I think I must have been overtired in the end after getting up smartish and having three hours at Carlisle on the back of an early start on Thursday when Mandy set off to Ireland. I really struggled with getting the archive section of Edinburgh Bus Spot Ultra downloaded and on to the editing machine. I tried over and over again until late, eventually after giving up well actually finding a work around I went to bed and in the morning it all became obvious and worked straight away. I got some domestic jobs done first thing and had a long session getting the DVD orders ready, there were twenty separate orders some with several DVDs, I'd got the discs done last night but had to get the covers out and put them together. I dropped them off at our post office, Lawrence gave me a post sack for the next batch, that said there aren't that many as yet.

I went to Ellesmere Port to drop off the log book for Mandys old car with it's 'new' reg after transferring the cherished plate. The queue for the outlet centre was a mile back on the motorway so I went straight to the town centre, stopping to get some car washing kit etc at Halfords, the little IQ is desperate for a clean. Then I had to grit my teeth and put up with a 15minute wait to get round the roundabout to the Honda garage, albeit the traffic was all turning the other way nobody was giving an inch. Battled my way back to the motorway home, stopped and filled up and then back home as it was still sunny and the ice had melted a bit ( -5 this morning) I got on with clearing the back garden borders. I eventually filled the recycle bins and my hands were frozen so tidied up and retreated inside for a cuppa. Then I switched over to editing and still on with it at nearly 7pm but the end is in sight, should have it wrapped up tomorrow. I used the perspex scratch repair kit to remove a few scratches on the cabinet doors, sustained on the last but most difficult section, it seems to have done the trick. Once that is finished I can get the three Carlisle truck DVDs edited. I've looked at the weather again for filming next week, changing a bit but still looking good for a few locations but not the North East. So more shots from Carlisle on Friday.

Today was the day went almost to plan with cloudless skies as promised which looked ready to continue through sunset and another cold night ahead. I got  up about 5.30 had breakfast and pottered up the M6 passing 6 wide loads spread out through the journey each with their own little tailback. I filled up at ASDA and had a sausage butty and cuppa at their cafe then parked up near the road maintenance yard the other side of the M6. It was a while before the sun was up enough to get half decent shots with the video camera, when it did the first thing I noticed was that the volume of cars was greater than usual, this I understand was due to winter sales, orange Friday or something from America. Anyway it was a nuisance rather than a problem and as the day went on the sun and light weren't that far short of spring conditions and I managed to accumulate three hours or so of film which will get edited once I've finished the Bus Spot Ultra Edinburgh. I met one of our friends while filming and got an update on local buses and lorries, yes there are other people who appreciate both types of transport. Just to whet your appetites here are some shots I took while bound up in gloves, scarf, hat and two pairs of thick socks!

Well hard to believe isn't it but another complete 24 hours of rain, at this rate the floods will be back but the sky was getting brighter and the light was quite reasonable this afternoon when I popped the post to the shop and the rest of the time I've been working on the latest Bus Spot ultra Edinburgh plus I've been running off more cine through the scanner. Overfull reels are a pain and with this little machine which has little power in it it might turn out better to use a projector to take up the rewind as on its own it can't cut through butter. I'll do a bit of experimenting when I'm not up to my eyes. The DVD orders are coming in fast again today, if I can get them out as sing;es I can get them stamped up in advance even if I'm out for the day. Tomorrow it will be cold but dry and 100% sunny up in Carlisle according to the BBC, fingers crossed they are right and I'll scoop up a lot of lorries at one of my favourite spots and stop off for a brew at the Penrith garden centre on the way back down.

I struggled with the archive sections today, nothing seemed to go right and at least 10 spam phone calls always at the most inopportune times. Putting them on the blocked list seems to do little to stop it. Perhaps the candidates for the forthcoming election could take on a campaign to get the Philippines government and our BT to take some action as that is where 99% of scams now originate.  That should be helpful to everyone and a vote winner for someone out there. My can could do with a good wash and clean, a weekend job if it stays fine Saturday. A couple of household jobs I'd like to do, shelves for the small bedroom and painting the small area of grey in the kitchen which is looking a bit tatty. Mandy has arrived safely in Ireland with her new car, we got the UK tax bill for the house in Ireland its £2.40 this year a lot more than the 20p last year ( the tax is actually paid in the ROI). The registration docs for the new car arrived, I see the new one is about 2 or 3 years old, no wonder they had one so quick, glad to shift it or what, I'll mention the dusty interior and plastic not pulled off the trims inside as well, perhaps get a valet out of it. So with Edinburgh on our minds, hope to get the DVD done by Sunday if I can.

