Virginia Cheeseman Blog

Happy Halloween - spiders, snakes, bugs and bats abound - all the things I love! Unfortunately Georgie and I won't be on the telly this afternoon as planned. I rang and cancelled as the whole thing seemed to be poorly organised. I didn't want anything permanent done and we kept be offered a haircut, that sounds pretty permanent to me! I was not convinced that we were going to get away with a manicure or makeup session and I really don't know what they wanted me to do with Stephanie (George's Mexican Red Knee tarantula), we have had her for many years and I would hate her to be put in danger eg. walking on a table where she could fall off. Having caught a bit of 'Celebrity Scissorhands' when I was channel hopping this week, I think we had a lucky escape. I know it was for charity but hardly anyone sent any sponsorship money anyway. It's been another very busy week as I went to the Portsmouth reptile show last weekend and again bought in lots of new bugs. I ...

I went to a large bug exhibition last weekend and spent a fortune on new stock so most of this week I have been sorting it out. I still have boxes on top of boxes but everything is housed and fed. I just need to sell some of it now! I bought lots of young captive bred animals, vinegaroons, wolf spiders, stick insects, grasshoppers , tarantulas etc. It has been a pretty busy week sales wise too, which I'm very pleased about as the recession is certainly hitting 'non-essential' businesses like mine. I spoke to a number of dealers at the exhibition, all of them said that sales are down and some of them were really worried that they may not be able to continue. It seemed to be the reptile dealers that were most concerned. Reptiles are worth a lot more money than bugs but their upkeep is far more expensive. I was also talking to staff at our local garden centre and they were saying that sales were down and staff were worried about their jobs. I am going to a reptile show this we...

Tired again but this time she had the baby! (see last week's blog) a beautiful baby girl born yesterday afternoon. I was woken at 5.30am and rushed round to take care of the other two while they shot off to hospital, hence I didn't get a lot done yesterday. I managed to send some emails with a two year old on my lap but she hates the bugs and refuses to go in my bug house. It's just not fair, what's wrong with all my family, perhaps this new baby with love creepy crawlies. I have loads of new bugs coming in this weekend so I have been cleaning boxes, tanks and cages all week. I hope to get some new spiders, whip scorpions, mantids and more. Everything new should be on my list by Monday or Tuesday, no Sunday off again. My great idea of taking Sunday's off and not looking at the computer in the evening isn't going well, much to the annoyance of my hubby. It's just so difficult to switch off when you work from home. Talking of switching off we bought a gadget...

I'm rather tired this morning. My nephew's third child is due this weekend and last night his wife Karen, started having mild contractions so they shot off to hospital and I settled down on the sofa for the night but they came back after some monitoring! We are a close family (hence 22 of us going off on holiday together this summer), my nephew and family live just around the corner and I have a feeling that Aunty Ginny will be needed later today, hopefully not tonight! I wrote in my blog last week that I was 'thinking' of doing a few reptiles. One of my regular customers then told me that he had nine baby Corn snakes needing good homes and going for a very reasonable price. He is bringing them over tomorrow! I am now panicking and thinking what am I going to do with all these snakes. If anybody wants a Corn snake and lives near enough to collect (no I won't be posting them) just let me know, I'm not sure about price until I receive them. I also mentioned in...

Where to start this week? The bugs are all fine but it's been a week of turmoil personally, I managed to get two speeding tickets in a ten minute period, going to the petrol station and then coming back, certainly the most expensive petrol I've ever bought. Yes, I may have been going too fast (35 & 37 - allegedly) but I have never had a speeding ticket before and one would have had the desired effect of slowing me down, two is just victimisation! Ok, enough said it hasn't exactly enhanced my week. The smoke alarm went off in the middle of the night a couple of days ago. I got up to investigate, no smoke anywhere and then I couldn't get back to sleep. Last moan - my daughter lost her mobile phone last night, it was nowhere to be seen and the battery was flat so we couldn't ring it. It was the end of the world for a sixteen year old! Thank goodness it had a happy ending, a girl had picked it up off the floor of the college coach and handed it to her this morning. ...