...Especially when you see how small the poor thing is!
However, we read somewhere recently that juvenile Eastern Brown snakes are every bit as venomous straight out of the egg, as their adult counterparts. Since this snake was almost brown, I wasn't about to take any chances. They come in so many shades that you really need to have seen a whole lot of them to be sure. I've not seen all that many. In fact, this is the first one we've had in this house - despite our bush location. It was Matilda that spotted it disappearing into our shoe cupboard... a scary thing to contemplate! She - needless to say - identified it as a harmless green tree snake and wanted to pick it up! Aaargh!!!
We cleared the girls into the boat, which is outside the front door with a view into the shoe cupboard, and just at that point, the local girls all pitched up to play with ours, so we had a whole gaggle of them in the boat whilst i gingerly picked the contents of the shoe cupboard out using a gutter cleaning tool I made. These things can strike quickly... I wasn't about to put my hand in there! It skittered into the downstairs bathroom where I managed to cajole it into the box, and took it outside.
Now EVERYONE is a bloody snake expert in Oz. A passing walker saw the commotion and identified (wrongly it turns out) the snake as an 'Olive Python'. We sent the pics we took to a local snake handling company and they told us it was a tree snake (like Matilda had said)... but that we were right to be cautious. (I knew that of course!)
In the meantime, Jack the cat was trying to eat the turtle... and Matilda had caught a couple of lizards!
Another thing that happened last week was that Phoebe lost another tooth. This time one at the top right. She declared that she'd lost the lost tooth and I told her that the fairy still comes, all you have to do is a little drawing of a tooth. I can't remember if I did one when I was a kid, whether it was Gannie, or if I did one for Josh or Molly. Anyway, Josh was on the Skype around the time that this was being discussed and he kindly substantiated this story for me, claiming that he'd been in the same boat and that she had nothing to worry about. Sorted...
... until that is, the next morning... she comes in in tears saying that the fairy didn't come! Some of you will be able to imagine how I felt about that! I've seen a few teeth go by now, and this is the second time this has happened... it happened to Matilda a couple of years ago. You feel REALLY bad about it!
Happily, Daile found the tooth, so we were able to have another go with the real thing the following night, and this time she came. Apparently she'd been chased off by some naughty birds she said on a little note... and the Feeb was appeased. Phew!
What else?
On the whole, and in all honesty, I consider myself to be overweight, physically under motivated, and largely contemptible in relation to the logical and reasonable argument to do something about it. In other words I'm a fat lazy git. Daile, on the other hand somehow manages to eat just the one slice of cheese on toast, gets up to go out walking on weekdays with Tracy, and is wearing well all things considered. I guess it could be an age thing with me. I've become less worried about the way I look, and ambivalent about watching the things I eat. It's interesting that one can on the one hand fully comprehend the implications of poor diet and lack of exercise from an intellectual standpoint, feel strong feelings of guilt, aspire to a washboard belly and walnut cracking biceps, triceps, and many other 'ceps', and yet still weaken ones 'resolve' (ha!) every time one walks past a packet of cheesy crackers or 'snake sours' at the shop. Why have only one bar of chocolate when you can have 3? What's going on? Why do I do that?
The facts about health, moral behaviour, and the pursuit of the pure - whilst logically compelling, have long been irrelevant to the vast majority of people in my view. We spend inordinate amounts of money nationally in cajoling people to behave in rational ways, that for their part, most people would aspire towards, but in a 'choice situation' will consistently make the 'wrong' choice. When we DO make the right choice, we feel good about it in dis-proportion to the act. So it is about our trip to the forest weekend before last, when we took the girls out to the local (ish) forest walk at Mount Tamborine.
After we'd clambered over the webs of spiders and slipped on rocks and been shat on by giant bats for a refreshingly lengthy morning walk, we went to the local cafe, where the owner wipes his nose on the back of his arm, and had a 'well deserved' plateful of chips et al.
Whoever said exercise is good for you was obviously looking at the logic...
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