Spiders, Floats, and Lemonade

I finally got it.

It really started two weeks ago when I was left alone (with my able bodied nurses) in the clinic for a super-long weekend. And, there was a big-ass spider in the women's toilet. "It was one of 'these,'" I said as I jumped into a broad based stance and spread my arms out menacingly. "I shall be using the men's room."

They laughed. Then, equipped with a can of Aussie "Raid", we inspected the restroom. And, of course, it was not there.

This isn't a story of how I ruptured my bladder. This is a story of how my spider rendition persisted. And, grew. Then, morphed.

Repeatedly, for the next week, I was asked "what kind of spider did you see?" And, while I believed it was a "huntsman"- though this one was most likely a "huntswoman" and would, no doubt, be voting for Sarah Palin if only Australian Spiders could vote in the US election - I mimed the answer and threw myself into the spread-eagle-spider-on-the wall pose. Eventually everybody had seen my show and the conversation became more philisophical. Not, how could a spider of that size vanish into thin air? but, what is a spider?

To which Kayla responded "ice cream and lemonade".

Eeewwwwwhhhh.

Which brings me back full circle to Sunday's revelation as we were tooling down Gympie on the way home from the grocery. It was then I remembered: Australians don't mean lemonade when they say lemonade. They're asking for something like Sprite or 7-up: a lemon soda. They want the "un-cola".

So - as with all great questions - one answer leads to more questions.
- What do Australians call lemonade? (lemon juice + water + sugar)??
- Why do they call those ice cream drinks "spiders"?
- If they combined coke with ice cream, is that a spider? a tick? a centipede?
- Where did I see Barq's root beer for sale?