Ever since I’ve come back from holiday I’ve had one regret and that is that I can’t attend this years a4uexpo London 2007, where it appears every familiar icon I know on the A4Uforum is going.

At the beginning of the year I was only an active participant on the forum but in the first half of this year I went on the affiliate cruise to Amsterdam and met up and had a good drink with many of those little icons for the first time.

Then Nadeem Azam organised an event in Leeds in July, where I met more little icons including Elaine, Dave and family and we had a good chat with mysterious Stu Foster.

I get 35 days holiday a year but they gradually started diminishing. Just as I promised a mate I’d go to Portugal, I got invited to Ibiza, so jetted off from one to the other.

Then I found my sister, was treating my mum to a two week holiday in Hong Kong and I thought as I had two weeks holiday still to take I may as well take good advantage. I’d last visited 9 years ago, so I was long overdue a visit.

This meant I have only 3 days holiday to take and it is my ritual to always take Christmas week off, so that I am not travelling between Leeds and my parents home of Middlesbrough. It’s my birthday Boxing Day and so work on the 27th would be a physical impossibility.

So, technically I had no spare days for the a4uexpo or any Christmas parties I’d get invited to.

There was also the cost. As well as the pass that is almost the price of a football season ticket, there’s the expensive hotels, train fare, potential new shirts to buy, hire of black tie for the awards? and of course money for the drink.

I know you’ve seen my previous post by now and so anything above £200 makes a dent, especially after a holiday.

But still I want to see more of those little icons.

So, when I saw that there were a few freebie passes knocking about in various competitions I thought I’d give them a little whirl.

I made a very late entry on Kieron’s blog but Laura ticked all the right boxes.

Then there was the poster competition. Well, I have to admit I did waste an hour of time trying to think of creative ideas when it looked like there wasn’t going to be a single entry and I may win on default but I thought that the Friday announcement for a winner was leaving it too late for me anyway. I am technically supposed to give 10 days notice for booking time off work.

There was also some free passes from Buy.at. All you have to do is send them a mail and you may be picked from a hat.

So that’s where I am today. I’ve sent them an email.

If my name is drawn, it will be more panic than excitement but it means I’ll get to see more icons.