The post deregulation independent bus operators DVD is now nearing completion and almost all the images in place. It is surprising the grand total of different small firms which serviced Merseyside. I hope to have it finished and listed on the PMP shop tomorrow. Meanwhile we wish everyone a very Happy New Year from Mandy and myself at PMP, there are still lots of scheduled clips loading on to our Youtube channel each day. The Merseyside theme may last one more DVD this winter 'The Road to MT' the journey through the maroon livery through to MTL and the associated Titans and new livery. The bus wars with Manchester may also feature in a future DVD.

We are still enjoying a good rest by tomorrow I will have listed our bus targets for the first quarter of 2022. Meanwhile some images of a sunny happier times, trucks in Colombia.

I don't see any sense in getting in the middle of crowds tomorrow night so we'll stick with the Crown on Thursday as usual. It will be a welcome break, I'm on the last sections of the dock diorama scene. I'm going to leave the last 1/3 of the 'top shelf' until next winter as I need to get back into the swing with a new year filming bus locations, some of the most important are waiting for the calendar to tick over into 22. I loaded a good lot of Cuba Youtube clips last night, they are schedule to keep appearing up until New Year week.

Our friend Sue went home this morning, we used up the ham we had put by in case, so we can revert back to a fasting day tomorrow and try and work off all those pieces of cake and sweets. We just had a DVD order for the one programme so I guess all will be quiet until next week. Its a bank holiday on Monday fingers crossed Tuesday onwards is dry with light cloud, mild and not windy, that is perfect this time of year and the days will now start to get  longer.

A last batch of Cuba shots and we wish everyone a Happy New Year from Dave and Mandy at PMP

Safety barriers and side rails on elevated road through docks is now almost complete and I'm working on the short perspective road to link to back drop, basically it is done just the trimmings to add and then I can put in the security gates on the distribution centre and the dock scene. I am going to leave the last third which is a 1960/70s scene with dual carriageway and greasy spoon truck stop until next Christmas. I haven't populated them yet but that is a small job just very intricate painting on the 3d modelled people. Alas I had added detail down to drainage grids on the elevated road surface but viewing it would be very difficult but I know it is there.

Lots more clips from our 2011 trip to San Francisco and Cuba went on and are scheduled to come through over new Year, I'm loading more tonight and yet more scheduled for next week. Really the 2011 visit was just a warm up to the 2016 extensive trip around most major cities.

I will be starting the next archive soon, independent bus operators on Merseyside through to MT era. Then it will be the latter days of the deregulation and maroon livery to early 90's. The software AI Topaz is still working on the app to treat our old video , despite this they still send out circulars that they can treat ' all video clips', in UK that would be foul of trades descriptions, typical America though, I really detest everything about them, their companies only have one setting, nuclear, the threat to every little tweak they make  if you don't use it or understand it. Labyrinthine instructions and rules that nobody would understand even if they read them, no such thing as plain English in America. I have now stopped purchasing anything on EBay, I dislike them as much as EBay. We do have the remnants of our shop still live but why would anyone use it when we have everything from digital downloads, DVDs and prints via one location.

A few more Cuba photos tonight, ties in with Youtube.

We are steadily increasing the clips and hit rate on Youtube with the latest rounds of San Francisco and Cuba clips taken from our 2011 visit which involved a family wedding in SF then via Mexico City to Cuba which was our first visit limited to Havana and Santiago which whetted our appetite for the later trip when we visited a majority of the major cities and even caught up with the old camel buses. We have our friend sue with us for a couple of nights and then on New Years day we hope to cover the Wrexham Chester bus running day. The weather continues mild but very wet, the back lawn is like a sponge. We are out for dinner tonight already fortified though with a few too many chocolates and Christmas cake portions.

There will be a lot more clips loaded on Youtube this evening and I've also made a bit more progress on the dock diorama on the top shelf, ladders required to inspect it fully. The elevated road section is in place and securely fixed to the ground , still the carriageway and barriers to go on plus the side guard rails. The detailing below the road itself is from views which show it very roughly but then it seems to portray reality albeit simplified a bit.

As well as the Cuba Youtube selections we bring you a few more photos for your pleasure.

I managed to get the latest DVD covers done and now they are loaded on the PMP Shop. I've also loaded a few more digital downloads. I have also managed to get several video clips ready from our 2011 trip to San Francisco and then on to Cuba. These will be spread over the next few days and make up a little for the lack of new releases at this festive time of year. I'll be looking at the hit list for film locations through January 2022. Hopefully we are going to escape any more Covid restrictions. We look forward to getting oversea trips booked when there is more certainty.

Anyway lets have a pre view of some Cuban delights!

We had a splendid Christmas, slightly too much rich food perhaps but it was enjoyable at the time, lots of lovely wine to wash it down and the advantage over beer I don't have to get up in the night! We went to St Oswalds for the 11 am service, we really aren't out at midnight people. We must have rested as we have slept later than 9am two days running.  We got a couple of orders through on Christmas day, they are all ready to be posted.

