Pest Control

Job description : Someone career minded, self-motivated and focussed. Oh yes, and someone who doesn't mind raking the sandpit over for redback spiders. Apparently there's a pest problem at work and I'm the first line of defence.

"We have a few huntsman spiders" says Allanah, my colleague.

"In the garden?"

"No, on the walls, behind the pictures"

"You Aussies are so calm about it, like a nation of Steve Irwins"

"You have to be kidding! We're all terrified of them".

At Ella's nursery, it's ringtail possums in the garden causing a nuisance. We saw one this evening when I collected her - it ran under the table while the kids were having afternoon tea, straight under Ella's chair, brushing her legs. Ella and I are the only ones even slightly interested by this, which the staff find endearing. They're amazed she knows what all the Aussie animals are called. "Yeah" I said, "But she wouldn't know a hedgehog or a badger if she fell over one".