Wednesday 12 March 2008

Converse loving ants, and other stories.

For the first time in a few days I decided to come home straight after work, instead of wandering around the City. So I gobbled up a yummy chicken fried rice at the station nearest to home and walked down to the apartment.

As I opened the door and took a few steps, I realised I had stepped on water. Now I know it had rained a bit, but the roof couldn't be leaking as there were 12 floors living above me. At first I thought the damn toilet had broken and was gushing water, as it had been giving us a few problems since we moved in, but that wasn't it. I walked towards my room and there was more water. Shit. Panic hit in as I opened the door to discover an inch of water all over my room. My shoes, clothes, guitar, man bag, and suitcase were all in the water! While I was busy at work, some serious rain had obviously pelted down!

I immediately knew what the cause was. Attached to my room is a little balcony like bit. The drain pipe had got stuck with branches and some dried seed-ish looking thing, which resulted in the balcony filling up, in turn which resulted in the water flowing into my room. So there I was, an inch of water in my room, 7 inches in the damned balcony.

My housemates and I spent an hour and a half cleaning away with one mop, one bathroom mat and a pair of slippers, sweeping the water away, while we used a nail clipper to fix the drain pipe - the cause of this mess. Phew, this was not what I wanted after quite a tiring day. So anyway, since the room was FINALLY clean, I chucked all my wet clothes into the washing machine, and put away my wet shoes to dry. I think I'm going to have to put em in the washing machine. Any tips on washing shoes in a washing machine?

Sorry I digress. So anyway, as I was putting my shoes away, I picked up my khaki converse slip-ons. Now this was quite a bargain in India where I picked em up for INR 400-odd. When you're wearing trousers it looks as if you're wearing a normal pair of converse shoes, just without the hassle of wearing the converse shoes. Brilliant. As I pick em up to put em away along with the rest of the banished-but-wet shoes, I notice about 5 ants scramble out of them. Now these weren't your normal ants. Remember when you were in school in year 3 or 4 and you saw these big ass black ants on the trees? Thel Kumbiyo? Well it was em. The sumo wrestler brigade of the black ants, if I may, as they were huge! I hope that's politically correct enough.

So in my hastiness, I chuck them into the tub. The shoes, ants and all that is. At this point about 20 more ants jump outta my damned shoes! So I aim the shower head and turn it to maximum with the hot water on and lo and behold a bajillion of em start trooping out to brave the waters! I had shivers running up and down my spine, and if any of those ants were named shivers, I had shivers running everywhere in my bathroom! Here's proof!




If only I ate ants, what a great time I would've had!

9 musings:

Darwin said...

Dude. That is freaky. Those bites can sting for days so I can relate to your panic.

On another note, if you do get bitten, rub some red onion on it asap, it works wonders. Zero swelling and it hardly stings either!

pissu perera said...

errr.. toe jam, maybe? ;)

Lady divine said...

err... that was kinda disgusting..;)
I would've run to get a bug spray and just sprayed it all over!!

and err.... how come soooo many ants in there???? hmmmm... :p

Rhythmic Diaspora said...

Confab - I have to say that it's definitley time for a new pair of Converses, ants or no ants, those ones are knackered!

Anonymous said...

Take a blood test for SUGER may be you are oozeing sweetness from your toes.

So many ants in a shoe, wow, may be a world record.

These ants are no joke they can really give PAIN!

Confab said...

Darwin - thanks for the red onion tip. I'll stink of a curry house though, but il use it. Came home to a few fat pesky ants still hovering around, so i happily stepped on em. They actually were quite crisp.

PP - ew! my feet are clean thank you very much!

LD - I didn't have bug spray. The shoes were in an inch of water, and in this country when things get wet, these huge ants just flock to the wet stuff. So that's why the ants, and no other reason. :P

RD - I swear those converse (or converses?) are only a few months old, and they don't look knackered in real life! They are slip ons rather than shoes, although they look like shoes. You wanna try em on for size?

Johann - now if ur theory were true, my gf would be happy if she had a foot fetish. but ur theory aint, and she doesn't have a foot fetish.

Anonymous said...

grose+++ u need to either wash the feet the next time you put ur shoes on....or wash the shoes the next time u decide to wear em...

Scrumps said...

Those picture actually sent shivers down my spine! Ewww!!

I don't think I would have even got into that bath tub until I had disinfected and the place checked out! :$

Washing trainers in washing machines - I've heard the best way is to put them in a pillow case before you put them in the machine. Makes sure they don't get over washed! :)

Anonymous said...

water,water and water every where. Well take a blood test for sugar of your Converse shoe. Ha ha ha ;-)