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Reg's relics...as punctual as ever - a Bromley interlude!!


MrRegieRitmo

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I'm now heading back out to Malta in November, albeit for a week of sun & beer with the lads as opposed to a fortnight with the family, so although I shall most definitely be looking out for more shite, I shall have to be careful about how I document it without attracting derision from said mates about devoting my attention to 'some crummy old car' instead of 'that fit bird in the short skirt....'

Solve the problem by combining the two. Automotive tat + Maltese flange = sticky keyboards. Job done.As I understand it open-top buses are only a very recent initiative on Malta, it took them years to sanction the use of double-deckers for whatever reason. Progressive society open to change then! :lol:
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  • 3 weeks later...

I can now bring myself to continue my very long running Malta holiday spots. About 3 weeks ago after a weekend away I came home to use the computer, turned it on.....nothing.....except 'Windows cannot start, file blah blah blah is missing'. Turns out a suspected virus wiped out not only my C drive, but also my E drive where I had stored thousands & thousands of pictures, mainly cars & things but also lots of memories relating to family, occasions, holidays etc dating back to Mar 07 when I bought the storage HDD. I also had to break it to my parents that all the pictures they'd taken with their own camera were also lost forever, including all of their own holiday & family memories, inc pictures of our dog who was put to sleep earlier this year. It was devastating for all of us. I felt like EL when he discovered the extent of the forum purge! I had to lock away all the razor blades in the house! (bit drastic but I was very very gutted). All of the time & effort I'd put in in Malta walking miles in search of shite & coming back with thousands of things & now had nothing to show for it! I was imagining having to spend my week in Malta next month retracing my steps to try & snap all the same things again - not much fun!

 

Anyway, thankfully I work with people who know all about data recovery from hard drives as they have to produce evidence for prosecutions etc.

So I used some excellent software called Ontrack Data Recovery & I believe, fingers crossed, that I have it all back! Woo hoo! Only downside is the process of dragging all of the files back from the abyss means that all the file names & folders have been lost, so I have to go searching through thousands upon thousands of files to track down anything I'm looking for! Still, beggars can't be choosers, I just wanted everything back any which way or how so no complaints! :D

 

Saying all, this, I still had all the pictures I took in Malta using my own phone because I'd already uploaded them all to Photobucket just after I'd got back, so at the very least I'd have still had the rest of 655 images to show you which isn't to be sniffed at! Just nothing I had seen during the 2nd week of the holiday.

 

So anyway continuing with Day 2, this Stellar was seen in Valletta just after the Mazda 818 on the previous page.....

 

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Fiat 850 camper

 

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A self indulgent Alfa 146

 

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Lovely dayglo Mazda 323 MkII saloon....

 

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This was definitely the snazziest looking Estelle I saw out there, obviously somebody's pride & joy....

 

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This Lada Samara was probably the least snazzy!

 

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Long distance Toyota Hiace & Fiat Uno...

 

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Yet another Daewoo Racer....

 

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Nice Herald, this had a Vitesse 'angry face' but for some reason I neglected to snap the front which was bad of me!

 

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Long distance early Renault 18, the only one I saw during the whole holiday.....

 

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It seems to be the thing to start a new section with a white Hyundai, so here you go! This Hyundai Pony saloon was parked on the approach to Valletta bus station....

 

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As was this MkI Orion & Suzuki Samurai / SJ combo

 

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Hope you like buses! :lol: It took us a while to find the bus station (one of Valletta's main attractions! :D ) but we knew we were getting close when old skool Plaxton Paramounts & Duple Dominants were chugging past us. During the holiday I'd say we experienced a ride on most types of bus, not deliberately as it's just pot luck what you end up with, from the brand new to something from the 50s with bags of character. It didn't matter what type of bus it was, the drivers drove them all the same - like maniacs!.....

 

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So much variety, they captured the imagination of most people (tourists) & I was never alone in snapping them to my heart's content!

 

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It seemed like no two buses were the same!

 

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I watched this Plaxton manoeuvring towards me as I was stood in the parking area & I delayed my picture until it came closer, and then I realised he was heading straight for me with a cheeky grin on his face. I think he swerved past at the last moment, either that or I scrambled onto the pavement, I can't remember which. Either way, I'm still here to tell the tale! :lol:

 

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All the bus pictures seen so far were taken during a single hour or so at the bus station...

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Nice bus photos (have a look at my update yesterday for other bus pics)They all seem quite fond of their buses in Malta, proudly displaying the make and body on the front :D I'm a big fan of old Plaxtons, especially ParamountsSome buses dont loook familiar until you look closer and realise that it is a heavily modified British bus

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They all seem quite fond of their buses in Malta, proudly displaying the make and body on the front :D

Yes, what gets me though is the way they randomly emblazon all the makes & models across the buses, often mixing & matching famous British coachbuilders / engine names as if they're having a wild stab in the dark & haven't really got a clue about what the bus actually is (especially if they're hybrids) & feel that if they just plaster all sorts of names across the buses, odds are they'll get one or two right sooner or later! :lol:
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Back on the streets of Valletta, no white Hyundai this time, but a heavily body-kitted Lada Samara - lovely jubbly! :roll:

 

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A (K10?) MkII Micra (or is it MkI facelift?) with a reg plate that over here I predict would be worth alot of money!

 

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I saw some unusual looking Micras of this style over there which had recessed front headlamps & slightly different rear lights with no reverse in the cluster!

 

Nice condition MkI diesel Transit flat bed...

 

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Managed to capture one of their smart Merc W123 taxis...

 

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The cabs there in the main were Mercedes, Volvo & Peugeot, the usual culprits! These went from modern day ones right back as far as the W123, the 740 & the 405 respectively.

