Lots of friends and family came to visit to help Gruff celebrate his second birthday. A Postman Pat cake, lots of presents and lots of food.

I parked on site for a job I was doing for a quick escape, and found the car was a little dirtier than I'd left it.

A pretty good end to the Summer Ball?

Full size (4288x2848px) full quality (what you see here is reduced in quality quite significantly and has a watermark) digital copies of photos are available to buy at a cost of £3 each - please e-mail gary@garysmith.org.uk for more information. You can also buy physical prints (again, full size, full quality, no watermark) by clicking on the "Buy Print" button. Photos are printed using an Agfa d-Lab.2 on Fuji Crystal Archive paper at a huge 400dpi. The lab is color balanced three times a day and is operated by fully trained lab staff.

You can also find photos from the Summer Ball 2008 at http://photos.garysmith.org.uk/ball08/

Gruffydd's first birthday started with opening some presents and cards, before heading over to Sioned's parents for more presents, then off for some food in Llandudno at The Greenery, then on to Sw Môr Môn where Gruff had a fantastic time looking at all of the fish there. A busy and enjoyable day :)

Gruffydd met Santa at the playgroup, as well as playing in the ball pit.

We spent Thursday in Lazise, so it's mainly photos of the journey there on the ferry as well as a few photos of Lazise itself.

Wednesday we headed into Peschiera and then caught a catamaran to Desenzano where we had lunch, before catching a slower boat back. Loads of photos from the trip on Lake Garda itself, as well as plenty from Desenzano.

Couple of photos from the airport, out front at the hotel and taking Gruffydd swimming for the first time.

There's a story that the house was used as a holiday home by the girl who the Alice in Wonderland stories were based on. The house is now to be demolished to make way for new houses.

Driving home I managed to catch this. The image is as it came off the camera, taken at 2313 with a 6 second exposure at f/4.5.

Full size (4288x2848px) full quality (what you see here is reduced in quality quite significantly and has a watermark) digital copies of photos are available to buy at a cost of £3 each - please e-mail gary@garysmith.org.uk for more information. You can also buy physical prints (again, full size, full quality, no watermark) by clicking on the "Buy Print" button. Photos are printed using an Agfa d-Lab.2 on Fuji Crystal Archive paper at a huge 400dpi. The lab is color balanced three times a day and is operated by fully trained lab staff.

As part of my job, I'm sent out to Welsh community events, like this Welsh folk dance. Good turnout, and a fun night.

I'm running out of titles now.

We had a quiet day, just some photos of opening cards from people

We took Gruffydd in to see Mum at work

Gruffydd's first visit to Leicester

Sioned noted that there were very few photos of me and him - so here's one.

A nice lady from the hospital came over and asked Gruffydd to rate some banging choons through some headphones. Gruffydd gave the Dave Pearce Dance Megamix Vol 36 a resounding thumbs down. The lass from the hospital concurred that said album was crap, gave him a "pass" in musical taste and was soon on her way.

To appease people who've asked for them

Sioned wants to point out she had nothing to do with this.

First photos of Gruffydd Cynan - more details are at http://www.gruffyddsmith.com

Photos are taken between 15 and 20 minutes after birth.

Another new toy! I treated myself to a new lens (28-70mm f/2.8), so went and took some photos of the ducks that live outside the office.

Laura started University at MMU recently, so we popped over to see her for a few hours.

Photos of week 19 of Sioned's pregnancy

I got my spangly new D2x today - some test shots of the wildlife outside the office

Myself, Steve and Kev spent our sort-of-annual lads weekend away in Leeds. After a heavy night on the Friday, we decided to retreat to the country for a quiet Saturday. These are some of the photos of the village of Bolton Abbey (it's not really an abbey).

The National Eisteddfod, held this year in Mold was a busy time for me. I tried to catch a few snaps of what was happening around the Maes D.

The festival itself was cancelled, but the wakeboarding element still took place at Pwllheli marina. Neal mentioned it'd be quite a good day - which it was, in spite of the drizzle.

As you head west on the M4 and approach J40, you see Mynydd Emroch towering over the motorway and Port Talbot. It blocks out pretty much everything north of it and because of the height of it, gives spectacular views over the area.

I'm down in South Wales for a few days on a training course. Driving across the M4, one of the landmarks of the area is the Port Talbot steelworks, once employing 20000 local people. It's something that the locals put up with, but don't really have any great liking of. It's something that I think is quite beautiful in a rather odd way, though.

The 70 Degrees Hotel is something of a local landmark in North Wales. After years of neglect, it's now being brought down for revelopment as new housing.

We had some friends round for our first barbecue of the season.

Fotopic (the service behind this website) moved house from London GS1 in Docklands to Leeds. De-racking 40 odd servers, chucking them in the back of two cars, up the M1 then putting them all in to a new house. All done in less than 12 hours.

Our last day - we're heading home. We left Mechelen in Belgium, headed through France and on to the ferry at Calais, before hitting England and heading up to North Wales.

From Hannover (there's nothing to do there, hence no photos) it's onwards to Belgium, and a little city called Mechelen, near Antwerp. Gorgeous place - lots of street cafes with people sat out, cobbled streets, and St Rumbold's Cathedral. Very good for taking photos.

Our last day in Berlin. We took a walk to Checkpoint Charlie, just a couple of minutes from our hotel and spent some time looking around the museum there, which includes the checkpoint signs which were once sited there. We then took a sightseeing tour around Berlin itself which showed us some places we'd missed. In the evening I went up the Furnsehturm - the Berlin TV tower for some night photography over the city.

Sioned had noticed a baloon rising up somewhere near the hotel. I went out to have a look at what it was and found that it took passengers. Well, I had to have a go...
Also, some photos from around the Potsdamer Platz.

We took a trip on a sightseeing bus around Hamburg, before heading back to the Reeperbahn again. We didn't spend too long here as it was pretty quiet and didn't feel as safe as it did when we were there the previous night - instead, we headed to the funfair we'd seen whilst on the sightseeing bus. Far more interesting!

We went to Tierpark Hagenbeck - the zoo in the middle of Hamburg. It's a huge place with plenty to look at, and much of it roaming around at your feet. People are able to feed the elephants, the turkeys will peck at your feet... it's an ace day out.

Not much here. We arrived in Hamburg late-ish, so jumped on a train and found out just how seedy Hamburg can be. There was a distinct lack of places to eat, so we opted for the hotel bar.

Cologne houses a pretty impressive twin-spired gothic cathedral. The taxi dropped us right in front of it - getting out of the taxi was pretty jaw dropping. As with most places like this, it's possible to climb the tower for some amazing views across the area. You also go through the bell tower here. We also found a shop selling nothing but Lego!

We left the Chateau Du Lac - our hotel in Brussels and headed to the Nurburgring. I did a couple of laps here - one with Sioned on board. Lots of nice toys in the car park here!

We left Oxford after an aborted visit to Blenheim Palace (it was rather expensive) and headed to Dover to catch a ferry over to Les France. From here, it was a journey north to Brussels, where we stayed at the Chateau Du Lac in Genval.

We stayed in Oxford for a night longer than we'd planned as we were waiting for a package to turn up. We visited Christ Church and I went up one of the spires there to get some nice photos around the city.

After leaving Plas Maenan, where we'd spent our wedding night, we opened the wedding presents given by friends and family at Sioned's parents house. After this, we travelled down to Oxford where we spent the night en route to Europe for the rest of our honeymoon. We stayed at the fantastic Weston Manor Hotel.

Sioned and myself were married at Gwydir Castle in Llanrwst, before moving on with gathered friends and family to Plas Maenan, just a short distance away. The photos here document some moments during the day, from myself, my best man and some of my ushers getting ready, through the ceremony, to the end of the night.

Sioned & me are getting married tomorrow! After a lot of mad dashing about setting up, it was time for us to say "goodbye" until tomorrow. I then went off for a meal with family & friends at the Craigside Inn in Llandudno.

I'm going to be doing a lot of driving over the next few days, so invested in a Parrot ck3100 Bluetooth car phone thing. It's rather funky. Connects to the radio of the Saab 93, and puts any calls through it via Bluetooth. Neat.

24 started out - unfortunately I was knocked out in the semi-finals. Some photos of the University players.

..er, Shepherd's delight? It's not very often that Conwy Castle is lit in anything other than it's usual "white light", so seeing it bathed in red, I tried to get a few photos from the office.

