Funny how your favourite never wins

Not a good shift. I was already feeling stressed as a dear friend and I have had a disagreement and I haven't heard from her since, and then last night while watching The Prisoner on ITV4 I managed to waste most of a big bottle of Hoegaarden by knocking it with my hand and sending it flying all over the floor - as well as the loss of lots of good beer, major mop-up operation needed.

Then today, second call in, I was refused by a guy who claimed he was "backing out of all these things" (all what things? There's only us asking him to do surveys, surely?) A couple of my later respondents did the interviews all right but were still heavy going (the last one was over a bad mobile connection, with a man whose responses to a fair few of the questions - he was answering for all his family - was "I ain't got a clue" and who would clearly rather have been doing anything else. What's more, he took me a fair way over my finishing time.

Then I was still unable to input my payclaim, as I had been yesterday. A number of us - but not all - have been having this problem this week, as our office's new financial year begins on 1 April but the pay system hasn't closed us out of the old year yet. I spoke to Kevin of the support team who tried something but was unable to help me, and initially offered me no advice until I pressed him, then he went away and talked to some people in another room then came back and said to wait until next week to input all this week's payclaims as the problem won't be resolved before then. Harrumph.

To Ferneham Hall this evening to see the regional finals of Live & Unsigned. Outside I saw Louise #3 from my office, with a T-shirt saying 'Vote for Becky'. This turned out to be the first contestant on, Becky Parvin - from Lee-on-the-Solent, so my home girl - whom I thought was very good. The finalists had a range of musical styles; they included a couple of heavy metal bands (one very shouty indeed!), some girls singing ballads, a solo boy and an R'n'B group. Several of the singers were quite good but one or two were pretty ordinary and with a couple of others you couldn't make the lyrics out.

Second from the end was a familiar face - young Lucy Machin, who's performed at a few events in Gosport over the last couple of years. She gave a strong, soulful rendition of Natasha Bedingfield's Soulmate.

The voting opened. We were able to vote for anyone, but the hosts told us that the judges would choose their six favourites and the act out of those six receiving the most public votes would go through to the national final. I cast a vote each for Becky and Lucy.

When votes closed, after a performance from B-Kay and Kazz (whose single we in the audience had been asked by the hosts to pre-order multiple times during the evening), the hosts announced that the winners were about to be unveiled, then said "Before we go on to that, the Exposure Award" which was a prize for gaining media coverage between the heat and tonight. When they declared one of the ballad-singing girls had won this prize I thought "She won't be in the judges' six" and I was right. These things exist purely as consolation prizes.

The way the final six were announced was bizarre - they were called 'Best Band Winner', 'Best Solo Artist Winner', 'Best Vocal Group Winner', 'Best Band Runner-Up' and two, both announced as 'Best Solo Artist Runner-Up' with no acknowledgement that they were identically titled. Becky was nowhere; Lucy was one of the Best Solo Artist Runners-Up. The winner was someone I'd thought was quite ordinary. No accounting for public tastes.

Went outside to wait for Jade and Vanessa. While I was out there I met Becky's fan club and said hello to Louise. When I told her I'd cast a vote for Becky she said "Bless you."

Jade and Ness arrived and we all hit the bar. When we'd been chatting and drinking about a quarter of an hour Jade said she was craving a big bag of Minstrels, and that while she was trying to watch her weight she thought she'd probably end up buying one. She didn't, just yet. By the time the girls were ready to shift their harrises into the hall the show had started, but B-Kay and Kazz were on stage when we sat down - we hadn't missed any of the contestants.

Most of the acts were OK but we only thought a couple were anything special. I still loved Zoe Mead, Jade loved Framed and we all liked the Fazers. Halfway through, Jade got up and left the foyer - Ness and I thought she'd gone to the loo, but she came back with...a big bag of Minstrels. The Daze still had all the enormous, loud fan club they'd brought to the semi, but they didn't all rush to the front and dance this time.

The voting showed just how badly the Live & Unsigned people want B-Kay and Kazz's single to be a hit! To vote you had to send a text message with the number of your favourite act; this message cost £1.50 - and in reply you got a code to download B-Kay and Kazz's single! You then had to write this validation code on your voting slip for your vote to count. In the end so many people didn't get replies - it was the lack of signal in the hall; I had to go out to the bar, where my bald crown got ruffled by a drunk, to text and get a reply - that they had to announce that everyone's text votes had been counted anyway.

Zoe and Framed made the judges' six but The Daze won. Jade wasn't impressed; I pointed out that they'd had their army of supporters there to all vote for them. Outside in the foyer we saw an ad for 'Route 66', an evening of four decades of classic American rock in May. Jade and I agreed to go; Ness didn't fancy it.

And so home to type this and hit the hay. 'Night folks.