Critter

Yesterday evening I was having a cup of tea and a smoke out on the porch when my peace was suddenly interrupted by the flying entry of an enormous bug which made a couple of wobbly circles of the immediate area, crashed into a wall, and landed on its back on my tea table. I took this at first to be a cockroach, for, as people familiar with cockroaches will know, the things often end up on their backs, unable to turn themselves over again. It was, however, the most enormous cockroach I had ever seen. Note: I am both fascinated and terrified by giant bugs. So I took a photo of the critter and posted in on Facebook, where one reader commented that this was not a bug at all but a small mouse. A flying mouse? No, I don't think so. As it happens, a friend here had also just recently posted regarding an infestation of a certain flying beetle in Bali and included a photo in his post. Ah ha, that was it! This was not a cockroach at all, but a beetle. Not as bad as a cockroach, but still not someone I enjoy having tea with. In any case, when I went into my room to post my own photo, the critter somehow regained its feet and was gone by the time I returned to the porch.