Friday, November 28, 2008

ON THE STICKY SLOPE











more from my archive, I can't even remember the trip let alone taking the pictures!


Well here we are again at the end of another busy week and hurtling towards Christmas, today the cards arrived from the printer, I think you'll like them. John Bishop at Eastbourne confirms that on Wednesday Stagecoach took up operation of the bus services in the town, they won by taking on full pension rights and an outstanding injury case at the depot. As yet there is no outward sign of the new ownership. Low floor buses are promised but whether they will be new remains to be seen.






The Oberoi in Mumbai which was attacked in the recent incident has hosted us twice in the past and I was very familiar with all the districts which have suffered so, how much longer mist we endure these Muslims and their terror, I even noticed a massive new Mosque going up in Harrow last week, who the hell gave them permission for that trick, try and build a church in Mecca or Pakistan and see how far you get. Great to see that our beloved protected home grown terrorists from a certain part of our community are culpable in this act, of course to suggest who they are and what the average Briton would like to do wirth them is forbidden by our restrictive laws, no freedom of expression hgere I'm afraid.










Political correctness in England, doormats banned by a council as someone may trip over them, care workers in hospitals and homes can't call elderly people luv or dear, lets hope everyone ignores this latest load of tripe and consign it to the tip along with recycling, happy holidays and a thousand stupid laws this control freak government has implemented on us, please world we need freeing from this load of techno pratts.





Thursday, November 27, 2008

LOOKING BACK A BIT







it certainly isn't like this in Stockport any more but with my GMPTE permit I should once more be able to shoot in the bus station


I'm just downloading the final pieces for the regional bus archive Merseyside etc, I seem to have a bumper crop and Crosville fans will like Dave Cowell's collection which expands our small collection on this favourite operator. Good coverage of municipals including the minnows of North Wales.
This weekend we shall be away from Saturday in France so no blogs after tomorrow until Tuesday night as we won't be back until late on Monday. Orders will be cleared Tuesday, the following weekend is the Chrustmas Cracker at Boyle st in Manchester where I'll launch this latest archive production. I'm also hoping to have the first pieces of the 'Manchester' collection ready










Wednesday, November 26, 2008

RANDOM PHOTOS STILL VERY BUSY

photos at random, sorry for any repeats, stills from recent releases starting with London
The AEC rallies featured bus and lorries at Nottingham








painfully slow loading tonight, just finished Cheshire Buses DVD then starting on the Merseyside North Wales Cheshire archive tonight.
After a very hectic day its been almost dead on EBay and Amazon has died out after a promising start. Hassles with EBay once more, moronic outfit to deal with.
I had meetings in Preston today but had to call into the town to collect some film, traffic there was awful although noticed petrol was 89p.











Tuesday, November 25, 2008

FAREWELL TO RAPSONS INVERNESS

truck films have been selling well this year, its a hectic time and Mandy's 'post room' is overflowing with parcels for Santa. A hectic time too at work, I've meetings for the next two days in Preston area. I'm running off the latest Cheshire DVD tonight and ready to start on the archive Cheshire, Merseyside etc.














A message from one of our customers in Inverness which will strike a chord I think


Many thanks for the video you sent me that i got from ebay on Rapsons just before we were shamelessly taken over!! Yes i was one of those drivers, the one driving the jet decker in the bus station, i do remember that day and thinking it would probably be the last time i would have my picture taken driving my decker for Rapsons. Its all been quite sad for us at Rapsons from the minute we heard the 'rumours' to the day we we got the bit of paper up on the wall to say the dirty deed had been done...to the day we all went over. You should have been up sooner, what you saw were the buses that we only had left as our newer ones had been dished out to other depots and what we had left was staying at Inverness. Any way, many thanks for the memories, will be sure to tell all my fellow drivers!! N****
please remember our archive feature on the north of Scotland, happier times indeed perhaps or were they?

