Went to see the Bluetones last night with Sioned - this was part of the Valentine's present that I'd got for her earlier in the week. The venue was one that neither of us had been to before - Central Station in Wrexham. Absolutely top venue, with really good people. I phoned them earlier in the day and asked about the possibility of taking photos there with professional level gear. Their response was "Yep, we're fine with it, as long as the touring company are". Cleared it with the tour manager when I got there, and managed to get some halfway decent photos, problems were generally caused by the lighting in there - far too much red, some of the photos would take me a fair while to sort out in Photoshop - perhaps when I get some more time I'll try and sort some more out.

Valentine's Day itself was pretty quiet for us - as getting a table anywhere is notoriously difficult, we elected to just have a meal in. We seem to be shopping pretty regularly as Marks & Spencer for food now, so, for me, it was feta cheese & herb parcels and potato gratin, whilst Sioned took a goats cheese tartlette with potato gratin. Rather nice it was, too.

CCIO has run a conference yesterday and today. Being on the other side of the fence is pretty interesting, as in another (and a previous life) I did tech work on conferences, so it's been interesting to see what it's like when the things you expect to be there aren't. I guess it also made me a lot more empathetic towards the people running the venue. On the subject of which, the Royal Victoria Hotel in Llanberis is an excellent place. They're staff there are helpful and pleasant, and did everything I'd asked of them (from a technical point of view) quickly. Top people. The bar there isn't bad as far as hotel bars go, although the cloth on the pool table seems a little thick in places :) I sorted out a couple of small issues they had with their Internet connectivity and left my details if they need any other tech work, so another potential client for me.