Woohooo!!!! My favourite Manowar song is "Blood of my Enemies" while my favourite ballad is "Sword into the Wind". Most of my collection is on vinyl (from Battle Hymns to Fighting The World) but I have Into Glory Ride and the others on CD.

The photo of Hades the Boa is about 6 months old now, she is over 7ft and still growing! I had her when she was 1 year old and she has always been well handled and enjoys peoples company.

Mr Nibbs the Python was 3 months old when I had him, little bootlace that he was and again he has been well handled so is quite tame and docile. So much so that Spike and I let his 5 year old daughter handle him, which she LOVES! He is a shade over 5ft and fully grown.

Snakes are not slimey as most people think, they have dry, silky, cool skin and like nothing better than curling around you to draw off your body heat. The size difference of the 2 snakes gives a different feeling for both. Mr Nibbs will squeeze your arm or leg and try to show you what a strong boy he is, but when you've had a full body cuddle from a Boa he pales into comparison, bless him.

Don't get me wrong I love both of my snakes, Nibbs is my favourite as I had him first and he was only a baby when I had him. Hades was already 4ft when I had her so it's a slightly different relationship.

They both feed every 2 weeks and shed their skins about evey 6 - 8 weeks. Spikes daughter had the privilege of seeing him both shed and fed over the past 2 weeks, her words after seeing him feed were "It's gross but really cool!" and when she saw him shed "WOW!!!!"

It is a very sensuous experience to handle a snake, think Selma Hayek in "Dusk Till Dawn" and you'll get the idea. If you get the chance to handle a snake, do it! You won't regret it.

Sorry for the snake ramble, I am very passionate about most critters.