If any would recall this entry, I had a nasty encounter with an insect at the outer reaches of my room, where the last I saw of the culprit was its feet going over the staircase directly to the first floor.

9:30pm, after a boring Christmas dinner at a parent's friend's home, and I had just put down my bag - and noticed something brown scuttle on the edge on my bed and disappear behind the blankets.

There was only one thing that was brown, scuttled and preferred hiding places.

I had to suppress myself till I got to the door.

"Can someone get me a bugspray? There's a cockroach on my bed."

My sister, who happened to be within earshot, screamed.

The bugspray was fetched by my mother, and we sprayed the vermin. That bug ran faster than the spray did, a leg's length ahead of the killer mist.

It crawled into a cranny between the mattress and the bedboards - we couldn't pursue it further, and decided to wait till it did.

It suddenly scurried off the bed, and crawled right onto my mother's foot.

A lady with more than 15 formidable years against this breed of vermin showed her mettle: She attempted to step on the roach, but it ran under the bed.

Now how were we to sleep that night?

But, this roach wasn't bright. It ran out - and right under my mother's foot again.

She didn't hesitate.

What was left of the roach was flushed away, and now I can have my roach-free bed to sleep in for the night.