Breakfast, then some touristy stuff - Angel of the North, seaside and stuff, before heading out for a rather memorable night in Newcastle.

Travelling to Newcastle via a gorgeous place called Bishop Auckland before we arrived at the hotel. Out into town, and then back for an early-ish night.

I was in the area, so went back for a more in depth look at this fantastic ruin. On my previous visit, I'd only seen a small part of the building. This time I managed to see the front of the house, the conservatory, another outhouse, the kitchen area, and a service area at the side.
There were some other people on site - fortunately it was one of the "I'll keep out of your way, you keep out of my way" arrangements :)

South Wales were pretty much snowed under, as was much of England. Us? Naff all.

Murray Walker is pretty close to hero status with me. Working in a theatre, I get to see "famous celebrities" all the time, which doesn't really faze me. It was quite odd having to say "Look, I shouldn't be like this, but can I have my photo taken with you?"

I've had my new lens for a few days now and already done some work with it, but unfortunately I can't make the photos from that public. I went out tonight and took a photo of the castle. This photo was taken from just over 0.8 miles away, zoomed to 200mm at f/2.8 on a 0.7 second exposure at ISO200. I made use of the Anti-Shock on the Nikon, since I was getting a small amount of blur due to the mirror moving.

A few photos from my 24th birthday - presents, and out with friends.

After hot footing it back from the final show before Christmas, I arrived at Mum & Dad's in time for the traditional Christmas Eve bash. Features the cork that was Far Too Large.

Steve & Marie were visiting this weekend, and the Snooker & Pool Club were having a social, so we combined the two.

I've been in my new office for a couple of weeks now. It sits on the banks of the Menai Straits. It's rather pretty by night. The University mooring is just over on the other bank, so the University's boat features in these photos.

Managed to catch this before the clouds rolled in over it, from the decking in the garden tonight.

It looked so simple - 20 minutes at tops, right? Wrong. The exhaust had actually split, leaving part of it in the collector box. Just pull that bit out? Nope! It's welded in. Genius. Sigh.

We needed to sort some more bits out at the venue for the wedding reception. A few bits had changed, so we got a few more photos of the place for people to have a look at.

Heavy rain usually sees flooding around these parts. Me & Sioned went out in the car and found lots of roads unpassable, and also found this at the end of our road.

I was working at Anglesey Show. It's a local agricultural show but seems to attract people from all over the country. There's a popular showjumping event and various other horsey type things. Very well attended.

My final day at the Eisteddfod. It was quieter due to the fact that the weather wasn't as nice as the previous day, with frequent showers. The UWB stand saw a few launches, as well as a band playing, and there was a political protest, too.

After setting off at about 0830 from Bangor, I arrived at the Eisteddfod in Swansea just after 1300. Nice sunny day, and a very busy site.

Busy busy busy. Started the day out at the Yorkshire Wheel, after which we had a quick look around the National Railway Museum, before moving on to Clifford's Tower, where Sioned went on a fairground ride, whilst I climbed the tower and had a look around. From there, on to the Minster where I walked the 275 steps to the top of the tower, before heading home.

Saturday morning we decided to visit York Castle Museum, and then headed over to Wakefield for Joel & Nicky's summer party.

After arriving in York, I headed out to scout around and see what there was to do. There's also some long exposure shots from the minster from our hotel room.

I'd found a website which mentions a few interesting derilict buildings all over the country, and found there's quite a few around here. First on the list is Hafodunos Hall, which was burnt out during 2003 after an arson attack. It's a gorgeous building and currently up for sale at £800k.

Sioned & myself were a bit bored today so headed over to Bodelwyddan Castle, near Rhyl. We had an absolutely fantastic day out - lots of great hands on activities.

With not much to do on a Friday evening, Sioned and myself decided to have a climb up the Vardre in Deganwy. There's more detail on the history of it here: http://members.aol.com/robertgatley/DeganwyVardre.html - there's some spectacular views over Conwy and Deganwy from the top.

People running the mile for Sport Relief set off from the Promenade (outside the theatre) at 11 this morning. Huge gathering, with a few people running in fancy dress, and also a couple of ministers in attendance.

Mum & Dad's garden seems to have become home to some baby Robins. Their nest isn't that well hidden, so with the huge lens I managed to get these photos.

Steve turned 23 today, which saw a party kicking off at Kev's place, where the 2.5 pint glass (or vase, as Steve put it) was used to build a dirty pint for the birthday boy, before heading off into town to Braunstone Gate.

I, as well as quite a few other people owe a lot to H - he's played a big part in getting me where I am now, and done the same for many other people. He's retiring from teaching after many years now. A few photos from the party at Guthlaxton.

Went to pick up my new car from Penzance (!) - Saab 93 SE 2.0l turbo convertable. It's rather woo, all things said and done.

A rail grinder pootled by the house whilst I was sat in the lounge. Grabbed the camera and got these shots of some hot metal being taken off. Nice smell of burning metal left behind afterwards.

We arrived home from our Tunisian adventure to find decking had been installed in our garden. We'd been considering it for a while as the step from the new(ish) conservatory was rather large. It looks rather woo.

Not much to say really... Monastir airport, planes, and all that.

We headed on into Monastir, a short taxi ride (6 Dinars, about £2.50) away. An historic place with its own Presidential Palace (which we had a look around), it's a very impressive city all things said. The hotel entertainment provided us with a rather good "Hahaha show" in the evening which was a rather good end to our stay there.

It was still pretty hot, so again we elected to do very little. I had a wander up the beach and found camels, and then watched a water polo match back at t'hotel.

The weather was getting pretty merciless, so we did the only thing we could. Nothing. Sat around the pool for most of the day, then had a quiet night in the hotel watching the entertainment, which involved lots of toilet paper.

Day 3 rolled around and we pootled over to Sousse where we had people trying to force feed us genuine Tunisian carpets at "Best price for you, my friend!" before being force fed leather goods, as well. Needless to say, we bought neither. We had a rather good look around, before heading over to Port El Kantaoui which has a rather impressive marina.

Sioned had mentioned that a Bedouin Feast was rather worth going to. Apparently this is even better than that - and indeed it was. The food was absolutely amazing, and the entertainment even better than that.

A few of us from the hotel went out quadding around the desert. Although it was rather ace, the heat was pretty hard going - 2 hours of hooning around the desert under the summer sun is difficult. We stopped off at a zoo which seemed to be in the middle of nowhere to get drinks, before setting off again.

It didn't take long to get a bit bored, so we headed off to a theatre in Sousse where we saw a pretty reasonable Cabaret act, involving The European Girls. Pretty low brow stuff, but still a good calibre.

Generally finding out feet, seeing what's around the hotel, the beach and so on. It's pretty spectacular...

We left Manchester airport heading towards Tunisia for a well earned break. I took some nice photos as we flew over the cloud cover over Britain. Also got some photos of the pretty impressive hotel reception.

I was fortunate enough to be carrying my D100 (needed for another job) on my way to catch the train this morning when I heard an odd "Clip clop" noise behind me...

Sioned's Dad - Merfyn celebrated his 60th birthday with a busty cake, and a rather nice gold chain that we'd bought him.

Sioned & myself were joined by Mum, Dad, Grandma & Grandad for the Victorian Extravaganza in Llandudno. The event is across the bank holiday weekend, with major roads being closed off and lots of steam driven engines, fairground games of yesteryear and street entertainers in attendance. We all had an excellent time wandering around.

How lax of me. I realised I hadn't got any photos of my new bike - although I actually bought it at the end of last year. It's a rather yellow Suzy GSX600F.

Not too many photos - but went out for a run across to Holyhead and saw a ferry in port there, and also got a photo of the lighthouse at South Stack

I have to admit to Sioned & me not really thinking this would be a good day out. But it's actually rather good. Huge greenhouse thing with lots of cool flutterbys and birds and the like all flying around your head. It's not expensive, either. http://www.conwy-butterfly.co.uk

Out and about I found a rather good vantage point over the town and stopped to get these photos.

Lots of fun to be had with the recent snowfall around here...

Pootling over to Leicester, the M6 was closed for an hour due to an accident. Warm day and everyone was out of their cars. No idea how the lorry had ended up as it had. :(

Went to sort out the wedding reception venue today and have a look around and whatnot. Took these so that people can have a look at where we're having it.