We have been getting Mandys car packed ready for its first long journey, this time to Ireland to see our friends there, inspect our house and sort out business matters. The weather has been awful, it hasn't stopped raining all day. Lots of DVD orders , all getting turned round within 24hours. The digital downloads are starting to pick up, they make life much easier for us, if only I had a magic wand to put all the back catalogue on. We I've added a lots of photos and documents to the Spencer tree on Ancestry and broken through a few old barriers and pushing back to the 15thC in Sussex and Kent. I've almost emptied another bankers box full of 'rubbish', well its just two into one with a few bits in the bin but getting there. The perils of a spec of dust on the scanner became apparant, it may be that I need to inspect the tiny lens each time I use it, the air dust blower soon shifts, just a pain redoing a reel, even 200' can take two hours or more if very full on the reel. The standard has remained remarkable and I did start trying to find workarounds on the net for 400' reels but despite earlier mentions it seems to have faded to splitting into two sections to process. This only involves one join and could be done on the nearest existing splice, these are every 50' minimun. I'm still looking daily at the weather for a clearance and a chance to get out filming. Here are some shots on a digitised disc I found in the 'rubbish' box!

The weather looks poor for filming this week other than th3e possibility of some lorry film in Cumbria, light cloud but dry seems in short supply, hoping for better things next week. The cine film scanning has gone very well after a few hours playing with it yesterday I now seemed to have cracked it, this is the nifty little machine we are using.

We went to Ellesmere Port Honda to pick up Mandys new car, got some ready meals from M&S and repacked the new car ready for its trip to Ireland on Thursday. Mandy retains the PMP plate now on its third generation of Honda Jazzes.

I'm having another go at the digital downloads as there are just a few left to put on. I managed to get virtually all the outstanding image files put in folders in our photo archive, there will be some to upload to our Flckr/Smugmug sales site, see link on PMP website front page. Orders dor DVDs are coming through thick and fast but we are still able to offer 24 hour turnaround. If the weather is going to remain so awful I'm probably going to tackle another Bus Spot Ultra production.

A frantic day really as we had a table full of DVD orders although they were on the whole all ready to send out but as fast as we shifted them the more the phone kept ringing. I did my pre op on the phone and got a date at the beginning of January at Leighton, I'll be starving at New Year but we usually don't do anything special when we are at home. We were waiting for a call re Mandy's new Jazz, just to pay for the number plate change to Mandys cherished PMP plate but they didn't phone until nearly tea time, the first call at 7.30 was a spam call from Manila, only two though all day. I've been uploading the DVDs for the shop digital download service and also experimenting with the new cine scanner, I managed one short film nearly all the way through without going over to judder, the others were good in parts then judder. I need to see how I can overcome this, I'll look at forums if I can't sort it, when its good it damn good, not far off the £100k machines but at £300 what can you expect.

 I've also filed away thousands more photos, had a shock when the file with all those to sort vanished as I jumped when the phone rang and I was pressing something, eventually it ended up at Yorkshire hidden in that folder. The weather is looking unsettled still this week and less opportunities than I first thought perhaps looking at Cumbria and North Lancashire Weds/Thurs/Friday. hoping to get some trucks into the mix. The stock market seemed to zoom up today, what do they know that we don't. I need to start looking at some more Bus Spot Ultra productions if the weather is going to be difficult to film in although if the scanning takes off although I can do other things it looks like it still needs looking at every so often and takes hours for even a 5" reel. Not sure what to offer on the photo side tonight, lets have some shots I've filed today .. ok lets go to Australia in 2007!

OK so its just one blog for the weekend but a lot of information as we are like the Christmas elves here sorting out piles of DVD Christmas present orders. First we bring you the latest DVD releases plus I'm busy adding digital version. These are on our shop and on the Amazon shop.

At this time of year we are sending out Christmas cards to friends and family worldwide, many of these have a copy of our family Christmas letter, so many of our viewers are part of our extended family that we are putting on the full Christmas letter just click the link.

The Youtube site is breaking milestone all the time, subscribers are now over 67K and hits a day at around 70-80k daily. Vietnam is the country with the most daily views well ahead of the UK  now. I've got all the DVD orders copied now and the list on the shop front is updated. I've put on the last few images for the Amazon shop upload. Our biggest hits on Youtube are now over 5M and another 1M film is due to join the big league any time. It is a bit damp here , I'd planned to get some tidying in the garden done but too wet to walk on the lawns to access the borders. We had a splendid night at Clonter on Saturday with the Christmas Lock In show, a sort of a rock, hip hop, folk cum Irish dancing show with some panto and Dickens Christmas Carol. I've updated my bus DVD to do list through to the end of 2019. This afternoon I hope to have a first try with the cine film scanner.

