h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Pro It's sunny and warm and it February
Con A cockroach the size of a small buffalo has just nimbled from my bathroom to my bedroom.

*shudders and lifts up her Matt*

The little/not so little blighter has made his way into the guest bedroom. I'm glad my daughter wasn't in there. She may have been a bit upset.

I was chatting to a bloke I do some voluntary work with today and he'd found a funnel web spider. He managed to trap it in a jar and took it to the hospital where they extract the venom to make anti-venom for people who are bitten by them. They turned him away as someone else had just come in with 20!

Don't they eat cockroaches in that part of the world?

(and apologies if the sum total of my Australian cultural knowledge was gained from watching I'm A Celebrity)

It's a beautiful country - yet so very dangerous too

Vestie, I want an article and a photo for . Please?

A photo of me or the cockie? (as Aussies call them as they are so common). I'm afraid he's gone to the big RoachMotel in the sky and so isn't so photogenic as he may have been.
I'll see what I can do.

You are right Lil. People seem to be bitten by all sorts of deadly things ranging from spiders and mosquitoes through to snakes, crocodiles and fish. Well a shark isn't a mammal, is it?

A photo of you and a cockroach, if it suits you.

I may have to find a new cockroach as the other is now extinct. I threw a noose roung its neck and rode it over a cliff.

I have sent off an entry to the Post and will hopefully get round to sending the cockroach Before and After shots.

Wonderful, many thanks.