I was in the small space of a caravan today and I heard a buzzing sound. I looked up to see a colourful bug flying around the window looking a bit dozy. I had seen many of these things dead in radiator grills, but never in an alive state. When I looked closer I could see it had a 1 inch long spike sticking out from it's bum so I thought I should remove it just in case. If it was dangerous and likely to sting me I would SURELY have heard about it, but I hadn't so I wasn't worried.

After whacking it with my clipboard to no avail, I got a cloth and squashed it into my hand (or so I thought). I took it outside and was suprised to find that it was still alive, so spent a few moments studying it and examining the inch long stinger which was waving about trying to get at me. As soon as it was able, it flew off into the air, probably saying "thank god I got away from that loon" to itself.

When I told my colleague about this cool insect he looked a little wide eyed and said, so you've never seen a hornet before then? Ah! No, I guess I hadn't. Now the stupid thing is that I am rather scared of wasps and would never consider picking one up and putting up close to my face, but since I had no idea that this thing was likely to hurt me badly I had done just that. Is ignorance bliss? or is it just a really bad series of stings? I guess I was very lucky not to have found out the hard way.

Now, you may be wondering what the alternative title, "whoops I did it again" refers to. Or you may just assume that I am a huge Britney fan. I'm sorry to disappoint (?) but it is not the latter. Sorry Britney. It actually refers to a very similar situation I found myself in in Lao, and if you want to know about that, you can read about it here.