If it's not spiders it's snakes!!

I’m not sure I’ll ever be totally at ease with Aussie wildlife, but just when I think I’m doing ok, something new happens that just tips me over the edge again.  When we first arrived here just over 18 months ago I was like a walking jack-in-a-box.  I was permanently on edge and jumped out of my skin at just about EVERYTHING! (Much to the amusement of many a local I am sure).  The first time I saw a blue tongued lizard (just lazing across our front door step catching some rays ……..as they do) I was a quivering wreck!!  What the hell was this giant snake looking lizard thing doing in the wild?? – Surely it should be in a cage???  Does it bite??  Oh my god, how am I going to get in house?????  You should see me now – I am even brave enough to give Abbey, Miss H’s Kindy pet blue tongue a stroke on the head.

I wouldn’t go as far as saying ‘call me Steve Irwin’ but I think I’m doing pretty well, all things considering.  That was until this evening!  Master J was out at a sleep over with his best buddy, little Miss L was tucked up in her cot and Miss H was happily watching cartoons!  With everything being so unusually chilled for 6:30 on a Friday evening, Kirsti (my lovely nanny helper) and I decided to plonk ourselves on the sofa and enjoy a nice cuppa and a chat before she headed off home.  As I’d just been to Taronga Zoo this afternoon I was telling her how brave I was, especially with the bearded lizards that just run around wild.  She told me that she had two pet ‘beardy’ lizards at home!  “Oh no” I said, “I could NEVER have those in the house – what if one escaped??”  “Ah that’s ok”, she said, “They won’t hurt you.  I had a pet baby python snake once.  It was called Grace, and it escaped out its cage into the house and we never found it!”  “WHAT!!!!!!”  I said (not quite sure what I was more shocked by – baby python snake escaping in house or the fact that it was called Grace???  Cute names and python snakes just don’t go together!!).  “If that ever happened in our house (not that we’d EVER have a pet snake) I would move into a hotel room until it was found!!!”  Kirsti, laughs hysterically.  I think she thinks I’m a bit mad – I don’t think she reaslises that I’m actually deadly serious.  Can you imagine going to bed one night and rolling over to greet a baby python snake in your bed at 3am.  NO THANK YOU!!!

'Grace" the baby python snake

Anyway the story gets WORSE!  Kirsti goes on to tell me that they when they first moved into their house they found a huge giant python snake living in it!!  “Aargh yuk I said, had the previous tenants just left their pet snake there?”  “No” she says, (laughing at me again), “it was a wild one!”  “My boyfriend had to catch it! Look here, I’ll show you a picture from my phone”.  “OH! MY! GOD!!!  Please tell that is not wild – are you serious??????  I’m so shocked – still am actually.  “Did you have to call someone to come and get it?” I ask.  “Yes” she said.  “They took it away to relocate it.  “Oh good, so at least its in the zoo now”, I say.  More hysterical laughter!!  “No, it was relocated back at Narrabeen Lake”.  “WHAT!!!!!!!”  (This time ever more genuine shock from me).  I just can’t believe that that thing is at Narrabeen Lake (and many more of them apparently).  For those of you that don’t know me – I live about 500m from Narrabeen Lake!!!!!!!  Seriously, this is the Northern Beaches not the Amazon jungle!!  I’m never going near any long grass at that lake EVER again!  I think I might even be too scared to leave little Miss L on the grass when she can sit – if I turn around for a second she could get swallowed!!

Imagine coming home to find this on your doorstep????????

'Caught' by Kirsti's boyfriend before being sent to the lake opposite MY HOUSE!

Is it just me, overreacting, or is the thought of stepping on a giant python snake the next time you go for a walk enough to make you have a near heart attack???