Irish Blog Awards - oh what a night!

TWENTY Major's wife is my new Very Best Friend, or VBF if you will.

Honestly now, I'm not making this up. Yes, Twenty - quite a fine male specimen I must say - has a wife and she TALKED to me! To meeeeeeee!

I made an absolute ass of myself at last night's Blog Awards and for once I don't have the excuse of alcohol to explain it all away, as I'm off the drink for Lent.

Not only did I simper at Twenty, patting his arm and saying "well done, well done" over and over, I actually TOLD him I was nervous about meeting him. Fucking eejit. Me, not him. (Well, I WAS nervous, he's a bit of a celeb so he is.)

He turned out to be a very pleasant smiley man who, despite my fears, didn't growl at me or call me a cunt or a peasant. And to his eternal credit he managed a very convincing "oh heyyyyyyyyy" with a nod to my name tag, like he knew who I was when I introduced myself. (The jig is up Twenty, you hadn't a clue, had you? Sniff!)

I was out at the bar when I was beckoned over by a very glamorous be-suited woman who introduced herself as "Twenty's wife" [I wonder does she call him that at home instead of his real name?] who said she enjoyed my blog and she even mentioned a post I had written, so I knew she wasn't just being polite. Ah flattery, thy name is Twenty's wife! It was only afterwards that I realised I had been incredibly rude and never even asked the woman what her name is, so if you're reading (probably not after I fawned all over your husband) sorry about that!

In keeping with my making-an-ass-of-myself theme for the night, I also accosted both Swearing Lady and Annie Rhiannon telling them I wanted to be their groupie and could we please go backstage and have sex? Quite.

Funnily enough neither were that interested in that suggestion but in fairness to them, they didn't run off in horror either. Both were lovely and charming and forgave me my nervous chatter. I was seriously surprised Sweary didn't claim the Best Newcomer gong but thems the breaks.

It was a night for renewing old aquaintances and meeting new friends as I got to talk to/wave at Conor O'Neill, Colm In Fact Ah, Daragh, Dec and Marieke from Dublin Blog, Maman Poulet, Damian from Ask Direct, Omani, Ciaran from Two Irish Geeks and a TV, a gorgeous and still-bloody-slim-even-though-she's-pregnant Sinead Gleeson, those mentioned above and many others I can't remember right now.

All the award winners were very deserving and kudos to Bernie for handing his Best Contribution award over to organiser Damien Mulley who really put on a great show. How he hasn't gone insane by now due to all the running around and organising, I don't know.

My heartiest congratulations however must go to my favourite blogger and great friend Red Mum who picked up the Best Personal Blog award. I cannot think of a more deserving winner as she has really poured her heart and soul into her blog since its inception. She was accompanied by the Young Wan who looked simply stunning and is a credit to her mother. It will be an absolute travesty if Red Mum is not up for the overall Best Blog Award next year as she certainly has the talent. (And she didn't even mind when I tried to scratch my name with a key into her award, that's friendship for ya!)

I had two non-bloggers with me, a friend and my boyfriend, who were both suitably impressed both with the size of the event and the talent and range of blogs up for awards. There was a good mix of, as they put it, "geeks and non-geeks" and they both thorougly enjoyed the sense of community which was hugely present on the night. It was much less awkward than last year with people actually chatting to each other instead of eyeing fellow bloggers up but being too shy to go over and say hi. I don't know if either of them are going to start blogs, but I might be able to twist their arms (be afraid Boyfriend!) so watch this space.

If it has done nothing else, the awards have encouraged me - and I'm sure many others - to get back on the blogging bus so for that I am grateful. In fact I'm looking forward to it. Thanks again to Damien for putting together the whole shebang, and here's to next year!

(I'm really shite at links and HTML but Maman Poulet has a full list of winners over at her site and well done to her too for live blogging the event and posting up the winners.)