Lot to do

Saturday started earlier than I would have liked but six o'clock found me wide awake. I headed downstairs and hit the coffee and a couple of hours later I heard 30%'s delicate footsteps on the staircase. We had a quick chat before I headed out around the Three Miler with T&M.

The reason for this unusual weekend preparedness was the need to get over to Littleton Auctions for a couple of lots that had caught our eye. We stopped off at VI's house en route and dropped off his house key, enquired about his holiday and commiserated over the loss of the squab on my watch. VI was resplendent in his boxer shorts, having just showered, and was amazingly comfortable about receiving guests in his underwear. He took the loss of the young pigeon well and seemed to think that he should perhaps use a fantail dove to incubate and rear the young as the parents didn't seem to be particularly good at it. It was only a flying visit and we left promising to set up a wine and cheese evening in the very near future.

It was then a quick race over to Littleton to hit the auction. The weather was beautiful and we didn't fancy being crammed in to a stuffy sale room but when we arrived there we found it to be very civilised and neither packed nor dead. The auctioneers were trialling an internet bidding service and we found that although we had arrived an hour in to the auction they were nowhere near their normal 100 lots per hour rate. 30% went to check on a couple of commission bids we had left on very early lots while I queued for coffee and bacon rolls.

Unfortunately I hadn't won my stuffed Barbel, neither had 30% been successful with her art deco oak bookcase but we had won an old oil painting that we both quite liked. We settled down to watch the lots and it wasn't long before the first serious lot came up.It was an oil on canvas of corn stooks and fortunately there was only one other bidder who dropped out leaving us with a lovely rural landscape to hang on the wall at home.

It was then a long, long wait to virtually the last lot of the sale. It was a pair of art deco, diamond and white gold, drop earrings that 30% had settled on for one of her 50th Birthday presents. My bid went unchallenged so we won them at their reserve price…

… I am guessing that she will be wearing these when we head out this evening for supper with Bond & Moneypenny.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent helping TP set up a carpet cleaner so he could remove a rather dubious stain from his car seat. I then headed in to the hall to start the chemical stripping of the woodwork …

… that went as badly as expected!