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Eastbourne Saturday afternoon

A very busy weekend, we finally arrived home after midnight on Monday hence the lateness of the blog which PI prepares at work this morning. We travelled down to Wiltshire on Thursday and despite terrible weather en route it cleared up nicely as we arrived in Swindon and were treated royally by the Thamesdown management and entertained by Stuart Curwen our usual contact who ensures everyone possible is in a suitable party mood. Not only Thamesdown but also Stagecoach drivers seemed on top form and with lots of changes since out last visit the resulting programme should be of interest to many viewers.
It was lunchtime and we were due to collect sample stock of my book from rye Cromwell press at Trowbridge, it was too late to go to Bath as we had originally considered so we got to the print works around 2 pm. Horror, they had dispatched all the stock to the distribution agent, thankfully it had only gone 10 miles away to the carriers Frome depot and was recalled back with 30 minutes and we extracted the required stick. We stopped off in Salisbury on our way east and left there about 5 pm arriving down near Brighton before 8pm. We were up sharp and started filming in Brighton Saturday morning first thing in clear blue skies albeit a bit chilly, this was followed by Eastbourne, Mandy sat on the seafront, blustery but still sunny. There weren't many Cavendish buses around at the weekend but a good selection of Eastbourne's fleet, remember its all up for sale at present. Almost ghostly thinking about the years I'd stood there camera in hand and even back to childhood, hard to think that the worlds first municipal operator had ended up with a sad looking fleet mainly second-hand or more and up for the highest bidder. But also salutary to think that in 1903 someone was seeing his last bus and recalling the horse transport and the infernal combustion engines which scared the horses so. Saturday night was spent with John and Maureen Bishop and family at the Hellingly Festival Of Transport, in the beer tent no less. The next morning it was grim weather for the book launch, with dire weather and small attendance we made a start but only slow, still wee had got there at last and with good company the day passed, Tracey entered the lady and vehicle competition with her mini and 80s dress, the sun came out finally this late afternoon although there were few onlookers left. A meal out ion Sunday at Ardingly and then an early start Monday morning ( bank holiday) over to visit my sisters near Fareham in Hampshire where an over indulgence in cake and food in general has left my a little more rotund and aspiring to diet like mad.