Monday, November 24, 2008

CHILLY IN WIDNES BUT WHERE HAS IT GONE












A very busy weekend down south, up on Saturday at 4.30 am and arrived just before 8am at the Harrow Wealdstone leisure centre which is always a bit hard to locate. The LOTs event has been reasonable for the last two years but this one seemed to be very quiet and it was after lunch before any significant sales had been achieved, it was looking as if we would abandon it next year but it scraped through, just. Lots of empty spaces, I would have though that the recession is biting down south, the restaurant in the Premier Inn was empty on Saturday night, we got huffed out at 10.30 as they wanted to lock up early, we were the only ones in, ( joined by my cousin Lynda). We were woken by noisy wedding party arriving 1.30 am onwards which left me zonked on Sunday morning when we awoke with snow covering the car park. It wasn't far to my Aunt Joan's place and we had a good chat before we left for lunch near Epsom Downs at Tattenham Corner Happy grope or was is Smelly Burger, surely the pits for eating in UK these awful places which clearly demonstrate that life has gone backwards on the food front despite all these celeb chef shows, money fort old rope with ropey service thrown inn, diabolical, you would have died of thirst as well,. Back to Auntie Joans and left around 8pm, home about 11, bit tired today its been busy. Next weekend our annual trip to Ian and Miguel's at Corbie near Amien.
Today I popped down to Widnes at lunch time, thought 'g get a few shots to round off the latest Cheshire bus film, what had happened to the place, the old town centre has gone and the new shopping centre was being rebuilt with buses seemingly vanished in a black hole, looked at timetables and nothing re re-routing, how very strange,. Managed a few shots near the bus layover / station but traffic built up to spoil the shots, friendly drivers though but bitterly cold in the wind albeit quite bright.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

BACK LATE FROM LONDON

my lunchtime visit to Warrington last week





today at Epsom over lunch



off to bed, back a bit later than anticipated!










Friday, November 21, 2008

ALL LOADED UP FOR LONDON


earlier this week when I visited Chester









Days have passed and unmentioned in my column is the recent death of Reg Varney. First famous on TV through the rag Trade , more pertinently he became widely know for his leading role in On The Buses, the series which was deliciously politically incorrect continues to be widely distributed through video then DVD. I was thinking of all the other great TV comedy series which would stand rebroadcast, its only dads Army, Fawlty Towers and Father Ted which seem to get an airing regularly.

Last night I got on with the next lorry film which covers commercials on show around Britain in 1997 and 98 including AEC rally, Lathalmond, Fleetwood, Bracknell, Barry Island etc. Then we went down The Three Greyhounds for a few jars, the power cut yesterday had knocked out my alarm so I had an unintentional lie in today. The wind is picking up as the artic blast starts to come down from the north with snow forecast over the weekend.

e'll be down in London at Harrow for the LOTs sale, hence no blog Saturday night. Its been quite a busy week on EBay and Amazon but quiet in the post. I settled up on the outstanding hotels, car hires etc for the Fiji Trip and wait our tickets as the trip gets ever nearer, another reason for everyone to get their DVD orders in early, certainly don't leave for New Year as we'll be away.

As soon as we are back from London I'll start work on the archive covering Cheshire, Merseyside and North Wales as promised, next weekend we are off on our annual trip to Corbie in France near Amiens to stays with Ian and Miguel.
Fleetwood Tram Sunday has been cancelled, notified today.
LATE NEWS EASTBOURNE BUSES HAS BEEN SOLD TO STAGECOACH!! Oh boy talk about things going full circle, Stagecoach puller out before, couldn't make money, I suppose it will be old bangers from Hastings.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

WARRINGTON I SURVIVED OK

2 DVDs produced this week celebrating the AEC marque, these scenes in the 90s at Woollaton Park in Nottingham, a rally I really used to enjoy










