I realise that I can’t tell you all about the sale, as the prices haven’t gone up yet on our website, but I can say that it all went very well.

We usually have 4 hours of viewing, but this time the Sage decided to go for 5 hours and it was just as well. We were busy from 2 o’clock until just before the sale started at 7. Zerlina has attended her first sale, though her father had to take her out when she became noisy – her mother was up on the rostrum, sitting beside the Sage, at work. I was squeaky with excitement sitting beside Charmian, ready to receive the money.

Lots of people came and a good number of them were ready to buy. 79 people registered as bidders and all those and a good many more wanted to see the china – come to think of it, many of the registered buyers were couples, which accounts for the 150 or more in the room. We have it all on display on tables covered with blankets and tablecloths, with a horseshoe-shaped arrangement of tables around so that people can sit and see and handle the china. Several of us fetch and carry as requested. After a few hours of turning back and forth, our feet ache and I find I have to eat regularly or else I become dizzy and a bit faint.

It went well. I’m so pleased, we all work hard but the Sage is the one whose prestige and professionalism is on the line. A quite important collection was up for sale and he’d had to convince the vendors (the late owner’s family) that he was the best person to sell it. We’ve had a lot of publicity, so a lot was at stake.

I haven’t done a lot today. I cycled in to town and bought vegetables and flowers and champagne and cycled gingerly home – several bottles of wine and two bunches of wine amongst the potatoes and cauliflower and all the rest in my bike panniers made me heavy and unstable and I was careful, and also overtaken by a young lycra-clad woman.

Otherwise, I haven’t done a lot. I sniffed the cork for Dave and opened another bottle to drink for the Sage. It’s been lovely weather so I’ve pottered tiredly about and I’ll have another boringly early night. I have not neglected telling the Sage how splendid he is.