My reason for making early-morning, high-pitched dolphin sounds is this!

I'm stunned, but unfortunately for everyone, not stunned enough to be quiet, ha ha ha!

I can't believe - well, so many things, really, but most of all - the category I won!! (But this is the last I'm saying about that, before they realise they've made a huge mistake, take it back, and give it to the correct person. So shhh. I'll ask the dog next door to bury it in the backyard.)

Also can't believe that people actually VOTED. For ME!?! So thank you all very, very much! Your cheques are in the mail. But even though it's only 5c (South African cents - and yes, it IS necessary to specify this), you'd better not try to cash it, unless you want to see some remarkable bouncing. (My cheques bounce higher than yooooouuuurrrrs, nah, nah, neh, NAAH naah!)

You realise of course that now, after all this voting going on on my behalf (Yeah, I KNOW that you never intended to vote for me; that your hand merely slipped on the keyboard and your mouse got stuck right when the little arrow was pointed to my name and that you merely clicked it out of anger to try and get it unstuck... Be more careful next time!), I'm seriously considering a career in politics. I'm aiming for complete and total control and domination of... Liechtenstein.

It's not that I'm lazy per se... Let's just say my ambitions might not be quite as advanced as that of people contemplating domination of the world's biggest countries. Or even - what a concept - global domination. (Just typing that made me tired.)

Yeah, okay... I'm totally lazy. In fact, I initially contemplated taking political control over Vatican City, since it's the smallest country and all (don't say you never learn anything on this site. WHADOYOUMEAN you already knew that?), but I've since gone off the idea. I mean, Dan Brown only wrote a measly little best-selling book, and look how much grief the Catholic highest-ups are giving HIM! I simply don't have the strength to wade through all that red tape while running the constant risk of being clobbered over the head with a Bishop's hat (and yeah, wise guys, I know that it's actually called a 'miter').

So maybe a career in politics isn't for me after all, but before you let out a sigh of relief... you're not rid of me yet, because I think I'll stick to this writing business.

Please don't groan so loudly... you're scaring all the small children and animals out there!

As for all the other winners and nominees - including him for visual stimulation and her for her blogilicious contributions to the world (Warning: Do not read on an empty stomach!) - congratulations!

Seriously, do yourselves a favour and click on the links to all the nominees and winners, and then you'll see that not all South Africans are savage barbarians like me.

That being said, to see photos of last night's utterly sophisticated ceremony held in Johannesburg (the Cape Town pics aren't up yet. Hung-over, Cherry? UPDATE: He promises they'll be up over the weekend), go here. As you'll be able to see, the moon(ing) was full and bright in Johannesburg last night.

Thanks to the Jo'bloggers for organising it. (No, not the moon(ing)... or did they? Well, they DID organise the event and rumour has it that they even picked up the bar tab, brave souls!)

Thanks again also to Cherryflava who decided that, in order to win anything, ever, South African bloggers needed their own awards.

But lastly, I would like to thank my own blogging benefactress Emily. If she didn't host the win-a-blog contest last year, I wouldn't even have this site right now. So thank you!!

And to all of you (yeah, I know I said 'lastly' up there... don't get so technical with me!), my readers (here she makes a sweeping arm gesture to include all three)... thank you for coming back here every day... or every week... or every month... whatever. You must REALLY be bored at work! Or is it a matter of not being able to take your eyes off a horrible car accident?

Never mind. I don't think I want to know.

Whatever your reasons are for coming back here, I'm sooo grateful that you do.

I know many bloggers out there claim not to do this for anyone but themselves, but that is certainly not me. Sure, I wish I could act all cool and nonchalant about it, but the truth is, I can't WAIT to check my e-mail to see if you've decided to comment on my drivel, because I often wonder if what I've written is making you laugh (at best) or cringe. (And if it's the latter, I DON'T WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT!)

Your comments are often the highlight of my day (which probably doesn't say much about my life! What do you mean go outside and play? You mean a world exists outside of this glowing monitor?!? Impossible... you MUST be making it up! Go declare your science fiction elsewhere!).

I know I'm terrible at replying to comments from you, but I promise you that I read them all (it's hard not to when you average 2 comments a day, ha ha). So thank you, and thanks for wading through my verbosity and bad puns and my gross misuse of parentheses and somehow making sense out of it all.

Okay, this is the end of today's sappiness. But - and come on, you KNOW I can't resist - it is merely the beginning of my happiness!