I filmed at Warrington over lunch time, a chap from the bus station strode out after 10 minutes and demanded to know what I was doing, a bit out of order as I was across the road on the pavement but kept my calm, gave him my card, instructed him in a very friendly fashion that I was on the public right of way and he went away happy. Weather wise ( and light ) it was a bit grim but there were several deckers out which were what I wanted.
Family news overshadowed by Mandy's cousin Bernie as his cancer has returned and the outlook isn't that good. Lots of happy memories which everyone is trying to focus on.
What about the Oz navy going on holiday over Christmas, lets hope nobody tells the baddies about it! Up this morning in the dark, electric off yet again, back just after 7am but later in the morning the water went off, it was one of those days.
Quite busy on EBay and Amazon, honours equally spread, the rush as we feared is coming late.
John one of our circle of drinking buddies at The Three Greyhounds succumbed to cancer this past week, what a gentle man he was.









Wednesday, November 19, 2008

PROGRESS WITH AEC ARCHIVES

Llandudno Saturday morning
good old Bangor, Saturday lunchtime
























Well a good start to the week wasn't it with the permit to film at the GMPTE bus stations, I look forward to testing the water at Stockport and Leigh sites of recent debacles.

Following a bit of a slating from Steve Guess of BWW on Amazon ( my first review) I will be withdrawing the PMP adverts from Buses Worldwide magazine.

Generally its been quite busy although we can cope with some more orders, please don't leave it until last thing . The full Intra Express English language brochure has been circulated, I'm still interested in the Portuguese sector. I managed to get the AEC lorry DVD finished last night and hope to have it on EBay today, just cover to prepare, also intend to have a matching AEC Bus DVD ready before the week is out.

Don't forget that its LOTS sale at Harrow on Saturday, we'll have plenty of copies of the latest London archives with us plus of course the full range and my book.

I've been giving thought to next years bus visits in UK Belfast, S West Wales, Suffolk ,Essex, Isle of Wight ,Southampton, Cornwall, Devon Nth ,Hampshire ,Herts ,Lincs .
Any more I've missed out on this year?

Any suggestions for more good truck spots, I've got one tip in store for M5 area

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

GOOD NEWS FROM GMPTE

good old Bangor came up trumps on Saturday, what a super spot


mind you Caernarvon wasn't far behind, well worth a visit






any a bit busy at work today, time certainly flew by. Anyway got an email from GMPTE , great news, my photo permit for all GMPTE bus stations and Metrolink included, although it doesn't effect a lot it makes Stockport, Ashton , Leigh etc more do-able. I'm busy editing AEC films tonight, a really super long with lorries at Woollaton Park, Nottingham at the AEC Society rallies in the 90s. A bus version will follow.










Monday, November 17, 2008

NORTH WALES JOURNEY

Caernarvon, Silver Star
same location, Express Motors

as it says Pwllheli, at the bus station


Eileen, Trish and Mandy




Dennis, Derek and myself, at Beaumaris, yesterday


A very successful weekend really, on Saturday we set off at breakfast time getting down to Llandudno ready for tea and toast before the rain left off and bus services started to pick up, only Express hints at the delights further up the coast , otherwise its all Arriva. No problems filming and rain showers seemed to be between destinations rather than when I was filming. At Bangor , the light was spot on and bus services were frequent with up to four operators in sight at a time, even Arriva deckers about and lots of independents. The drivers were very friendly, Bangor is a favourite destination for buses and very much in the locale of Mandy's family in Wales.










We arrived at Caernarfon just after lunch, light rain paused whilst I finished off, Silver Star have Wright bodies Darts and minibuses, one of the Darts was still in Lincs Road Car livery with just Stagecoach ( I presume) painted out. With a couple of hours light left we decided to head down the Llyn Peninsula to Pwelli m, a trio of local independent buses at the bus station recorded we had a potter further down and ended up stopping for afternoon tea. We then headed back up to Anglesey and Beaumaris for our family visits which I'll cover tomorrow. At work our e mail and net connections have all crashed across the company so that looks like being fun.