Snake and a lightbulb, two bits

Today was spent on a quest for a heat lamp to dry out my clay work, which is drying very slowly in the damp weather. At one stop, an electrical supply wholesalers, three nice older gents, after much conferring, offered me the parts to make my own with the accompanying admonishment" Now, household current here is 240 volts. In the states, if you make a mistake, it will give you a nasty jolt. Here, mind you, it'll kill you. But really, it's very easy." 

After deciding that DIY  involving death by electrocution was not my cup of tea, I ended up at a reptile shop. Yup, a reptile shop. People buy heat lamps to keep their reptilian pets cozy and warm.

After steeling myself to walk in, I was able to get exactly what I needed but it required a 20 minute wait while the nice young man behind the counter wired them for me, supremely unconcerned about either the potential death factor or the dozens of lizards and snakes watching us from behind glass. I chatted with him while leaning up against the glass counter, pretending not to be bothered at all by the two male lizards hurling themselves against their glass cages trying to get at each other to fight over the female in another cage, causing the ENTIRE wall to quiver and shake with each scrabbling blow. Or the dozens of reptilian stares. Or, when I suddenly realized what was in the glass counter, the dozens of spiders the size of saucers crawling up the sides of their stacked tupper ware containers. Me bothered? Nope, not me.

While he was ringing me up, the clerk asked if I would like to meet the boa constrictor. He was so earnest, I hadn't the heart to tell him, why no, no, meeting a boa constrictor is not on my list today, sorry, thanks ever so much, byyye.

 She turned out to be a very sweet baby, only about a year old and beautiful, but I must admit I was a weenie and took her photo from WAYYYY back!

I think this has to be the best adventure I've ever had getting art supplies.