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Back From Switzerland

No blog last week due to me and hubby being in Switzerland. I won the 5* trip in a competition and it was pure luxury. The hotel was out of this world (certainly out of my world), the spa was amazing. Just last Sunday I was lying in a warm Jacuzzi on a Swiss hillside - anyway back to real life!

I have received lots of new spiders this week. I am very pleased to have managed to locate some Blue Fang tarantulas. This species is so beautiful, I have a framed photo of one on my desk. The photo was in pride of place in the living room but it has mysteriously been demoted to my office (hubby I think?). I have some new Jumping spiders which I'm sure will be lovely when they grow. At the moment they are the size of a fruit fly. I have also got some scorpions and some amazing Whip scorpions or Vinegaroons. All in all a very busy week for housing, feeding, cleaning and general maintenance. It is surprising how much planning it takes for me to have even a short break and of course I had three days of emails and phone calls to catch up on. I really am determined now to get my web site sorted out. I'm not sure about a completely new site, it sounds like an awful lot of time, hard work and money. My husband has been looking at PayPal this week and it seems a 'button' can be attached to each item and then the payment process is automatic by PayPal, debit or credit card. At the moment PayPal is no problem but taking card payments is a real hassle for both me and my customers. I am no longer permitted to save card details and therefore my customers have to give me their card details each and every time they order and since having a card terminal installed earlier this year I now need to enter address details as well as card information. Automated payment on my site sounds like a real winner but I just wish I knew how to go about it. If only I were more technically minded. If it isn't living and breathing, I haven't got a clue. I have a lot of repeat customers and many businesses prefer to pay by card, I certainly don't want people to be put off by the order process. To add insult to injury I discovered this morning that I have been paying the fee for my card terminal and also the original dial up fee for the last six months. This should have been cancelled when the terminal was installed so hopefully it will refunded.

Several people have been concerned that I mentioned cutting down on stick insects. I really am only cutting down on the number of species that I stock. I certainly won't stop selling them altogether. Stick insects were one of the first bugs that I started selling all those years ago (about 25!), along with butterflies and moths. I stopped selling lepidoptera many years ago. I didn't have the room and it was hard work collecting all the food plants. It was also embarrassing, I still remember cutting off 'branches' of Oak for all the Assam silk moth caterpillars. My mum used to help me in those days and we got some very odd looks indeed as we walked along the street with armfuls of various trees and shrubs. Things have changed so much over the years. At one time I had a spare bedroom completely devoted to making net cages. The cages were a large part of my business but they just weren't viable in the end. I have had to adapt and change with the times, I suppose that's how I have managed to keep going successfully for so long.


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