Friday 3 October 2008

Spooky

I had one of those evenings last night, you know one of those evenings where everything is full of sinister danger. Outside was a howling torment of wind and rain, inside was all a rattle and a tattle of doors and window frames. It was a bit like being at sea in a big, dark creaking galleon.

So I decided to watch Spooks series one on DVD. Now I'm not the bravest of watchers, it has to be said. I'm okay with things like the Tellytubbies and In the Night Garden, but real proper horror, such as Eastenders and Casualty, scares me witless.

Odd, then, that I should have developed a passion for Spooks. Odder still that I should choose to watch Series One completely on my own while Brian suffered a late shift at work.

So, there I was, crouching terrified on the sofa, half hidden behind a cushion as hero Spook Tom and his attractive blond colleague had their husband and wife cover blown and were in mortal peril. To non-Spooks watchers, said pretty blond then comes to a sticky end courtesy of a deep fat fryer (face first) and a hand gun (which, after the frying incident, was probably the kindest thing to do).

All pretty shocking really, at least for the easily shocked such as myself.

So, I was already in a pretty sensitive state when suddenly my peripheral vision caught sight of Something Nasty walking along my leg in a very furtive and particularly creepy fashion. In a nano-second a blood curdling scream had issued forth while I swatted the beast off.

Once I had restarted my heart and ceased the screaming business, I thought it sensible a) to check exactly what the foul beast had been; and b) to establish whether it was alive or dead.

So I followed its elegant trajectory and found: a shrimp.

What?

Yes, a real, live shrimp, or, to be exact, one of the algae eating shrimps from the fish tank.

"You bastard!" I yelled unkindly at the tiny crustacean.

"Boing," it did back.

Now we paused for a moment of the heebie jeebies, probably on both parts, before I pulled myself together, fetched the goldfish landing net from the cupboard and recaptured the beast. It took three goes, the shrimp being of a bouncy persuasion, but I finally had it in custody and returned it to its tank in the dining room.

In the dining room?

Oh yes. Said shrimpy was a whole room away from home, the wrong side of a closed door.

How?

Now that's a very good question indeed. To get from the tank in the dining room to my lap in the living room is the shrimp equivalent of walking from here in the Preselis to the tip of Everest in Nepal.

So he/she is back in the tank again after his/her adventure. I had a good look to make sure that his/her wife/husband/life partner was also still in the tank too. He/she/it was. After all, one shrimpy shock during an evening of Spooks is enough for anyone.

16 comments:

  1. EEEK! Not so much the shrimp but I'd share your concerns about how it got there. Hope you don't have a Phantom Shrimp Flinger! Anyway, makes a change, I suppose, to go shrimping in your living room!

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  2. Scary Mags.
    Have you a cat by any chance?

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  3. Very spooky indeed.

    We had a similar incident when one of my son's terrapins 'disappeared' from its tank in his room on the attic floor of the house. We scoured the room - under beds, clothes, toy box etc. Also took a cursory look round the rest of the house. Nowhere to be found. It turned up about a week later on the front door mat. I suspect it had been given away to a friend who after awhile didn't want it so posted it back through the letterbox. But I will never know for certain.

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  4. are you sure a child wasn't involved?
    And as for scary, blimey, at least you weren't watching Silent Witness about gangs in London. Really freaked me out.

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  5. EEEK indeed! That would be enough to have me heaving said fish tank out the door. Very weird!

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  6. A shrimp? The way you carried on I thought it must be a huge spider! A shrimp is more unusual of course and much better to blog about!

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  7. LOL that 's so funny i thought it was to be a spider too. But a shrimp thats surreal xx

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  8. So funny Mags! I love a gothic tale and this one had such a twist in the tale. I wouldn't trust a shrimp who doesn't know his place.

    Was going to bed the other night, as you do - whipped back the cover to see something large and leggy race across my pillow. I shrieked for all I was worth and I'm not a shrieking type, and poor Dave nearly had heart failure. Leapt out of bed to me yelling, "KIll IT!!!" So NOT funny! xx

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  9. Nearly fell over laughing! At least it wasn't a spider - that would really have freaked me out.

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  10. A shrimp??? How on earth? What a strange thing to happen.

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  11. must be like those tales of it raining frogs. scary stuff.

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  12. You watch these scary things on your own? Don't you know this is practically inviting shrimp attack? You are a braver woman than i am.

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  13. No wonder you went eeek!!! Elizabethm is quite right - inviting a shrimp attack. Now what will tempt the spiders down....

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  14. Well how creepy and mysterious. Very funny too. Nice catching up with you. M :-)

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  15. There's an award for you at mine.

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  16. I bet you used to hide behind the sofa when the Daleks were on too! We don't have wandering shrimps, but we do have froglets/toadlets and newts with a poor sense of direction - they walk right under the front door where the floor is worn, and then march up the hall. Sometimes we find them dessicated in corners, months later . . .

    Jennie with Itsy : ) Foundya!

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