Greetings everyone and tonight a catch up with some shots taken yesterday at Harrogate after the more productive session at York. We did go down the pub last night even though it was a rush and at least it stopped us working right through what was left of the evening after the 4.5 hour marathon journey back from Harrogate. Then it was up at a more acceptable time this morning and off to Seaforth docks at Liverpool. No sooner had I set up and was just doing the intro talk than this lunatic came over and started a very aggressive line of enquiry as to what i was doing, you feel more inclined if someone is polite but violence was obviously on his mind so I told him, he reckoned he was something to do with Cargill foods who have the factory with the entrance a way down the road.

He went for me and I backed off and phoned 999 but I could get no support from the police at all, in the end he had been on the phone and I think it was all with local accents together against the old git me! Cargills is notorious for the breeding of rats, they have thousands there, we did a couple of pipework jobs there, it was considered too low grade to return, they were quite a strange outfit then, don't seem to have improved, the area stinks from the rotten food they store in the summer and there is always a lingering odour. The truck scene was though as good as ever, I filmed all the spots locally that I pick, especially as it went bright for a while, then kept changing sun and cloud and threatened rain. I'm not sure how much I shot, at least enough for two programmes.

I was very busy yesterday but it is always pleasant to get 'friend' requests on Facebook even though i don't actively use it beyond posting my daily blog there. While going on to accept the friend requests I noted some of the awful content and it seems that it is from people who have come to me to request a friend status. I had to delete one last night and others recently, the hate language and violent disgusting language is not acceptable and it is frightening to think that we are sharing our transport hobby with such people. I know youth is some excuse and naivety but not acceptable to be associated with or have links on social media to. No wonder we are having such a polarised time over the coming election. If anyone who has an interest in buses, bus services, running buses, driving them or any other facet they will be bitterly disappointed if they are Daily Mail or Express readers and are voting Tory, who do they think has run the industry and subsidy's for rural services into the ground.

Photos tonight from the Harrogate visit yesterday afternoon. Although it was downbeat after York the actual bus fleets have an interest in local identity and being a change from the normal Stagecoach, First, Arriva mix. Black and red are difficult colours in any sort of photography.

It took nearly five hours to get home from Harrogate, 2 hours in centre of Leeds covering just a few yards, crashes, broken down cars provided another two hold ups. In total nearly 15 hours today! Hence a brief blog tonight. Excellent in York other than looking so scruffy and road works but good bus variety of types, liveries and operators, masses of editing now backing up, hope to clear at the weekend. Harrogate, the bus station is really not much good for photography now due to proliferation of lights, generators and cabins near the exit, very cold, thank goodness for Bettys tearooms! Photos from York this morning.

At last Bus Spot Hastings Ultra is now complete other than a cover. I've also finished Burnley and should soon catch up with the other recent bus visits. We can confirm that we shall be tackling York and Harrogate tomorrow, oft postponed due to weather changes. While I was filming the intro and ending to the Hastings film the tripod which I'd just partly set up tumbled over on to the new perspex doors on the new shelf units, it would pick on the hardest to fit of the lot. It took a bit to get it installed again as it broke the running section, luckily I still had the glue gun operational. We had a last tidy up about 99 % tidy now all vaccumed out and polished. There was yet another trip to the tip to clear boxes and wrapping paper etc. The first phase of the display room is now over. I'll get on with the cupboards in the autumn next year, a breather will be well in order.

I mowed the lawns, rescued a load of Southdown photos which had tumbled over in the shed, cleared it up a bit and got all my tools back into their correct places. Then I tried uploading all the DVDs from last couple of months up to present on Amazon, there was a glitch with the EAN ( bar code) numbers which involved long Amazon support conversation, got it sort, they are now all up and running on Amazon and PMP shop next time round I'll get Bay updates. Buses mag came out today and another flurry of Christmas orders. Much busier on the net than the rest of the year. Tried to get the ward for my cousin in hospital, took ages, got nowhere so spoke to another cousin in London and sending it via him. My cousin is far from out of the woods as yet so hope all turns out well long term. We have the churcjh pcc meeting this evening.

All the DVD orders are going ourt within a day, Mandy has a load of stamps so we can post on our way out early before the shop opens. Haven't managed to phone re the faulty Epson ink, no time but got another delivered so we were able to print up a lot more discs ready for the incoming orders.As we are going to york photos from there tonight.