I should have known better.

Every day I have logged into the website I have been reminded that the shopping cart software I use needs updating. It’ been like that for the last two or more years. I started the website in April 2019 and the only other time I upgraded it caused so many issues sorting out the inevitable mess that I have avoided it for several iterations of the software.

Eventually I decided to bite the bullet as the latest software has a few extra features which looked nice.

This time I made sure I backed everything up.

Last Sunday, in the wee small hours, I hit the backup button…..

…and everything went blank. No website, no admin panel, nothing.

Long story short, the backups couldn’t be loaded into the new database so I decided just to junk the lot and start again.

Firstly, I’m gradually adding back all the models, but I have to do each one by hand. We had just over 1,100 a week ago, currently I have about a third loaded. The rest will go up over the next days and weeks. If you are looking for something specific and it’s not on the site, drop me an email and I’ll add it.

Secondly, it means that if you are a previous customer with orders, you will need to create a new account. All your old orders are no longer in the system. I’m sorry about that. I tried to load all customer details back into the new database but it just didn’t work.

The bonus is that I have a brand new look for the website which will have more features. I always wanted to include other content than just the shop and now I can.

I hope you like the new site and if you spot any issues or have any comments or suggestions, pop me an email. (details on front page)