MANSFIELD AND DERBY

yes it was an East Midlands day today, just back from Derby and Mansfield, pictures here from the latter at the bus station. it's nearly 20 years since I last film,ed here, when they had Routemasters. Well the bus station hasn't changed, just the grime and wear of the passing decades. I think Mansfield have fared pretty roughly with out of town shopping centres leaving the place more of a dump than ever but that's councils for you, charge the earth for business rates and parking, little surprise towns are dying all around the country.

I would however like to note that everyone in Mansfield was very friendly and absolutely no problems filming at the bus station other than the direction of the light which is probably why I usually avoid it. Variety wise well nothing fantastic but there are many worse and at least there are plenty of buses on frequent services.One Veolia and One Notts & Derby decker spotted during the day. Derby I bring you tomorrow. I'll get Sunday's blog done early as we are off the Rape of Lucretia at RNCM, Manchester in the afternoon. I the morning i intend getting the greenhouse cleaned and disinfected ready for seedlings in March. Weather still cold, frosty, occasional sleet but dry at present and bright.

WONDERFUL EXPENSIVE COPENHAGEN

wonderful Copenhagen as that song of my youth declared but terribly expensive, Denmark is at the top of the price league . What attracted us on this trip was the re-introduction of double deckers into the country.

back to present times, last night down at the Three greyhounds we looked back on Bills Corrigan's funeral earlier in the day at Mobberley, there had been a very full church. The vicar was the retired Lower Peover incumbent who got through it all at break neck speed although that did little to distract from a plesasant ceremony, we skipped the Friends of Nature funeral ground as too rough for Mandy to negotiate. I returned to work declining an afternoon session at Victory Hall. Bert ex landlord retired of the Crown in Lower Peover was there as were Simon and family and staff plus most of the regulars from the Three Greyhounds. He had been schoolboy British boxing cchampion, county level at snooker and crown green bowls and a good angler, not a bad haul.

I also managed to get all DVD covers done up to day and loaded most of the recent releases onto Amazon with a few to do tonight, then need to add links and re-post on my website, all will be done this evening. Still unsure of weekend film destination until I catch up with weather forecast. Sleet and ice prevail at home.

MADE IT PAST RUSSIA

a reminder to mysdelf that areas like Grantham and Lincoln are well up my target video list for 2010, Road Car is alas no more of copurse just more Stagecoach territory.

Last night i was late to bed, that blessed Russian video has really proved a jinx, after x amount of attempts it is finally done, glad to see the back of it. This was the one nearly finished when the old computer crashed and has been the only backlog left. Anyway I've also got a clip uploaded , now I need to do my first still captures on Premiere Pro for the cover. Tonight I'll have a bash at getting all on Amazon. EBay have abandoned their post free rule on dvds at last, new rules in April. Thinking i might just use EBay for 'sales' my low cost operastion and all 'new' stuff goes to Amazon where the complete range can be listed at minimal cost per month.

Today its a short day at work as I'm off to Bill's funeral at lunch time. I can't say I really like making the DVDs with Adobe Encore, might look at alternatives. Still struggling with comparisons of HD camera, very hard to get 'real' info, Sony's websites are pitiful. Not sure about filming coming weekend, looks as if it could be sunny, I'll think of something.

Good old Israelis chasing the terrorists around, not a lot gets past them, pity we haven't got the balls to chase ours down like that. Anyway how come all the aggro that our dear old Enry VIII went through to have our own nice comfy church free of religion has been forgotten, time we banned all false religions and recognised the power of the steeple, tombola and home made jam!

Here endeth the lesson, in'it

LONDON TO CHINA VIA RUSSIA

yes lots of influences at work on today's blog but first my dip into the archive takes us to London in the RM era. I've uncovered my oldest Irish photos with half cabs in Dublin around 1979 - 80, these will form just part of a huge archive of stills covering the majority of the CIE fleet at the time plus some N Ireland plus railways.

We are hoping to have three days in London giving it a good old bash in the spring. Meanwhile I'm editing the last of my Russian trip this evening which brings me up to date with latest film work and work which was underway when my equipment crashed. I'm looking at the Four Oaks catalogue this evening with a view to ordering up my spring seedlings for the greenhouse.

Over in China my friend Li has a lot going on in his life which I can't publish here but some general observations on the New Year festival from his email last night

Li wrote 'It is the third day of the Spring Festival in China today. It is going into the fourth day in some minutes later now.
I had very good time during these days. On the New Year's eve after we had dumplings we watched the Spring Festival Gala till 1:00 o'clock the next morning on which day it is also the first day of the Spring Festival. Of course as a traditional custom people began to ignite the plaited cannon from zero o'clock till morning continuously. Even some family couldn't wait the New Year they began igniting the plaited cannon on the Eve.
We had about four and a half hours rest then we got up early in the morning as a tradition. After we had some dumplings and some soup we went out to visit neighbours, friends and each others on the road we met to say :"Happy New Year!" with a smile or a salute with their hands on their chest but not a hug like western.If we were in our hometown we had a very big extended family and we should visit elders. My some younger fellow apprentices and I haven't forgot visiting our master Mr.Fu together. Of course we also went to see our master with some gifts several days before the Festival.
On the streets shops are all shut and everywhere the crowds are flowing. Their clothes especially the youth's and children's are new. Occasionally we might see one or two balloon vendors. But it was different from the first day more small stalls appeared in the streets in the second day and days later. We'll finish the Spring Festival after we'll have spent the Lantern Festival. So I think Chinese Spring Festival is the longest festival in the world. '

Well I'm off to Bills funeral tomorrow morning, its still cold and miserable here, got a lovely brochure on exotic luxurious cruises which would have been nice if we had scooped the £56M lottery win.

