rani

Critters

Apart from a brief heart palpitation caused by a wayward cricket jumping on my bed last night, all appeared to be spider-free in my room (weird how crickets don't worry me, but spiders do). But looks can be deceiving and so many a vivid dream of eight-legged critters invaded my headspace during the night. I woke up with cramps because I think I'd been tensing my muscles while sleeping.

Can FOUR spiders count as plague proportions?

Oh world, what have I done to you that you must punish me so?

I don't know how much more I can take. My precautionary measures of constant spot checks and sleeping with a pillow on my head, with my bed in the middle of the room, have not been in vain. I woke up this morning and glanced around the room and in the corner, above my bed, I saw another mother f*ck*ing g*dd*mn huntsman spider. Why God, why?

I put my glasses on and doubled checked my poor eyesight and paranoia weren't playing tricks on me - they weren't - and bolted downstairs to get Simon. "There's another one" I said. He just took one look at me, put his hand on my shoulder, nodded and went upstairs.

I stayed downstairs and silently, panickingly, cried. "Jeez" I heard him say, "where are you f*ckers coming from?". My sentiments exactly. I've even been sleeping with the window closed (and the fan on), as a safety measure, but it doesn't seem to be working.

After he caught it (no dramas with losing it this time), he informed me that it was casually chowing down on an insect - arrogant little b*stard. He didn't want to kill it and so he said we could put it outside, over the fence, or down the road. "Down the road, down the road!" I said "preferably under a car tyre!".

Then there was more tea doled out to calm me down.

But I'm telling you my nerves are shot - let's just hope that since I've had two pairs of the evil bastards that that will finally be the end.

There will be a lot of spring cleaning on the weekend and a lot of surface spray sprayed on a lot of surfaces.

A good leeching

Today I am going to donate blood. My boss is a regular and he assures me that I will feel fantastic afterwards and that my body will absolutely love it. I'm a little scared; I do confess that I'm not the biggest fan of needles - there always seem to be issues with finding appropriate sticking points in my arms which has led to a lot of bruising in the past. But I'm casting my fear aside and doing it for my country.

Be assured, gentle reader, that I am upping the anti on my fluid intake in preparation - don't wanna be dehydrated, nosirree, not me.

Yoga head

Today I am suffering from a case of "yoga head" (when you really should have washed your hair but you couldn't be bothered because it was a yoga morning, so you leave it in pig tails post-yoga) and when I went to the Minister's office today on some SGB (Secret Government Business), one of the advisors asked if it was mufti day today! How rude! Especially when the rest of me is so well dressed (ie matching painted toenails, top and earrings).

Is arachnophobia genetic?

I am at my parents' place as my aunt and uncle from Adelaide are visiting. And we've been discussing last week's spider incident and it seems my aunt is petrified of spiders too because of a huge bush spider landing square on her head when she was about 4 years old. She says she can still feel it's evil legs.

I have taken to sleeping with a pillow on my head as I am still experiencing the paranoia that there is a spider tangled in my hair.

Post wedding blues

Yesterday Sera and Andrew got married. It was a glorious day and a glorious wedding. The ceremony was Armenian and Catholic so that was no-ice, different, unusual (although the Armenian Minister looked a lot like Darth Vader if you ask me). There were a lot of tears! Especially from Sera's mother. But it's all part of the day isn't it?

But Sera and Andrew are just perfect together (and stunning too!), and so it makes me smile to know they have found each other and will build a future together. I shall stop with the hallmark greeting card language now.

I looked swanky in my new frock and new strappy red shoes. I had FAR too much to drink at the reception and had a grand old time dancing and getting up to mischief. Chellie and Rach made great speeches and I was seated in between the lovely Erin and Tagsie so we had a good fun table - in prime viewing position I might add. Of course I got the seafood options for both entre and main, but lovely Tags swapped with me both times and so I was treated to a delicious baby chicken tart thing and then some yummy beef. The reception was in the Tea Room at the top of the QVB which is a magnificent venue!

I confess I'm feeling rather untidy right now so I might stop typing and go and rehydrate with an 'erbal tea. I think I might have a drinking problem as this seems to be a recurring theme with me!

If you voted liberal...

I will hunt you down... and kill you. I don't know where you live but I'm very good at research.

The Best Australian Stories 2004 - Gleebooks event

The fabulously talented Erin Gough is having one of her wonderful short stories published in The Best Australian Stories 2004, edited by Frank Moorhouse.

And Gleebooks is having an event for it!

Date: Friday, December 10 Time: 6.30 for 7pm

Venue: Gleebooks 49 Glebe Point Road, Glebe $9 full or $6 concession

RSVP to Gleebooks on 02 9660 2333 or events@gleebooks.com.au

Speakers: Frank Moorhouse (to introduce each writer)

Readings by (approx 15 mins each): Delia Falconer Nathan Besser Amra Pajalic

At least it's not just me struggling with this thing called life

My mother has reported that Maddie-Cat fell from clothes-line height this morning; Buggy thinks Maddie must have been on the roof, trying to catch a bird. Apparently there was a lot of noise - squawking and such - and then she saw a brown furry body fall into the small courtyard! Maddie Cat's heart was reportedly beating rather rapidly when she was picked up and comforted.

Niggling doubt

Well I slept ok last night – I did pull my bed out from the wall a bit, just to make myself fell more secure, but it made me feel a bit like a Princess sleeping in the middle of the room like that. I randomly woke up a few times during the night and turned on the light to spot check for spideys. All clear, so far…but I’m just a bit (well ok, very) concerned given the fact that huntsmen spiders travel in pairs: so far the tally is three. This doesn’t really bode well for immediate relief from my paranoia, does it?