Tonight I am exhausted. It’s been a busy week.

On Thursday, I was delighted to win an award for Women in Business presented by Manchester’s Lord Mayor Cllr Alison Firth at Manchester Town Hall.

The award recognises women who succeed in businesses based on ethical or cooperative principles. It was one of several made that night to women of achievement in fields such as voluntary service, health promotion, race equality, and the advancement of women in political life.

It was a great great honour (not to mention a complete shock) to share a stage with these women, many of whom have made great strides in spite of disadvantage, discrimination, disability or personal suffering. To meet them and hear their stories was an inspiration.

On Friday morning my feet were firmly back on the ground, well, up a ladder actually, as we continued painting our new shop. Even ‘award winning’ business women have to do their share.

Although we’re still working hard to get the shop ship shape, we’ve been determined to keep up business as usual.

This is harder sometimes than others. Visitors are always welcome at the shop. Unfortunately, we still don’t have any signage so, even though we are on a major route into Manchester, we can be tricky to find.

Today our customers were gracious enough to turn a blind eye to the paint in my hair, scruffy t-shirt, and holes in my old decorating jeans when they called in to sample our wines and beers.

Thankfully, they were very patient even though not all our systems are fully up and running which means processing payments can be slow.

We expect to be up to speed by this time next week when we hope more customers will come and see our new premises, and I can show off my award!

For now, I’m going to finish my glass of Weinkonig Merlot, and call it a night.