ATTACK!

Many apartment dwellers are plagued by unwanted (non-human) visitors. Roaches, rodents, the dreaded cockamouse- all terrifyingly ugly creatures whose main purpose seems to be popping out of impossibly tiny spaces at the most inopportune moments. Now, I've seen Roman rats in the street, fleeing into gutters and drainpipes, and I have not really enjoyed it, but at least I've always felt safe in the knowledge that I could go back to my clean house and not worry about it.

Now, however, I find that what I thought was a one-time event, a fluke, is in fact a recurrent plague in my beautiful home. Last year, a scorpion appeared in my bathroom. This unpleasant surprise was promptly crushed by the flip flop of death, wielded by my very brave friend and house guest (she had been invited, unlike the scorpion). I took to bleaching the entire bathroom once a week after that. And my bleach plan seemed to be working- I saw neither claw nor stinger for the rest of the year.

Unfortunately, it seems that something has gone terribly wrong. Either my absence has caused the scorpion community of Rome to return to its old haunts, or while I was away they developed a resistance to/love of bleach! Yes, indeed, this evening, a scorpion was once again seen on the hallowed tiles of my bathroom. Not as shocked as I was the first time this happened, I put on my wellies and grabbed the heaviest shoe in the house, and sallied forth into the shower to do battle with the tiny monster. It wasn't much of a battle; I am sure the scorpion didn't survive the first blow I dealt, but I made sure to hit it a few times, just to be sure. This one was much smaller than the one last year, so I washed it down the drain in the shower. And just for good measure, followed it down with some bleach.