Irish Blog Awards - long post

WHAT a weekend. This post has been two days in the writing all the fun and frolics of Saturday's Blog Awards saw me take to my sick bed/sofa for most of Sunday so a little was written then and then rewritten today.


Maman Poulet organising the registration


Maman Poulet, Ellybabes highfiving and Mrs Chicken

My weekend kicked off lunchtime on Saturday with the photo meet where nine of us met up at the Spire, headed to Trinity, then up Grafton Street before retiring at O'Donoghues. Rymus, Mcawilliams, 73man, Gingerpixel, Ellybabes, Phil, Andy and Keith were all present and snapping away. Hopefully this can become a regular thing, there are great meet-ups but it would also be great to meet up with other photobloggers more.


A wistful moment on Grafton Street


WWMD? in Trinity


Mcawilliams and Rymus

One thing that was really cool about the photo meet is that there were four nominees from the Best Photoblog category including the eventual winner and we didn’t scrap once.

At the end of the afternoon we had a competition to guess how many images we collectively shot, everyone put in a fiver before guessing the total amount. Then we reported on how many we actually took and it amounted to nearly 900 shots, not bad for an hour and a half's shooting. It is a bad show when the proposer of the competition wins so eh sorry about that everyone.


Scores on the doors/ brown envelopes

At least I bought a round with my winnings before Elly, Gingerpixel and I headed back to my place and then hitting the Ladies tea held in the Market Bar. I couldn't even begin to list them all here, even without my brain being mashed following the weekend madness. And wow what a yummy spread and so many women bloggers I didn't know before but I did meet Debs (sorry Debs I had to duck out of Sunday's bunch but I was rendered completely useless), Sabrina (we met once before though the first time was brief) and Sinead. I met Aoife and Una which was excellent as well as taking a pic suggested by Mary Rose of all the women from above, thanks for that Mary Rose.



Then it was time for the awards and we gasped at the size of the room, the decorations looked great and the video announcements before each category was really cool; the awards have really come a long way since 2006. I brought Nanny and the Young Wan and we all had a really great night.

I was delighted to meet up with so many new faces/blogs as well as catching up on others whom I read regularly and haven’t had the opportunity to meet before now people like Curly K, Darragh, Grandad and Granny lost the plot and of course Granny Mar and I was raging to have missed out on meeting Flirty and many others. It was lovely to chat with one of the girls from Beaut.ie, then there was Caitriona and Ken . I nearly met Conor O'Neill who came hooting down the room before standing in front of me with a manic grin and jazz hands before moving/running/hooting on but I did meet his wife Catherine who like everyone else was really lovely.

There were also a few funny/embarrassing/shameful moments such as my giving out for not being salsaed, my ahem joy at winning one of Fustar’s manky toys, Maureen the barbie, only for a stewards inquiry to be called by Elly who wrestled me to the ground for Maureen or when I heckled Rick O’Shea as he thanked the Young Wan for her beautifully executed trophy handing over – eh sorry about that, I’m just a proud Mammy.


Ellybabes and Maureen

We had a great crowd around us and we were all absolutely delighted when the lovely and fellow Nordie Sharon from the Family Voyage lifted the Best Specialist Blog, I got a great cheer during the photoblog category (thanks family) and was delighted for Claire when she took the honours in the category for her beautiful images. We claimed to have been robbed in the Group Blog category wearing my Dublin Blog hat but hey Beaut.ie are a huge force to be reckoned with, and as clichéd as it sounds we were really delighted to make the shortlist.


Sharon, Grannymar and Grandad

I had hoped to rob my print from the wall, but in the blurriness of alcohol we staggered out without it. Or maybe we weren’t allowed to do that… I also forgot my Twenty book for signing so I must get that sorted.


Checking out my pic

Towards the end of the evening I kept a beady eye on one of the Kilkenny musicos who was chatting away to my beautiful Young Wan just in case there were any ideas there.

I know I will have missed a load of people in this post and I apologise for that, I met so many people and unless I noted them down there is no way my memory + alcohol would hold onto everything. So if I have missed you out after bending your ear I am really sorry.


Rick O'Shea and Damien

So finally thanks to Damien for another cracking night/weekend and thanks to all of you who helped create the incredible buzz in the hotel. So here’s to all this year’s winners and to 2009 :)

Oh and Thats Ireland (someone else I wanted to meet and didn't bump into) has a brilliant box list of all 400 blog nominees, pre shortlist, head over there and do a pot luck on any number of wonderful blogs, you never know what you'll find.