Hound of the Baskervilles

Half way through this book, I was half scared, half jittery, half dying to know what would happen next. It is one of my favourite Sherlock Holmes stories. Of course, when you are a kid of 12, silly things like hounds can scare you senseless. You can't get scared of all that when you are a mature responsible adult.

Mostly, anyway.

So here I am, a Modesty Blaise in flesh and blood, living in a swanking apartment in a quiet neighbourhood. All is well until midnight strikes. And then, the night silence is shattered by the ominous baying of a million dogs.

Owww...Oooo.....oooooooooooooooooooooooo

Let me tell you, when the confederation of mongrels decides to hold an olympic baying match in the wee hours, it takes all your willpower to not scramble in a mad dash to hide under the bed.

So I do what any mature responsible adult does - plug my ipod in at a really really loud volume, dunk my head in half a dozen pillows and pray.

And somewhere in the midst of all that chaos, blessed sleep washes over.

On The Warpath

Normally, I am quite chicken. One day though, I had to absolutely get to the refrigerator to put some goodies into my growling tummy, when what should I see but the hugest, most hideous and decidedly nasty cockroach perched guard outside the fridge door.

I nearly fainted with fright. However, my stomach didn't quite like the thought of starving just because some despicable creature from the insect kingdom decided to stake its claim on its share of food and let out a particularly loud growl.

I hesitantly approached the cockroach with a huge weapon (left shoe with pointy toes and big heel) for my protection and started muttering soothing adjectives in the hope of budging the creature from its perch.

Alas, but to no avail! He glared at me with murder in its eye and I hastily stepped back to re-strategize. Praying feverently, I decided I should imitate Jackie Chan and land a good one on the offending roach. I creeped up slowly and raised my weapon....

SMASH!!!!!

Praise be to Allah, it worked!!

My tummy is now rather snug and happy, thank you.