Well, it's all over bar the shouting. I've pretty nearly sold off all my remaining stock, and what's left isn't going on eBay - 99p auctions, I'm sorry to say, bring out the worst in eBay, so whatever's left over will be given away to friends' children and schools.

I'm still selling on eBay on other IDs - mainly, jewellery on eBay France - but I've got some interesting new plans for this one. Watch this space ;-)

If you're a fan of fantasy author Terry Pratchett, you probably already know that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease last year, and that he's announced a $1million donation to help research this devastating condition.

24 million people worldwide are estimated to suffer from Alzheimer's, which is a degenerative and terminal disease with no known cure. Over twenty years I watched my grandmother fade into a shell. In the beginning, she forgot things like her purse; by the end, she'd forgotten everything, including her own name, who my mother was, and how to eat.

Fans of Pratchett are banding together to help him fight the disease by enabling vital research to go ahead. Currently a shortage of funds means that most research proposals have to be turned down; who knows if one of those rejected projects could have uncovered the breakthrough that we so desperately need?

Match it for Pratchett aims to match Terry's donation: if half a million of his fans give just a pound each, that will do it. Of course, you're always welcome to give more. The Match it for Pratchett website has details of how to donate in your own country.

Edited to remove a badge, and to add: there are times when it's important to protect your intellectual property, and there are times when it makes you look like an ungrateful misery.

So true!

Do not click here. Ring Pass Go is a serious danger to any eBay seller who ought to have gotten a whole bunch of new stock listed this afternoon... :-D

Well, that's it. All shops on holiday settings; all parcels packed and gone to the post office; travel insurance gotten, books for plane selected. Now I just have to do this pile of ironing, and I'm ready for eBay Live!

that I forgot to mention.

My friend Dan Wilson, who used to be Community Manager for eBay UK, has a new book out - and I'm in it! "Make Serious Money on eBay UK and Beyond" is an absolute must read for anyone trading on eBay, whether you've just started or you're expanding with your own ecommerce site.

I'm in the section about promoting your website, so it feels only fitting to do this. ]:)

You can buy the book on eBay though - ahem - it's considerably cheaper on another website named after a big river :-D

Much excitement chez Biddy right now, as the last few days before eBay Live! are here. I'm madly trying to pack a suitcase with one hand, sort out orders with the other, while scheduling listings with my toes!

It's an odd kind of feeling because actually these six days will be the longest I've had away from the PC since we moved house in January 2006. I'll be taking my laptop with me, obviously, so it's not like I'll be totally cut off from my lifeline, but the thought of some days with no jiffy bags, no post, not even having to decipher just which order a cheque payment is for... all that is going to be very strange.

I spent an hour yesterday going through the list of classes and preparing my agenda. I think I've chosen a nice mixture of technical-practical (for example, third party software providers, and Turbo Lister - maybe I'll finally find out why it just will *not* synchronise on one of my IDs), and touchy-feely: there's a marketing class called "Beyond the Grilled Cheese Madonna" which I can't resist, and my hero Seth Godin will be there too. And intriguingly, the class about the feedback system is titled "Recent Changes and Future Possibilities: even though I pretend I don't really care about feedback any more, I think it's very interesting just how much passion it causes amongst the eBay community, so I think that's a must-see.

Anyway, that's enough waffle from me, I must go and stuff jiffy bags while I have the chance. Please stay tuned for more of my Boston adventures both here and on my "main" blog at tamebay.com.

It hadn't occurred to me, but swimming pools in Saudi Arabia are of course men-only... until now. Rachel Reid has become the first woman to use a public pool. Sometimes, such small-scale, every day changes are the way to really change attitudes towards women. Ms Reid has my applause.

I'm in the Telegraph today!