Busy Busy Busy

Busy, busy, both work and home seem to have gone mad at the moment! My husband has started a new job and is working ten hour days, plus travelling time. My daughter has returned from her holiday in Cyprus, along with a suitcase full of dirty clothes. She has her theory driving test today so fingers crossed! If she passes she can put in for her practical driving test, then perhaps she will drive me around instead of vice versa. It is 'the' birthday week in our family, niece and my best friend today, brother tomorrow, son on Monday, it is going to be a long weekend. Then work - my parcel of spiderlings arrived from Germany exactly a week after they were posted! I was getting more worried as each day passed, parcels usually take two, perhaps three days. I was expecting them last Friday and they finally turned up on Tuesday. It was a nightmare as it was my husband's day off and we were just on our way to visit my aunty in hospital down in Sussex. It really was all hands on deck, I don't think my husband has ever helped house up spiderlings before but I was desperate! (needless to say he wasn't handling any spiders, just making up the housing and sticking labels on). I was very grateful of his help as there were about 80 spiders to get sorted. Thankfully only a couple were dead, due to the superb packing of my supplier and no thanks to Royal Mail. The parcel had a tracking number which never did show up on the web site and I was continually cut off when I rang customer services. When I finally did get through to Royal Mail all they could tell me was that it had arrived in the UK last Thursday. I only read in the paper yesterday that post is piling up around the country, they have kept it very quiet until now. On a positive note I have had no problems with Special Delivery, in fact I think they are making more of an effort. Nobody has reported any delays in their parcels, they have all arrived the next day as expected.

I am on the count down to my holiday now, only six weeks to go. I have already started to sell out of some animals and of course I won't be replacing these until I return. If there is something specific that you want, please order it now. The spiders from Germany are the last I will be getting in until November. I need to sell lots before my holiday as I have a huge number of spiders in stock. I have sold plenty of millipedes over the last couple of weeks, I'm sure this was due to the feature in the Practical Pet Reptile Keeping magazine. It's a lovely magazine and I'm pleased to see it in so many shops. All the main supermarkets seem to stock it. I paid quite a bit for my small advert in the October issue but I think it will be worth it.

Last week I mentioned that I haven't been able to get any film pots for posting spiderlings. One of my customers suggested Boots, I visited our main store this week and was told that they are not allowed to give them out due to them containing chemicals. How ridiculous, they asked what I use them for, but as I was standing in a busy shop I just said that I housed tiny animals in them, I thought mentioning tarantulas might clear the place. I have since spoken to a smaller branch of Boots and they are happy to save them for me 'if' they get any in. I am going birthday shopping this afternoon so I will keep calling into photographic shops but I haven't found one yet with any pots.

A quick update on Luka (my dog), she had a check up earlier this week and the vet says that the heart tablets are working well and he doesn't need to see her until three months time. It is her tenth birthday soon so I will be baking her a nice liver cake (the only cake I can cook!).

The new web site is really coming along, it has some great features. The site builder is working very hard on it and hopefully we will be able to start adding products next week. It is terrifying for me but also very exciting and in the long run it should really save me time and time is certainly what I lack most in my life right now!