Local Wildlife That Has Gotten In My House (plus a bird)

So, the adjustment to living in Australia has included the adjustment to dealing with new and differnt kinds of creepy crawly things that make their way inside when the weather gets bad outside. The weather has been bad, with more rain this "spring" than any on record, and I think December (the first official month of Summer) has also been one of the wettest on record, as well. I should add here that I was out walking the beach the other day, admiring what rain looked like out over the ocean (and it does look quite neat), when it dawned on me that I could no longer see it. That is because it had gotten too close (forest-trees...do you know that adage?). I had just turned around to go home when it start to rain. It was light at first, and I just walked along thinking I would be home soon. Well, sooner than that, it turned into a soft summer rain that can make one deceptively wet.  I thought, "This is not to bad," but before I knew it, my shirt was soaked, my shorts were wet, and my underwear was starting to stick to me, a sign that they too were getting wet. My phone, my passport, and my pack of gum all got quite wet, but the money in my pocket was water proof, so it was fine.
But I digress.
The rain has driven a number if insects and critters closely associated into my apartment, and I have killed a number of bugs I have never seen before. However, the other night, I was at the sink in the kitchen when I saw legs and the end of that lower segment of an insect's body (thorax?) on the back side of my kitchen window shade. Only it was eff-ing huge! I almost died right then. But I regained my wits, and went for the trusty shoe. I smacked the shade against the window frame, a blow that should have killed my new friend dead. Instead, it knocked him free, and he fell on my stove top, crawled wickedly fast across it, and dropped behind it before I could recover from the shock of realizing I missed. For two days, I left my kitchen light on, to keep myself from encountering this guy without proper lighting. And for two full days, he stayed behind the oven, not showing any sign of himself.  Then, on the second night of our stay together, he crawled out, and across the wall, into the living room. I watched the whole thing happen. I realized he was so big (as long as my pinkie finger, or Mom's, since our hands are about the same size) that he was having a hard time staying on the ceiling. His weight caused him to fall, and I smacked him with 'My Adidas." But not before taking this picture:

Now, that was last week. And I finally could walk through the house without feeling my skin crawl. This was the fifth "Cockie" I have seen in my house (One drown in the shower in a pool of stagnent water, two I have killed near my sink, and one I found belly up in the middle of the Kitchen floor), but it was by far the biggest, and I know how long it hung about AFTER the first time I noticed it. What is unknown, however, is how long was it inside before I saw it, a question that troubles me the most.

This morning, I awoke at 7 am to notice a giant spider on the ceiling of my bedroom. At first, I was uncertain to what it was, thinking it might even be an imbedded light fixture like the one in the living room (for reading). But then the foggy, just-woke-up vision I was suffering from cleared enough for me to realize, in a moment of heart stopping fear, that it was a spider. I watched it crawl along the crown molding (or whatever kind of molding it is), around my entire bedroom. It passed my bedroom window, and began to descend. I was up, broom in hand, and clearing a vacuum and an ironing board out of the corner before it got lost in the mess. I sprayed it with an IGA version of Raid I found under my kitchen sink (Black and Gold brand...GO Pittsburgh!), thinking it would die immediately. It didn't. Instead it moved faster than I have ever seen a spider move, and hid behind this wardrobe-like piece of furniture that sits unused in my room. It holds some blankets inside, and a few extra pillows on top. I was in a panic, thinking this beast was going to take up residence behind the furniture, and I would never know what happened o it. I even said outloud, "I am going to have to sleep on the couch from now on, because there is no way I am sleeping in here." Well, just as I was about to give up, the guy re-emerged, clearly affected by the poison, but still trying to soldier on. His legs were moving, but with out any real certainty. He fell off the wall, and sat in the floor for some time, not moving. I tried to poke him with the broom, but he started off again. I eventually weilded the shoe, again making "My Adidas" quite the murdeous brute. I hit the poor spider three times, just to make sure he was dead. But not before taking a picture:

The white mop board just to the right of our friend measures about 3 inches in width, just to give some perspective. This was the biggest spider I have ever had to personally come in contact with. I hope it was a one-time thing! I am still feeling the jittery after-effects of our morning encounter.

Ok, so the bird. It looks like a crow (and is about the same size), but it is black and white. One day, I was walking up this path between the caravan park (campground in America) and the fence marking off this property that is across the street from my place, on my way to the beach. One of these birds was on the path ahead of me, and instead of flying away, it walked up the path 10 feet in front of me, occasionally looking back to see if I was still coming. I laughed, but he was persistant about not leaving. He made it almost although way up the path, before ducking under the fence and letting me pass. I swear I saw contempt in his bird eyes as I passed him. Oh, and I think this might be the bird that has a craw that sounds almost exactly like Simone, and his nightly yowl. I hear it every night as the sun sets, and it always creeps me out in that way too familiar way. The bird looks like this: