Crazy day

What a busy day! Today was our first day of filming for 'Amazing Spaces'. The crew arrived at 9 and stayed until about 6, with George Clarke here from 11-3. Lots of filming - in Bertie, out of Bertie, in the house, on the track - and lots and lots of waiting around too. Having grown up with Dad working in TV, I was at least a bit familiar with the processes and procedures involved in filming, but it feels very different when you are the one on the camera! George was really lovely, very down to earth, and we had some good conversations which helped to put me at ease. He seemed to like our crisps too - he ate three bags in one sitting!! The children were amazing, doing all that was asked of them, and being so patient with all the waiting around. It has been exhausting though. And really, really cold and grey outside - not really showing our beautiful country location off to the best.

We still weren't able to get Bertie started for the filming, which was a real shame, but Dan came over about 4 o'clock and was able to hot wire the ignition and get hime turning over, so that was really positive. He thinks that it is the starter solenoid which is causing the problem (I pretend to know what that is...) so he reckons he can fit another one and get us back on the road.

All in all, a very bizarre but very cool day.

Welder?

Dan has recommended a welding company which he uses for work and is only a couple of miles from us, so I gave them a call and the main guy, Carl, came down this afternoon to have a look at Bertie and a chat about what we want doing.
Having never knowingly even spoken to a welder before in my life, let alone commissioned one to work for me,  I was rather nervous and felt rather out of my depth. I talked about some of my ideas and the sorts of things we are wanting, including the seat frames and some remedial work to the back steps. Carl seemed to grasp what we are wanting, but said a few things which threw me a little - such as, "Well, you don't want to be paying us to do the straightforward jobs like cutting out the old floor and step do you. Surely you can do that yourselves?"! I didn't like to mention that the sharpest tool I have in the house is a pair of scissors...

Anyway, he seems like a good guy, good Norfolk boy, and hopefully it'll work out well!

Still no good

We had the battery inside all night and have tried using some kind of spray in the engine which is supposed to help starting in cold and damp conditions, but still no good.

The TV people said they wanted to film him working, and they are coming the day after tomorrow... Stress...

Bad news

He won't start.

We tried to start him this morning, so that we can move him round to the garage to load in the stretchers etc, but we just can't get him going.

Since our trip to Awesome, back at the beginning of January, we have had weeks and weeks of snow, with tenperatures of down to -12* or -15* overnight, so I'm hoping it's just a battery issue, or the engine being really cold.

I'm going to call our friend Dan to see if he's got any ideas.

So, so fed up...

Not junk, vintage memorabilia...

The TV company have said that they would like Bertie to be as 'untouched' inside as possible, so they can film him right from the beginning on the first shoot. So, the only job we've done so far - which is put all the junk from the back into our garage - needs to be undone... And we also need the stretchers etc, which we hadn't collected from Reuben. So I went back over to see Reuben today to pick them up, and he also had the bench seats from both ambulances that he had bought. His lock up was full of exciting projects, including an amazing 1934 pick-up truck, and he was really friendly and helpful as ever.
So - now we have some new toys!

We're in!

Kirsten called today - we're in! They'll be in touch soon to arrange the first filming day...