Hot Air Balloon

What a week of highs and lows, I am exhausted! I finally went up in a hot air balloon with my son but not on Sunday as planned. We arrived at the launch site, waited an hour and were then told it was too windy. We went back on Monday evening and it was lovely, I never thought it would happen. It was last year's birthday present and had been cancelled four times. The evening was beautiful, we flew over Henley and the surrounding areas. Some magnificent houses with swimming pools could be seen down below, I want one! Tuesday was not so great as I had to say farewell to my 19 year old cat. He was the love of my mum's life before she died and then we took him over, he was the friendliest cat ever. I am missing him so much, he was always at my side.

My mother in-law moves into her flat tomorrow, my hubby and I have spent every spare moment this last week getting things ready. We were there until late last night putting up curtain rails, curtains, cleaning etc and I have to be back there this morning for the carpet to be laid. All this has been going on and I have had one of the busiest work weeks ever. I'm not complaining about that, it's great, long may it last. I have sent out lots of orders and bought in new mantids and spiders. I have more spiders due next week and I'm also expecting some interesting new scorpion species. All the bugs are breeding well, some a bit too well. I have an awful lot to cope with at this time of year, the feeding regime is endless. I'm a great one for lists, I have lists for everything in my life! My daily tick list of jobs has completely gone to pot this week, I've been so busy that I haven't had time for many of my routine daily tasks. The poor garden looks more like a jungle than ever. I really do hope to catch up a bit next week. I won't be around most of this weekend so you may not get a reply to your emails until Monday. I am up in London all day tomorrow and at a family gathering on Sunday (my mother in-law's move from Kent was so last minute that I couldn't change my plans for this weekend, hubby and nephew will be organising the move).

I have been so busy lately that I am certainly rethinking the way I work. There is only so much that one person can do and I need to get better organised. I know I am not good at prioritising, I give everything top priority, hence I spend my entire life chasing my tail! I mentioned last week about investing in an automated site, I have had some helpful advice from customers, thanks. My hubby will look at it seriously when things settle down with his mum's move. I realised this week how time consuming it is to take people's card details over the phone but at the moment I have no other way of doing it. PayPal is great but not everyone has a PayPal account. If people could order and pay on my site it would be so much easier for everyone.

Next thing I must get sorted is my stick insects. I really like stick insects, they were one of the first bugs that I sold all those years ago (about 25 years ago but I'd rather not count). Up until last year I was supplying the company who stocked all the Pets At Home stores with stick insects. Unfortunately Pets At Home stopped selling stick insects almost over night and that was my major buyer gone. I immediately cut back on the number of tanks and cages but still kept a large number of mixed stick insects in a few big Flexarium cages. The pet shops were never that fussy about species but I have found that most of my customers want to know exactly what they are ordering and my 'mixed' packages just don't sell well enough. I have therefore decided that I cannot spend the ridiculous amount of time caring for stick insects that I do presently. I will certainly be keeping stick insects but they will be the rarer, more sought after types and I will be gradually cutting back on the more common species. I'm really not sure if it is worth me keeping any Indian stick insects. They eat loads and I sell very few. The trouble with me as I said is prioritising! I can't bear to neglect anything, I want to look after each and every one perfectly. Last but not least are Giant African Land snails! I think they are the only bugs that cost more to keep than I make on them, I think they have got to go. I want to concentrate more on arachnids and buying in the less common species. I always aim to breed whenever I can and I think this is where I should spend my time. What do you think?