To sleep, perchance to dream

I couldn’t sleep last night. It was a combination of things which prevented my slumbers.

The heat was the obvious one. Considering we’re supposed to be well into autumn now, with the leaves taking on a rusty hue and the evenings closing in, it was a bloody hot, still night last night. I blame Al Gore.
Those sort of evenings bring out the mozzies, whose delicate whine and constant movement keeps the mind fully occupied like a blindfolded Luke Skywalker with a light sabre, trying to eliminate them in the dark.
And then when you finally do get to sleep, it’s a fitful sleep, punctuated with dreams about Svetlana Boguinskaya’s floor exercise routine at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and getting the number 3 pencil coil replaced on your car the next morning. Until… all is finally peaceful both in and outside your mind.

And then the mosquitoes come back for dessert.

Anyway, while I was suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous insomnia, the results of the SA Blog Awards 2008 were being announced at the UCT Tennis Club, which – I presume, anyway – has air conditioning. And I didn’t win. Some have already suggested that the results were rigged like a Spanish galleon, but I couldn’t possibly agree with that sentiment*.

6000 miles… came:
5th in South African Weblog of the Year
4th in Best South African Personal Blog
2nd in Best Original Writing on a South African Blog and
2nd in Best Post on a South African Blog for The Big South African Crime Post.
(If you haven’t read this yet, why not?)

It’s a more than reasonable result when you consider that with 3 days of nominations still to go, there had been 4000+ nominations for 900+ blogs. And then in the voting, thanks to your support, 6000 miles… punched well above its weight against some really big guns in each of the categories it was nominated in.
I really appreciate your efforts.

Next year is my year. Possibly, anyway.

* …in public.

Vote For Me!

Welcome to visitors from the 2008 SA Blog Awards site.
If you like what you see (and why wouldn’t you?) then it’s in everyone’s interests that you subscribe to the 6000 miles… RSS feed here.

Yes folks, in a show of democracy which would make Vladimir Putin blush and Robert Mugabe quake in his Z$116 billion boots, voting is underway in the 2008 SA Blog Awards.
It’s like Barack versus Hillary, but without the racial tension. Which is a first for SA.

Thanks to your nominations, 6000 miles… has been shortlisted in four categories:

  • South African Weblog of the Year
  • Best Post on a South African Blog (for the Big South African Crime Post)
  • Best Original Writing on a South African Blog
  • Best South African Personal Blog

Vote for this Blog

The organisers (whom I think are great, by the way) have provided the shortlistees with suitably ostentatious images like the one above to promote our blogs during the voting process.
All you have to do to vote for your favourite blog (er… this one) is to click the image above, scroll down to the bottom of the page and enter your email address and the anti-spam code.

The organisers will then send you an email with a link to confirm your vote.

One vote per email address.

It couldn’t be simpler – unless I did it for you. In itself, that isn’t a bad idea but would surely flout the contest rules and the general sporting behaviour for which I am famed when not on a football pitch.

 AHEM! You appear to still be here. Shouldn’t you be elsewhere voting by now?