Hungry Ghost's Daily Diet (TM)

Yesterday, a cousin e-mailed me from Kuching, there he was minding his own business when Heng, the dog (who recovered from a bad case of mange thought serious enough to kill her, but that's another story), started barking furiously, and...well, I'll let him tell it in his own words.

Originally posted by BC:

There I was minding my own business when our dog Heng-Heng started barking her head off, and so she should as she would normally warn us of any visiting snakes. This time it was a Naja sumatrana sputatrix, a spitting cobra. It was a similar snake which spat at the dog last year and nearly blinded her (My! Heng-heng leads an exciting life). These rude cobras tend to spit venom when stressed (but my local friendly snake expert -- Rob Stuebing -- advised me that bites from such cobras are usually not fatal unless one tends to run around after being bitten). I apologise for my poor picture taken under much duress, mainly due to the screaming wife, but I did want to make a positive identification of this particular snake since a similar one snuck up on S [the wife] a couple months back. For reference, the axle of our old bike in the photo is 9" (23 cm) off the ground.

Scary eh? This picture reminded me of the time when I was but a wee lad, running errands for my grandmother. She had asked me to to deliver a bucket to my aunty. At the time, our yards backed up onto each other and there was a path that led to a gate in the fence that separated our land. So there I was, tripping along with the bucket. I reached the gate, and SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS, a cobra (hooded head so I knew) reared up by my side, ready to strike (I could see its nasty fangs, so I was sure). I panicked and threw the bucket at it, and ran. These days, knowing what Rob Steubing up there said, I might have stepped back and whipped out my trusty camera and taken pictures....but wait, I can't. My camera is at my sisters, I left it there. I feel like I'm missing a limb. Anyway, I got into huge trouble for leaving the bucket on the ground. Well - would you have gone back and turn it upside up given that an angry hissing cobra could have caught under it? Both Aunty and Grandmother told me off for getting mud on the nice new bucket, and neither believed me about the snake. The trauma.

So the bad mood of which I spoke last Friday was eradicated this weekend. The blur of activities. Goodness. I skipped out on helping at the LT Tri, but was forgiven by GA, the volunteer coordinator, who empathized completely about late flights and the rigors of international travel. Much unlike ML who simply called me lazy. Well. We'll see if he gets any tarts. Ha. Then on Sunday, there was a convulated plan to do a reconnaisance run in preparation for the upcoming Tender Knee.

I received my instructions a few days previous to the Sunday.

"listen up! This is all for your benefit! You rent a car for a few hours! We both drive to the finish line in deep cove! I leave my car there and you drive your car to the start! We run the course! Once we finish, we take my car, you take a cab drive to yours and we come home!"

Who am I to argue? it's not like I had a bucket to throw at MB. So we ran the 12K...lessee...a gentle slope down, then across the bridge (it's obvious!), then a 3K steep incline to the powerlines, cut across Old Mushroom Trail, then head downwards scree for a few K on a trail filled with loose rock and big tree roots, then up for a bit, then onto the final trail to Deep Cove where we went down, then up, then down, then up, then down, then up, then down again and finally into the parking lot of the park. Hot and sunny day so it was tough going. But no cobras popping up in the underbrush at least.


In the parking lot at Deep Cove, someone had left a St. Bernard in the back of a car, the poor thing was heaving and panting heavily because of the heat. So someone called the cops, he came and let the dog out, we gave it some water - lovely adorable dog. Not sure why the owner would have left it in the car on such a day. I was hoping that the owner would come back in time for us to see the Mr. Cop lecture him, but no such luck. Instead, it was back to town, grab a quick lunch, PJ joined us, still dizzy and giddy from the travails and triumphs of the previous day (he conquered his bad back and raced in the LT Tri) and other goings-on. Then sleep.