You got the Umlaut right and everything!

I'm afraid that was the miracle of cutting in pasting. All I can legitimately do in German is order coffee with milk and sugar and thank people warmly.

All I can legitimately do in German is order coffee with milk and sugar and thank people warmly.

Well, these are all pretty important things too. Especially coffee.

Speaking of which... I'm off to bed now, so goodnight all.

Ein bier, bitte! Danke schoen!

And Happy Belated Birthday, Benno!

And you're a one-trick FayJay?

I can turn all manner of tricks, but after a year working with the US curriculum I'd much rather get back to the UK system - I'm sick of feeling like I need to apologise for my skills and training, and I'd like to keep in touch with what's considered good practise in the UK, and the latest developments, and all that jazz. (You would be surprised by how much teaching methodology and philosophy varies from English-speaking nation to English-speaking nation. I know I am.)

Um.

But I'd like to go to Australia. 'Cept...well, I admire your enthusiasm for Australia's wildlife, but I am a wee bit daunted by the VAST array of bitey and poisonous beasties you have. (Keeping in mind that we have the adder, and that's your lot.) I mean, spiders that wait in the toilet with the specific intention of poisoning your arse. That's pretty disconcerting. Um.

I realise that I am now dead to you, and that this may hinder our attempts to fight crime together.

Australia has spiders that wait in the toilet with the specific intention of poisoning your arse ?

That's like, my biggest childhood fear. I only grew out of it by convincing myself there was no such thing, and now you're telling me they're real?? Jebus.

That's like, my biggest childhood fear. I only grew out of it by convincing myself there was no such thing, and now you're telling me they're real?? Jebus.

Well, you can think about rats coming up through your toilet instead, if that helps take your mind off the spiders.

t /not really helping

Thanks, Frank. @@ Rats, actually not a fear of mine.

::not thinking about the poisonous toilet spiders::

Oh, great. Now I'm thinking about poisonous toilet snakes. I'ma get more coffee.

I'm reminded of that bit in The Milagro Beanfield War, where Amarante Cordova cautions clueless gringo sociology grad student Herbie Platt about using an outhouse in New Mexico: "...be sure not to lean too far back on the seat in the outhouse, or let your testicles swing up under the wood--black widows."

Still one of my most favorite movies ever. Roaringly funny and desperately sad. Also good storytelling, decent acting, and gorgeous scenery.

I think the Feared Toilet Spider story was snopes-slapped, although I'm too lazy to check it out at the moment.

As a New Mexican whose grandparents' farm was still outhoused for the first few years of my life, I will say that most people keep the place free from black widows. I mean, New Mexicans are tough hombres, but a couple passes with a broom every so often is a small price to pay for not getting black-widowed in the testicles.

My grandmother did have to use the woodaxe to kill a rattlesnake that had taken up residence in the outhouse, though.

This is Snopes' debunking of the Toilet Spider In Public Bathroom scare story-- but note that at the end it adds "some spiders prefer dark, cool places and can sometimes be found under (mostly outdoor) toilet seats", and names the Australian Redback Spider as an example. So I'd say: on an airline? Probably no spiders. In an outdoor toilet in a country where spiders are common? Might be more of a concern.

That said, the outdoor toilet at my grandmother's cottage in Cornwall is free of posionous spiders, but tends to be absolutely crawling with slugs. They like to live inside the cistern.