So, on the day when voting opened for the UK Blog Awards, I’d love to be able to report back and say that everything’s gone swimmingly, but come on, this is my life! Of course things haven’t gone without a hitch, in fact if ever a day was designed to send me over the edge and rocketing head first into the hob-nobs, yesterday would be it. Just…AAARGH!!!
Have you ever asked yourself the question why is nothing ever easy? Let me tell you that at quarter past midnight last night I was deep in email exchange with Gemma, the very patient Managing Director of the UK Blog Awards, who I’m sure is already regretting the day she ever heard of my blog, and is almost certainly wondering why I’m not accompanied at all times by a responsible adult.
Not only had I managed to enter our blog into the wrong category, I’d managed to lock myself out of my UKBA account too whilst I was in the process of trying to put it right. And after consultation with the posse over the last couple of days, I was ready to call out the two most voted-for posts – Part Woman, Part Ostrich, and What Would You Keep – but the ‘place holder’ ones that I dropped in when I filled out the entry were refusing to budge! Not that they’re bad ones, just not the ones we all picked. So that took a bit of faffing around with too…I’m knackered!
However, that said…voting is now OPEN!! It’s all very exciting…everyone is allowed to vote once per day. I’ve already cast mine, and I know a few of you have too, so we’re officially off the starting blocks! I did think about setting up an email account for the dog so he could join in the fun and we could bag a few extra votes but my sense of fair play prevailed and rallied against it, dammit. However, you can cast your vote HERE 🙂 And if you think your friends and family might like to join in too, well even better! It’s the top option in the drop down voting box, which casts a vote in both of the sections we are nominated in.
The reality is, I’m going to be rubbish at this campaigning malarkey…it’s already grating against every good nerve in my body that I’m asking for votes. I can feel my palms getting sweaty, and I sense the asshole in my mind limbering up to place a few choice words…yeah go on, ask again…you’re guaranteed to piss everybody off if you keep banging on about it…people will stop reading, they’ll switch off in droves…get over yourself.
Is that a fat thing, or a me thing do you think? I suspect a bit of both…if you cast your mind back, in the ‘Police, Fire, Ambulance, Me’ post I talked about how I rarely ask for help, and this is sort of the same thing, right? Asking for stuff from other people is just something I struggle with, big time, so I suspect our campaign might be a bit more low key than some.
I’ve got to tell you, it was a very strange feeling seeing our blog up there, pitted against dozens of amazing entries…that’s the moment I’ve been waiting for you know? And the feeling didn’t disappoint, it feels awesome. Look what we did! When I started writing the blog, it was for the sole purpose of keeping myself accountable. 90,000 words later, I could never have imagined it would develop into what it’s become. You lot are awesome, do I tell you that enough?
So anyway, let me put my excitement about the blog awards to one side for a moment, guess what else turned up this weekend…yes, my cross-trainer. What I wasn’t expecting when I opened the box was for it to come in four thousand different pieces. I thought the hardest part would be actually getting fit, I didn’t realise I’d need a PHD in knobs to put the damn thing together before I could rustle up a single bead of sweat, I mean come on.
One look at the instructions and I could practically taste those hob-nobs. Fortunately a knight in shining armour offered his services, so he’s coming over to assemble it for me tonight. By the skin of my teeth, no hob-nobs were consumed in the meltdown which followed the opening of the big box, and now help is on the horizon the urge to eat has melted away.
All told, it was quite a stressful day…the kind of day where six months ago I would have eaten my own bodyweight in chocolate. Instead of which, last night I went to bed with a couple of points left unspent.
How about them apples!
