How to get Alex to stop talking in one easy step

This I did NOT expect. Then again, if you were in the room at Star City last night, my absolutely gobsmacked expression and lack of coherent speech probably tipped you off about that.
Which is a pity, because I’ve got a lot of people to thank, and I feel like I only did a tenth of the job last night. I did thank my lovely wife Di, who remains my inspiration and treasure. The award above is a proud moment, but it’s got nothing next to the day I stood next to her and said “I do”.
From a professional standpoint, I’ve clearly got to thank the editors who commissioned me for columns and blogs in the past year, which I think I managed to stammer out somehow. I’ve also got to thank the wider journalist community, who’ve kept me in bread and wine as a freelancer over the last five years, aided me immensely in my professional development in ways too countless to mention, and provided more than a few laughs along the way. I’ve worked (and continue to work) with some immensely talented people, and getting a peer-judged award like this is astonishingly humbling and genuinely surprising. I was so surprised, I was still typing my own name into twitter (I was tweeting the awards as they happened) before I realised it was… my own name!
For those staring at the pic above and scratching their heads, the IT Journalism Awards (informally “The Lizzies“) are, effectively, the local tech media Oscars. Except, y’know, with a whole lot less Botox and a whole lot more talent. Those who’ve read my “About Me” page might realise that I’ve made the finalist list across a number of categories pretty much every year over the last decade, but never actually won one.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go off and do a whole lot of smiling.