Having not been for all of a couple of weeks, myself, Sioned, Fran and Ffion all piled into the car and set off for Manchester for a night at Jilly's.

Boring Wednesday evening, so arsed about with the camera.

Decided to have a weekend away in Manchester after working pretty much non-stop during December. Our hotel was on the edge of Chinatown, with all its neon. Also went up in the wheel a couple of times (once during the day, and again after dark) which provided some ace shots of the surrounding areas.

Went out for lunch with Sioned, Mum, Dad, Grandma and Grandad for lunch at Tal y Cafn. The weather was very cool which saw the hills given a white covering, lending itself to some nice landscape photos.

It'd been raining heavily all through the previous evening and overnight, too. We were greeted with a floode road outside when we awoke on New Year's Day. Some of the other houses down the road which are a bit lower had their gardens flooded :-(

A sort of Christmas do, just a little bit late...

Still plenty of snow on the ground when we left Leicester this morning. We popped into Sion's Mum & Dad's on the way back to show off what we received for Christmas, and also collect even more presents

My 23rd birthday - got some ace presents including a new lens for the camera (18-50mm F3.3-5.6 Sigma), a *huge* 6D cell Maglite which confused Benji for a fair while, and a wedge of money, too. It also snowed on my birthday, yay! In the evening I was joined by the family for a meal out at The Manor.

Myself, Sioned, Mum and Dad (along with Benji) all went over to see Katarina & Pete for even further festive feeding and Christmas-esque games. Sioned learnt how to play Yahtzee and Benji destroyed more of his toys.

Grandma, Grandad, Tony, Ed & Sarah arrived a little later to help us celebrate. Mum cooked an ace meal, followed by us being able to do very little due to the inability to move, although we did have a good crack at solving The Maze[tm].

Woke up relatively early for me (8ish) and after dozing for a little, myself and Sioned joined Mum, Dad, Laura and Benji for some presents.

After hot footing it from the theatre, Sioned & myself arrived in Leicester for Christmas Eve at my parents house. Tradition states that on my mum's side, presents are exchanged on Christmas Eve - so, en masse, mum's side of the family descended on the house. Lots of food was laid on, lots of drink was drank, and an ace time was had.

Because I was working at the theatre all day, we popped over to see Sioned's parents early on Christmas Eve to exchange presents and have a small Christmas gathering.

Went out into Llandudno with the camera and took some long-exposure photos around the town.

With my trusty Photo Press pass at my side, I got some photos of Goldie Lookin Chain. Cool gig, with a capacity crowd.

Armed with my Photo Press pass, I tootled along to get some photos of The Automatic, who have a fantastic fresh sound to them.

Georgina (cousin) was married to David in Aberdare today. Sioned and myself travelled down to see the festivities, joined by the rest of the family.

Looks like someone having misjudged The Confusing Traffic Lights[tm].

Grandma and Grandad hadn't seen our house, and, with it set to sell quite shortly we wanted them to see it. We firstly took Grandma shopping in Chester, whilst Dad and Grandad went to Crewe Works, then all met up and went into Llandudno for a walk on the prom.

Drove down the coast road across Rhos and spotted a few fishermen that weren't too bothered by the elements.

Photos of a place on Caroline Road in Llandudno. It's a six bedroom place. It needs a lot of work and love, but it's something we're rather interested in. It's *huge*.

Both sides of the family gathered at the Regency Hotel in Leicester to celebrate Laura's 18th. Much food was eaten, whilst Grandad recalled a humourous story regarding a telly aerial. You had to be there...

Had to go and see a chap to pick up some paperwork to sort out my PPL (Private Pilots Licence) and had a look around the airfield whilst I was there, taking in a few shots of the type of things I'll be flying, amongst others.

Warm, August bank holiday Monday. Went down to the beach and got a bag of candy floss in and watched the world going by. Cricket seems to be popular at the moment...

I needed to pick some stuff up whilst I was in Leicester, and noticed a bit of a scene at the bottom of Churchgate. Turns out there'd been a stabbing outside TJs there a few hours previously.

An early start to say goodbye to those travelling on to Germany, then packing and saying goodbye to the others. We stopped off in Lynmouth to pick up a few bits, before heading back.

The final full day in Lynton saw us drive out to the furthest part that we'd hiked to yesterday so those who'd dropped out previously could experience the views, so more of those photos. We then went on to see a narrow-gauge railway for those interested in that, and then went back to the hotel for the final meal of the holiday with the speeches. The kids also invented The Ring Challenge, which some adults felt the need to have a go at.

Day 3 saw us starting out with a hike across the coastal path to Valley Of Rocks, with some spectacular views and climbs. We saw a few wild goats on the hike. 18 of us started out, only 7 finished. It was well worth it. After that, Sioned & Myself took the funicular railway down to Lynmouth and had a look at what was down there.

Day 2 of the holiday saw us all pile into the respective cars and tootle over to Woolacombe. The beach was *packed*, the sun was intense... it was a rather warm day.

The first day of our holiday in Lynton, on Exmoor saw the obligatory travelling and then arriving. In the evening the family went out to The Greenhouse restaurant, before the expected retirement to the hotel bar.

With nothing better to do on a Sunday evening Sioned & myself pootled down to Abbey Park, and then went for a quiet drink at The Navigation

We piled our stuff into the car and then took a rather rainy drive from North Wales to Leicester. On the way we saw a big wheel made of straw. In the evening we went out for a meal with parents and some friends at Houstons, where they had a rather good band playing

Went to view a house on Pine Grove in Rhos, which we pretty much think is worth putting an offer in on. It's on for £172000, with 2 *huge* bedrooms, and one smaller bedroom (read: office). The kitchen is new, and fully integrated. The garden is ace, and, well, it's rather nice.

Decided to go out for a picnic at Llanfairfechan (it's got a beach, it's the seaside and it was sunny) before heading off inland a bit to Gower's Bridge where it was equally sunny. Sions had a bit of a paddle, too, and the cows said "Moo".

Sioned & Me decided not to go into work so jumped in the car and went to Chester for the day.

The launch of the Laders Project, which the University of Wales is involved in was held at the Galeri in Caernarfon. Jane Davidson, Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning also spoke at the launch.

I was asked to get some photos of the launch of GWLAD, a new partnership involving the University of Wales. The launch took place at the National Eisteddfod on the Faenol Estate, just outside Bangor.

Sioned's ops manager had her leaving do in Bangor last night, so we both went along to see her off.

Whilst out and about I stopped by Menai Bridge to get some photos. It was a rather nice bright day, but the bridge itself was closed. Had a quick play with ISO settings, too.

The house that Me & Sioned own at the moment is starting to get a bit small (this is in direct proportion to the amount of stuff we're buying), hence we're now looking to buy somewhere new. This place, at £219,500 was first on the list.

We were a bit tired tonight so we decided to stay in and make some chocolate brownies. They were absolutely gorgeous *burp*

There's a nature reserve on the other side of the A55 which, although turned out to be closed, still had some ace bits around and about.

Being as I've been working at the new place for a month now, I decided to take the camera around some of the buildings there, as well as get some photos of the views.

Had a wander around Conwy this evening and got some photos of happenings on the estuary as well as the castle and the walls. Gave me a chance to play with the lighting as the sun was setting and noodle with ISO and aperture settings.

Benji has put a lot of weight on now and he's quite a bit bigger - but still not quite the brightest sparkler in the packet

I had to get a cab from London to Leicester tonight. Unsuprisingly, it wasn't exactly cheap. The taxi driver was getting ready to retire with the proceeds.

Nita invited a some of the AVS chaps and chapesses to her place for a barby after the graduation. Alcohol was consumed, Leo was restyled and food was eaten.

It's changed!

Only a few photos of my Leicester leaving do - there's more on my phone.photos site

Did a small charity gig with Debs - got a few photos of the setup and sound check

Didn't really get too many photos today, but still, a good time was had

Popped over to Llanrwst for a meal at the Eagles hotel (which was hastily abandoned), but managed to get some nice photos in whilst we were there

Stopped off at the beach after shopping in town today and got some nice early-summer-esque photos

Driving back on t'motorway today we almost needed to stop due to a rather torrential downpour that reduced the visibility somewhat

With Mum and Dad still staying with us, we tootled down to look around the Victorian Extravaganza - there were lots of steam powered rides, some locomotive engines and the like. Nice day out all in.

