I’m a bit distracted today. I have just returned from the hospital, where my mother in-law is undergoing a hip replacement operation as I write. I waited with her until she went into theatre, it was rather an early start this morning. People often say to me “what would you do if you got bitten by one of your spiders”. My reply is that I would sit down with a cup of tea and hope I’d be fine because I would be far more worried about going to hospital than the spider bite (oh, I don’t like hospitals!).
Everything is well with the bugs. I now have several Imperial scorpions with babies on their backs. I thought I had killed off my Huntsman spider egg sac when I removed it from the female but yesterday I noticed that it is starting to hatch, there were several ‘little dots’ running around. I took it away because it looked like the female had abandoned it, perhaps she just leaves it when she knows hatching is imminent?
I have had a busy week sending out orders. I cannot believe there is yet another bank holiday on Monday, it really mucks up my week as it means I can only post from Tuesday-Thursday next week. I certainly find that most of my orders come in over the weekend and consequently I am very busy sending out orders on Monday and Tuesday then by Wednesday and Thursday I often have only a few to send. I have to give priority to orders going abroad because it is vital that they arrive before the weekend. It seems that many European countries don’t have a Saturday postal delivery. I have been tweaking the wording on my website this week. I have tried to make it clearer that Royal Mail guarantee next day delivery. This does not mean that I will necessarily send out an order on the day that I receive it. I try to get orders out as quickly as possible, I think it is always within the week that it is placed. Once I have posted an order you will receive an email saying that the item has been despatched. This then means that you should receive the order the next day before 1pm. Special Delivery works very well but if an order is delayed I wish that people would let me know as close to 1pm as possible. Most people email me in the evening which of course is too late to do anything about it. All Special Delivery items are tracked so it is possible to check the whereabouts online.
Last Saturday was quite busy with visitors so I have decided to make this a regular thing. I have put details on my welcome page, most people seem to notice this page, so it is obviously the best place for me to mention anything new. I have changed the wording on my ‘notes for visitors’ and taken off the minimum spend, time will tell how this goes. I really am too busy during the week to have people coming into the bug house so Saturdays are much better and it makes me clear everything up at the end of the week. I won’t be available every Saturday so appointments will need to be made in advance.
I have a whole lot of new spiderlings coming in towards the end of next week. I am trying to get larger spiders but everyone is offering me spiderlings. It’s good in one way because it means there is a lot of breeding going on but I would like to buy in some bigger ones too.
Must get out to the bug house now, all the spiders have been fed this week but I still have the cockroach and millipede cages to do. With tomorrow being Saturday I had better clear up a bit too! |
