And the winner is..............................

Presenter Lauren Laverne announcing the winners

Oh my word, never before has any sentence sent me into a swirl of surrealism, where a noisy room filled with champagne-fuelled excitable chatter and award ceremony music suddenly becomes internally silent, allowing the mind to shut out everything apart from the voice of the presenter.

There was a loud buzz of excitement in the air.

But to the nominees waiting in anticipation, the only thing to do was to ignore the noise and hold onto every syllable that came over the microphone.

The time had come

"And the winner in the Independent Media category is...."

There was a pause, anticipation and build-up.

And then the answer...with bated breath.

"..........Demotix!"

Huge applause went in the direction of the worthy winners.

Hugs and heartfelt kisses came in the direction of me.

Good friends commiserating but also celebrating that The Rubbish Diet had made it that far.

As the Demotix guys were busy receiving the coveted MediaGuardian Innovation award from presenter Lauren Laverne on stage, my feelings were playing a game of dodgems with Disappointment, Relief, Excitement and Pride all bumping against each other to see which one would come out on top.

And I'm so glad to say that relief quickly bumped the feeling of disappointment out of the picture and excitement soon kicked back in. With the stress of the awards out of the way, we could at last get on with the party and feel proud that The Rubbish Diet was a finalist at The MEGAs.

Wahey....so the champagne flowed and the laughter continued as we partied on, enjoying the venue which was the amazing Sketch restaurant in Central London.

Amongst all the fun I managed to snap the winners in my category and here are the chaps behind the fantastic site Demotix. It's a citizen journalism website that also acts as a photo agency, which markets photos and content from journalists and amateurs to the mainstream media. You can see how they won. Their project is a worthy winner and guess what...I'm even planning to join the site myself. Congratulations guys you deserve it.




I also caught up with the other "runners-up" Artisan Food, a fabulous website highlighting the best of Cumbrian food. It's got some brilliant reviews, beautiful photography as well as wonderful multimedia content. So congratulations too to Cecilia and Martin for getting this far. It was really great to meet you and next time I travel up to the Lake District I will be looking to your site for advice on where to shop and eat.




So after the couple of introductions we simply continued to enjoy the rest of the awards party. Here are a few more photos to set the scene.


Here's me with my gaggle of rubbish friends...Tracey, Ruby and Dorothy. Thanks ladies...you made the awards party truly special. The support you've given me is really amazing.





Next is the man of the moment, who I must really thank for putting up with my blogging. He's the bloke behind the blog...the one who you have come to know as "Mr A". Hooray for my one and only.





Next is the most funky bathroom ever.




And here's that right rubbish lass - Tracey Smith - posing in probably the most funky bathroom ever.


Later Tracey and I just couldn't resist chatting up the official photographer.



Or indeed the manager of Sketch.

And yes...he did confirm that they recycle all their plastic and glass bottles......PHEW




Here's the DJ laughing at my request for anything by Take That, Madonna or Dexys Midnight Runners. Good job that chap knew I was joking. Just imagine if he had interrupted the cool ambient tunes he was playing with a blast of Come on Eileen.




Here's Tracey with Ruby - examining the rubber crockery. Yes is was really bendy and the saucer really did have a hole in it.




And finally...Guess what Tracey showed me at the end of the night on the way out?



It was a sculpture made from rubbish full of broken toys and dolls.

"That's a Robert Bradford" she said, referring to the artist that she interviewed not so long ago for her blog.

And what a fitting end to a wonderful night out.

So huge thanks to the judges at MediaGuardian and the organisers at Seventeen Events for a fabulous night. Thanks too for all your messages of support which came flooding in through the blog, SMS, email and Twitter. I really appreciated it.

The Rubbish Diet at the MEGAs eh.

Now that's one evening I won't forget in a hurry or indeed what has been a real whirl of a year.

So please stay tuned...as there will be other highlights from the last 15 months appearing on here over the next few days. In the meantime, I'll be busy attempting to respond to all of your wonderful messages...

....between sorting out the kids, the laundry and the recycling.

Yay....there's nothing quite like coming back down to earth with a bump.

But I love it!

Did I mention I'm on Three Counties Radio again later - 1.30pm, talking about food waste.

LOL...Down to earth...eh?

Eh oh...such is life in the recycling bin.

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