It seems I spoke too soon...

Since the cockroach incident, I've been keeping windows and doors locked..with one exception. After I shower I usually leave the bathroom window with just the screen on overnight. This is because I've been warned about mould forming if you don't ventilate that room when it's wet. There's a slight risk of insects with just the screen closed. The edges are made of a black brush/fringe material, which technically things can push through, since it's not solid.

The other weakness of my shower-room is the big round drain in the floor. The holes are the shape of paracetamol tablets, but maybe 50% bigger. I keep a brick covering it to prevent stuff crawling up. Unfortunately it's slightly narrower than the diameter of the drain..not by much though. I try to pour bleach down there regularly too.

The safety net of the shower room is the sliding doors which completely seal, unlike any other doors in the apartment. I figure that if anything gets in there, at least it will stay in there and not go wandering round the house.

So about an hour ago, I got home and went to take a shower. I went into the shower room in the dark and shut the window (which I'd left open since yesterday). Then I slid back the brick covering the drain with my foot (if I don't do that the room floods when the shower's on). I went to grab towels and returned, turning on the light. That's when I noticed a small movement at on the floor, in my peripheral vision...uhoh...

I left, closing the door and spent the next half an hour trying to decide whether I'd imagined it! Eventually, I went back, slid the door open a crack and oh-mother-of-God, there's a not so tiny spider peeking out from under the bath. Having assembled a spider-extermination kit: flipflop to hit it with, hoover to suck it up, basin to cover it with..I eventually went with the cockroach spray. It retreated back under the bath with a worrying crab-like, side-to-side motion..which I reckon means that it's a baby-huntsman, a newborn presumably cos it's legspan is only about the size of my palm with no fingers.

Having sprayed a lot more cockroach spray under the bath after it I closed the door to fumigate it to death. Unfortunately, when I came back a few minutes later I realised that the hall outside smelt like cockroach spray..the bathroom's not as air-tight as I'd thought. In fact, there's a pretty wide crack where one door doesn't stay closed properly without pressure on it, problem! Fortunately, I though up a scheme for holding it closed. I've always said I had too many rooms in my apartment anyway..guess I won't be showering anymore.