A Thank you and also a “You’re looking very verdant” :-{O

That was a line a Baptist minister once delivered to a good friend of mine. He (the friend, not the Baptist minister) had a full on beard at the time and so the statement was rather apt.

Until last Friday I too had become rather verdant. When Nissans the Big Turn On competition finished at midnight on 30 April I vowed not to shave until the winner was announced. Of course I didn’t realise at the time scrutineering would take over 3 weeks, so by the end of it I was more than a little verdant myself. In fact half the office had taken to calling me Catweazle, which I decided to take as a term of endearment, regardless of intent.

I still have a ‘tache you know!

So when I received a call at 16:08 on Friday 24 May to tell me I had actually won the UK blogger challenge of Nissan’s Big Turn On, I was stunned. I certainly didn’t come over as excited as I should have on the telephone, nor did I feel as excited as I should have. I think I was in a state of shock. Or perhaps gently caressing my beard had placed me in a trance-like state.

But I am extraordinarily excited and happy! In case you weren’t aware, the prize that we had all be competing for was a Nissan LEAF electric car. And although I was declared the winner, I feel like it’s all down to my friends online really. After all, they’re the ones that pushed the Turn On button for me. I tried my hardest to make things interesting, although I know I get a bit too much for some people!

Unfortunately due to the vagaries of twitter (specifically it not storing hashtag details for more than a week), I’ve been unable to compile a list of everyone who contributed and supported me, I only have the last couple of weeks. So if you’re not on the role of honour but should be, I’m sorry, let me know and I’ll add you. Of course this list only contains a snapshot of the people that either tweeted or hit the tweet this button, it doesn’t include everyone who simply just voted. So if you’re not on the list, thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.

I’d also like to say a special thank you to St Albans, what a great city! The lovely bloggers who jumped in my car, the great people who saw me in the local paper or heard me on the local radio, through to everyone who looks into the #stalbans hashtag and got behind me, you’re all lovely.

A special thanks to wifey, who was very supportive of me, who put up with my stresses and me spending four or five hours a day at it, as well as blogging and helping out herself, and to BeingMrsC who was my unofficial campaign manager and did a super awesome job of it, as well as Muddlingalong who organised all the St Albans bloggers into the LEAF challenge.

To each and every one of you, thank you very much: