From the other side of the garden fence my neighbour says very loudly and very sincerely, If I could go back and had the chance to start all over again, I would never have children. Not in a million years are they worth it.

This is a thought that should be left to simmer quietly in dusty, rarely used corners of the mind. A bit of me prickles coldly. Is wishing people non-existent as bad as rendering them non-existent?

.

Spent disproportionately long time standing in the shower after having turned it off watching a spider climb the metal pole of the shower rail. He got about half way up before he slid back down to the soap tray, where he sat and contemplated, waved his foremost spider leg in my general direction, perhaps a you’ll see… He was very close, so close that if I were to sigh he would have been buffeted against the blue sea shell tiles, so close I could see his little black spider tongue licking the tips of his mousy brown feelers. Began again his perilous journey toward the shower head. But why, I asked, there’s nothing up there. Everyone is trying to get somewhere. Even the spiders in my house are restless. He got a bit further, before falling again, which mid-fall it turned into a neat eight-legged leap, possibly for my naked sake. I saw right through his spider facade. Fifteen minutes later he had still not given up climbing, and nor had I watching. It became a battle of wills.

The spider won. Last time I checked he was still there, striving for the unattainable shower head.

One determined spider.