Gecko Wars and Mould

Today's blog is going to be a random one. There's just numerous random things to pass on to you. Bear with me; I hope it enlightens you about day to day living in a hot, humid, wet country.

Ok, so firstly, mould. It's the rainy season so things get wet and damp for days. The problem that I've discovered is that if you're not careful, mould will just grow on something exceedingly quickly. Like, in three days a skirt could b

e covered with mould! And this is exactly what's been happening. I have to have daily mould checks on clothes, surfaces, bags - everything because I'm bound to find mould. It's really quite unappetising (not that I eat my clothes...) to

find your shirt covered in mould, or your shorts with a dusty green layer. I have one pencil case that seems to be a mould factory. I try to clean it every couple of days, but the mould comes back. I try to have this war on mould, but I think I'm losing ground!!

Next is gecko wars. Now I have this suspicion about gecko wars for a few reasons. Firstly, there are hardly any geckoes around... suspicious when they usually cover the walls. Secondly, there are a number of geckoes without tails... Thirdly, I saw some geckoes fighting the other day. Literally, one was trying to eat the other's head while the other was trying to hack away at its opponents legs. So, there's definitely some tribal gecko wars going on and the battle ground are the walls of my house. Charming. I'm just glad I haven't found any limbs. I think their cannibalistic tendencies kick in pretty quickly when they see a fellow gecko lying dead. There's plenty "siti blong gecko" (gecko poo) around the place...

Third random thing is ants. Ok, so ants are pretty normal. They come and go in my house without rhyme or simile, just whenever they like really. In NZ, I once had a big pile of sugar that was sitting outside (yes, I wasn't the most organised house wife) and I figured that that deterred them from coming inside because they had plenty of sugar to eat outside.

But here I don't need to worry about that because I have "Wonder Miraculous Insecticide Chalk". It's this random Asian chalk that you buy and it promises that "the insect's nervous system will fail to function' when it comes into contact with the chalk. The name of the chalk cracks me up. I felt a bit stupid when I asked for it in the shop. Who wants to go to a shop and ask for something as ridiculously titled as "Wonder Miraculous Insecticide Chalk".

Apparently it works. I have yet to see the positive results (I only applied the chalk this morning). I'm just afraid that I'll have a whole heap of dead ants on my kitchen bench. I hope they step on the chalk, and then go home and die there...

Oh, in scarier news, I almost forgot, I had a traumatic experience with my oven mit the other day. So, you see, I was roasting some vegies (which are so cheap and abundant here!!) and I got my hand into my oven mit to take out the roasting dish and I felt this rubbery bit of string thing in there and I thought, "halo, this is a bit odd..." I put my hand in further, still feeling this odd thing, and then quickly withdrew my hand. A small gecko quickly leaped out and ran for cover underneath the spice rack. Poor thing. It wouldn't move for a few minutes after that and when I poked it again, it quickly ran away over my coffee and spices to the window.

To be honest with you, I gave a small scream (no, I assure you, it was a small scream) when it came out. I don't know who was more traumatised, me or the gecko, probably the gecko. Needless to say, I give the oven mit a good shake out before I use it!!