The wedding was amazing

The wedding was amazing. We were so lucky with the weather, the day before the wedding everywhere was flooded in our area and the day after it rained quite a bit but Friday 19th August was sunny and warm. Everything went brilliantly, the bride looked stunning and I have never seen our son so happy. They bought me an acre of the Ecuador rain forest as my "mother of the groom" present, what a lovely, thoughtful gift. I won't fill up the blog with stories of our son's wedding (although I have lots of stories and I easily could). They are now honeymooning on an island off of Zanzibar. Alex rang yesterday to say there were giant Train millipedes roaming around, he was delighted to see them in the wild but his new bride was not so happy. I could hear her in the background shouting that I should have gone instead of her, well I did offer to go along but got a rude reply from my son.

It seems ages since my last blog, it is two weeks and I am writing this one a day early because we are off to Brighton tomorrow and Saturday. We are visiting friends so I hope it's sunny but it certainly isn't as important as last Friday! If it rains we can always go shopping (hubby will love that) and we will certainly be going on the pier to play the "penny falls" machines. I love them, hubby hates them. I sometimes wonder how we have stayed together all these years. He hates everything I like (especially the bugs) and I have no interest in any of his (very boring) hobbies.

I went to the Kempton Park reptile exhibition and thoroughly enjoyed it. My daughter came along with me, we went after lunch (as a teenager she doesn't do mornings). It turned out well as the crowds had died down and we had a good look around and chatted to people. We managed to keep each other in check, I wouldn't let her get any chameleons and she wouldn't let me get any African Clawed toads. She was given the specific task of stopping me getting any new pets but at the time I did think she was rather harsh. Hubby would definitely have caved it but she stood her ground and pointed out that, as we were in her car, she wouldn't drive me home if I got any 'non bugs'. I had an exquisite African Clawed toad as a child. She was huge, much larger than I have ever seen since (sadly, I assume she was wild caught). I'm sure I have mentioned before that a local pet shop closed down and the lady gave her to me. My mum went nuts, looking back I can see that she was a huge slimy toad and she was forever jumping out of her tank on the hall table, so my mum probably had a point.

I did however manage to spend several hundred pounds on new stock. I got some Giant Train millipedes, Desert Hairy scorpions and lots of other spiders and beasties. It certainly wasn't like the bug exhibitions, the prices were very high. I was left with the feeling that perhaps I should have had a stand there. However it was a reptile show and most of the stands were indeed selling reptiles. There were still tables full of bugs and spiders late in the afternoon so I can only assume that they didn't sell that well. Hubby said I paid way too much for some of the spiders but I am useless at haggling, I just hate it. I had been considering having a stand at the AES Autumn show this year but only yesterday I decided against it. There just isn't enough of me to go around. I need to visit the show to buy new stock, I cannot spend the week before packing animals, then on the day manning the table and afterwards unpacking all the animals that I haven't sold, along with all the new stock that I have bought. Even writing it down here it sounds like a nightmare. I'm sure it would be good publicity and good for business but, I will circulate and chat as I always do. Perhaps I will make a big badge or wear a T-shirt with my name on it (I have done it before). In the 'good old days' I was one of the only stands selling live bugs and the sales from the various shows were a large part of my takings but these days there are far more stands selling bugs and I'm not sure if I would even make a profit. It is so hard to know in advance what might sell. I remember selling out of Hissing cockroaches early in the day and kicking myself for not bringing more, I had a whole tank full at home. I also sold a lot of equipment but these days these items can be easily ordered on the internet. I'm depressing myself now!

Well I had other things jotted down to include in this blog but they will have to wait until next week. Just going away for two days is a major event with all these animals so I had better get out there and start getting things organised. Next week will be difficult for me. Monday is a Bank holiday so no post and next Thursday I will be taking my mother-in-law to hospital for her second hip operation so I won't be able to send anything out then either. Fingers crossed for my poor mother in-law. The original hip replacement last year went so badly that she needs it done again. We thought it would be simpler the second time but evidently it is far more intricate and we heard this morning that it will also involve a bone graft. Life is never dull in the Cheeseman household!