Competition ends..time to relax

Well the competition ended on Sunday and the judging was long and hard. We had a fantastic 602 entries (not counting emails that had multiple attachments), it was far more successful that I originally expected.
I am lucky to have had Allison and Ewo there to help with the judging process, there were just too many great ones to choose from. It would of took me weeks alone to decide.
The original plan was to go to Helsinki and sit with Ewo to go through them, but time got the better of us and we could not sort a date in time for me to book flights and personal commitments.
We had to use the website as a meeting ground instead, which worked really well. So go to http://www.tuomas-holopainen.com/main/en/comp-winners to view the winners. Thanks again to Anette Olzon for promoting.

Had my last *nearly* all night working session in a while I hope last night as the work load calms, seems ever since my first contact with Tuomas I have been working late every night trying to perfect things. Although my body seems to have adjusted the the 3-4 hours of sleep I have been having the last few weeks. Decided the website design alterations I was planning will be put on hold till the end of February. This is because I plan to get some shots of Tuomas while I'm down in London to use in the website design so I am not relying on other's work. Many thanks to Christian of Photo Press and Nightwish.com for allowing me to use his photo as main image for now.

Heard back from Tuomas regarding London dates, this means I can start planning the website get together..hmm what was I saying about calming my work load down? Oh well. Tuomas and I are working to 2 dates, so working out which is best and then will announce the date and hopefully not too long after the location of the meet up/good excuse for a drink..whatever you want to call it. This will not be the last member gathering, a lot of fans in other countries have expressed they would love to meet up with other Tuomas and Nightwish fans. We are already considering the second meet to be held in the Netherlands, this is still just a thought at this moment. This time will also provide something quite cool that Tuomas is doing for the website and something related to a future competition, but I will have to say "watch this space" for more information on that :)

All members thinking about going to London, please do not forget to fill in the form on our forum and email me it. I am needing rough numbers of people attending asap. Also something else very important on the forums I am desperate for help with. Please go look.

I want to finish with a thank you list of people who have helped me since day 1:

Sarah W. : For being positive about the website project before we started it.

John: For suggesting our name.

Alex: For being supportive, my unofficial proof reader.

Rebecca: For being a great mod and translator, and for being so supportive (thank you again for the wonderful gifts you sent)

Allison: Again fantastic mod and for helping me with the massive judging task.

Sarah: For constantly being so quick at our German translations.

Luis: For our Br/Pt translations and diplomatic relation co-ordinator between ourselves and Nightwish Brazil.

Robin: For constantly checking the website in 3 languages.

Lerren: For the complex task of our Russian translations and keeping the fantastic relation we have with Nightwish Russia alive.

Special thanks:

Anette Olzon: For being so supportive for us even before we received our official standing. We would not of had the amazing competition success we had without you. You have such a pure and beautiful soul.

Ewo Pohjola: For entertaining me with crazy email conversations, being supportive about the website and helping with the judging,

Tuomas Holopainen: For sending the gifts for the translators, giving your blessing and for the exciting future plans we have.

And to all the fans, for all the thank you messages I receive daily. Thank you for your ongoing support. I promise we will not abandon you, we will be here supporting all of you as well as Tuomas. We are not just his website..... we are yours! You keep us alive.

Take care everyone.

Carol