The suburban jungle…
Yes, this is your first glimpse of our new house. Isn’t it cute? I just love the brick. The house is narrow but it goes back pretty far. Ma Snook took this picture when she came down to help us move a few weeks ago. (That’s me looking particularly unattractive on the right, and the Snook himself peering out of the front door.) I’m hoping to get indoor photos taken soon, as soon as we get the last of the new furniture and hang up all our pictures.
Okay, see, that’s where the post was supposed to end. Instead we now have to talk about something scary: spiders. I’m not a fan. In fact, I’ve been developing a rather severe case of arachnophobia since we moved. See, all the most poisonous beasties in the world are here in Australia. Most of them, the snakes and jellyfish and stuff, don’t live in the middle of the city and I don’t have to worry about them. The spiders, however, do. And some of them are downright nasty. (Last week at the Slashdot meetup, even the most hardened lifelong Sydneysiders admitted to being petrified of funnel web spiders.) In our nice little modern apartment, I didn’t even think about creepy crawlies. Now we live in an old house, a house with street-level entrances and a back garden. I think about them. I especially think about them when I go out to the shed to do the laundry. I just know they’re going to be in there. Anyway, this is all background information. The point of all this rambling is…
This bastard crawled across my hand tonight. It’s a Huntsman spider, which is technically supposed to be one of the harmless ones. It was still frickin’ huge and hairy and scary though. I was out on the front porch moving the trash and recycling bins out onto the curb. I reached for the recycling bin and suddenly this thing was crawling over my hand. I seriously jumped, like, three feet straight backwards and started shaking my arms like mad. (There may have been some screaming, but to be honest, I’ve blacked most of it out.) I ended up on the sidewalk with the spider sitting on the welcome mat looking at me. I had no idea what kind it was, nor whether it would bite me if further provoked. So I did the only thing I could do… I stood there and yelled for Snookums to come rescue me. He showed up and explained that it was harmless, and then proceeded to bash it with a newspaper since I was still hyperventilating. Dude, I can still feel it. I have a feeling my phobia’s only going to get worse.
Do you share my pain? Or are you a friend to the eight-legged freaks?
7 responses
Your house is super cute! I like the narrow-ness… and the side-by-side-ness. Can’t wait for more pics!
Secondly, I am not particularly scared of spiders. However, I may retract that statement after reading about the funnel web spider and finding goosebumps on my arm. Hmm…
Ok, first off….your house is so adorable! I love it! I love it more than your apartment, only because I believe that apartments are a waste of money. But, hey, that’s just me.
Second, OMFG!! That spider is fuckin’ HUGE!! Lordy, if it were me, I would be in a coma right about now. Ewwwwwwwww!
yeah, house’s cute – i wish i could see it in person…
on the spider note, i hate any and all tiny creatures like that. i maintain that i’d love to do some sort of horticulture as a job when i retire someday (a la green-thumbs-snooky), but i find worms to be a SERIOUS occupational hazard. i don’t know what it is – i KNOW they don’t bite, i know they’re harmless – it’s just the way they move, and the fact that they don’t have any eyes that terrifies the hell out of me. even with gloves on, i can’t muster the courage to pick one up. they’re repulsive. so are spiders. and ants. i don’t like things that crawl or slither. (ok, i think i’m gonna puke now…)
very cute house, verrrrrrry scary spider!
Huntsman are the biggest and they are the scariest. Learn a management technique now so you are not frozen rigid when you come across them.
A management technique? Like what? (I’m genuinely curious.)
Amy – quit fishing for plane tickets, you greedy beeatch! You know we can’t afford it. 🙂 And I never knew you had a thing about worms. How weird. I don’t like them, but I don’t *hate* them.
Thanks for the compliments on the place, you guys. You’re gonna love it even more when you see the inside! I’d guess that, like, 75% of houses in inner Sydney are like ours. The “terrace” house was really popular when the city was built, like, in the 19th century. Most of them have a balcony on the second floor with a wrought-iron lacework balustrade. (They look, oddly enough, like houses you’d expect to see in New Orleans.) I kinda like that ours isn’t the typical one, though. Most of the balcony ones haven’t aged well, and I think our brick looks pretty handsome.
Of course, looks aren’t everything. Seriously, everything inside is crooked. I don’t know if it’s shifted or what, but I don’t think there’s a square corner in the whole house. We had to buy these little rubber things to wedge up all our furniture so it doesn’t rock. I guess that’s part of the charm of an old place, though…
Anyway, indoor photos coming soon!
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