Timber!

My dad's idea of gender equality is "girls do yard work".

A few days ago yet another dead tree fell across our fence and on top of a power line. He says all the tree fall is the church's fault for having several trees around the parsonage poisoned to clear the land some time ago - stupid idea if you ask me, because a dead tree is still a tree unless you're going to cut it down anyway.

Tenaga Nasional didn't show up so he took it upon himself to risk both our lives by sawing the tree in half and heaving the top half out of the way. Safety precaution? Slip an old piece of carpet between the tree and the electric wire. Love you too, Pa. =PPP

Then we had to go into the jungle on the other side of the fence to move the bottom half, which made me very nervous because of the presence of leeches. This may sound odd, but if you've never watched a leech, which is blind, deaf, and for all purposes except eating, headless, CHASE you (by smell or sensing body heat presumably), it's an incredibly creepy sight.

By the time my mum and I were finished sawing the top half of the tree into manageable branches and throwing them down the hill, I was covered in mosquito bites. Whatever people say about "natural" citronella repellants, they don't work.

Afterwards I found one leech attached to the sole of my left foot and didn't find the other leech attached to the top of the same. The second one had hit a vein so I walked around the house oozing like a haemophiliac for hours...

So maybe I've conquered my leech-phobia, but I still have a very healthy hatred of them.