Last week I woke up one morning and wandered blearily to the bathroom. Wanting to wash my face with cold water to help me wake up, I reached for the tap. As I touched the tap, a spider that had curled itself around it suddenly
came to life and ran into the wash basin.

'Ack!' I screeched and ran out of the room, wide awake now. I told myself not to be silly and went back into the bathroom. The spider was struggling to get up the smooth
sides of the basin, to no avail. 'OK!' I told it. 'I need the basin and you need to be out of here.' I got a
stiffish plastic bag and rolled it into a tube, trying to push the spider out of the basin, while I soothingly told it I meant it no harm. Fat lot of good that did. It ran up the plastic bag toward my hand. I screeched again and
dropped the bag. I picked the bag up and rerolled it, then sort of shovelled the spider out of the basin. It immediately took refuge among my bottles of bath oils and perfume. I began poking with the bag until the spider jumped off the vanity and on to the floor. I ran out of the room.

'Look!' I told the spider. 'I've got to get you out of here.' I went back into the bathroom and stepped into the bath where the spider couldn't get me. Leaning over the side of the bath, I began sweeping the spider toward the door with the bag. At last it had the good sense to run out the door. I got out of the tub and ran after it. It was sitting at the top of the carpeted steps, so I began brushing it down. It tried to hide in the corners, but at last I got it down into the lounge room. 'Oh, God!' I thought. 'It'll run under the furniture.' Grabbing the keys, I opened the door to the garage. I managed to brush the spider over the doorstep into the garage. As I reached out to close the door, the spider made a sudden dash back into the room, right over my bare foot. I screeched again, louder this time. My next door neighbour appeared at the door. 'Are you OK?' she asked. 'That's
the third time I've heard you scream.'
'Oh, yes.' I replied. 'It's only a spider. The bloody thing just ran over my foot. It felt so yucky!'
She laughed. 'Where is it?'
'Just there, beside you.'
She screeched then, as the spider made a move toward her. I picked up a newspaper and gently brushed it out the door into the garage.

It had better not get in my car, I thought, otherwise there will be a serious risk of an accident when I go out next, if it decides to run around while I'm driving.