1) I like to think if the situation calls for it, I can be brave. Not Joan of Arc brave but you know, not running for the hills screaming, "each man for himself."
2) I'm not what one would refer to as an "animal person."
When people find out that I'm not an animal person, the most common refrain I hear is, "but you're a farm girl!" This is true. However it is also true that I listened to the early morning lowing/bellowing of the cows, not with my head resting on a flank as I milked a cow, but from the warm comfort of my bed. I heard the clucking of the chickens outside the kitchen window and yelled threats at the rooster crowing at the crack of dawn (and continuously throughout the day). I kept a wary distance from the cats and I certainly never ever let an animal sleep on my bed.
Once I woke up at 3am to find a little mouse nibbling it's way through my rolled up Leo di Caprio posters. After a failed attempt to banish it from not just Leo's face, but my room, I called for my long suffering, ever gracious dad. (Mice are scary, what if it nibbled on my face while I slept?) He appeared , bleary eyed and dishevelled, and what ensued was a mouse hunt of epic proportions that involved brothers and dad chasing mouse around while I hopped from chair to bed, shrieking what I thought were helpful suggestions (apparently they were not). One more story to illustrate the point: On my first visit to my friend Eloise's house in Std 6, I woke up early on a Saturday morning and in the pre dawn light, saw her kitten on my bed. It wanted to play, with my face. I tried shooing it quietly off the bed but it only got more excited and scampered up the duvet towards me. In fright and self defence I lifted the duvet a little too forcefully and the kitten (whose name was Babycats) went sailing off the bed and landed with a gentle thump on the floor. Feeling simultaneously guilty and relieved, I planned to keep that little incident between Babycats and I..until I heard..."joh joh joh" from my friend who'd silently watched the whole thing.
Ok, digression over.
A few weekends ago I met my good friend Jess in Siem Reap. On Saturday morning we headed off to see Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples on quaintly rickety hired bicycles. After taking a wrong turn and realising a few kms later we headed back and eventually found our way in. That evening we cycled back and sitting on the steps and chatting in the evening light, we saw a troupe of monkeys with their babies clinging to them heading our way. The situation played out something like this:
Jess: Ah look how cute these babies are, hello little guy.
Me: Ah sweet.. ooh there are quite a lot, perhaps we should go.
Me: Ya, I think we should go. Let's go!
At this point the monkeys were around us and Jess was sitting down, taking pictures of them. I turned my camera off and took off down the steps, calling out: "Come on Jess, lets go!"
Jess: Vic, there's a monkey on my back.
Me (backing away down the stairs): Oh, oh gosh!
Jess: Help me!
Me: Um.. ok.. um.. uh.. there's also one clawing at your knee
Jess: Yes I know, help me get it off.
Me: Um uh (looking wildly around for someone else to help)
At this point a man came close and ineffectually swatted at the monkey on her back while I took another step down and imagined the monkeys descending on us in a frenzy.
Jess managed to remove them (no thanks to the man or I) and we hurried away gratefully, while I giggled in nervous relief and apologised for my cowardly behaviour.
So call me in your time of need, and if it involves out of control animals I'll call someone nearby to help you out.
