The 2009 Bloggies has declared Glad to be a Girl the Best African Weblog. Glad to be a Girl is a blog by a Johannesburg-based blogger who goes by the name of Phillygirl. Her profile reads: Sift through my insanity and revel in my genius! Modesty drips off me in buckets ;) Sarcasm is my weapon of choice. Christians, Muslims & Jews only believe in one more God than I do.

Other blogs that were nominated in the Best African Weblog category are Being Brazen (South Africa), Appfrica, West Africa Wins Always (Cote d'Ivoire) and Scarlett Lion (Liberia).

Phillygirl got the good news from White African's twitter stream. In a post titled, International Bloggebrity Coming Thru, she celebrates the good news:

OMG! I think I won. The official site hasn't yet been updated (slackers!) but, I've had heaps of hits, a comment on yesterday's post congratulating me on my award and I found this on @whiteafrican's twitter stream:

Could it be true? So I sadly can't seem to access Twitter's search tool but I did do some browsing online and found it on the Gossip Rocks Forum too. I think it might be true. YAY.

Wow. Still in shock. This is truly awesome. And yeah, I know, I'm not really the best African Blogger, or even the best South African Blogger, but hell yeah, I'll take what I can get :) Welcome to all the new readers who'll be hitting my site for the first time after this award, you're why the win (and even just being a finalist) is important. Exposure. That's what it's all about … the awards I mean, not why I blog in general.
Wow. Still in shock. This is truly awesome. And yeah, I know, I'm not really the best African Blogger, or even the best South African Blogger, but hell yeah, I'll take what I can get :)

In another post, Choosing an award reward, she asks for suggestions on how to treat herself:

Wow, yesterday was quite an awesome day :) Am still amazed by the award. But am thrilled with the support it has brought … since mostly what I was expecting was a bit of a backlash about how can I be the Best African Blog blah blah. But I'm grateful not to have read any of those posts yet. The back of my mind (the part that is trying to kill me) is still waiting for them tho, the other shoe, so to speak. But for now, it seems that South African's can't help but be happy for a fellow South African :) I got a wonderful mention on SA Rocks and a featured headline article on BizCommunity.

Updated 09h02: And I just found there is also a mention on News24 :) A friend of mine msged me to congratulate me after she'd read about it there! Unbelievable :)

Now how to celebrate. Since I missed the awards ceremony (being in Texas and all), and there is no award other than the prestige and status (and kajillion million new first-time visitors), I figure I need to treat myself somehow. I mean say what you like, it's still a pretty momentous thing and I feel I need to do something to acknowledge it for myself. So, do I go ahead and get that personalised number plate I was thinking of a while back (I was sure I'd mentioned this before on the blog but can't for the life of me find the post to link to!)? Anyhoo, I've been pondering the number plate for a while: GLD2BGR L(impopo). But it's a 2 & half grand expenditure … for something I don't really need. I mean it'd be cool and all, but do you see my issue? And having just had a brief browse online, Plates.co.za is still refering to Limpopo as Northern Province (and they're R2500, which is where I got the price from before) but the government website says it's only R1500 for a Limpopo Personalised Plate. I dunno.

In Bits and Bobs she discusses the “media hype”:

Okay so it's been an amazing few days :) After yesterday's “media hype” (haha!) it just continues … I was asked to be the first guest Top 10 reader on The Digital Edge for Monday's new episode and I was interviewed by a newspaper!

Other good things that have happened: my unique site hits went over 1000 yesterday :) Today I expect it'll start going back to normal tho.

Should she go for a tattoo or a personalized number plate to celebrate?:

Oh, and in response to yesterday's post, I'm glad the majority of you seem to agree with me that a personalised number plate is a waste of money ;) Maybe I should finally get that tattoo I've been thinking about. I've always sort of wanted one, but could never decide on what (or where really). I like the idea of getting something meaningful, as I've mentioned before, and I've been thinking about the Glad to be a Girl logo. I designed it and it's now been a meaningful part of my life for a little over 2 years … hmmm, somehow two years doesn't seem significant enough yet … maybe I'll wait for the 5 year mark ;) Hahahahahaha. We'll see.