FLIGHTS BOOKED FOR MARCH ASIA TRIP

The day is going to be short as what had been quite pleasant has now turned wintry and the afternoon light becoming night all too soon. I had a bit of a lay in this morning, it was 9am before I got dressed then tackled all the jobs I'd intended to do and the biggest was getting all the flights booked for the Asia trip. Some of the most attractive fares rose  when I added baggage to the cheapos  and compared Expedia to Skyscanner. I tried to book the Abu Dhabi Etihad flights direct with them but it suddenly turned out to be £100 dearer so ended up with Expedia on that one but the others were through Skyscanner but airlines direct rather than third parties although at the end of the day experience has shown that anyway can either turn out the best or worst. We now have two Royal Brunei flights on the schedule, as Brunei is dry perhaps the flights are, we'll find out in March- we won't die for the want of a g&t. So that is the first big job out of the way, next I need to plan transport to the hotels and at the same time pick hotels which are situated well for access to public transport and where we need to go.

Other jobs included uploading more films to the PMP shop for digital download purchases. I'm also uploading some of the recent still photos to our Smugmug sales site , links via this site. I've got a few things to put on Youtube including some of the material that I loaded for the Bus Spot Ultra on Brighton. I'm also going to put all our Vietnamese 1997 trip on as raw material on the shop  and as clips on Youtube. There are several trips which in the latest DVD edition has been vastly edited down, that includes our now famous Caucasus tram trip where so much has now vanished. The same may well be said for other films in our archive but they where necessary will be natural soundtracks as filmed, silent when the master is silent, putting tracks on from the BBC sound archive got me into trouble with Youtube last year, I had full copyrights but people in the USA have claimed them, typical Americans . Tomorrow it is the annual brass band festival at the RNCM, we'll take a packed lunch as the restaurant doesn't open weekends, they had the world's best bands there. I'm not sure what the programme will be for filming next week, very weather dependent. I'm musing over starting the next Bus Spot Ultra which will feature Oldham. The Asia trip will add three countries to my all time list, Philipines, Brunei and Taiwan, obviously the Chinese government would dispute the last of the three! If Mandy and I go to Jordan that will be another off my list. What shall we have as photos today though, why not Vietnam.... super.