Snakes Alive!!!!

OMG, I have seen my first live snake!!!! And I think I was bitten by a spider of some sort last night but more about that later. Back to the SNAKE. I am happy to say it was not a big one, in fact stretched out I guess it would not have been longer than 50cm (it was in full s bend snake mode, slithering when I saw it). We had just come out of Mass and I was stood on the chapel steps when someone saw it slithering along the ground. It was orange and black in bands and was about as round as a fat pencil!! One of the Brs who had been at Mass nudged it along the path and it slithered in front of us again, and then he nudged it off onto the grass away from the chapel. No one knew what sort of snake it was, Br had not seen one like it before and no one knew whether it was poisonous or not. That was all well and good but I was wearing sandles on my feet and feeling a tad uneasy. If that was a baby snake???? whether was mother!!!!!! I have to say, most eels would be bigger than what I saw, but I am told even a dead poisonous snake can kill you if you get venom on you. It was the suddeness of it being there that was the spooky bit. Note to self - purchase waders for the spring to summer footwear, LOL. Seriously, I will be spending some money next week on a very comfortable, summer breathing pair of sneakers/runners and they will not come off my feet until I get to NZ!!! I am sure expiring of the heat will be easier to deal with than a snake bite that may kill you in less time than we can get medical aide out here.

Speaking of the heat, I am sitting here with my jumper on again -it is a grey, windy day and the temp is down to 20o. We have had three nights of spectacular thunderstorms and it poured briefly yesterday afternoon and rained heavily the day before. The farmers are now wringing their hands over the possibly ruination of the wheat crops should we get much more bad weather. On Wednesday there were hail storms in Queensland and snow fell somewhere else (missed exactly where). I was told we are heading into the cyclone season!!!! Good Oh!

I did some speed shopping for myself on Wednesday. Raced into Target and tried on several pairs of jeans/pants and bought two 3/4 length nice denimy fabric pants and a pair of brown long pants that will roll up to 3/4 length in a light weight fabric. My other clothes I have been wearing to work are getting a bit shabby now. I also got a small canvas type bag to use for taking my clothes etc to and from work instead of the three of four carrier bags that I have done with to date. Hopefully that will make transporting bits much easier. I had stuff to get at Bunnings for school and BCF is right next door (camping shop) so bought a 'camel back' - it is a back pack with a bladder in it that you fill with water that you can drink out of an attached hose whilst hiking *gasp* or horse riding!! I also got one of those cans that emits insect repellent every few minutes for the accommodation up at school. Have spent several nights fending off insects with normal fly spray and trying to dodge inhaling the stuff myself.

Have not been on skype a huge amount this week. Atmospherics and work got in the way. Am at my place typing this today with the wireless arial stuck in the window for reception, LOL. I am sitting at the kitchen table looking at a couple of bananas that need to be turned into muffins and getting up the energy to do so. I am working this weekend and on Sunday will be going to Gton all day for basketball.

Back to the spider bite!!! After watching a couple of programs of 'Outrageous Fortune' series three last night, my eyes were starting to droop and it was just about midnight so headed for bed. Because I was cold, fished out the wincy pjs I had ironed earlier in the day, put them on and jumped into bed. I was so tired, I decided I wouldnt even try to read and went to close my eyes when I felt what was like a prickle in in my butt on the left side where the seam of the pj's rested. I rolled over and tweeked the pj's into a more comfortable situation but the prickling was still happening. About that time, the message from the neurons to the synapses suggested that there are no prickles near the clothes line on the porch, or near the clothes line outside, what else might cause this sensation, oh, I don't know, maybe a SPIDER, maybe a POISONOUS spider. At that point, I leapt out of bed, dropped said tweeds on the floor and leapt about trying to see if anything was attached to my rear end!!!! Couldn't see any puncture marks,(couldn't), jumped back into bed, and thought oh well, I will wait awhile to see if I feel strange at all and must have gone straight to sleep. Luckily, I woke up this morning, though I did have some very strange dreams during the night. Brain in better gear this morning, I thought I would shake outthe pjs that had lain on the floor all night, and lo and behold, a small, squashed spider did indeed fall out. It is currently lying on my bed waiting to be sucked into the vacuum cleaner. I rechecked for marks on the aforementioned area this morning and still could find no mark, though can feel where it was. Note to self: shake everything and do not depend on agent orange can of spray currently set up in my bedroom to emit spray regularly, obviously to kill every insect in the house!!!!!! Also, thank goodness for those few extra pounds I am carrying at the moment - I am hoping any residual poison, reaction, whatever, got absorbed in the fatty tissue, LOL.

Back to the snakes, one was killed down at the boys dorm yesterday and our groundsman saw one about 1 1/2 mtrs long down at the chook house. It was a black one that he saw, and again, no one is quite sure what sort it might be as the most common one here is a king brown - which is totally poisonous. Welcome to the Outback joys of spring, LOL.