Mum and Dad came to visit Sioned and myself. We took them out to Conwy for a look around the castle, amongst other things.

Mum & Dad have bought a new dog. He's a pedigree Cavalier King Charles, born on 09 February 2005.

It does involve pea gravel. Lots of it. We nipped out to B&Q this morning and bought a few bags of it and a huge terracota pot. The brick that we'd found was then suitably jetwashed to clean it up and then the pea gravel dumped on top.

We'd tired of the crap tarmac on the front so set about breaking it up and found some fantastic red brick underneath. We're a bit undecided about what to do next. It'll probably involve some pea gravel though.

Kev & Tim are off to Australia for a year so a few of us went out one last time to see them off

\o/ I successfully passed my Category H driving test today, thus allowing me to legally drive tracked vehicles steered by their tracks (aka tanks) on the road. How cool is that? I also got to hoon around in a Chieftain tank. Ace!

The first day of photos were taken on my camera phone (http://phone.photos.garysmith.org.uk) since I'd forgotten my camera. Today was more of learning how to hoon around in an FV432 and lots of fixing them, too, as we managed to make the tracks fall off them. It was all educational, though.

The Sandringham Hotel in West Shore played host to the evening of the wedding, with the speeches followed by the party.

Nia and Mathew were married at Seilo Chapel in Llandudno. The day was nice and warm which lent itself to some fantastic photos. This collection contains the photos before and of the service, as well as the official photos at the reception.

Like we needed an excuse to go out to Mosh...

Pootling back from Mold at the island on the A55 slip road we saw a Ford Focus not quite negotiate the road properly with these results :-(

Since Sions & me hadn't properly been out for a while we ventured out to the Tiv where we found Imperial Vipers were playing.

The conservatory was completed ages ago, but I've only just got round to taking some photos of it - mainly for Tony, but it's good to get them anyway.

Bodysgallen Hall (www.bodysgallen.com) is a fantastic 5 star country hotel set in 200 acres. I decided to spoil Sioned and myself for the Valentine's by spending the weekend there - it's ace. Nice room, comfortable lounges with nice fires and so on. Saturday evening we pootled into town for a quiet drink and a meal.

After a rather chilly winter we decided we needed to have a few more radiators installed - it's quite a neat job all in

Spellbound is no more - fantastic turnout for the last night in Leicester to send it off with a bang.

So - yeah.

Still need a floor in there, but Sion has painted the walls whilst I put a huge fan/light thing up. The wall has been knocked through and it looks rather good.

A scene of devestation in the lounge this morning. After a small cleanup operation which saw people dropping in and helping, we bode fairwell to our cottage and found driving rain and gale force winds outside which meant we couldn't even see the sea

Out for a walk in the morning through the forest where we found an abandoned/derelict farmhouse, then back for food. More people arrived and then the party kicked off, with lots of alcohol, drinking and fireworks. Ace.

We were the first to arrive at Nant Gwrtheyrn where we'd be spending New Years. The village is made up of two rows of cottages which aren't lived in - they're owned by a trust. The area is totally isolated, with the nearest houses from here being a drive of around 2 miles away. Total isolation, apart from the interweb connection, mobile phone signal, DVD player that Mathew and Nia brought...
I went for a quick wander round after arriving and found some stunning views. Nia, Matthew and Ffion arrived shortly after I got back, and food was cooked, etc...

Noticed a fox having a roam around the garden looking for some food so got a couple of snaps of it before it gave up and went back over the fence

Took Sioned shopping. After getting rather bored of looking at shoes and stuff, I took a few photos of the fairground stuff that'd been put up outside the Haymarket

Got out of bed at just gone 0500 (yes, the times on those photos are right) to get a train to Leicester. The now traditional lunch with Steve & Kev, followed by a visit from family to wish me a happy Birthday and demolish a food mountain which would've quite easily lasted us a year in normal circumstances, before going off out to get absolutely munted with Sions, Steve, Kev, Ben & Wayne. Ace.

Over to Sions' parents in the morning, lunch, home, out, meal, pub with Dyls. Home. Yet another busy day all in.

Ooh, loads of presents. Got loads of money, Evanescence DVD, Sparco balaclava I'd been after for ages, and loads of other stuff. Sions' got a sexy Sony U40 camera, loads of smellies, hair straighteners, a few bottles of plonk, a new leccy toothbrush... then her parents came over. Busy day!

So it *won't* be finished for Christmas then. Sigh. The builders have put some guttering up, which is nice. It's almost done, we just need the wall knocking through. And electrics putting in. And the rendering doing. And so on.

We now have a roof, and glass in the windows, which is rather handy, really.

Seems to be taking shape now. It's now got plastic stuff in it. Woo.

... makes for a nice picture. Looks like a storm brewing, ma.

Sions' decided that since it's now December, it's time to put the tree up.

Leeds. Drink. Food. Cockpittage. Hotel. Ace.

We started to decorate the office, but I had to dash off for a train so couldn't stay for all of it. It's looking rather festive though, I feel.

The second, and last night of the Medics' Revue for this year. The last night, for some reason, always tends to be the best.

After having had such an ace time doing it last year, we hauled in all the gear, all the bodies, and set up for The Medics' Revue 2004.

It's been snowing!

It looked like it was going to be a quiet night, but loads of people turned out for another Spellbound.

Me + Sioned had nothing to do with an afternoon so had a wander around the University Botanic Gardens and got some nice photos

Me and Sioned went down to the 52 for a couple of drinks and a few games of pool with Steve

Starting off at the Noodle Bar in Leicester, followed by The Glass House, then onwards to Lloyds to celebrate Chloe's Birthday

A whole load of people turned out to Brenda's 40th on The Pier in Llandudno. Try and guess the theme... :)

Me + Sions went out to the Tiv with Fran & Ffion, and met Threedots there. Good night was had by all, with Ffion scoring. Ace!

Did a big Laeks installation today which required loads of cabling. Loads of brickdust falling out of ceilings. Ace.

Well, we did the obligatory start at El Willy Wig, then over to Jongleurs (http://www.jongleurs.co.uk) for an excellent night of comedy. Seems everyone got rather drunk, too.

And lo, the first of the big conferences did arrive, in the shape of Amecon 2004. We finished the setup today, amid lots more rain (feh). Laid lots more cable, and got it all working on time. Ace!

Went along to a new night in Leicester called Intelekt. It was billed as a a EBM/Alternative/Noise night, but turned out to have a lot of Ambient Noise, too (which resulted in an argument about the difference between Noise & Ambient Noise. I'll definitely be going again :)

Woohoo! I've got my obscenely long Cat6 cable working. We've also got the Extron Audio/Video Matrix Switcher in... it's taking shape.

It's absolutely massive conference season. Setup day today. So - metric fuckton of cable? Check. Bit of rain whilst trying to lay it? Check.

A bit bored today, so we had a mooch over to Conwy to mingle with the tourists. I took some photos of the castle, and the views out over the Estuary

Me + Sioned went for a wander around Deganwy. Sioned bought me a duck, too, which we've called Herbert.

We spent the weekend in Manchester, staying at the Palace Hotel. We saw lots of cows, as CowParade was in town, did some shopping, then went to Jilly's Rockworld. I bought Sioned a Tiffany Heart for her birthday.

We've finished the garden!

Me, Sioned, and Olwyn and Merv went across to Anglesea for the day. It was an absolutely stunning day, clear blue skies, the sea was clear. After spending a few hours lounging about on the beach, we stopped off at Beaumaris for a look around - Sioned and myself had a look around the castle there. I also got some photos of Menai Bridge

We almost got the garden finished - patio in place, stones raked over. We bought some pots and plants today, and painted the exposed wall in the garden white... it's almost done!

It's necessary to treat yourself every now and then, isn't it? I bought myself a new pair of Oakley Fives 2.0 (http://oakley.com/catalog/colors/eyewear/omatter/fives_2.0/crystal_blue_black_iridium/) in Crystal Blue/Black Iridium whilst I was out shopping today. I'm rather pleased with them :-)

I shifted 2 ton of stone through the house into the garden (pain pain pain), Sions put a bit of paint on to a wall and some slabs were put down to form something looking patio like. We also generally tidied up and got rid of various rubbish.

We finally managed to get the Weedbloc (the black stuff) down on the garden, and I then carried a few of the stones through to put on top.

