Ticked off!

That is a tick. Yes, the same kind that you pick off your dogs and go "ewww". Except I picked this thing off myself. And it is less than 1mm wide, so on my leg, it looked like a nondescript mole, or even a blackhead.

Here's some sense of perspective for you: this is said tick on a square of toilet paper.


And I had 6 of these. And I never suspected having them, inspite of nagging prickling stings I felt all day. And after all this time, they'd established some kind of adamantine grip on my skin that picking them off was quite a chore -- I had to squeeze them off and pick off some skin in the process.

You see, this is both horrifying and amusing -- yes amusing, because at one point last night, in the forest off Venus Drive, when James and I were squatting under a branch waiting in the stillness of the night for our 30-second exposures to complete, he says something like "Ok, so we're here, keeping still, in the middle of the jungle. I wonder what could get us now." and I went something like "Mosquitoes lor. As long as not ticks la. That would be gross."

Ah.

This is what we were waiting for though, completely worth the harrowing experience of picking off ticks one day late: a glowing aboreal mushroom.

How pretty!

You know, at least we didn't get a whole leg full like Siyang and co. when they ventured off the trail at Bukit Timah Hill. That's really gross!