Getting the Robin Hannay film completed has taken around four days, its less than 30 minutes for modern DVD material. Anyway its done now and I need to do the covers for three films. We need to make out minds on our new curtains so hoping we can get a second opinion from Elton and Linda next door who have done lots of interiors on new builds and conversions. Lots of children out today on new bikes, scooters and go karts, not sure driving them down the road is a good idea even on a quiet boxing day. We got a really strange call from Scotland , hard to understand but he thought we had gone bust and wanted to know what are truck programmes will be next year, it could all have been a wind up of course.

So a quick slide show from a Christmas past , our first long distance Christmas took us to Sri Lanka in 1980..

Just a short post as drink has been taken, a wonderful afternoon and evening with both sets of our lovely neighbours and then a relax and wind down on the run up to the big night. Lots of calls to friends and tomorrow we'll make sure to contact family between drinks. We are pretty stuffed and thankful we didn't eat anything to 'put us on'! We also just had an email from friends we met at the RNCM who will shortly be adopting a little boy and wonderful that the procedures these day are so very different than when I was adopted in another world with lies and heart break thrust on young women. So much has worked out 'ok' in the end that we are thankful for what we have. We couldn't have had a better afternoon and evening and look forward to a bit of a rest. Calls from customers and friends plus DVD orders are still coming through, it doesn't matter as we shall be here and taking a dip in sorting them if we feel like it. I've pottered a bit with the diorama and worked on the Robin Hannay memorial film.

I went down to Lymm Poplar services this morning, the weather wasn't what was promised, too much sunshine and the traffic petered out quite early. The country seems to be shutdown and enjoying a bit of respite from the doom and gloom, lets hope that we really have turned the corner and normality or better now stretches out before us. A great year when we met with family, started theatre trips again and made many new friends. We hope wherever you are you have a peaceful, happy, joyful Christmas and bless everyone we meet though hobby, family or business. Here are some shots from Lymm this morning.

It wasn't difficult getting the Herefordshire bus DVD edited and then for Youtube only my look at trucks around Hereford. I think there must be a prime spot for lorries there somewhere as the county seems to boast a good few interesting classics but I don't think the middle of winter was a good time to try. It seems to take forever to get the house back warm after a couple of days away, the heating never went off but I couldn't say I ever felt hot. I got the DVD orders cleared and have assembled all the footage I require for the Robin Hannay tribute film, it takes longer gathering than editing sometimes, certainly archive features aren't so simple with many processes needed.

I can't believe its Christmas Eve tomorrow, I usually try and get some truck footage at Lymm if it is suitable weather and it gives me a bit of fresh air as well. I got all the bird feeders stocked up, new supplies had arrived and Malcolm across the road fetched it in, he is 91 and stronger than me. The garden could do with a good rake over and deposit the spent leaves away from the drive and steps, lethal in the wet.  If I do get to Lymm I would aim for 9am latest, by lunch time everything stops.

So lets look at some more shots from our Herefordshire trip. Some nice views at a lorry yard near Hereford.

I also did some still shots on the roundabout outside the city bus station.

There are two lengthy trailers on Youtube, the lorries a Youtube only feature.

A bust two days, gave Robin Hannay a good send off, there were a couple of other bus related attendees, the weather was foul but it was very much a celebration of a life  rather than a typical funeral. It was amazing how much we all remembered of those long off days of the 1970's. The shame was that the transport there was by more normal means as the lorry never made it.

We did get good coverage of the Hereford buses and Yeoman's last days and also visited the surrounding market towns, all of which I'd never visited before albeit services very sparse. A comfy upmarket B&B outside the town centre and a pub for last nights meal just a few minutes away.

Got home the delivery of mailing envelopes was a disaster, they left out in rain and ignored delivery instruction, I'm on my last few days with Ebay, if you use that mode to purchase please get acquainted with our shop as the Ebay one will cease and I will avoid all EBay as I do Amazon. I'll bring you more updates as we get back into things on these lasts couple of days pre Christmas. I'll edit the Herefordshire DVD tomorrow.

We shall be down in Herefordshire tomorrow in readiness for Robin Hannay's funeral on Wednesday and taking the opportunity to catch up on the Herefordshire bus scene before Yeomans withdraw most of their bus services at year end with Sargeants taking over with local government funding. I managed to get some work done today on the 3rd diorama and have almost got the tie in between the backdrop and the rest of the dock scene.I didn't get time or energy to start editing the DVD dedicated to Robin or that on Merseyside independent bus operators but I'm sure that over the Christmas break we shall be able to get something done. We shall be around through the two banks holidays following Christmas and will attend to any orders when the post restarts on the Wednesday.

With Hereford on our minds here are shots shots from the previous trip