And the winner is ... - Thought Leader

… East Coast Radio!

No, not entirely. But they did sweep a good three or four categories (including best new blog, the one for which I was nominated! Sob!) and I’m guessing there’s going to be a backlash of bitter blog posts this morning.

It’s not 100% fair, I suppose, when you can ask all your listeners to vote for you, and when it’s not a single person writing. But their podcasts are extremely funny.

Thought Leader also came up top of the pops — winning best political blog (no surprises there, hey? Although I don’t really think I contributed much to that win!) and best SA web log of the year, the main prize. Which means (drum roll, please) that all the Thought Leader bloggers get to share one Xbox! I’ll gladly hand over my segment, thanks.

So what was it like? Predictably full of bloggers, who really look the way you’d expect them to. Very into the internet. Kind of funny to see people in real life when you’ve only seen their profile pics (hint: they look better online). And there were many, many, many conversations about blogs. I mainly lingered on the outskirts with my boyfriend and took part in some vicious people-watching. One unnamed person had made a T-shirt with the name of his blog (and web address) on it. ‘Nuff said.

But there was abundant piping-hot pizza (very delicious), bad Eighties music and a general feeling of revelry in the air. The “trophies” were small indigenous trees, which I thought was very cool. I just hope that they all went to good homes (and didn’t get flown to other cities, which would defeat the eco-friendliness of the tree idea in the first place!).

For the record, there was no red carpet, no velvet seats, no glamorous dresses and (alas!) no wine-throwing in any faces. Maybe next year?