Virginia Cheeseman Blog

The recession is over, so they say. Certainly I have never had so many orders. I think now that Christmas is gone and the snow has disappeared, everyone is thinking of spring. I can't wait until it is February, then I can say 'it is spring next month'. How satisfying that will be, I so hate the winter. This morning I had to get up really early as I had a photographer calling to borrow a Jungle Nymph stick insect for the day. I didn't pack the stick insect yesterday because it was too cold to bring her into the house for the night but I hadn't realised how dark it would be this morning. Most of my week seems to have been taken up by packing orders, visiting the post office and then sorting invoices for the next lot to go out. I wish Special Delivery worked at the weekend, it would certainly even out the week for me as I can only post orders Monday - Thursday. Monday is always the busiest day of the week. I plan to catch up on a mountain of paperwork today. It is ama...

Melt down Wednesday! On Wednesday this week I had really had enough and decided that a menial job where someone else takes all the responsibilities was a great idea for me. Since then I have calmed down a little but I do need to get more of a work/life balance. I cannot continue to work every waking hour just because I work from home. I won't bore you with all the details but Monday and Tuesday were very busy days, catching up on posting orders due to the snow the week before. Then on Wednesday I had so many bugs to feed and clean that I didn't know where to start. I had non stop phone calls and emails and then at 3 o'clock in the afternoon a huge order of spiderlings arrived and it took hours to sort them all out, feeding, housing and watering. In the middle of this chaos I had a guy call at the door to collect his order. He came with no warning to collect an order that he had placed online. He refused to come back and said he would cancel the order. This was the straw tha...

What a week, snow, snow and more snow. I hate snow, it may be pretty but it is way too cold! Just like ice cream, it would be lovely if it wasn't so cold. Thankfully the snow seems to be disappearing, even so, I watched a neighbour almost skid into my car on the drive this morning. I posted a few things on Tuesday and then had a pile of invoices ready to go on Wednesday. I couldn't believe it when I woke up and saw inches of snow again. Flackwell Heath instantly came to a halt as our village is perched on a hill. There is no way of reaching us except up one of several very steep climbs. There was no way I could get to the post office as it is down what is probably the steepest hill around. Sadly a guy died in his car there before Christmas. I did manage to post several orders yesterday as the temperature had risen to an amazing 5c. Hopefully they will all arrive in perfect condition today. Most people have been very understanding over the last few weeks, I do try my best. Lot...

Happy New Year - almost. I cannot believe this weather! We have thick snow again and everything has ground to a halt. It is difficult to get around here and it is clearly too much trouble for Royal Mail who don't even try (the paperman and milkman have managed it). We had no mail deliveries or collections before Christmas and we have none again now. Thankfully I did manage to get some orders off on Monday and Tuesday before the snow descended but this was not without problems as several parcels were delayed. Some due to being held up in the post but others due to colleges being closed and people being sent home from work so that there was nobody there to receive the parcels. I am really hoping to post out some orders next week but the forecast is not looking great. Most of you will know by now that I really, really hate the cold. I don't care that snow is pretty, I just wish it would disappear. Once I have written this blog I am going out to the bug house and staying there! I...