Chloe and Amy are celebrating their graduation today, and I went along and took a few photos of them, as well as Damon (Chloe's other half) and her parents.

Having not seen them for a while, I joined Steve + Kev for lunch at the Polar Bear, where I found a beer tap that had crashed (!)

Having put the fence posts in last weekend, I got around to actually putting the rest of it up - I feel quite proud of myself

Graduation is over for another few months, and Nita had a barbecue at her place to celebrate. Andy burnt, sorry, cooked some food for us all and people got drunk. Myself + Sioned didn't stay too long, as we had the ball to go to...

Me + Sioned went to the Graduation Ball at the University Of Leicester. We both had Access All Areas badges so I managed to get some nice photos :-) Girls Aloud & Jools Holland were both playing, as well as some other bands at the other venues.

With Conwy Castle in the back garden, I forget sometimes how nice it looks at dusk, but managed to get some nice photos of it whilst playing with exposure times.

We've finally made some more progress on the garden - it's got some fence posts in! The concrete has now gone, too.

Went out for a meal with Sions and her parents, then noticed there was a rather nice landscape which deserved a photo.

Steve got a bit older, so we bought him a sexy DVD player to celebrate this fact, then went out and got him horribly drunk.

And so, it was time to pack up, leave, and go home.

We visited a rather funky model village near Buckinghamshire today, then went and had a meal at a pub down the road, then moved on to yet another pub for a bit of pool.

We went ice skating! We also went out and got absolutely slaughtered at various pubs and bars and clubs in Oxford, too.

And so we loaded into Steve's car and headed off to Oxford, where we learned how to play Steve's game, and went to a few pubs.

Went over to Steve's to help him pack for the impending holiday, then went for a few games of pool at the 1852.

Burning things!

Everybody's back from Uni! Woo.

I do a lot of train travel so when I saw this at Leicester station, it seemed somewhat apt.

Bits and bobs that didn't really fit anywhere else.

We've finally managed to get pretty much all of the stuff off the ground that we need to -the path has been broken up (my arms ache!) with the aid of a large sledge hammer, and Sions managed to get the last of the grass up. Woo.

Went out to Llanrwst for a few hours - it was quite a dull day and a bit cool considering it's summer, so we didn't stay out too long.

Having been to London to collect the new case, the bits turned up today for the new Parcan - the new spec is Athlon 800 on an Abit KA7 mobo, 256mb RAM, 2x 3c905 NICs. It's rather noisy, too :-)

The end of year Medics' ball, with a live Salsa band, magician, bucking bronco...

We managed to move the shit tip and get rid of the slabs, amongst other things - it's now just a mud pit by the look of things. It's getting there...

Me + Sioned went out for a meal with Fran and Ffion at The Med, then Neal came down in his new car for a couple of drinks.

Went to see RichardN at the RAG Beer Festival and took a few photos whilst I was there.

Keith brought his BSA Outfit into work today, so took some photos of it after talking much carp about ObBikes.

Nipped down to London (in and out in a couple of hours) - things have changed since I was there last.

Certainly an interesting night at Spellbound tonight.

Yet even more garden blitzing stuff.

Went out to Fat Cats, then on to Y Paladiwm, followed by Boulevard (blech)

Went to SHU and saw a rather funky broadcast unit, so took some photos to keep a record on how it works. Then we went to the pub, of course.

Edge! Didn't do a great deal today since we were a bit busy with other things, but we managed to get an edge all the way across. It's getting there...

More garden blitzing - rain stopped play earlier in the day, so we carried on in the evening and managed to make the mud hole even bigger. We found a fork, too!

Went out to The Med with Nia, Matthew and Ffion, then wandered over to The Loaf for a quiet drink before heading back.

We decided to blitz the garden and take it from a pile of grass and weeds into, well, at the moment we've just got a big mud hole, but it'll be a bit nicer. Soon.

Went out on a boat trip around the bay for a slightly different view of what the area looks like.

Went up to Sheffield to see Evanescence play the Hallam Arena. You could certainly tell it was the first night of their tour - it was rather interesting. Went to the Fuzz Club at the Union afterwards.

Didn't really have a great deal to do so went for a wander around and then decided to go up the Orme - got some cracking photos.

Went over to Sion's parents to celebrate Elfyn + Mervyn's birthdays, then went for a walk around the estuary and had a drink at the Liverpool.

Started out with a brunch at Julie's, then a spot of shopping, then out with Ffion in the evening to a few bars.

Started off at Fat Cats, then over to Y Paladiwm, followed by The Wash, which was... interesting :-)

Decided I wasn't doing much over the weekend so went out to The Tiv. Sioned got rather tipsy, too!

Stayed over at Threedots' place after Cockpit last night, so after getting up rather late, we pootled over to Joel's place for a bit of food and not-doing-a-lot

Nipped into town to get Joel's birthday present and found a European market on Gallowtree gate, so had a quick look round.

Nicky organised a surprise party for Joel's 30th at The Flanshaw Hotel in Wakefield - lots of Joel's family and friends converged. We then headed of to Le Cockpit in Leeds for a fantastic end to the night.

First Sunday with lots of sun... might as well have a barby!

Got up early to make a good crack on the journey - only got one photo since I went straight off.

Wow. Got up late (again) - missed breakfast and decided I needed a new front boot on the bike, so rather than joining the big ride out, went in to Hereford, had a new tyre fitted, then stopped off for lunch whilst hooning around the countryside, then back to the Hall to talk crap and look at the countryside. Evening saw bar food, followed by a movement over to the club attached to the Hall, and then back into our bar where we found the hen party.

Caught some stunning views on the way to Baskerville Hall so got some photos. Arrived at the Hall pretty early and sat on the grass bank as others arrived, then settled into my room before much evening drinking.

Went out for a walk across the bridge into Conwy and say a boat being launched, and the smallest house in Britain, then had to say goodbye for now :( , before hopping on the bike for a pootle to Hay On Wye...

Got up obscenely late, went out into Colwyn Bay for lunch with Sioned before taking a walk along the coast and getting some photos, then a meal in the evening at Romeo's in Llandudno.

Pootled over to North Wales to visit Sioned. Went out into Llandudno and visited some local pubs.

Pootled across to Northampton to pick up a couple of 47U Schroffs. It was rather interesting man handling them onto the van.

Took Steve + Kev out to Merciless so that they could see what all the hype was about. They seemed to enjoy it by all accounts. Finished off the night by watching people club each other with baseball bats outside a kebab shop. Leicester. Got to love it.

Yet another night out - you can guess where we started, then on to The Glasshouse, Yates', Lloyds, and ending up at Creation.

Went out into town - started off, well, guess where, followed by The Wyvern, Lloyds, then an attempt to get into Life where we were told "No t-shirts", and that this dress code has always existed - even last Saturday when we were let in wearing t-shirts. Right. So off to Walkabout, followed by Undecided instead, where Kev met some interesting women.

Went out for lunch with Steve + Kev and organised our holiday (we're going to stay in Oxford for a few days), then sat in a park for a while eating ice cream and talking about nothing in particular...

A call to drinks was made, and lo, people did turn up. Andy has the piss taken a fair bit, more nights out were planned, and much money was fed to the gambler.

The level of conversation didn't get much better than comments such as "Who's Treacle". Georgina stole brains for her master whilst handing out lots of daisies, EvilGary made daisy chains, and lots of food was eaten.

Katarina + Pete visited for the usual easter stuff... Easter eggs, food and a game of trivial pursuit

Went out for Adam's Birthday - did the obligatory start out at the Willy Wig, where we were promptly thrown out after a bloke decided he wanted to jump off the roof of Kembles (!), then onwards to Global Cafe, Mars, then Life.

The Psycho Candy Club hasn't been on for a while, but it made a come back in style. Absolutely fantastic night - good music, good people. The DJ even played the Powerpuff Girls theme! Evil Gary was his evil self and I found a toilet that leads to Narnia.

Went out to sort some bits and bobs out with Steve and had a quiet lunch at the Willy Wig

I thought it'd be abnormally quiet since there's no students around, but it was one of the busiest nights I've seen for a while. And they played my requests! Woohoo!

And so, heading back north...

Didn't do a great deal, but took some photos whilst out wandering.

Spent a weekend away (first one in a long time) doing nothing - travelled via London and got some night time shots.

