The Confessions of a Beachcomber ... and a housewife

I have just had the privilege to read "The Confessions of a Beachcomber" by E.J Banfield. Lent to me by a descendant. Published in 1908 it is the story of E.J Banfield who was born in Liverpool. He emigrated to Australia in 1854 aged 2. He followed his father into printing and journalism until he found it exhausted him and he took off to Dunk Island off the coast of Queensland where he spent the better part of a quarter century until his death in 1923. He lived on the island with his wife Bertha and he wrote the book about what he saw around him. He describes all the fauna and flora in great detail as well as all the fish, turtles and dugongs in the ocean. He talks about his encounters with Aboriginals on the island and some of their hunting habits. It's a fascinating insight into the little island and how this man chose to live a better simpler life. Apparently it was quite the bestseller and he became a well known personality, an early day celeb. 

He says "Here I come to my birthright - a heritage of nothing save the most glorious of all possessions: freedom- freedom beyond the dreams of most men in its comprehensiveness and exactitude. These haphazard notes refer to the exercise of rare independence. They reveal my puny efforts to be none other than myself." 

"Each day has been blue - radiantly blue- nothing more". 

He concludes- "If the day and night are such that you greet them with joy and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal - that is your success." 

And now... to the confessions of a housewife. There is an ad on Aus telly where a housewife sniffs inside her washing machine and screws up her face. Its stinky and the answer is a Dettol- like- disinfectant - I laughed when I saw it - what next?  To disinfect everything from your daily life is SO wrong. But when I opened my washing machine to my horror I smelt something whiffy and soon found out why. Look what was in between the rubber tubing. 

I don't live on an island off the coast of Qld - how on earth did this centipede get into my washing machine ?Any answers or guesses? Life is indeed on a bit of a spin cycle!