The Gambia, April 2012. "Eight-legged room mate"

Carly and I joked that we were going to turn our room into an ‘Ace Ventura style’ den and have all the poorly, stray, sad animals living with us for two weeks.

Much to Carly’s disapprovement, the only animal that wanted to be our roommate was a spider, an African hunting spider to be precise.  He enjoyed dwelling on our bathroom ceiling and I didn’t mind him; in fact, I really enjoyed watching him and his creepy legs as I took cool showers to escape the hot midday sun.

Carly tried to make herself feel better by calling him Oscar and letting him be but the straw that broke the camel’s back finally came when he made the great adventure from the shower to our bedroom.  I was quite happy to forget it and go to sleep but Carly said she would not be able to get a wink of sleep if he wasn’t back in his room, aka the bathroom.

I do not believe in killing any animal so I tried and tried to get a glass over the sneaky eight-legged critter so I could safely return him to the great outdoors, but he was so leggy and fast that my attempts were all in vain.

Paul, Trish and Hannah heard the commotion and came over to help catch him.  Oscar was one fast lad!  He was dashing all over the place and, although we collectively had 10 legs and 10 arms between us, we couldn’t keep up with him.

Oscar having a good time

Trish and Carly dashed off to get a bigger glass whilst Paul, Hannah and I tried to coax him out from behind the wardrobe.

I was so exhausted that I was now beyond tired.  I burst out into fits of laughter imagining the ‘much ado about nothing’ situation that we’d ended up getting ourselves into, having a Benny Hill soundtrack over it.

Trish and Carly returned minutes later, out of breath from all the running around they’d done and holding up a glass as they entered the room like it was Simba at the beginning of the Lion King.

Paul earned some man points by capturing the gigantic arachnid in the glass and putting him outside.  Oscar was no longer our roommate.   He was a free man.

I’d like to think he’s still alive and kicking in Gambia and I hope he’s learnt his lesson – do not pester girls in the future!