Joel stopped by at Leicester so I went and had a quick coffee and gossip with him at Fosse Park

Had a rather good night at Merciless Retribution, and also found Sam who I'd not seen for a while, plus lots of people stole my hat.

It takes a lot of intelligence to be a criminal mastermind, it seems. I woke up to find my pride + joy #2 (sports bike) had been nicked, so wandered around the locality looking for it, when I happened upon this pair. Other photos containing faces not used cause I can't prove they nicked it. Sigh.

Started off as is tradition at the Willy Wig, then onwards to Lloyds, and then Life. Kev also proved, finally, that he is actually straight.

What a night... went to the Ramada Jarvis hotel, had a very nice meal with the geography staff and students, then followed by a casino in which I lost £35000 in one game, and a dance, then onwards to another pub...

And it's snowing. Bizarre.

Went down to the pub with Poki, JQ + Edd and then back to Poki's brothers to pick up a pair of boots

I was invited to the Amnesty International evening at the Union. Arrived to see a band called El Mahico playing - they were absolutely amazing, playing many different sorts of music. Ace night, lots of people, cheap drink.

Now that's what I call a bizarre night...

Tim & Ross has a joint 21st celebration, starting off as is now tradition at the Willy Wig, then moving on to a place called Russells in Leicester. We found the place after a 20 minute walk across town and had one of the best nights of recent times.

Seems like the day for protests. Went shopping with Clo and saw a group protesting against the proposed council cuts, then over to her flat for food.

The students were protesting against fees increases on campus. Things started to get rather heated at one point with the police being called and a couple of arrests being made.

After the show closed for the day we all pootled off to the after show party where lots of free food and free drink was consumed.

Fotopic were in attendance on Stand C50 at the NEC in Birmingham for Focus On Imaging. Had a really busy day, met lots of people, some very interesting, and signed up lots of people. Really enjoyable day.

Quiet night down the pub and then a bit of shopping with Chloe

After a couple of weeks in the writing, Læks, my software, saw its first installation. For some reason I felt bloody proud. Which is nice.

And so, the world was set to rights. Stuff[tm] was mulled over and, er, stuff.

Bought myself a new suit a while ago, but since I don't tend to wear them that often, I tried it on for the first time today (job interview). Looks damn good.

Now, I'm pretty sure you're not meant to park with all four wheels on a pavement...

The snow stayed around for a bit longer, but started to melt.

After playing about for a bit to get it configured up, I put the Raq in the, er, rack.

Snow! The weather people got it right. Lots fell whilst I was at work, and there was even more of it in Nottingham at the QMC, so I got a few photos of it.

Threedots brought me some new toys to play with, including a Cobalt Raq

Threedots made a flying visit to drop off some toys, so me, him and RichardN went out for a drink at the union.

Met Dan's new woman, er, sorry, girlfriend, at The Willy Wig tonight. Had a few drinks and celebrated passing my Big Bike Test[tm].

Went to celebrate Collis' 21st Birthday (although it wasn't actually his birthday) at Time Out. Saw a few people I'd not seen in a while and had an ace time. Collis got rather drunk.

Went along to the DMU Union for a pub quiz and, rather impressively, Preston And The Sheep Rustlers won, by an even more impressive 4.5 points! Woo. We got free drinks!

How childish. Jo + Rick were also in attendance, Jo demonstrating how to look like a sheep rustler.

Went down to London on Saturday evening to go to Slimes with Will, Mark + ChrisB. Obviously no photos in the club, but we found a few thousand tube tickets outside, and then after a few hours sleep, I went and had a look at toys at Will's work

I think I'm probably starting to get a reputation as an alcoholic. Yup, back at the Willy Wig again.

After about 3 hours sleep, people started getting ready to go. After a bit of breakfast, Kev drove me, Andy + Katy back to Leicester.

Went to Innit with Kev to Collis' house for a rather cool New Year party. Got there to find the party going strong. Tim took the position of resident DJ whilst games were played and stuff. Collis + Kev had numerous fights and lots of crap was talked.

Yay. It finally arrived. Yamaha Dolby 7.1 Surround amp. It's a DSPA990 and it sounds *gorgeous*.

Poki brought his missus, JQ down to meet us all. And we had a few drinks as well.

As is now tradition, I got treated to a meal since it was my birthday on Saturday. Kev & Steve took me (and Sammy) out to Market Harborough where we had a rather nice lunch.

It was one of those nights where, due to my "friends" getting me horribly drunk, I had to piece together the night with the timestamps of the photos. Everything is included here as it probably made sense at the time.

Got up and opened some presents, then went into town to collect Sammy from the station. Had lots of people ring me and it was decided there'd be a short pub visit to meet pndc, Kev & Steve - so we went to the Local Hero.

Went for a nice relaxing day at Katarina + Pete's house. Nice bit of lunch and then a spot of tea.

Family came over for food and blowing up balloons and attempting to make animals and things.

Bah. Woken early to go and open some presents.

As is tradition, Mum's side of the family has Christmas Day on Christmas Eve - hard to explain, but we do, so lots of photos of presents being opened, then it all got a bit surreal.

Wow. Lots of people turned up to the now-traditional Christmas Eve At The Willy Wig[tm]. Good to see lots of people who I haven't seen since, er, this time last year. Woo.

Steve + Kev came round to choose some stuff that they wanted, then it was suggested we go out for lunch. Well, no arguments were made...

And lo, people did return from uni for the Christmas period, and verily, they did go down the pub to meet up and talk crap.

Decided to brave the crowds and do a wee bit more Christmas shopping. Suprisingly busy considering a lot of people are still at work.

Pootled along to Damned Nation at the students union with a few people from Lexgoff and found it's actually a rather good night, considering it's at the union.

I finished for Christmas today so we all went and got absolutely trollied at the Dry Dock. A rather eventful evening, that will probably go down in history, and no, I didn't get any photos of it.

AVS had a Christmas outing to the Marquis Wellington for our Christmas Meal, where things were blown up and lots of food eaten.

Sat watching the news for a while (that Saddam had been caught) then off into town before getting the train.

Bit of shopping and then spodding on Saturday with Sammy

Got to London Bridge and found a tube train stuck in the, er, tube. How handy.

Decided to nip out and do a bit of shopping as I've got no free weekends before Christmas now and took a couple of photos of a very festive looking Leicester

Decided to get my nose pierced - had a purple stud put in, which apparently looks rather funky.

Got up obscenely late after last night at The Cockpit and went round to Joel + Nicky's for some lunch, followed by Happy Cake, and then a train home with Gaz

Went on to The Cockpit with Neal after the Fotopic Christmas Meal and found lots of ace people and lots of damn cool music. Brilliant night, although we did almost end up getting lynched...

Went to see Andy and fixed his computer in Sheffield, then onwards to Wakefield for the Fotopic.net Christmas Meal at a Mexican in Wakefield. Lots of nice food was had, and alcohol consumed

Went to see Electric Six with Gardron, ChrisB, Maulkin & BabyMetal at SUSU, followed by a not-too-bad after show party

A small fun fair was set up in a carp ark in South Wigston. What this has to do with Christmas, I'm not too sure...

Sourcefour has once again outgrown its storage, so another new disk was ordered and installed tonight.

Went along with some Lexgoff people to Spellbound at The Fan Club, met a few new people including the incredibly bouncy Gary Smith (no, not me), Hannah, Ruth, another Dave...

Personally, I thought it was way to early to start putting decorations up, but the others thought otherwise, so we're now in the Christmas Spirit, apparently. Bah, humbug.

What a surreal night - got to Angel at about 2130 and did a pub before heading over to Slimes where lots of net.goth people were in attendance. Then the night just went very odd for some reason (there's 9 hours missing since there's a photo ban in there)

Went via London to see Sammy... a rather interesting day :-)

Oooh'd as I saw a Canon D30 body at a camera shop today for not a lot of cash - took some test shots with it. (All taken with a Canon 50mm fixed lens)

It was actually a bigger job than I thought, trying to keep cabling tidy and so on. But it looks quite neat for now, although I want to get some cut to length stuff.

The Medics helf their annual revue at the Venue with an alternative view on life and some light hearted sketches.

Went to see Linkin Park at the NIA in Birmingham, supported by Kinesis and Lost Prophets. Pretty damn good show all in, with Linkin Park coming out with pieces such as My December, Nobody's Listening, Somewhere I Belong, as well as Crawling and In The End.

