Virginia Cheeseman Blog

My eye is almost healed, thanks for all your best wishes. I haven't yet plucked up the courage to put my contact lenses back in but I am attending a posh do tonight so vanity will force me into it! The gym that I attend has been nominated for an award at the National Fitness Ceremony in Leicester so fingers crossed we win. No problems for me with the bugs this week, no more bites or stings, just the usual bramble prickles in my fingers. Sadly, I removed the male New Mexican tarantula from his partner and introduced him to another female who promptly killed him. It was very sad, I'm not sure if they mated first but hopefully they did, time will tell. He looked so perfect but was stone dead! I have a pair of Ornamental Baboon and a pair of Peruvian Dwarf tarantulas to introduce this week. I will keep a much closer eye on them, especially the Ornamental Baboons, they are not very friendly at the best of times. Still getting to grips with both my new website and ip...

I have turned into a Cyclops (a one eyed monster)! On Tuesday evening I took out my contact lenses and managed to rip a piece of skin from my right eye (I know it is a revolting thought). I am now not only typing with one finger (the only way I can type) but I have a patch, so I can only see out of one eye. It is truly agony, I cannot believe how painful it is. I can type this now because the pain killers have kicked in. I am so ratty as I cannot bear being ill, I am far too busy. My hubby has a few days off work and I had so many plans. I really need to get my newsletter sent out, my Christmas card photo sorted and it is extremely difficult to manage the bugs when my eyesight is so limited and I feel constantly sick with the pain. I saw the optician yesterday but ended up at the hospital this afternoon as it all became too much. I have new eye ointment, stronger pain killers and my eye taped shut now! (I think hubby would like my mouth to be taped shut too). I did manage to get some...

Rush, rush, rush - I have been out and about so much this week that I don't know where to start with all the jobs that have piled up! I began replying to emails at 6.30 this morning but there are many more to go. Lot of the emails need me to check things in the bug house, like measuring spiders and counting exact numbers of stock. I have just returned from walking the dog so I will get out to the bug house after my cup of tea. I had a lovely day yesterday, my sister and I went on a coach trip up to Harrods (annual trip arranged by a local school to raise funds). It was mostly looking around but if we win the lottery, shopping there would be great fun. All is well in the bug house. I am really enjoying getting things sorted out before Christmas. The idea is to sell as much as possible now and not restock anything until after the festive period. Sales are going well and as soon as something is sold I can clean and reuse the cage. I didn't realise quite how overstocked I was,...

Another week of getting to grips with my new website. I am definitely getting there, I am writing down less and less questions to ask my web guy and husband. I am finding lots of problems with delivery addresses though. I can change home addresses on the site but I have no access to the delivery address. I simply print the address onto a label and unless I notice something odd, it gets sent off in the post. I have had people putting their address in the wrong order, leaving out vital information and one person even put their email address in the 'first line of the address' box. My web guy had to sort that one out for me but I do feel I cannot keep bothering him. I'm sure he has a lot of other customers. It's amazing what the website statistics can show (not that I understand them all). My web guy says that 25% of my customers are placing orders via their smart phone. Isn't that amazing! He is going to set up a smart phone app to make ordering easier. I have no ide...

The new website is really proving a hit. Yesterday I sent out an email to all my customers (those subscribed to receive communications from me). The email just informed everyone that I have a new website up and running. There were a lot of customers, unfortunately too many for the system to cope with. It crashed and I suddenly ended up with over 200 undelivered email returns - oops! I am not sure exactly how many were received but I'm guessing a large number as I quickly had several new orders and many congratulations messages about the new site. I was obviously delighted but there was unfortunately a glitch in the ordering system and some people found it difficult to place their order. I spent a lot of time on the phone and corresponding with my web guy by email. I cannot praise him enough, he always gets straight to work and sorts things out. I think it is all fixed now but if anyone has any problems PLEASE let me know. It was lucky that one of my customers is an IT consultant ...