(no subject)

[vyvyanx]

G heroically rescued me from a giant spider today. It was lurking on the stairs of our HMO, huddled against the wall, and I wasn't sure if it was alive or dead. It was, however, very big, whatever its existential status. When I noticed it first, I was coming upstairs, and was a few steps below it, so that it was sort of at eye level. I was paralysed by fear for a while, unsure whether to risk climbing past it, or go back out into the street (and do what?). Eventually, my desire to get back home forced me to jump over it and race up the next two flights, in case it was chasing me. Then I realised, in the safety of the flat, that I'd forgotten to post G's mother's birthday card, and would have to venture past the spider twice again in order to do so. With much screwing up of courage, I achieved this, and then spent the rest of the afternoon recovering from the emotional trauma.

In the evening when G came home, I described the location of the spider to him, and he went out with a glass and sheet of paper to remove it. It wasn't dead, apparently, and was even larger than it looked at first after it unfolded its legs and began running about. Apparently G had some difficulty containing it under the glass while he took it outside and over the road (I was hiding upstairs). He released it into the undergrowth some way away, having unintentionally alarmed several passers-by with it. On returning he acknowledged that even he had been rather disturbed by it, since it was the largest (native) spider he'd ever seen.

Comments

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

Howlarge? We had a palm sized one in the bath last week.

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

I think it was about that sort of size i.e. 3-4 inches across. Apparently the largest (native) spider ever found in the UK was just over 6 inches across - a Garden Cross spider that some chap found in his greenhouse. Or so I recall from the Guinness Book of Records. As a child I had a morbid fascination with the sections of that book on spiders, global accidents and disasters, and things to do with the human body (eg. oldest person, tallest person, most babies born to one woman etc). I don't know why!

[velvetfox.livejournal.com]

So you wouldn't want to come and clean out my shed then?

[vyvyan.livejournal.com]

Noooo! Sheds scare me.

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

We all have our obsessions. Mine is sad actor spotting.