Where have all my customers gone?

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 area.

Everything in the bug house seems to be fine, if not a little cramped after all the new arrivals. At least I have had time to clean and feed everything properly and catch up from being away the week before. Last weekend we went to the Monkey World 25th Anniversary party. It had a really super atmosphere with amazing entertainment. The party was at night but during the day we wandered around the park, watching all the monkeys and apes, as they watched us. We listened to talks by Alison Cronin, she is an amazing lady, a great speaker, so confident and beautiful too. It is such a dreadful shame that her husband Jim, the founder of Monkey World died five years ago at a young age.

I have finally made a start on my 'links page', not much of a start as it only shows Monkey World at the moment but I may get a chance to do some more over the weekend. Next week will be busy with personal matters, amongst other things my mother in-law will be moving on Tuesday. She is moving into another sheltered accommodation flat but it is closer to us and also closer to the shops as her mobility is severely impaired these days. I therefore will be unable to post any orders on Tuesday (probably not a problem as I had nothing to post this Tuesday anyway - woe is me).

I have had some technical issues this week, my Internet Explorer stopped working. It turned out that it needed an upgrade but I don't know about these things, when I asked my husband what the notice meant he said "delete it" so I did and it stopped working! Thankfully it is updated and ok now. Unfortunately my printer has problems too, well not really the printer, it is the ink cartridge. Some time ago I had some ink cartridges 'delivered' by Yodel. The card through the door said "left in a safe place", it turned out the guy had thrown my parcel over our six foot side gate, so much for the safe place. I complained but of course it wasn't until we came to use one of the cartridges that we realised the ink had exploded and now everything I print is covered in grey speckles and lines. I'm sure people have noticed this on my packing slips. My hubby tried to clean the cartridge but there's nothing we can do and the cartridges were far too expensive to throw away! I do have another printer that uses smaller cartridges so I can use this for important paperwork. I think Yodel are no longer in business, they also delivered my sister's birthday present 'over the gate' and that was unsurprisingly smashed to bits. Next, my poor car has had to go in for repairs as an elderly guy came flying out of a disabled bay and straight into the back of my car. I have a very nice courtesy car, it's almost brand new but it is quite different to drive and I can't fit Teddi in it.

Back to the bugs, my Trinidad Olive egg sac hatched last week, it is always fun and exciting to see lots of little spiderlings running around. My multitude of cockroaches are breeding well. The stick insects are breeding too well, especially the Indian ones. I have lots of beetle larvae but no adults at the moment and I still haven't checked the millipede boxes to see if I have young. I always add leaves and fruit to the top but I don't like to disturb the substrate more than I need to. Some of my scorpions are looking fit to burst but still no babies! It's a shame my last Fishing spider ate her mate, she is a stunning specimen, I am amazed that nobody has bought her. It really is impossible to guess what people are going to buy. When I am stocked to the rafters with ABC, everyone wants XYZ. If I had XYZ, everyone would want ABC. I have been a bit naughty this week, I have had several emails asking when I am going to have so and so. I have just deleted the emails, the alternative may have been replying "when I have sold some of what I do have".

I'm told we are due for some sun next week! I really hope so, I need to get out in my jungle of a garden. It is starting to resemble a rain forest, I will need a machete to get to the bug house at the end of the garden soon.