Big Mama

My worst nightmare was unfolded in front of my eyes on Thursday night. It seems that my sightings of baby cockroaches in the kitchen was the calm before the storm. The baby's mother made her appearance on the night in question and she was a BIG mama. I have only had one sighting of such a beast before -- when I stayed in the beautiful* Chunking Mansions in Hong Kong. I remember being awoken by cries from the Canadian girl who was in the shower, only to find this animal climb out of the bathroom (if you could even call it a bathroom) after her. It was enormous! Luckily for me the Swiss girl sharing my bunk bed got her shoe and whacked it....a lot.

My room in Chunking Mansions, Hong Kong (not quite five star, but getting there)

This time I was also in luck as Kimi was staying at my apartment. She took the initiative and sprayed it to death (and even then it came back from the dead) using what seemed like the whole can of insect killer (I didn't want it to die really, but this thing was something else. Have you seen the Alien films?).

The 9RMB an hour cleaner was called in and she cleaned the cupboards where the cockroaches must have been hiding. She found a smaller relative inside, picked it up by the tentacles and tossed it into a bin bag. I envy her.

The situation seems to be back to normal now, no sightings in the kitchen and no more tiny ones running around. I pray that they are all gone forever, surely another family won't want to climb sixteen floors again, will they?

Other than that it's been a fairly uneventful two days off, mainly because of the weather. Kimi and I had planned to go to the originally named "Water World" but too much water falling from the sky put us off.

*Sarcasm