But I did stumble upon this pic which was worth posting up..

Antoin, Michael and James at the Blog Awards

The gentlemen to my left were Antoin (psychologist, philosopher and technology entrepeneur) and Michael Nugent (author of “I Keano” and the “Dear John” letters as well as the ‘celebrated’ blog post “Fianna Fail’s Fifty Ways to Laugh at Voters”).. Government supporters seem to be a minority voice in the blogosphere, one of these days I’ll write a counter article “Fianna Fáil’s Fifty ways to secure Peace and Prosperity” but not today, it’s the weekend and Crufts is about to start (the kids love it) so sin é for now..

Cedar Lounge revolution was my own personal polblog favourite for sheer academic quality content and of course the boys are all P.ie gene pool, not that we’d be nepotists or anything like that of course. Slugger O’Toole I remarked upon for incredibly high interaction levels although I guess it’s been around a while. The event was a fun night which turned into a late one although I now remember why I don’t go to nightclubs any more (more anon).

Was an odd crowd. Most eclectic. As I mingled and said my hellos, was strange how people (whom I’d never met before nor had even read my blog) started off not liking me (it’s an FF thing – with us or against us – you get used to it) and ended up apologising and trying to be nice by the time I was leaving. One guy for example had setup his blog specifically ‘to bring down Bertie’ so we were on a sticky wicket there from the start. Turned out he was an ex-FG candidate (they’re all Regan wannabes now). Anyway despite initial skirmishes we parted on good terms and moved onto the next table. Amazing how much networking and speed dating have in common.

There were some nice folk of course such as Clockwork Rob who joined me in a grumbling session at the bar after neither of us won although Evil Bob his sidekick didn’t appear as affable, muttering something about me being a Fauler (which I took as a reference to Monsignor Faul making a mental note to fact check my Ed Molony books later). And a nice chap from Kilkeny told me all about the cats answer to John Peel. Earlier I had ended up writing an acceptance speech on the back of my nametag when I realised I could be in front of 400 people with a microphone in mere moments but alas my superlatives proved superflous.

Anyway cheers to the organisers and sponsors for a good bash, is a great industry gig if nothing else, and a special thanks to the judge who early on in the night revealed how highly rated I’d scored under quality, frequency and interaction (so why didn’t I win then? But I’m not bitter) and later after many wines and several stouts confessed to being a closet Fianna Failer.. so at least there’s a happy ending