Spidermania
One corner of my bedroom's ceiling is tenanted by a group of spiderwebs. The fengshui there must be good, because the other corners are unoccupied. Occasionally, I could see one or two of its residents "resting at home". As I'm afraid of, and at the same time, hate spiders, I left them alone. My only hope is that they don't multiply! Imagine sleeping in a room with spiderwebs for a ceiling! YUKS!!! At the moment, the only person who's willing to get rid of them for me is my mum, but as she's now busy helping out at her friend's handicraft shop, I don't want to bother her with it.
I remember some years back, a friend and I went to a local nature reserve park to take photos of a group of migratory birds. Armed with a camera and tripod each, we set out very early in the morning to avoid the crowd.
The weather that morning was very cool and fresh, and the serenity of the park put us completely in a holiday mood. We set out to search for the birds. Along the way, we could see different types of birds...and spiders. As there were many trees all around, there were also many spiders and their webs. Luckily my friend is totally fearless of them, so I used her as a shield. I made her walk ahead of me while I crouched and walked behind her. So in case there're any webs across our path, she would be the first to get it. Haha! How clever of me! My friend didn't mind at all as she knew about my fear of spiders.
At one point, we reached a junction which was lined with rows of very tall trees. There, in front of us, was a very huge spiderweb hanging between two trees right above our path. There was also a huge spider in the middle of it. My friend wanted to continue walking, but I simply refused. I refused to walk under it. I imagined the whole web-cum-spider landing on me if I were to walk under it. EEKS!!! In the end, in order to make me walk so that we won't miss the migratory birds, my friend suggested we throw stones or anything we could get hold of at the web to break it. Brilliant idea! We collected as many stones and twigs as we could and started throwing them at the web. It must have been a super-extraordinary web, because no matter what, we just couldn't break it! In the end, left with no choice, my friend grabbed me and dashed under it. Fortunately, it didn't land on me.
We finally found what we were looking for and started to set up our equipments. It was an awesome sight. The birds were sun-bathing on the waters, and the scene was enhanced by the color of the rising sun. It was simply beautiful. At that moment, I felt something ticklish inside the T-shirt I was wearing. I took a look... and screamed. A tiny spider had somehow found its way inside my T-shirt. As I was busy trying to get rid of it, the birds were busy taking off. My screams had somehow frightened them. Unsurprisingly, I received a scolding from my friend. I had destroyed her hopes of getting the birds on film. In the end, I treated her to lunch to make amends, and luckily for me, her anger had long died down. She said we could always come back again the same time the following year to watch them. A truly forgiving and kind-hearted girl!
In order not to make it a wasted trip, we took some photos of other birds and even a close-up of an inch-worm.
The next time I enter the park, I'll make sure I come in a space suit. That way, no amount of spiders or spiderwebs could scare me!