all eeked out

Got back from the office today to discover a monstrous spider nestling at the point where the wall meets the ceiling, directly in my line of vision as I came through the door. Nice.

Turns out it had previously been molesting James in the kitchen, before evidently taking itself up there. It was, seriously, like, this big. At least four inches across, and at least as big than the one which a dear brother of mine had noticed hanging around in the bathroom when I shared with uni friends a couple of years ago; and upon which he had replaced the toilet seat without troubling to alert any of us to the fact that it was lurking there. (It chose not to publicise itself for at least a day after that, and specifically not until I was on my own in the flat with nothing but a pyrex bowl between me and my worst nightmare.)

All this leads me on seamlessly to tell you about the only typo I've ever noticed in a dictionary. Not that I've ever looked particularly hard, I should stress, but I've always loved Derrick Thomson's English-Gaelic dictionary for its entry "eek" and collocation with "out." To celebrate, have a picture of today's spider, post capture and pre humane(-ish) disposal.



(Thanks to James for the gruesomeness; I've managed to upload it without looking too closely but I'm sure it's a fine photy. Go here for something a bit nicer.)