Hey guys! Thanks for opening this email, It’s been a while hasn’t it. I last wrote in September and a lot has happened since then, So if you remember from my last email, my grandad and uncle had recently passed away in the space of 3/4 weeks of each other. This meant we had 2 funerals to arrange - Grandad said he wanted to be cremated at the same time as Marcus so effectively we had a double funeral in October literally one after the other. I had the PRIVILEGE of carrying my grandads coffin along with siblings and other family. The service was brilliant and reflective of both of their lives. The man who took the funeral was called Andy and he had taken my nans service 12 years ago; my uncle Matthews in Dec 2021 and it seemed fitting that he takes Uncle marks and Grandads in October 2022. (Remember the name - Andy Searson)
Anyway, that all happened and myself and my mum then had 2 houses to clear which was hard mentally and physically. My dad and his friend also helped, and it took a few weekends but eventually it was done. This took us into November, and I was just starting to get back to a normal state of mind and feeling relaxed - I think I kept saying to myself “yes that happened, and it was shit but I still have my kids, husband, other family (I.e. mum dad aunts etc) and a focus on the business - things could ALWAYS be worse” so things were great for 3 weeks! And then November 25th I got a phone call which really put us in the shit. It was my landlord - of the business address. He was giving me notice and I had to be out of the building by January 13th. Just 49 days.
I started looking at estate agent's websites immediately and contacted well over 100 property's in total. It was exhausting constantly being on the phone looking, calling about a property and trying to convince someone to give us a chance! The business was still running and on the Monday I got a message from Harry saying he has slipped down the stairs on his way out the door on his way to work, the guy was in agony and told me he was ringing an ambulance and obviously wouldn't be in… turns out the reason Harry was in so much pain was because he had in fact broken his back! 😳
He had chipped two vertebrae and cracked another 🤢 so I then lost Harry for 5 weeks while he was getting better.
Out of the 100 (or more) properties that I contacted; I think around 12 people responded. I went to view every one of them but for 1 reason or another the right property didn’t come up - either too expensive, too small, or the landlord didn't want tarantulas in their property. (Getting a viewing from an estate agent is easy but getting the landlord to agree to the business is something else!) In the end I went to Portsmouth News for them to cover a story on us in pure desperation and hope that somebody would read the story and come forward with an option. The story was covered just a few days before Christmas, so I didn't hold out much hope because most people had broken up for the Christmas break… a few days after Christmas (30th December to be exact!) IT HAPPENED! I got that email that I was hoping would come as a result of the news article. It was strange actually because I had contacted this landlord previously about another property but he read the article and emailed me back about another property that was becoming available… he was emailing me outside of office hours on a Friday night and asked if I wanted to see the property on Saturday morning (not a usual thing for him but he made himself free and available to show me around for an hour or 2) so I viewed this property and told him I would like to sign the contract. Weirdly the location of this property is RIGHT NEXT DOOR to Searson's Funeral Directors - Where Andy works.
So anyway, I met the estate agent the following Thursday and signed the contract and received the keys. We have been busy painting walls, scraping floors, moving everything from the old office into the new shop and building a custom-built WARM ROOM. (well, actually I've had a builder in to do that so I can’t take any credit 😂)
Still a few bits to do but I hope to open the website back up again by Wednesday (meaning online orders) and possibly open the shop by the beginning of February! And Harry's back tomorrow (yey)
I'm really looking forward to getting back into the swing of it and starting up the TikTok stuff again.
He’s a list of all the shows we are attending in 2023 -
SEAS - 29th January - Ashford, Kent TN24 8UX
SOUTHWEST INVERT SHOW - 26th February - Taunton TA2 7QP
NORTHERN INVERT SHOW - 26th March - Metrodome S71 1AN
CAPITAL INVERT Show - 23rd April -Queensmead Sports Centre, HA4 0JE
BRITISH TARANTULA SOCIETY (BTS) - 21st May - Lemington Spa CV31 1FE
WESTERN INVERT SHOW - 30th July - Thornbury Leisure Centre, BS35 3JB
EASTERN INVERT SHOW - 24th September - John Bunyan Sports Centre, MK42 9TS
CENTRAL INVERT SHOW - 29th October - Sports Connexion, CV8 3FL
SOUTHERN INVERT SHOW - 26th November - Southwick Leisure Centre, BN42 4NT
Heres to a good 2023!
Thanks for reading, much love
Danielle ✌️