Sunday, 4 March 2007

Flies

Laurie seems to think the bug theme should continue, and knowing how meek and mild I am, always willing to simply follow other people's suggestions at the drop of a hat... I deigned to follow her instructions. Actually, I've been thinking about mentioning a few other bugs, but thought maybe I should get away from that for awhile. Oh well. And by the way, Laurie keeps saying she's going to post here, and she won't even bother mentioning that she's writing because our writing styles are so different, you'll "hear her voice" as soon as you read it.

First topic, because they are such a horrible nuiscance, is flies. Have you ever watched those World Vision sponsor child commercials, most of which show little kids with flies sitting in their eyes/nose/mouth? We have met those flies. Laurie has frequently complained about the "divebombing", in which the flies come out of nowhere and go straight for an available orifice. Thanks to her glasses her eyes are more protected than mine, though the locals talk about how the flies get behind glasses and slam back and forth between the glass and your eyeball. They will also fly straight down your throat given the chance, or Laurie's personal pet peeve, when they try to fly into your ears. Haven't had one up the nose yet... The thing is, you can't go outside without them finding you and so you develop the "australian hello" waving around your body/face every few seconds. Apparently lots of kids come to the hospital ER with eye infections thanks to these little guys. These flies are also termed "sticky flies". If you make the mistake of letting them land on your skin/clothing they don't let go easily. Like having an ant crawl on your leg, it takes more than moving around to get rid of it, you have to actually brush it off with some force. and they bite.
On the topic of ants... oh next time maybe.
What do they say in Australia? I can't think of much at the moment, but here's a couple: fortnight (two weeks), cannulate (start an IV)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i believe they use fortnight in england too.
those flies sound aweful and i am NOT jealous of you having to deal with them! arg im annoyed just by your destription!

Anonymous said...

not that your description was annoying but you helped me picture them and im annoyed with my knowledge of them