A plug for Ol' Blighty...

There are some things that are easy to do, and some that are not. One of the things that I’ve felt a wrench about, a thing that is pretty inconsequential in the greater scheme of things, is the removal of the British 3 pin plug from my computer leads and power tools, and its replacement with the Aussie equivalent. The new one is a simple affair, and is actually quite good to use. The cable exits tangentially to the extension socket, and is smaller and therefore is less awkward to handle.

The ones you see here are rubber, so they’re also nice to feel. Yet there is a permanence to this process that somehow feels incredibly significant, much more so than getting a ‘tax file number’ (Nat ins number) The UK plug is so British. Like Marmite, and PG tips. Its these sorts of things that I’m noticing most….that and the wildlife!

A couple of days ago, Daile nearly ran over a carpet snake. For those of you who don’t
know what one of those is, here’s a picture:

It was about that size!

A site that I went to about them had this to say;

“Many houses on the east coast have a resident ‘carpet snake’ in the roof. Many people are completely unaware of this, and those that are, often ‘adopt’ and name their quiet lodger. These snakes provide a ‘rodent cleaning service’ totally free of charge. These magnificent non-venomous snakes are for the most part quite harmless, but will bite if provoked. Appreciate these animals, but please do not pick them up. Like all pythons, they are incredibly strong, and may coil around your arm leaving you thinking, ‘OK, so now how do I get this snake off my arm?….and OF COURSE – NEVER PUT ANY PYTHON AROUND YOUR NECK.” What are they KIDDING! These things can be up to 4 metres long!

The girls have made mates of the two little girls next door, and they all went with me up to the very local and quiet playground at the end of the street opposite. Whilst we were up there and they were tearing around, I took the opportunity to follow a line of little ants that I could see. They were going in both directions with one direction carrying little bits of food, and the other direction going back to get more. The trail led from the rubbish bin by the barbeque site (they have public barbeque sites) to a tree on the other side of the little park. A distance of about 30m. A bloody long way when you’re that size and the grass is like a forest to you….

Anyway, whilst watching them, I noticed a much larger ant (pictured below)

that was on its own and moving towards the line, which it passed over, shaking off the little ants that took exception to it. When I got home, I looked it up. Its called a ‘velvet ant’ and is actually a flightless female wasp, which if it stings you is VERY painfull for 5 to 10 mins and then subsides slowly. Apparently, its then like having a dull ache like arthritis for about 2 months around the sting site. The length is about 1.5 cm.

About 2 mins after I took that picture, I took this one; Notice how grainy they are? That’s cos I didn’t want to get any closer…ha ha.


This very jittery spider was on the cross bar above the kids as they went on the slide. It was really small, (about 1 cm) and ‘looks like’ a ‘white tail’ spider. I couldn’t actually find an exact shape and colour match, but the white tail is know for its bite, which is supposed to lead to necrosis (where the skin ulcerates around the bite site…) The picture you see of Phoebe in her sun hat, shows the slide behind her, and it was the eldest of the two kids on the slide that spotted this little fella…



Finally, here’s a picture of a cat with an abscess on its neck…which was at the house where I went to look at the first ute. They were only slightly worried about it…!


We’re off to the Gold Coast for the weekend….so it’ll be next week before I’m here again. Have a nice weekend.