Virginia Cheeseman Blog

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 d...

Where have all my customers gone? Perhaps you have all gone abroad to escape the rain? I doubt it though as most schools don't break up until today and as we all know, taking children out of school for a holiday in term time is almost a hanging offence these days. I suppose it is due to planned holidays, schools and colleges closing for the summer, perhaps the Olympics? Whatever the reason I have barely received any orders at all and yet last week I had plenty. I have bought in a very large number of new tarantulas this week, there are many different species and all captive bred. Hopefully next week will be better (if not it will be another "I'm off to Tesco to ask for a job" week). I was pleased to hear that although some mail may be delayed during the Olympics, Special Delivery are still guaranteeing next day delivery. They say items may not arrive before 1pm as usual but they will at least be delivered that day. Obviously this only relates to mail around the London...

Back from a wonderful, relaxing break in Cyprus. The hot, sunny weather was fantastic, I'm sure I'm cold blooded like my bugs. I really can't cope with cold weather, we arrived back at Luton airport in the early hours of Sunday morning and had to wade in our flip flops from the plane to the transfer bus and then with our cases to our car - yuck. I could bore you with the details of my holiday but I will move onto the bugs. While I was away with our daughter, my hubby did his best with the bug house. He really doesn't like any creepy crawlies and unfortunately the Hissing cockroach tanks needed daily feeding. I love cockroaches but he found it a real ordeal as they are possibly his least favourite bugs (after spiders, which he wouldn't go near except in an emergency). I tried hard to set everything up to look after itself for the week but it certainly isn't easy. I spent weeks cutting back on stock, I do intend to stick to my guns and continue concentrating on a...

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...