Woke up and found that there was no morning left and decided to visit AndyD and have some lunch. Met up with Kev, Collis + Tim at the tram stop then caught the train. Caught a beautiful sunset at Chesterfield.

Started out the evening with a nice Italian meal at BBs in Sheffield City Centre, then over the road to The Fire Station, back to Cavendish, up the road (with Kev + Rich B fighting) to Bar One, and then in to Pop Tarts.

Woke up rather late and caught the last 20 minutes of the Rugby World Cup Final, after which we went out to the Union and ate. Played some pool and then back to Andy's to get ready for the meal...

After arriving at Andy's in Sheffield, we had food and got ready to go out before hitting Bar Matrix. Lots of people turned out, Andy got out of his tree, and lots of memorable photos were taken, including one of me with a policewoman. Ooh.

Me + Steve pootled up to Sheffield for Andy's Party - took ages cause the traffic was pretty bad.

The first Random Outcome gig at The Shed in Leicester attracted some impressive crowds.

Rah. Met Lord Robert Winston, that bloke off the telly that does the really cool science programs.

After all of 4 hours sleep, I was up and about to go bargain hunting at Richer Sounds. The staff were being unbelievably bright and bouncy.

Met up with some Lexgoff people and had an a rather cool night out at Retribution in Leicester. Some bloke took a shine to my new hair but Ms Merlina came to the rescue and threw her arms around me. Aw :-)

Rah. Decided to do some new stuff with my hair. Looks quite funky, I think.

Tried getting a meal from a pub, failed, found somewhere else, went home. Not very interesting.

Decided to go and visit Gaz this weekend so did a tour of some pubs and ended up in The Zodiac - a rather cool goth/rock/indie club in Oxford. Think Slimes, C0rp and random indie club.

Made a small sparkler bomb, got some barrages and some other bits and bobs and made stuff go *bang*

And so names were re-arranged.

Starting out in Wigston, then off to Soar Point, followed by Level 1 in Leicester - an absolutely fantastic night out.

Had a wander round Leicester and found the continental market was on so had a quick look round and took some photos.

Had a tour around a few of the bars & clubs in Leicester, starting off at Squares, then on to Lloyds, and then Yates', before the obligatory TJs. Also saw Osama Bin Laden, as well as some funky nurses, and a 118 man.

I decided that the wiring in the rack was getting a bit out of hand so sorted out the power properly, made some cut to length cat5 and tidied it up.

Woohoo. The GPZ came back from the bike hospital yesterday feeling a lot better. New chain, sprockets, and the swingarm has been sorted out. Ace.

Steve's got a new car, since his old one was written off by a blind cager.

Bison & The Chryslers, a new band in Leicester with a very 50s-60s Rock & Roll sound played at The Shed, Yeoman Street, Leicester

A load of rufty tufty PB people turned up at Mike's place where lots of food was burnt - sorry - cooked, expertly by Mike & GazRX, whilst I played with fire and set off expensive rockets.

The rear wheel locks up (even if you are doing 60) and you stop pretty quickly. It also does a bit of damage to the bike - here's some photos of said damage.

As usual, we set the world to rights on a quiet Sunday afternoon in the Willy Wig

Needed to go down to That London - not really appropriate to take photos there, so just a couple from the journey down

A nice lunch served as cooked by Joel + Will, and then sitting around doing nothing whilst letting the food go down, and then off to the train...

The celebrations of launching Fotopic Premium and hitting 1 million photos saw the team invite users to Baby Jupiter in Leeds - and loads turned up! Also an awards ceremony and much alcohol.

The Madfer-it Freshers Ball - lots of people getting rather drunk. Also some rather poor photos of the Cheeky Girls (but that's ok cause it was a poor performance). Yet another ace night...

The Law Society had their freshers party at Undecided in Leicester - as usual with a freshers do, much fun was had, and people, as is obligatory, got naked.

Wow... what a fantastic night. Started out at The Loaded Dog, then onto Time, followed by R/Bar, and Global Cafe (starts getting hazy then)... The Terrace, Lloyds, Undecided, and finished off at Zanzibar. Then home (almost). Oh, and lots of t-shirts being coloured in and written on.

After seeing a beautiful sun rise, it was time to leave the Ixies and ride home, and a very good ride it was too. A brilliant weekend.

What a day. Met Ixies, found a brilliant pub, sat, talked, drank, rode, talked, ate. Excellent.

Decided to set off into the rush hour for a slow run up to Yorkshire. Got absolutely soaked and decided to stop at The Green Dragon in Hardraw, which I vaguely recognised... whoops.

Alex fed Ixies with lots of nice food, whilst more obblocks was spoken. We looked at bikes and the Caterham, then left for home.

A pile of Ixies descended on Orb Towers to warm the mouse and the hedgepigs. Splatt managed to light every tealight within a mile radius, and Marv burned lots of things.

Dan is going back to uni so we used it as an excuse for a Friday night out down t'pub.

A new hamster, called Stanley arrived today. Yes, that is a webcam in his cage.

Kev's going back to University so last drinks with him before he goes. Tim made it a night to remember, too, by coming on to Kev.

Laura's 16th. Few of her friends round, and then a meal later on

UPS 2 failed, so I went in to get the batteries out to get a replacement sorted

A quiet lunch with to celebrate Kev's birthday, where we found the pub had been renamed to the Local Her. How handy.

Starting out by getting absolutely stuffed for not a lot of money at Antibo's, onwards to The Last Plantagenant, Yates', then The Glasshouse.

Clearing up and stuff.

Boosh. Yet another party at Claire's, with a bouncy castle! Woo!

Finishing the setting up, and the arrival of people - lots of them.

Setting up for JIMAS - miles of cable, ADAs, VDAs, SRCs, XLR, BNC... We love it.

Quiet day, so we decided to learn how to use the Octo-Plus. After working out the menu and rather strange backplane, we got an output. Yay!

We've had the van for three weeks and already managed to get two rather deep dents in it. Whoops.

Yet another new toy - 10/100 rackmount switch

Needless to say we all got exceedingly drunk. For some reason, I tried to steal a bus stop. Dan started numerous fights. Rather a good night.

My new 20U rack turned up today. It's huge. After much cursing and perspiring, I'd got the thing into place.

Went out for a meal with the family, where I met even more new additions to the clan. After the meal, goodbyes were said as various parts prepared to leave for various bits of the world

Well, sort of. We managed to get to bed at about 0700, so this is the bit after we got up again, if you see what I mean. The garden was in a bit of a state...

Jo is leaving us! She's going off to Cumbria, so the FUTL lot all gathered at Claggs' house, and with a few others, we gave her a rather good send off. And drank lots.

Quite a nice day so I decided to sit out in the garden and get some Interweb work done.

And drinking. Lots.

More of them have arrived! Some photos of the family being fed from the barbeque.

The German and American factions of the family have arrived. After working out exactly where the new member of the family fitted into the tree, she decided to take her first steps. Then we went off to Foxton locks for a wander round.

After being told it would look rather good, I stumped up 25 quid to feel a bit icky whilst a woman shoved a piece of metal into my face. Cool.

It's in danger of looking like a bikers club, this is.

A day out on the barge going from Barrow up through Loughborough, on the river Soar.

Lots of cool outfits + floats, nice food, and loud music - The 2003 Caribbean Carnival

Aww. They've been together a month, and for people that've been asking, this is what they look like.

After arriving to the park a bit late on in the day (*cough*), I managed to get to see Milf, Worm, and The Dead Pets - who were absolutely mental. Top day.

And so a few thousand people gathered in Clarence Park for lots of rather good music.

Shows how interesting it is at work, doesn't it. New works vans turned up today, a new Vauxhall Combo thing for AVS Video and a new Vauxhall Movano for tech support.

Lots of music, lots of people, and a few power cuts. Got some not-very-interesting-shots from backstage before Showsec noticed I'd got a camera, too.

Starting off at the 1852, and then onwards to the party, where Kev set the tone for the night by saying "I'd love to rub my face in your boobs" to Sarah. Good move. The bar staff also made some weird green thing that got lots of people drunk. Ace.

I decided that I rather liked the colour I had my hair last time, so had a bit more put in... looks quite nice, I think.

And lo, it was time for us to pack up camp and return home.

