It's been a long week

It's been a long week with my husband away, he returns this evening. I am off to an exhibition at London Olympia today (nothing to do with bugs, I won the tickets in a competition so I'm having the day off and going with a friend to the Spirit of Summer Fair).

I have been rearranging the bug room quite a bit this week, I can't believe how many tarantulas I have now! It takes quite a while to feed them all and it seems like once I have finished all the shelves it is time to start again. I do have some really pretty ones, it is always nice to see a freshly moulted specimen, their colours can be amazing and I especially like the 'furry' ones and arboreal species. The tree spiders generally grow quickly and can look quite different after a moult. I had to laugh recently when I wrote a description of the Brazilian Brown Birdeater (Vitalius paranaensis), I described them as a medium sized, boring brown spider as I couldn't find anything on the internet and that was how they looked to me. Well subsequently they have all moulted and look stunning, they have stripy legs and are certainly no longer the boring, non descript spiders that they once were. They will probably grow to a huge size now and prove me completely wrong!(I have of course since changed my description on the website). However one spider that I certainly wasn't so happy to see transform was my beautiful Emerald Skeleton tarantula that I mentioned last week. I still can't believe 'she' turned into a 'he' and lost all her beautiful, iridescent colouring. I suppose it's swings and roundabouts, nature is always full of surprises.

Cockroaches have been selling incredibly well over the last couple of weeks. I'm not really sure why but I do have quite a few species on special offer as they have been breeding very well. My Hissing cockroaches have had something of a population boom but I probably sent off about 40-50 this week so that's great. I thought I was going to have to set up a new tank for them but I really don't have the space so it's good to have sold off my surplus stock. Most of you regular readers will know that I love Hissing cockroaches, they are my favourite pet bug and I never use them as food for anything. I have always liked cockroaches which probably makes me even odder than your average bug keeper but let's face it we are probably all a bit odd. I don't mind being odd, it's much better than being boring. I don't like being called eccentric, it makes me sound 100 years old and it's a horrible word.

I am still trying hard to get a better balance in my life but each weekend seems to pass by and unless I actually go out like today, I just continue working seven days a week. I am seriously thinking about posting orders on Tuesdays and Thursdays, rather than Mondays and Thursdays. This would free me up a bit on Sundays. At the moment Sunday is a busy day as I prepare the orders both physically sorting out the animals and also doing the paperwork. I find that quite a few orders come in over the weekend and then people ask questions by email or want to change things etc. This means that if I am to send the order on Monday, I need to sort out any issues on Sunday. This really isn't fair on my family. I do prefer to post European orders on a Monday but I don't get that many orders for outside the UK and when I have posted them on a Tuesday I haven't been aware of any problems. I may give it a go and see how it works. I will be posting on Monday and Wednesday next week as I have a hospital appointment on Thursday. I might try it the following week but we are approaching the school summer holidays and I will then be looking after my nephew's three kids on Wednesdays so I will be a lot more limited. I'm always full of ideas, as you know by now but they often don't work! I had a great idea for a bug based phone app recently then I spoke to my son who writes computer programs for a living and he pointed out just how hard it would be to produce. Oh well, I thought it was a good idea, back to the drawing board.

I don't think the bugs are ever going to make me rich but I do like to dream about winning the lottery so I was dismayed to read in the newspaper yesterday morning that once another ten balls are added to the lottery draw, you will be twelve times more likely to be eaten by a shark than win the jackpot! I did win £50 at my competitions group meeting last Saturday though.

I will be taking some of my animals along to the youth club again on Monday evening. I ran the tuck shop last week and was continually asked where my animals were so I've agreed to take some more along this week. Clearly the kids (young people I'm told is the correct term) are not fed up with my collection yet. You never know I may end up with a helper at this rate, there is a 13 year old girl who is very keen and most importantly sensible. I mention sensible as most of the 25+ members of the club are 11 or 12 year old boys, need I say more?

Lastly I have set up a 10% discount code on tarantulas this weekend (see pink information box). The code will only apply for the next couple of days so be quick (I may remove the offer sooner if I am inundated with orders!)