At one minute past nine this morning, my email pinged with the news that our blog has been shortlisted for both the categories we entered in the UK Blog Awards, and I almost fainted. I mean, I hoped obviously that it had meant enough to enough of you that you would get behind me and cast your votes, but hope doesn’t come with a right to expect, so I genuinely had no idea how we’d stack up against all the other wonderful blogs. There were two thousand entries, and that’s a lot of words.
So when I got the news, I was working. Not in my usual office with my usual people, who are used to me having ‘moments’… I’m that age where, let’s be honest, moments come as standard, right? Today required me to be zipped into my serious face and I’m here to tell you, that’s not easy when you’ve got a salsa band going hell for leather in your head and sunshine leaking out of your ears.
It was even harder on the train home not to sit grinning like the village idiot although the advantage is you do tend to get a double seat to yourself. Mind you, I stayed away from home last night and forgot to pack my hair mousse and my hair straighteners, so quite apart from my slightly manic grin I also looked like the wild woman of Borneo, which might have accounted for folk giving me a wide berth.
I’ve had to keep my total giddiness bottled up, all day. On the journey home the Asshole voice kept me busy – he was pitching for a chocolate muffin from the buffet car, on the basis that if I was going to this fancy awards night I’d better look fat or they might throw me out for being a fraud. So actually, best forget the diet between now and then, and start again on the first Monday after the awards. Take a hike dude, I’m going to be all over those size 20 frocks by then.
Anyway, I’m home now and I was finally able to celebrate by having a mad half hour with the dog, who clearly thinks I’ve lost the plot but doesn’t really care as long as it’s playtime and there’s a bonio in it for him somewhere along the line.
On a serious note, thank you. A million times thank you. I started the blog to keep my hands out of the biscuit tin, and to help me work through a bunch of stuff. The friendships and camaraderie which sprung up along the way mean the world to me, and your faith in me and my journey takes my breath away. I appreciate every single vote of confidence 🙂
So now we just need to sit back and let the judges do their stuff. I’m excited that they’re going to meet all of you through our chatter, and I hope they’ll laugh along with us. If you’re curious about the other blogs which made the shortlist, you can find them HERE…they’re all pretty special and I’m going to wander into all of them over the weekend and wish them luck!
