Ladies and gentlemen, I have just won the Centaur Communications Feature Writer of the Year award. This consists of a large glass brick with a centaur etched into the middle of it, a magnum of champagne, and the approval of my peers.

Unfortunately, I've been feeling like utter crap all day, so I skipped out of the awards ceremony before dinner, to let the Girls from the Bromsgrove Office squeal in an ever-higher pitch. I expect the bats are currently flocking around the Royal Lancaster Hotel, because by now, they're the only organisms capable of hearing them. The rest of Centaur will be lying prone in their seats, trickling blood from ruptured eardrums. But I will be fine, and fit to flit off to Bruges on Thursday for a lovely not-really-weekend in the land of Christmas markets, beer, chocolate and seafood. Baroque and roll!

Anyway, I am in fact rather chuffed, because they were some bloody good features. If anyone's interested, the entry was this feature on nuclear fusion, this one on wave and tidal energy, and this interview with a low-carbon energy research specialist.

So, yay! And how are we going to get through a litre and a half of champagne?