Apologies for the interpution in service!   I’ve been away for the last three weeks, enjoying what was probably the holiday of a lifetime in New Zealand.  However, I’m now back in the UK and have (just about) recovered from my jet lag.  There’s been lots going on while I’ve been away though, and I’ll post a couple of things just now.

The photo shows me with one of the Moeraki Boulders, which are some very unusual spherical boulders which are (very distantly!) related  to the ‘cannonball’ rock formations found in my native Sunderland.  I’d always been told back home that they were only ever found in Sunderland and New Zealand, but I think that might be a bit of a Mackem urban myth as the Moeraki ones are quite different!

And I’m dead chuffed to find out (via a text from Will ) that I’ve won the Tim Garden Award for the Best Blog by a Lib Dem Holding Public Office.  

I just got back from Burlington today, and haven’t made it to Bournemouth yet  so couldn’t pick up the award in person – though Will tells me he made an erudite speech on my behalf… 

James has made me feel old by pointing out it’s nine years almost to the day since he recruited me to the Lib Dems at a freshers’ fair in Leeds.  He won best blog post for his post on Parliament, The Telegraph and Jo Swinson.  I seem to remember going to Sheffield with James a few weeks after I joined the party to help out with an action day in what was then Richard Allan’s Sheffield Hallam constituency – of course, now Nick Clegg’s home turf.  The person who trained us to canvass there was Jo, and she’s now MP for East Dunbartonshire, so a good few changes there over the course of nine years!

The other winners can be found here.

Update: Have added a photo of me picking up my statuette from LibDemVoice’s Helen Duffett.  Thanks to Alex Foster for taking the pic.

I’m really chuffed to have been nominated for the Tim Garden award – the annual award for the best blog from a Lib Dem holding public office.

The awards will be announced at Lib Dem conference next week.  Once agin, I’m up against tough competition – Peter Black AM (who won last year), Dundee’s Cllr Fraser MacPherson, by-election winner Willie Rennie MP and fellow Lewisham Councillor Pete Pattisson. 

My personal favourite is Fraser’s blog, which is always full of local news – and  shows how much hard work he does for his ward.  I was also pleased to see that Daisy Benson from Reading has been nominated in the best use of e-campaigning category – her blog is an excellent read and I’m really interested in her work on empty homes.

Every year (well, the last few), Total Politics magazine publishes a guide to UK Blogging.   They’re trailing the guide by publishing their top blogs of various types on their Party Lines blog  over the next few weeks.

I’m really chuffed to say I’m one of their top 30 councillor blogs.  I just scraped in at number 28, but this is the second highest ranking Lib Dem blog.  Congratulations to all the other councillors who made the list, especially fellow Lib Dems Cllr Fraser MacPherson (Dundee) who was the top Lib Dem and Cllrs Alex Folkes  (Cornwall) and Mary Reid (Kingston upon Thames), who also made the top 30.