Virginia Cheeseman Blog

One week until my summer holiday! It is all go in the bug house trying to get the animals ready for me to have a week off. My website special offers have really gone down well, it has taken quite a bit of organisation but it has meant that I have managed to lessen the number of animals to a far better number. Most of the special offers are set to finish on Monday. I will certainly send out orders Monday - Wednesday but I may not be able to post on Thursday as there will be a lot of last minute feeding to do. I may have cut down but I still have a huge number of spiders, all needing to be housed and fed separately. Last weekend I received a record number of orders, it seemed that every time I glanced at my computer another order popped up. I was delighted, Monday and Tuesday were pretty much completely taken up with packing bugs and trips to the post office. Then I was amazed when I didn't receive a single order on Monday or Tuesday, it just didn't seem to make sense. However ...

Only two weeks until my holiday in Cyprus! It has been a very busy week, my plan to cut back on animals is working well. I have been running lots of short term, often one day offers and things are selling well. Some items have been bought in one go when I only meant to sell a couple at the cheap price. That will teach me for not keeping some back! It will certainly make my holiday a lot more enjoyable if I don't have to come back to an overwhelming amount of animals to feed and clean. I am only going for a week but there is a lot of planning involved. My hubby will be here (hopefully decorating the front room) but he won't be doing anything except spraying the bugs with water and keeping an eye on the temperature. I doubt the bug house will get too warm, judging by the current weather. He may just about manage to give the stick insects a bit more bramble as I have it growing in the garden. Last Friday my daughter and I went to visit the Sealife Adventure in Southend -on-Sea, E...

Off to the Sealife Adventure centre in Southend today. They have a great bugs display, I haven't seen it yet but it must be great because they are mostly, if not all, my bugs. I'm really looking forward to it, my daughter is driving me, so even better. She works in aquatics and is looking forward to visiting the centre too. It's some years since I visited Southend-on-sea, it holds many happy memories of my childhood as my Nan, aunty and cousins lived there. We may even escape the rain as it is non-stop here but according to the weather forecast there won't be any rain further south today (seeing is believing). The bugs are all going well. I was very pleased to see this week that my recently mated Trinidad Olive tarantula is carrying an egg sac around. I have been rearranging the bug house quite a bit as I need to get things organised for going away at the end of the month. My special offers have been a hit and I am cutting down slowly but surely on the amount of animal...

This year seems to be flying past, June already. The Jubilee weekend is upon us and of course that means two bank holidays and I cannot therefore post any orders until Wednesday. This last week has been very up and down, I was rushed off my feet Monday and Tuesday and then received no orders at all on Wednesday. It seems that most people get paid at the end of the month and therefore a lot of orders come in during the first few days of each month. I will send out orders as they are received, I hope to get most, if not all orders off next week but I will be very busy as there will only be Wednesday and Thursday that I can post. I get a lot of feedback about my blog (that's how I know how popular it is). Last week I moaned that I really wanted some giant water bugs that I saw at the BTS show. Well, a very nice reader has said that he has some that he hopes to breed and if successful, he will let me have some. They are Abedus species, from North America (not Africa, as I thought). A...

I've never had so many bugs at one time! The BTS (British Tarantula Society) show last Sunday was great. There was a huge variety of invertebrate animals, it certainly wasn't just spiders. It was nice to catch up with so many 'bug people', those I have known for years and others that I have only emailed and spoken to on the phone. I certainly couldn't say that I knew everyone there but it did seem that everyone knew me, if not by sight then certainly by name. I cannot believe how many people mentioned that they read my blog and enjoy it every week! What can I do? I have decided that however busy I am it is important to keep the blog weekly. I must try harder! I purchased far more than I meant to at the show, there are some animals that I haven't even put onto my website yet. Although they have all been fed and watered, some are still in the pots and boxes that I purchased them in. I have a 'creepy crawly refugee camp' for all the homeless individuals a...

Planning to get lots of new stock this weekend at a bug show. If there is anything specific that you would like me to look out for then please let me know. I already have a few requests. I have a long shopping list for myself as usual. Those of you who read my blog regularly will no doubt know that I write lists for everything. I am aiming to concentrate on tarantulas and other animals that can 'look after themselves for a week', that's my aim for this show. I have far too many stick insects, bush crickets, beetles and other insects that need daily care. I have finally booked a summer holiday, my daughter and I are off to Cyprus for a week. Unfortunately my hubby cannot take a holiday this summer as he is working at the Olympics. He therefore gets to look after all the animals, pets and bugs! (with help from other family members). I sometimes forget how scared of the bugs he is, I love it in my bug house but he is constantly looking around and up at the ceiling to see what ...

Still madly busy but I thought that I couldn't let another week go past without making an effort to do my blog. I am writing this a day early as I will be out all day tomorrow. Honestly I have never been so busy, not just work but my life in general. I am delighted to say that last month I had the best sales total that I have achieved since 2010. I spent a lot on new stock, so my spending was high too but it is certainly a great boost in the current economic climate. I would like to announce the winner of my '30 years in business, longest serving customer' competition. The runaway winner was Peter, Peter informs me that he was purchasing from me in 1986 (and probably before that date too) and only last year he bought some millipedes from me. Peter wins a £30 gift voucher to spend on my website and I just had to award a prize to Huw as he informed me that he was born in November 1982, when my first price list was produced. Huw wins an £8 gift voucher, which gives him free p...

Easter was very hectic. I bought in a very large number of spiders the week before and also some new millipedes. I finally managed to track down some Train millipedes, they have now almost sold out. All this new stock generated a rush of orders so I have been frantically trying to get everything packed and off this week. Bank holidays play havoc with my work, having last Friday and Monday as bank holidays severely reduced the amount of days that I could safely post livestock but I'm pleased to report that I have now caught up and had no problems with the post. I didn't make it to the bug show the weekend before Easter as I could not find petrol in my local area at that time. Just as I decided not to go, everything seemed to settle down, typical! I don't know how the Newark show went as nobody has mentioned it to me? I have had a flurry of overseas orders this week, I assume it is due to the weather warming up. I'm not sure why but the main European country that I suppl...

Postage is increasing substantially next month, I had an email a couple of days ago from Royal Mail showing the new Special Delivery rates. I am not increasing my postal charges immediately but I cannot imagine that I will be able to hold the price once the Winter comes around again. The new rates mean that I will be out of pocket on most orders that I send. It really annoys me because Special Delivery is exactly what was once called 'first class post'. Royal Mail only guarantee that they will deliver the next day before 1pm, this is just what first class mail used to be, in fact I remember when my post arrived before 7.30 am. I am lucky now if it arrives before lunch time. If a parcel is delayed all that is refunded is the postage - big deal! That said almost all my parcels do arrive on time and I very rarely have anything arrive damaged. This is the first week of 2012 that I haven't had to enclose a single heat pack in my parcels. It has been a lovely warm week and the b...

Spring at last, the sun is shining and all is well in the bug world. I have written my third newsletter which will 'hopefully' be going out today to everyone who subscribes. I say hopefully because we have had to use a new system, due to the old one crashing my site last time! (too many customers, the server saw it as junk mail - how dare they!). I have had an extremely busy week with things constantly coming and going. Next weekend I will be attending a bug show and I have pre-ordered several species of millipede, among them the Giant Train (at last) and some more of the very popular Yellow Spotted Flat millipedes. If you have any particular requests for animals please let me know and I will look out for them. The bulk cockroaches are continuing to sell well. It was certainly a good idea to sell them 50 at a time but some are far easier to pack than others. I have thought about selling them by weight rather than individuals but I suppose that defeats the object. Some people ...