Ms Fani

Unusually, we had some heavy rainfall today. Concerned about my blip, I popped outside to check for flooding in the road, a possible future blip for sure. To my surprise, the blip monster had already prepared a blip for me.

Introducing Ms.Fani, who was sheltering under my porch canopy with her motorbike. I struck up a conversation, but Fani's English skills were not her strong suit, but after about ten minutes, her English amazingly improved dramatically! I come across this a lot in my travels.

Schools all over the world are teaching English, but the students rarely get a chance to practice the skill. When the opportunity arises, they are nervous, afraid of making a mistake, afraid that I will laugh, afraid that they will not remember the words and so on. The fact is, as a foreigner, I am most grateful to anyone who can talk to me even with the most rudimentary skills. English is a very complex language, but it is also a very forgiving language too. You can make a mistake and be miles out with the pronunciation, put the words in the wrong order, miss a few words out, add a few Indo words to fill in and I will still understand. This is not true for many other languages, including Indonesian.

Fani was a very intelligent, charming young lass, studying mathematics at university. She turned down my proposal of marriage, but we decided to remain good friends.

The Bandung story - part 8

The spider was quite an attraction distraction in the office. We tried to conceal the box but eventually the office manager, Denis Barton, figured out that something was going on and found the box. Denis surprised us all by taking an interest rather than going ballistic. He asked what the spiders name was, quick as a flash, Geoff replied, "Denis, Denis", to the sound of nasal mucus being ejected around the office. Thirty minutes later, a sign was stuck to the glass, 'Denisus Bartonissimus - the Denis spider'.

Denis (the manager) also inquired about the spiders food, we explained that we feed it grass hoppers. "He looks hungry, go and catch some food", was the response, so off we went, in works time, with the bosses approval, to catch grass hoppers! Once again, it was down to me to catch the insects and Geoff's job to supervise, this became a recurring pattern.

One day, on our walk, Geoff spotted a huge rhino beetle. He insisted that I catch it for Denis (the spider). I explained that the spider would not touch it, but once Geoff gets an idea, there is no changing his mind, so I picked up the beetle. Man! that thing was powerful, squirming around. It also made an alarming hissing noise, but I managed to keep hold and it was added to the spiders enclosure. As I suspected, the spider did not go near the beetle.

The next morning, the spider was nowhere to be seen. I then noticed that the metal lid, covering the food injection hole, had been moved by the powerful beetle, allowing the spider to escape. Now we were in trouble! As everyone arrived, I explained the escape and most refused to enter the office, yet more chaos! I then noticed a trail of golden thread and followed it about ten feet and found the yellow and black striped monster sat in the middle of a large blue divider panel. What a relief! Denis (the manager) never found out about that incident.

On another walk, Geoff spotted a large bee disappear into a hole in the ground at the base of a tree. Once again, he insisted that I catch the bee, as he supervised from a safe distance. I lightly prodded a twig into the fairly large hole and pretty soon the insect started to back out. I could not get the container flush over the hole because of a tree root, so the possibility of not capturing the bee was a reality. The more the bee backed out, the more the primeval fear arose inside me. The bee was about half way out and I could feel the adrenaline pumping through my arteries, urging me to run for the horizon.

Finally, the entire monster was sickeningly visible. I attempted to cover it and failed, instinct took over and I fled, fully expecting to be followed by a herd of giant bees. Geoff, at a safe distance, supervising the operation, screamed, "It's okay, the bee is still on the ground. Catch it". "Catch it yourself", "No, it's your job, we agreed". I have no idea how I mustered the cohunes to return and trap the goliath, but I did. The huge bee (another specimen blipped here - 36mm long) was found dead on the floor of the enclosure the next day, but not eaten.

Another time, I caught a huge red tailed wasp, a really ugly nasty critter. The whole office gathered for this show, including Denis the manager. Within minutes there was a brief flurry of activity and then the two creatures separated to opposite sides of the box and no further activity was logged. Denis the spider looked a bit wobbly on his legs and we feared the worst, but he survived the day. It was Saturday, so we would have to wait until Monday for the results.

On Monday, all that remained of the wasp were a few husks, a spray of white goo across the glass pane, that any seagull would have been proud of and a very fat spider. Well, that's enough about Denis the spider, except to add that I was able to measure it's longest leg, which was 105mm, so flattened out, that would make the spider 8 inches across, not something you would like to find in the bath tub! Clearly, now you all see the roots of the insect series.

To be continued.

Dave