A trip over the big water to France, where we got a bit lost in Calais, bought food and drank. Oh, and we went out at night for alcohol, and found a Sainsbury's.

A day out at the seaside, starting off at Herne Bay, and then off the Margate for a quick round of golf. Well. Crazy golf, followed by going out and getting trollied in Canterbury.

And so, after much alcohol and general misbehaviour, we packed up and headed to Loony's to burn things, and then eat them

Day 2 of the Mono meet. After being woken up rather early in the day, spods were soon fed at the local cafe. Kites were flown, the school fete was visited, the Fire engine played on, and the day was good. Star gazing was also aplenty. Oh, and we found more beer. Strange thing, that.

Journeying towards Shrewsbury, I came across a group of Spods claiming to be from that place Mono. So I followed them to Bishop's Castle, where we (finally) decided to pitch tents, then find alcohol.

Starting off at The Willy Wig, followed by going into town to The Last Plantagenant, and then on to Lloyds, then Mozzy Coast. An absolutely excellent night, which saw Steve getting rather drunk.

A quiet gathering at The Dry Dock before the party later on in the evening

Just another night out down at the pub...

Today, I have mostly been buying a new Toshiba laptop. It's rather sexy, too.

Went down to London and nipped out to Plumstead, saw my old house, went over to what was once my local, sat on Plumstead Common, saw Andy Dyer and generally reminisced.

Went to pick some train tickets up to find giant rats had infested the place! Argh!

Woke up to find the GPZ wasn't a happy bunny, so after a visit from a nice RAC man, I got down to Cadwell a bit late, but saw plenty of people out on track.

The first day out on track. After breakfast at The Kings Head, we made our way down to Cadwell and much hoonage was had. A good day all in, I also had a quiet run out to Grimsby in the evening.

After arriving rather late at the circuit, I wandered into town, found Phil Pick, then went to the Masons, and on to The Kings Head

Took delivery of the GPZ today. New toy. It's scarily fast.

A small gathering at a rather snazzy Italian restaurant in Leicester to celebrate Damon's 21st. Pete demonstrated why it's not a good idea to let him be a pyro technician.

After deciding that we hadn't yet consumed enough alcohol, we moved on to The Square Peg on Corporation Street, Birmingham, where we harassed people with a remote control car, and a kebab, and took random photos. We were also joined by more Networks refugees.

The Fotopic.net staff descended onto the Networks tradeshow at the NEC in Birmingham. After a small quantity of alcohol was consumed, we made ourselves known, by playing Elite on a huge screen and running Hats For Clowns through a PA system. Much fun was had, and many people were met.

Me + Jodi met up with Abi again and did random things in Leicester, including walking round the Market Street Maze

The New Inn, The Orange House, Lamplighters & The Sanctury. Me, Abi & Jodi had a good night out in Leicester :-)

And so the Outro Week continued with the Centurion - 100 shots in 100 minutes.

Yet more alcohol fuelled party stuff for the Outro Week. No burgers this time though.

Burgers, beer, and a bloody good night at the start of the Outro Week. And a lot of burgers.

Yes, another house... not too sure about this one. Have to see what it's like inside

Quiet Saturday at Joel + Nicky's, playing with Ellie and watching TV. Ellie took her first photo, too!

The Call To Beer was made, I jumped on a train and joined an impromptu party/barbeque at Joel + Nicky's place.

Noticed this house whilst out and about. Seems quite nice, and it's affordable.

After getting up obscenely late as a result of the festivities the previous night, we wandered into Cambridge to eat ice cream by the River Cam, and generally do touristy things

And lo, it was decided that my good self would go and visit Steve in Cambridge. Much fun was had, including getting absolutely smashed, starting at the Tram Shed, followed by the Union, then onwards to Life. Much fun was had. And Kev was done out of a fiver.

My first time back in London since I left last November, it promised to be a good time. Also suprisingly met up with Karl, my Cousin. The World's End, Purple Turtle, Slimelight. With cool people. What an ace night.

Didn't get any photos at the party, but we had a good night by the look of it.

After a small bout of something flu like, I decided to cheer myself up with pie

The monitoring & NAT box gets a new disk, at which point the old one fails, resulting in an OS reinstall. Fabulous.

Blimey. What a party. After a rather interesting night and half an hour sleep, we decided to eat, and have a pub crawl. ...The Place. The Howard. The Planet. And people did leave.

The mouse has been warmed.

And lo, the warming of the mouse continued into the next day, with more drunken debauchery.

More warmed mice

People, food, alcohol, music, a garden, a label printer, a house, and a warmed mouse.

Getting to Sheffield, and making cookies at Elaine's house. With a bit of extra zing.

After an hour and a half in the chair, and a few quid lighter, I have red hair. R!

What an ace bike. Power band at 5k rips your arms off. It goes. Fast.

Getting to play with some nice toys at work

Random night out at the Willy Wig, Wigston, Leicester.

Straight off from work to the Warner Brothers to see Matrix:Reloaded.

Bit of DIY and some bike cleaning, amongst other bits and bobs.

Wandering around Wakefield and then spending hours on a train to get back

Night out in Wakefield with Jon. Went to see Suzy's Field at OD's. Absolutely ace band. The first gig I've seen in a long time that I really enjoyed.

Put an office full on bored techies together, and this is what you get: Not a lot.

Sunday afternoon boredom, so went and had a wander along the towpath

Quartet, a new Compaq machine which will be acting as a news server and secondary DNS server.

Wet. Raining. Driver goes tanking down University Road. Lights change. Swerves to avoid car in front and parks in the flowerbed outside MSB.

Having seen some affordable houses advertised, I decided to go and have a look. Nice house on Tow Path Link, South Wigston.

The result of a lot of drinking, and some other stuff.

Joel's birthday in Wrenthorpe. Ingredients: Alcohol, people, a bong, more alcohol, some food... and mix.

Having a quick rest on the way to Joel's

Down at the local bike shop, the wreckage of a bike hit by a car - driver didn't check mirrors. Found another relative of the Suzuki, too.

A nice warm bank holiday was bound to bring the bike population of Leicester out in force... an absolutely brilliant day.

Yet another new toy. So what if I'm spending a lot of money on myself? Nobody else to spend it on...

Me and Mr Hill decided to spend a quiet night in at my house. But he had other ideas, and ended up kipping here.

Sigh. Ex-F1 drivers, eh?

Will dropped by Leicester and picked up some bits and bobs before heading northwards

Decided I wanted to use some new features of my fast interweb connection so spent some of my hard earned pennies on a 3Com router

Steve and myself sat in Memorial Park, watching the world go by and discussing life and what it was all about.

"Ever been to Matlock?" asked Roy. "Not on the bike". And so it was decided. We'd visit Matlock.

Had a quick pootle up to look around Hardwick Hall - beautiful place. I love it there.

Decided I wanted a new bike and noticed this little one down at Planet Bikes with a rather low mileage and not much cash required.

Noticed that some of the backbone Cat5 which runs between two switches needed burying again so got a shovel and started digging and pulled up a few slabs

Had another night out in Leicester, for, well, just because.

Went around a few pubs in the South Leicestershire countryside for a few drinks and some food

Went and watched some of the lads playing football out in Wigston to kill some time

Going out into Leicester and getting horribly, horribly drunk. Ace. \o/

Decided to play about with my first x86 computer today - rebuilt it and got it running

Bought a new machine to use as a fileserver - started to get it set up and installed ready for use

Went out for a pootle around and took a few photos

The Alliance & Leicester decided that after over two weeks of not being able to use my debit card, that no compensation would be offered. Not happy with this, I pootled down to their offices at Carlton Park, Leicester, and annoyed them by turning up there and taking a few photos.

Decided I fancy a new bike so went down to Planet to have a look and saw a Sachs. It's a 125, so it'll do me, and it looks & feels rather nice

Decided to go and have a look at a bike I want as a race bike... rather nice.

A boring Sunday, so I decided to go tearing off into the country on the bike and get some arty photos

And lo, the Smith family came to our house for Christmas feeding.

The Smart 5 Blues which turned out to be 3 playing at The Shed, Leicester

The last Premier gig in the world... ever?

We couldn't be arsed to go pub - so we had a night in

So it was. A lads night out at Kev's House. These are the results.

On to the bus. Mix in a 20 hour journey. Get off in Prague... sorted. What next? (Just a few - rest are available on CD)

The best gig yet...