Along came a spider, who sat down beside her...

Our book-loving friend

And I wasn’t frightened away. Rob and I love spiders and happily share our home with them, although this year they have been bigger and closer. We don’t have a television but we do watch films and on the last two occasions we have been joined by what is clearly a relative of the tarantula family. It pops its head over cushions and watches us with a beady eye, next news it makes a dash and you’re never sure where it will appear next. The other night I caught it reading my book (pictured) so you can see that we’re living in close proximity with our arachnid friends.

            Perhaps a little too close.

            Today I was writing (as I do through the daylight hours), tapping away on my keypad, trying to put the finishing touches to an article on using yoga to improve your running. Twice I felt something brush my chest but put it down to perhaps a falling eyelash (yes, I’m like the princess, I can feel a pea under ten mattresses as well). Then I felt the distinct feel of footsteps over my knee, four pairs of them. Either I was being ambushed by four tooth-fairies or one of our house-guests had joined me. It was the latter, and I didn’t mind but it did remind me of our stay in Daman.

            We hadn’t quite been in India two weeks and, as my travel had been limited prior to this trip, I was a novice in much of the natural world. (On a train journey up to the Matharan Highlands I had excitedly pointed out the men sitting in the trees to Rob – they were monkeys!)

Our hotel in Daman was very nice, we had an ensuite room with hot water and a private balcony for 400 Rupees (£6.06 at the time) and, as we were staying there for several days we took the opportunity to unpack a few things, make use of the wardrobe and chill.

            It was in this hotel that I bothered to discuss the beetles with Rob, the shiny ones that joined me in the bathroom and scuttled round my feet. I thought they were quite beautiful in a dark and glistening kind of way. Rob told me they were cockroaches but, being the kind of person who judges others by how I find them rather than what I’ve heard about them, I was quite happy to share my bathroom with them. In fact you could say we got on well for the whole of our stay.

            Until the morning we were leaving.

            I got my pack out of the wardrobe (I always leave packing till the last minute) and started to stuff things in. At this point my things started to climb out – which was weird, we’d only been travelling a few days and our clothes weren’t that dirty. Within seconds my arm had turned quite black – moving black. I had grown a skin-tight, shimmering, gleaming, shrink-wrapped sleeve.

            Made of cockroaches.

Cockroach, courtesy of Just Animal

            And then I stopped liking them, I tipped my pack up and hundreds of six-legged armoured creatures ran out, covering my feet and filling every part of the room. And actually I flapped my arms about, became breathless and incoherent and rather like one of those screaming blondes that were popular in 80s movies (I’m thinking Goldie Hawn irrationality).

            There’s only one other creature that’s prompted such a reaction – and I’m afraid that’s another tale.