The sun is shining and the Olympics start today! I have tickets for the men's gymnastics on Monday and men's trampolining on Friday. My daughter and I are looking forward to the events, not so sure about the journey across London but it will be an experience. I have had a few more orders this week but certainly not enough for all the hard work I put into caring for the animals. I am therefore being very cautious about buying in new stock at the moment. I have however had news that the 50 Giant Train millipedes that I ordered some time ago will be with me next Wednesday. As always, I never put anything on my website that I don't physically have here. If all goes to plan I will add them to my site as soon as they arrive.
Due to the Olympics on Monday I won't be around to send off orders so I will be posting Tuesday - Thursday next week. I cannot believe how many people instruct me to post on a specific day. It makes life really difficult as there is only me and I just don't feel I can ignore these instructions. My terms state 'If you would like your order to be sent on a specific day please contact me prior to placing your order. There are some days when I cannot post anything out due to other commitments. If you ask for a specific day when placing your order, I will do my best to send on that day but if this is not possible I will post your order on the next available day'. It really is no problem if asked in advance but when the 'instruction' comes through with the order I feel compelled to change everything around or contact the person to explain that I cannot send that day. Everyone has to tick that they have read my terms and conditions but I think very few people do. I really wish everyone would because buying a live animal is not like buying a book or pair of shoes. There is a lot of important information in my terms. I can moan here because I am preaching to the converted, if you are reading this then I would be very surprised if you have placed an order without reading my terms. So many people don't look at the site properly and email me a whole load of questions that are all answered on my website - moan over! (almost over, I have noticed that quite often the people who ask the most questions never order anything).
I have had a busy week with non work related items. My mother in-law's move into a flat close to us went ok but I still have a mountain of jobs to do and people to contact over her move. My lovely next door neighbour (who takes in at least 50% of my parcels because I am out or don't hear the bell) had a hip replacement operation yesterday and is doing well. Our sorting office is in the middle of town, it is a nightmare to reach as there is no parking close by. Thankfully I rarely have to venture there with such good neighbours. The funniest moment of my week must have been when my arachnophobic mother in-law shouted at me to be careful when I read the gas meter as there were spiders in the box. The box was outside the flat and it was full of spider webs but was it really likely to bother me? I just had to laugh out loud.
My car has been in for repair for over a week, thank goodness I will have it back later today. It has been a nightmare, the courtesy car was immaculate with only a few hundred miles on the clock. I really couldn't take my large hairy dog in it but I did collect bramble the other day. Hopefully they won't notice a few odd leaves on the back seats.
It really has been very hot this week. I have had to turn all the tank lights off and leave the bug house door open on a few occasions. I was very upset a couple of days ago when I discovered that my Giant Flat Rock scorpion had died. She was pregnant and I was looking forward to seeing tiny white babies on her back soon. I can only assume that it was the heat but I must admit that I think her box had got a little too damp as well. Getting the heat and humidity right is always a trial in my bug house. The building is a log cabin so it is made of wood and I therefore cannot keep the whole place too humid or it would rot. For this reason I am always spraying the bugs to raise the humidity in their individual cages. Quite a few of my spiders and scorpions are in plastic boxes that hold in the moisture. Generally this is good but sometimes if they get warmed up a bit the moisture increases too much. I will probably just get everything sorted out correctly and the weather will turn cold again!
The main things that have sold this week were spiders, not only the new ones that I got last week but also ones that I have had for much longer. I think I will be concentrating more on spiders than anything else for a while. I got the trading forms through this week for the AES show in the Autumn, although I had tables at the show last year I have decided not to this year. It just isn't worth it financially, it makes far more sense to go along as a visitor, buy new stock and chat to everyone. That way I can really enjoy the show and get home at a reasonable time, rather than being there all day. There is a reptile show at Kempton park (same venue as the AES show) coming up in August. I'm not sure if I will be going along as it is our son's first wedding anniversary. That said, mum and dad probably won't be included in any plans they have so I probably will go along. I love reptiles, especially snakes. I don't stock them because I couldn't bare to sell them.
I haven't got far with my new 'links page' or really any paperwork this week. I am planning to stay in and get to grips with it over the weekend. I have promised a good friend of mine that I will look into selling on EBay. He is convinced that it will bring in new customers so I have promised that I will try. If only I understood or even had any interest in technology it would be great. I know I should sort out my Facebook but not this week!
Enjoy the Olympics whether you are going or not and long may this heat wave last! (sorry if it isn't actually hot & sunny where you are)
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