, still masses more. At least the next tranche of Mini dv tapes arrived today. I'm adding the content to our database of film reels as I go. I think I'm starting to wilt a little now not having any sleep.

I got over to Burton upon Trent by about 8.20, parked up just around the corner from the crossing at the centre of the action. Thankfully I had the video ready to roll as a Routemaster of Classic Midland came heaving around the corner, sorry no still shot but there were more gems to come from this remarkable fleet. Getting from Burton across to Stafford is a bit of a cross country orienteering course for cars but it was even worse as I drew near and found myself caught in road closures with diversions which took about half an hour to battle through. Getting parked up was sort of hard, depended where you tried, over at Sainsburys it turned out to be a bit of a doddle. It took me some time to get back into the swing of things as I hadn't filmed there for a good many years but an interesting duo on this our latest presentation. Talking of presentations I need to get the ones done for the Round Table in a week or twos time.

So without further yawning lets have some photos from Burton, all hail the Marmite factory. Hmmmmmm......!!!! yummy.

Dark autumnal sky and constant driving rain albeit still very mild. I cleared the DVD orders and returned from the shop and carried on with my bike machine until I had had enough, roughly 3 minutes. Well how long are you expected to pedal away in the garage. I got all the Minidv tapes I'd copied films on to rewound between other jobs and uploaded the first to the computer timeline ready to get stills for EBay and put on Youtube. Thus far and no further as time seemed to have slipped by and I needed to change for the funeral. I got the baby presents packed and after 6 attempts to leave variously going back for keys, set alarm, unset alarm, reset alarm, go back for sat nav etc, you get the picture I was on my way up to Mossley in the foot hills of the Himalayas. I'd also forgotten an oxygen supply but had fited my ice water cuff around my knee, quite head turning in a what the heck sort of way. Actually the sat nav wouldn't take Ruth and Trevor's address but I reset it when I got to Mossley and it worked , it took me through roads which had last been used by Dick Turpin, one way lanes better suited to Devon , then the final plod through the flooded potholes to the house. Baby was upset big time, mum and dad sleepless. I did stay and have a brew and a catch up, time once more warped out and it was urgent that I reset the beloved where would I be without you satnav for Glossop.

Its very hard work this retiring lark, I used to get a rest at the office. When I arrived at the Central Methodist Church in Glossop the car paerk was already filling fast , parked up next to Cath and Alan and after a short while we went in even though it seemed a bit too early. Not at all as it turned out, standing room only and  we were serenaded as we waited by Glossop Town Band with whom Mark plays indeed we learnt it was at a band contest that Mark took Sue on their first date. A lovely order of service book befitting a publisher, the band and full church added a lot and a nice selection of hymns. Then Sue's old headmaster gave his reminiscences and then told us about their staff meetings and the price of a loaf etc, it rather went on and again we learnt that Sue had usually acted to curtail his rambling when on the large screen where family photos were being shown a sign came up from the computer, 'battery running low' perhaps Sue was after all trying to give him a hint.

We then found out that long standing friends Martin and Gary were sitting at the end of the row in front of us and after the service we popped back to the cricket club for a while - territory which was very much home from home for the family. Martin had done lots to support the book stall for Mark over the past few years and it was good to catch up with Gary. Mark's words at the service were spoken by the minister , Mark had summed up the need not to put things off until tomorrow, get the tickets, do the trip etc. When Mark came and had a chat he, very sweetly I though,t mentioned that Mandy and I might not need to heed his last bit of advice as we never seem to stop. Still it is good advice and certainly makes you aware of how important it is to make full use of our time and cherish those special to us and also challenge us on what we do for our communities. I suppose being pretty driven myself I could see that the many interests Sue had were just so many challenges successfully juggled. Needless to say a tough time for not days but years but I  thought Dan and Hannah were supporting dad well and Mark seemed relaxed later amongst the many family and friends back at the club.

By the time I got home, spoke to Mandy in Ireland, tried to ring John in Eastbourne, had a pudding ( eaten at the wake) it was fast heading towards bed time although I did get a fall bag of orders ready to post, checked the weather, will try Burton again tomorrow, Mandy gets back late. Thursday looks promising may try out new truck film locations not too far from home. Still didn't get any further with the films and Youtube, rather upset at an ill timed tirade on Youtube from a what the f........ you sad blah blah. Just getting up to 19 million hits on our Youtube channel I think our friend was the one out of step with those who have an interest in transport etc.  Posts read each week on this blog are around 6000, with a hard core just under a 1000 following almost everything. Whether you are in the warmth of a New Zaaland summer or tucked up warm against the wind and rain in Britain or a hundred countries between I wish you good night and a happy tomorrow although I've a feeling that sorting the ongoing Amazon saga may tax my Karma before long. Pictures, surely not it's getting late ok lucky dip though!  Well even if I don't get film tomorrow it's a Staffs collection.