 

Back in the bus station before taking a bus back to where we were staying in Vittoriosa...

 

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Visible here, that MkIV Cortina again & a green VW T3 Transporter which was always parked there so obviously belonged to a trader...

 

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Amazing buses!! Fantastic front and rear lights on some of them!! And I was baffled by the mismatch of bages, didn't realise theywere just randomly applied! BRILLIANT!! Kind of a shame that Crete has replaced all it's old buses, but then again, the new ones are superbly smooth, comfortable, quiet, air-condidtioned, and cheap!!

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Maruti Omni (Suzuki Carry)

 

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Another MkII 323 saloon in glorious beige!

 

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A general interesting view containing one or two items of note, including a very tricky CPTC...

 

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Suzuki Alto (MkI?)

 

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I swear these have got Metro rear lights!

 

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Not one, but TWO p*ss easy CPTCs! One from the earlier picture, so if you couldn't quite get it last time, have another try! No clues though... :lol:

 

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Land Rover 90, from another angle. Think you've already seen it, if not you will again! :wink:

 

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Land Rover Series III Station Wagon... (for GarethJ)

 

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Two typical items of Maltese shite, the Favorit & the Marbella....

 

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Plain, original & wholly unexciting Vauxhall Nova saloon....

 

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Another MkII Pony saloon, in a colour worthy of it's personality...

 

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Kia Avella aka Ford Festiva, we missed out on these over here. Dammit :lol:

 

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This was a perfect shot for me because it proved to me what I always thought.....that the Samara & the Favorit are visually very similar at the front end!

 

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Another much better shot of that MkI LWB Transit that lived close to where our apartment was...

 

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A dusk shot of the front end of a Kia Avella. So just about worth bothering with then.

 

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Plain, original & wholly unexciting Vauxhall Nova saloon....

 

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With a grille/bumper from an early hatchback cobbled on.

 

A dusk shot of the front end of a Kia Avella. So just about worth bothering with then.

 

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Is that a Tata Indica behind it?
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Plain, original & wholly unexciting Vauxhall Nova saloon....

 

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With a grille/bumper from an early hatchback cobbled on.
I was thinking 'I didn't realise these could be had with the uglier, bulkier grille!?'

 

A dusk shot of the front end of a Kia Avella. So just about worth bothering with then.

 

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Is that a Tata Indica behind it?
Quite possibly, they were around, those City Rovers in their true form! Can't confirm till I get home as I can't even view my own pictures here! :roll:
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Kind of a shame that Crete has replaced all it's old buses, but then again, the new ones are superbly smooth, comfortable, quiet, air-conditioned, and cheap!!

That was the thing with Malta, I've never experienced such cheap buses in my life! It was a fixed rate 47c (35p) to anywhere, so it made sense to use them for longer journeys even though it may take quite a while, even on the new buses because the routes are slow. The most we paid was for a journey up to Bugibba & presumably when we went up for the ferry to Gozo, both at the north end of the island & cost us a whopping 53c (about 40p) even though the journey was in excess of an hour's duration. So it pays to go far on Maltese buses!

Only downside is they all stop by 10pm so after that it's just taxis which you wouldn't want to use to go far as they can be pricey. It's topsy turvy in Malta.

:?

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So Reg when is..

 

[geordie accent] Day 3 of the regieritmo 'oliday [/geordie accent] beginning?

Ooo, umm I dunno.....how about now?? :D

 

 

Malta Day 3

 

It's that Transit again!

 

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I'm getting closer & closer to it - next time you'll be able to read the tax discs & the whites of the eyes of the flys stuck to the windscreen!

 

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Late MkII rear lights again, which for some reason seemed to be on most of the MkI / II Transits besides the late MkIIs which should have them anyway. I quite like them but they're ungainly next to the svelte narrow originals!

 

Mint looking turquoise Estelle / 120LS (which had the bonnet up, not because it was having trouble, but I think the side opening bonnet was being used to shade something IIRC!

 

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Malta is old skool Transit capital! Another late MkII

 

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Minty fresh MkI Golf GLD. Would have snapped the front but a bloke was sat in it at the time!

 

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Say Tata to quality! Lots of Tata products everywhere. Ironically they remind me of a 1980s Mercedes at the front!

 

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Yet another late MkII Transit, this time a LWB minibus...

 

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A tat overview. Pretty much anything you see in this picture tatilicious belongs to the same fella, who I'll introduce you to later. Here we can see a highly decorated MkII Transit & an Iveco Daily wrecker. He has many more interesting things which you 'll see further on! :wink:

 

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Daewoo Racer (Belmont)

 

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Nova or Corsa saloon. Probably Nova....

 

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TBC.....

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Hey more nice pics Mr Ritmo, I love that Transit.That narrow Dominant Mr Craig is possibly a Leyland Cub, Lothian had a small batch. I didnt know Duple ever bodied Ford buses with the Dominant. As they were front-engined it was a tight squeeze to get past it with the standard engine fitted, it must be pretty cramped and sweaty with a big Cummins boshed in there! Prob goes like the shits though lolz!I bet there was a Revopak just over that hill in the distance shot too :lol:* I promise to, one day shut up about those Revopaks sorry lol

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That narrow Dominant Mr Craig is possibly a Leyland Cub, Lothian had a small batch. I didnt know Duple ever bodied Ford buses with the Dominant. As they were front-engined it was a tight squeeze to get past it with the standard engine fitted, it must be pretty cramped and sweaty with a big Cummins boshed in there! Prob goes like the shits though lolz!

It's definitely a Ford - I must have travelled on every single one of the 33 examples Jersey Motor Transport operated during the early 1990s. I have however driven one of the Lothian Leyland Cubs, which were shorter and bouncier (and automatic)

 

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Edit - for good measure

 

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