SORRY TO SEE HERNE BAY GO MEANWHILE NIAGARA

A trip rom many years back to Niagara Falls, honeymoon destination and all round tourist draw for Americans and Canadians alike. Routemasters provided transport, also seen is Mandy with our friends Margaret and John Bromley.

It was sad news to hear yesterday that Herne Bay Bus Rally for 2010 was off, hopefully it will return next year, it was one of the best small events we attended and has left a void in mid August. Last night I filed away master video tapes after entering on the database, this went back to last autumn. I've almost caught up with editing, just Wakefield to finish tonight and the Russian film which was almost complete when the old system collapsed. Next target is the Southampton collection of all pre DVD releases . I'm going to start looking at HD video camera today, also weather eye open in case we get any 'scenic' snow as forecast, probably means dry and sunny. A very quiet day with not one order whether post, phone or Internet, at least Mandy got a rest. I also got the latest round of adverts submitted to magazines, remember we ditched Light Rail as uneconomic, it's all on the net anyway. I've pretty well finalised the Balkan trip in late August to Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia, waiting for confirmation from Net Flights.

The path people are coming to look at pricing up fort a refurb on the drive etc and looking for someone to put fascia on a grotty piece of plastering below front window. House still technically on sale but no takers in three years so getting on with jobs which have accumulated, wish we'd picked up the £56M on Eurolottery.

LEICESTER WELL RECEIVED

it seems that the Leicester youtube clip was well received don't forget there folks to click on an advert or two each time you visit to makes all the effort worth while, it won't cost you a penny. Here are some shots from the uncropped digitised negs from a visit quite a while back.

Tonight I'll have Barnsley edited through to DVD, may even get as far as Wakefield. Need to update the Amazon listings to suit, not really bothered about EBay as it costs me a fortune putting stuff on there. At least Amazon pays for postage. Then I've got the rest of the old Russian trip to get finished. I also need to log all the piled up master tapes onto my database. Work not too busy now, it's Bills funeral Thurday so that's an afternoon out of the week. My father's mouth pieces are on the way back, going to get them together with his medals mounted.Getting path people to quote on recoating drive and paths around the house, all looking a bit jaded.

BARNSLEY PHOTOS YESTERDAY

a few shots of Barnsley from yesterday, the town has some mitigating features such as the toilets in the bus station, life save and no-one to shout at you for having a camera these days, what a change. Then the arcade of shops and all the cafes and a nice art gallery in one of the clothes shops.

Wakefield has a farmers market alongside the bus stops outside the market near the bus station. Really you may as well go on a day trip to Uzbekistan it's so different there, the language is hard to make out, worse still on the buses but that's just Polish.

Anyway today it's been a case of yet more catching up on the editing, rapidly getting right up to date and most of the Youtube postings done as well. I've been decorating today in the bathroom and lo9, fin indeed you say. Then it was outside to clean the cars and finally fill up the recycle bin with dead vegetation. Nearly time for the annual seedlings and must get the greenhouse washed inside and out ready for that. Anyway ready for a soak in the bath now and then some nice roast beef from the meat with picked up in Ludlow last week.

IT WAS YORKSHIRE DAY

yes we got to Yorkshire and caught up with the bus scene in Barnsley and Wakefield. Although the camcorder battery didn't appear to have charged which looked like bringing proceedings to an early halt it did actually last until I'd captured both locations. No hassles at all and met some enthusiast friends opposite the bus station in Barnsley. All the drivers without exception were very friendly. The weather was freezing cold, I learnt my lesson at Barnsley and for Wakefield wrapped up warm with hat, gloves and scarf, much better. Plenty of activity at both place.

I'm presently still working my way through the backlog of DVDs which needed editing, each is having a clip on Youtube as usual although the length seems to jump as I extract it from Premiere editing timeline. The Ross on Wye truck clip is on Youtube now. I've also updated the list but this is changing every day. When the list is cleared I'll start on the Southampton collection pre DVD , all on to DVD. Studying HD cameras with a view to upgrading now I have the editing capability.

SANDTOFT ROUND IN CIRCLES

some shots of Sandtoft trolleybus museum near Doncaster where the beautifully preserved trolleybuses from Reading to Glasgow go around a short circuit then fir an extra bit of excitement are turned around to go the other way. In fact the ever decreasing circles amply illustrates the thought processes of this self absorbed outfit whose insular and negative attitude has done little to encourage interest in what many of us find to be an inspiring and exciting hobby taking us to many distant corners of the world

anyway onwards and upwards and I'm gradually getting through the backlog of DVDs needing compilation , although no expert I'm on top of the editing and getting to grips with Encore in Adobe. Work has finally settled down a bit and it looks like being a much more relaxed weekend for me. I'm not sure of tomorrows film destination, await the BBC weather guess after the news before I attempt a sensible option, if it's anything like last week the promise of cloud will be bright sunshine or vice versa. Jobs looming include decorating in the bathroom and loo on Sunday, that will be exciting won't it. Still no sign of particularly bad weather, it'd just been so cold in Cheshire.

FRANTIC WITH MELBOURNE MEMORIES

here are a few more shots from the archive put on digital, all I've had time to do

its been really hectic at work again today, I was out on site at Stanlow most of the day and barely had time to breather, the knee has started swelling again. I've got to see the foot chap for inserts at Chester tomorrow. Heard friend Li in China today , looks like he hasn't received my New Year present yet, still at least it was good to break the silence. Still awaiting a funeral sate for Billy from the three Greyhounds, its pub night tonight so should hear something, looking forward to a drink. I've got the Adobe manuals printed out and bound. Had success last night with developing DVDs on Encore and now Birmingham DVD is ready, I'll try for another before pub time. Lots of catching up to do, it took 3 reloads to get Youtube at correct settings.