My eye is almost healed
My eye is almost healed, thanks for all your best wishes. I haven't yet plucked up the courage to put my contact lenses back in but I am attending a posh do tonight so vanity will force me into it! The gym that I attend has been nominated for an award at the National Fitness Ceremony in Leicester so fingers crossed we win.
No problems for me with the bugs this week, no more bites or stings, just the usual bramble prickles in my fingers. Sadly, I removed the male New Mexican tarantula from his partner and introduced him to another female who promptly killed him. It was very sad, I'm not sure if they mated first but hopefully they did, time will tell. He looked so perfect but was stone dead! I have a pair of Ornamental Baboon and a pair of Peruvian Dwarf tarantulas to introduce this week. I will keep a much closer eye on them, especially the Ornamental Baboons, they are not very friendly at the best of times.
Still getting to grips with both my new website and iphone5. I had a long conversation with my website guy and I really need to add quite a few things to the site. I must get organised enough to do it, I just never find the time. Hubby put a 'crickets' ringtone on my phone, it seemed like a good idea but I'm so used to crickets chirping that I don't hear it, that just has to be sorted out this weekend. We need to set up emails on my phone, I still don't know how to get 'Apps' and I keep clicking away taking photos but I have no idea how to organise or do anything else with them. I need time, a patient teacher but mostly the inclination to get on with it, I much prefer playing with my animals.
I finally took the photos for this year's Christmas card and have now had them printed. My nephew's girls helped me, we decorated a small Christmas tree and cake with bugs and set up our 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here' set. The idea was for the girls to look longingly at the cake but they couldn't eat any, as the bugs were all over it. Things didn't go brilliantly as I couldn't see properly to take the photos and although the girls look great, you have to look very closely to see the bugs! I was going to take pictures of me and Teddi (our Eurasier dog) kissing under the mistletoe, above the bug covered tree, with our Christmas hats on but I looked such a state (the eye ointment worked a treat but it was like Vaseline so I couldn't wear makeup and it got into my hair). Next year I will take my Christmas card photos in October, it is already written in my diary! My daughter and I both love watching the celebrities in the Australian jungle. I think I'd be great on all the animal challenges but no way would I eat any. My daughter loves the little crabs that they keep showing but I would like to get my hands on the Rhinoceros cockroaches. Don't they know the value of those things!
I haven't made any major changes to the website this week but I have tweaked the 'terms & conditions' in regard to 'next day delivery'. Although Royal Mail Special Delivery guarantees the parcel will arrive the next day, I certainly cannot say that, sometimes I may post orders on the day of arrival but it is more often posted the following day. I am a very organised person or control freak as hubby likes to call it, either way I generally do the paperwork for an order and sort out the goods one day and then post the next. Sometimes I am away for a day and sometimes I simply don't have enough orders to justify getting things out. It really is pretty difficult doing everything on my own and on busy days I just have to see to the animals first. If you find any mention of next day delivery on your order, invoice or anywhere else - please let me know. I have instructed my web guy to erase it from the site and just put Royal Mail Special Delivery. You will always get a despatched email once your order has been sent and it should then arrive the next day before 1pm.
An excellent thing this week (well excellent in my mind), my hubby has changed that awful printer cartridge that was smudging ink everywhere for months. My letters, packing notes and invoices all look clear and bright again. I just couldn't justify throwing the cartridge away any earlier as they are so expensive. I was pleased to see that the second cartridge wasn't damaged. The damage occurred when a delivery guy left my parcel in 'a safe place' (according to the card that came through the door). In actual fact the idiot had thrown the parcel containing the printer inks over our six foot side gate. No wonder the ink spilled out everywhere but we didn't know about the damage until months later, too late to claim.
I am still enjoying cutting back on stock before Christmas, it is great to clean and wash some of my larger tanks and not immediately refill them. I have cut back on the stick insects and am about to take a very large number of Horse-head grasshoppers to a fellow dealer on Monday. I am at last realising that I need to look at what sells and be far more selective in the future. I think the festive break will be a time for reflection. There is no point in keeping so many bugs that have high maintenance needs if there is no market for them. I constantly worry that I don't have anybody to take over if I am ill. Injuring my eye made me acutely aware of that fact. Everyone kept telling me I should rest but I felt I had no choice but to keep going.
Lastly hubby was sent an email of funnies this week and reckons this one is me to a tee!
