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I had a rare day off on Wednesday and went to Whipsnade zoo

I had a rare day off on Wednesday and went to Whipsnade zoo with my nephew's family. It was a lovely day, pouring with rain in the morning but when we arrived at lunch time (got stuck on the M25) the sun had come out and the afternoon was beautiful. I have never been to Whipsnade before, I had no idea it was so big. It is more of a safari park than a zoo, we took the car in and drove from exhibit to exhibit. I loved the fact that the animals had so much space and some were even allowed to roam free. We mingled with wallabies, deer and mara. The Discovery centre had a good range of bugs and spiders, plus stunning reptiles. Sadly we missed the 'meet the bugs show', I was out voted by three kids who wanted to stay longer at the play area!

I know I have been asking people to call with questions rather than keep emailing me but honestly I cannot believe how many calls I had on Wednesday (not a moan, just an observation). The phones have been really busy all week due to half term. Perhaps it would be a good idea to put a note on my home page when I am next out for a whole day. My home page is really useful for adding notes, most people do seem to read them if I highlight the information. I haven't had that many new requests to be my 'friend' on Facebook since I mentioned it on my homepage recently.

The bug house is all in good order, I am trying to speed up my cockroach colonies to keep up with demand. Giving them plenty of food and warmth is all I can do really, patience is a virtue, so I'm told. I have several Barking Birdeater spiders with egg sacs. I am very tempted to open one up as I'm sure they are due to hatch at any moment. I keep peeking in the boxes to see if there are any spiderlings (I'm obviously not virtuous at all as I clearly have no patience). I really do have a lot of tarantulas right now, it takes ages to feed them all. I am planning to feed the larger ones today but having a day off this week has put everything behind so I am really pushed for time. I also have a busy weekend ahead. I love Halloween, all those spiders, bugs, bats, everything I like, printed on everything imaginable! My nephew's family are having a huge Halloween party and it is my brother's 'significant' birthday this weekend so we are celebrating in Kew Gardens (we both love natural history but he is more plants than animals). I do hope the weather is good, there is no rain shown on the BBC forecast. At least if it does rain I will win £10 on the Walkers crisps competition, which is some conciliation!

I had lots of things planned to put in my blog this week but I seem to have rambled on as usual and some will have to wait until next week. I must get a move on or those poor spiders won't get fed today. Just one last thing and I cringe writing this but I have decided that my business really needs to be mail order only. Ordering online and collecting at the door is no problem at all but I simply don't have the time to clear up the bug house, wait around (so many people simply don't turn up) and trudge everyone down the bottom of the garden. Since getting my automated website I can no longer print out all the pages of my stock so I have no prices for anything and setting up the computer in the bug house is just not practical for one caller. I tried having a minimum spend but it just looked rude. I have so few people wanting to visit these days that it isn't worth all this hassle. My last open day was a disaster but I may try again in the Spring. It was much easier for people to reach me when I lived in London and visitors were a significant part of my business but now that I am in 'Leafy Buckinghamshire' with little public transport it doesn't work. Yet again I am forced to move with the times but I so hate change and it does seem very sad.

Did you watch Harry Hill's TV Burp last Saturday? If you did you might have spotted my film star Blue Bottle fly in a jar!


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