06 August 2008 - Reflecting on Yesterday

Stuart and I took the journey across country to Birmingham yesterday to collect a stack of vivariums.

The nightmare journey began after calling the guy to say we were setting off. Said goodbye to the kids and got in the car. Had to fill up with overpriced fuel to start with before pluggng in the sat-nav to get going in the right direction. Only problem was, the sat nav connection had melted into the lighter socket and fuses had blown. We had to return to home to fix it before we could get going. 1 HOUR LATER we set off AGAIN!

Then there was the weather - it seems that whenever I drive at the moment it always rains. Visibility was crap so we lost loads of time on the motorway. Then when we hit Birmingham, bearing in mind I'd never been before (only when I was little), I managed to take wrong turns even with sat nav telling me where to go! Women drivers, eh?

Eventually found the guy though, and he was lovely. He made us a drink and we chatted about snakey stuff for a while, which was nice, before he took us up to his snake room. We met the most gorgeous corn snakes I have ever seen - real stunners and then saw the stack. I have NEVER seen a vivarium with such generous sizes and my first thoughts were "Oh my God, its huge. Sirius is going to want one of these instead of his regular sized one." Then my next thoughts were "Oh crap, can it fit in the car? And will it fit in the alcove at home!?"

We left the guy really chuffed with a real bargain, and thinking how we'd love to take the other stacks off his hands if he does decide to sell. And then when he does his next breeding project next year, we were really hoping to get one of his beauties.

We then decided, even though it was getting late into the afternoon because of the delays in the morning, that we'd check out one or more of the local rep shops. What a STUPID idea. We set off for one that was called "Phoenix", but it didnt have that name above its door when we arrived. Based on Walsall Rd, it only took 20 mins, and we'd arrived in good spirits after meeting such a great guy beforehand.

No sooner had we walked through their door, our spirits were broken. It was like walking into a nightmare...I nearly cried, and all I wanted to do was leave. It was so hard to look at all the reptiles, but for some strange reason, I couldnt make my eyes stop looking. I was taking it all in and just felt a great sorrow for how they were being kept.

Bearded Dragons piled on top of one another -looked fine to start with - a little cramped, but they seemed okay and a nice colour. Til I spotted the one they had been piled on. He was missing at least one eye and looked half dead.

Then there were the snakes. Oh God the snakes. Almost all were in shed, their substrate littered with oddments of skin and pieces left on their bodies. EG: There were at least 15-20 Royals all in this one tank and their skin was draped over their backbone - it was sticking so far out that if they hadnt moved, I would have said they were dead. £60 each. I wanted to buy them all and show them a true, loving human being. Of course this was not possible and they would have only been replaced with more. I didnt want to fuel that.

Everything was so expensive and in general the shop was filthy, with all these poor things. All I could think was "I hope they dont suffer for much longer".

Needless to say, the journey home was quiet. With the rollercoaster of emotions Id experienced, I found myself asleep for about an hour as Stuart drove home. We stopped at a Garden Centre on the way home, which is what woke me up. The sat nav was having a nervous breakdown dinging and bleeping at Stuart every second or two telling him "recalculating" or "turn around" as he had pulled in to turn back for this garden place he'd just passed.
Got out dying for the toilet and caffeine, but ended up with neither until we'd looked round. The toilets were nowhere to be seen!!!! The "Sale Furniture" nearly resulted in me passing out..."NEW PRICE £2999.00" for a patio set that looked like something Id buy from Argos for £60! In the pet centre there were loppy bunnies chewing their food bowl (empty!) and these two adorable degus with a not-so adorable price tag of £22.50 EACH. That didnt even include a cage or food.

We arrived home about 6ish and my Mum, bless her, had coped all day with the kids, tidied up for me and was half way through eatin tea with them. Caitlyn was actually sat on her chair AND using her cutlery...MIRACLE, Sam was as usual - more food in his ears and hair than in his bowl, but I was assured he'd eaten loads of it.

Got the kids sorted out and in bed after we all said goodbye and thanks to "Nanna" and then CHAOS hit our living room. The kitchen was piled up with washing and dishes and a defrosting mouse for Arabella, while the living room was a cross between a creche and a mishmash of computer stuff, paperwork, snakes and their stuff aswe set to work...I started taking the wallpaper off in the alcove and Stuart began the dreaded task of flat-packed hideaway desk. My task was straightfoward - paper off walls and into bin liner, and didnt take too long but Stuart, bless him, had to decipher the DE-structions and try screwing and hammerng the desk together quietly so we didnt piss off the neighbours or wake the kids up.

Arabella strike-fed for the second time with me - YAY! And despite the disruption all the snakes seemed happy enough, although the corns were going a bit mental when they got a whiff of the python's mouse! We also moved Molly, the awqward little madam who has refused every pinkie we have offered her this last week. She is free of any bugs inside and out and shed so the only thing we could think of to try next was to downsize her home. Instead of the small plastic viv she was in, I cleaned out the tub that the python had been bought in and moved her into that. After a week of her sticking permanently to her hides she actually perked up and was crawling about all over. YAY! Hopefully the little sod will be really hungry and will eat now she feels more secure. The only difference between the two sizes is the height, and even that is only about 3 inches, but hey-ho, as long as she is happy. It has just been a shock to us as the others settled in lovely. I said jokingly that perhaps, as they were bought on the same day, that they swapped personalities on the drive home the other week from Ware. The python eats and behaves like a corn - confidently striking and trying at every opportunity to escape her RUB, whereas the corn isnt eating and is really shy! lol

We got finished and enjoyed a cuppa and fag, checked out the forum for a bit before finally getting to bed at a rediculous hour around the 1-2am mark.

What a day!