Dear Spinalists,

Let me take this opportunity to pop my head above the news headlines and thank everybody who has visited, commented, emailed me, linked, or otherwise just been so damn good to me and The Spine this year. I feel like I should also thank John Prescott and Lembit Opik for making it so easy, and Elton John, Jamie Oliver, and James Blunt, for always being there when I needed something on a slow news day.

But in the spirit of those banners for The Samaritans that scroll across ITV’s big movie on Christmas Day and remind you that there’s always somebody about to leap off a bridge when you’re stuffing yourself with Pringles, I want to add a more sincere note of thanks.

First of all, I’d like to thank Iain Dale, Devil’s Kitchen, and Bryan Appleyard; three bloggers I read every day and who set standards by which I am constantly reminded that I’m underperforming. In different ways, they’ve helped me enormously in the last six months. Iain graciously included me in his guide to UK Political Blogging when this site had in reality only been going a matter of weeks rather than months. DK left some suitable comments that cheered me up enormously when I had my first complaint from ‘disgusted from Slough’. Bryan complimented something I’d written when I needed complimenting. Three brief and very tangential encounters with three eminent bloggers gave me affirmation of one kind or another and helped me keep this ruinous project steaming around the icebergs.

Okay, this sounds like self-indulgent waffle and perhaps it is… But it is also Christmas and as you can see from the glorious logo to the above right, The Spine has been nominated as one of Yahoo!’s Finds of 2006. I thought I should say something personal to mark the event. To be honest, I’m delighted by the recognition though in the back of my mind I can also hear the Comic Book Guy saying ‘Worst Website Ever…’

There are so many great UK blogs out there and, in reality, this is one of the very smallest. I feel like saying this nomination ‘wasn’t my fault’ and ‘don’t blame me’. In all truth, I don’t know how it happened but hey! I’m in the running so please go over there and vote for me. I could end up on the telly.

Finally, since I’ve just been tagged by Jeremy (the first time I’ve ever been tagged) and given it’s the season of goodwill towards all men and their memes, here are my ‘7 Best Things I Did In 2006’:

1. Became part of the UK blogging community and met all kinds of final and noble people via this site.

2. Got shortlisted in Yahoo!’s Finds of 2006.

3. Made it to Iain Dale’s list.

4. Written plenty despite working on The Spine every day.

5. Snagged a Nintendo Wii on the launch day.

6. Survived the year on less income than a Bulgarian strawberry picker and still managed to achieve Number 5.

7. Retained the confidence of the people closest to me, despite the outward appearance of making a complete mess of my life.

8. Continued to do what’s not expected of me. Even if that means adding an eighth thing to a list of seven.

(Update: I forgot to pass this on, so how about John Wilkes, Theo, Joe Bloggs, Adelaidegreenporridgecafe and Blognor Regis?)

I’m now taking a few days off but I’ll be back next week once I grow sick of rich food and lazing.

In the meantime, have a Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year, and thank you all again for reading and your continued support.

David.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 8:01 pm and is filed under News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.