The BTS exhibition was excellent

The BTS (British Tarantula Society) exhibition was excellent as always, I spent far too much money and ended up with far more stock than I intended! I have only just managed to house up all the new animals properly and the show was almost two weeks ago. I really have been unbelievably busy with the bugs and birthdays. We were incredibly lucky with the weather last weekend. Friday it was pouring and Tuesday it was really pouring (lots of roads flooded in our area) but Saturday (sister's birthday barbeque), Sunday (daughter's 21st family party) and Monday (mother in-laws birthday) were all fine and pretty sunny! It was also Stephanie's 18th birthday, Stephanie is my daughter's Mexican Red Knee tarantula (not sure exactly when she was born but she was a present for our daughters 3rd birthday). Stephanie had been acting a bit odd for a couple of weeks and then my hubby went to fix some draws in our daughter's bedroom and noticed that her heat mat had fallen off her tank. I have since stuck it back on and she is much happier. She has always enjoyed sitting right against the heat mat and was obviously distressed when it disappeared!

I certainly bought lots of new spiders at the exhibition, both tarantulas and true spiders but I also acquired several new species of beetle, snails, millipedes, scorpions and other creepy crawlies. My new bug room is heaving but it is now time to be sensible and start to cut back as our summer holiday is less than six weeks away. I'm sure I mentioned that we are off to Mexico for a week. It is an eco hotel so hopefully there will be plenty of bugs around and it won't be routinely sprayed all over with insecticide (I bet it is, everywhere hot seems to be continually sprayed with insecticide). I will never forget the air hostess spraying up and down the aisles of the plane when we left Mauritius a few years ago. It was choking and seemed most unhealthy to me! I didn't realise until I collected the tickets that we need vaccinations for Mexico. They are only 'advised' but as I intend to touch all the animals and rummage about in any dirty water that I come across I think it best to get them all! I have booked to get the jabs done next week. I have booked hubby in too, he may not enjoy bug hunting with me but I usually manage to drag him along.

I met the guy behind the new iTarantula phone app at the BTS show. A couple of my customers had mentioned it to me but being a technophobe I didn't know much about it. The app looks brilliant and I picked up some info on it. I'm sure it will be a great tool for all tarantula keepers. My hubby loves technology so I'm sure he will read up on it and put the app on my iPhone for me. Yet again my paperwork pile has become a mountain. I have caught up on emails from the Bank Holiday weekend but the paper mountain will have to wait until next week. My hubby is going away on his annual motorbike trip with friends from work so whilst he is enjoying himself in Spain I intend to knuckle down and catch up on everything. I have a long list of jobs, I'm sure if you read my blog regularly you will know how much I like my lists. I would be lost without them and goodness knows what would happen to my bugs if I didn't have a feeding/cleaning weekly list to tick off in my bug hotel.

I have bought in a few bits and pieces since the exhibition but I need to take stock now. In fact I probably need to 'stock take', several times recently I have sent off tarantulas that are far larger than the advertised size on my website. The reason for this is that I have forgotten to move them up to the next size as they have grown. I haven't had anyone moan about their spider being 'smaller than they had expected' for weeks and I don't think I have ever had anyone complain that their spider is larger! It really is swings and roundabouts, sometimes a spider is slightly smaller and sometimes bigger, I can only send what I have available.

I'm sure there is lots more I could say but it will have to wait until next week as I'm shattered. I'm writing the blog in the evening as I know I have a busy day ahead tomorrow and I just won't have time. Talking of being tired, most people ring me during office hours but twice last week I had phone calls from customers when I was in bed. It drives me nuts, I need to take my phone to bed as my daughter is often out late and I am always 'on call' for my elderly next door neighbour and mother in-law. My hubby works mostly early shifts so we are always up with the lark and believe me I need my beauty sleep these days!

Thanks to everyone who has written a review for my website, I really do appreciate it. I hope to get organised enough to think of an incentive to nudge customers into writing a product review (if they are happy with their purchase, I don't bad ones). I had said to my website guy that it seemed wrong to encourage people to write a review, when he mentioned it ages ago. However I have changed my mind, I think reviews are really helpful, I don't have enough of them so bribery now seems like a good idea after all! I need to revamp the front page of my website too, it could look so much better. It is on my 'to do' list but keeps getting put down the list as more important tasks come along - never enough time - it's the story of my life.

Hopefully the sun will shine for everyone this weekend, unfortunately it has been a pretty wet and miserable half term week.