And the award goes to....

Today I have been gathering together award entries for the various marketing campaigns we run for our clients. Awards are BIG NEWS in the agency world, so they are a necessary evil I undertake once a year for the good of my company. If shortlisted, you get the honour of dusting off your best frock, the guys their black ties, spend over £1,000 on a table full of people you don't necessarily want to spend an evening with, sitting through mediocre comedians taking the piss out of the industry, dancing with clients old enough to be your father and standing around waiting for a cab at the end of the night in the freezing cold with no wrap or jacket on. Can't wait.

So in the midst of writing some award spiel or other, I thought how nice it would be if mums had the same honours bestowed upon them once per year, and it got me thinking about the categories I could enter myself into...and they are as follows ta da da da da dahhhh:

The Strategy Award for detailed planning and excellent targte audience empathy every school morning to get two kids out of bed and to schools on time, fully dressed and with lunchboxes in tow (this still includes parking in the school car park by the way to save precious minues, as well as keeping a bag of Haribo in the car as a bribe...I know, I know...)

The Campaign of the Year Award to get Cheeky to eat some vegetables. Any vegetables! He has the amazing - and I am sure unique - ability to syphon out even the most finely chopped up vegetable in his dinner, and filter is out of his mouth back onto his plate. I masterminded a 'reverse psychology' plan and tagged carrot sticks 'treats' which I mixed in with his raisons for a snack. It worked! 1 down, 472 to go...

The Best Creative Award 2007, for convincing Lucky that the girl's black leggings I bought him for the Christmas play were in fact boy's trousers...just very tight ones! He scowled the whole time on stage...

The Internal Communications Award for ensuring that everyone knows where everyone else is and what they are doing during the week, and not missing very important school dates for the kids (like 'bring a picture of your grandparents to school day'...) or very important meetings for myself (like those wonderful Awards ceremonies). Biker Boy's West Ham calendar really does come into it's own even if it does look nasty:-)

And finally the Best Live Marketing Initiative award...for the time Lucky needed a poo in the park. We had just arrived, it was on the verge of arriving with us. I dumped the doughnuts and had poor Lucky squat behind a tree and aim into the sugary bag. And for wiping? Well the jammy covered serviettes of course! A sticky situation all round...

Looking back over that lot, I'm feeling quite smug actually. How ingenuous I have been this year! How strategic and resourceful!

This part-time work lark's not half bad really, teaching me essential skills like these to get through the week.