GETTING IT ALL ON DVD FULL MARKS FOR EFFORT DAVE

Mandy is never one to let the grass grow under my feet so today we finished off the huge task of getting the entire PMP DVD sales stock refreshed, replacing any damaged covers, filling gaps, cleaning the plastic boxes - we carried on right through to the end with all our recent DVD releases added to stock which puts us ready for the first events of the year amongst which will be the annual Boyle St, Manchester Spring Festival and of course that's where we normally finish the rally year as well. Our commitment to such events has spanned the decades and having started by selling a few photos at the PSV meetings which moved to the meeting room at Boyle St ( now the cafe) we also started advertising in Ian Allans Buses magazine.  Martin had some old Buses magazines from the 1970s on the Bangladesh trip, he rereads them and discards them to bewildered room lads, anyway it was fun to see some of our earliest adverts under the classified section, of course Buses is no longer with Ian Allan having moved to Key Publishing, meanwhile PMP just carries on from strength to strength cementing world wide relationships with like minded enthusiasts which carry on through decades and if we can find a way hopefully for many centuries after we have been turning up the daisies. I managed to sleep well, I finally gave up the battle with sleep at 7.30 pm last night and didn't wake until about 6am, I finally got up at 7 but let Mandy sleep on, I cracked on with some of the sorting as I started to go through the rest of the video content.

The first few films have now come off the production line and even the covers made and listed on our sire web shop, see store pages. This includes Dubai and the first two volumes on Dhaka. The master for Chittagong buses is burning right now. Next off the line will be a volume of trucks in Bangladesh which pretty well centres on our visit to the road to Dhaka from the Chittagong docks. This road has seen many of the worst of the atrocities committed during the violence which marred the first months of this year. The fire bomb seemed to be the weapon of choice plus loosening the rail tracks to send the trains lurching into the embankments and more death and destruction.

Reviewing the films the absolute traffic chaos is very evident, the mix of buses and other traffic and the poor pedestrians who take their life in their hands crossing the roads brought back the noise and constant tooting. It was perhaps already relaxing in the exec lounges at Kolkata and Dubai to enjoy a sense of order and even the roar of the rolls royce aircraft engines seems slightly subdued this time round. The morning came sharp and sunny today and as the frost melted the spring flowers shone in the sunshine.It was similarly satisfying to go along to St Oswalds this morning and celebrate the freedoms we hold dear. It was strange in Bangladesh as you noticed that women are almost absent from all scenes of street life or interactions in shops, hotels,transport etc. Although very much the lands of smiles it shouldn't be forgotten that this sometimes volatile country which is presently committed to peacefully following it's mainstream faith can suddenly lurch in any direction. With so many problems it is a wonder that it's politicians play foot loose with human life and seek to destroy a fragile economy in a land where the majority of children either work in industry or live the life of street urchins or worse.

In a time when our freedom is so often challenged it is perhaps sad that Britain seems to be going in the wrong direction and our liberties sometimes dating back under common laws a thousand years are so glibly thrown aside, when we are challenged by dark forces from within such as UKIP or those from without we need to stay united but we should also have the freedom to express our feeling which of course we are presently banned from doing so.

Tonights photo selection from our first day in Dhaka, Bangladesh.