The successive states of the universe, regarded as a whole, in which, each state occurrs either before or after every other. + Mr. Spider.

Now that the clocks have gone back, it's dark at five. Stop messing about with the time...If it was up to me we'd be on 'British Summer Time' all year round. No, actually 'Double British Summer Time' like in World War Two. Who wants that extra hour of light in the morning when it's all cold, you need it in the evening when the sun has warmed things up and you can enjoy it? Anyway, that's not my real subject. Why is it when it starts to get dark early and there's that nip in the night air, do you open the back door and find this chap waiting to get in; again?!

I've put him out so many times, but he keeps on coming back. It's not that I don't like him or anything (we don't have any poisonous spiders, some of the little ones will bite, but you won't get much more than a small lump at worst), it's just that he will get under your feet. I'm so worried I'm going to step on him.

I tried to convince him to get onto my hand for a lift outside, but he wasn't having any of it.

This is a'Giant House Spider' (Tegenaria gigantea) and they are the quickest running spider in the world....so trying to corrale him and guide him back out ended in both of us being out of breath!

I tried reasoning with him. I pointed the direction I wanted him to go, but no, he turned his back to me and sulked.

It turns out he wasn't coming in to escape the cold. In spring and autumn they are on the lookout for a Mrs. Gigantea! The males have these 'palps' , while the females don't and are even bigger!

I decided to let him stay. He's been no trouble. He's been behind the fridge most of the time. He'll come out for a bit of a sprint across the kitchen floor at night and wait at the door to be let into the hall. There's no girlfriend spider yet. I think we're going to have to tidy him up a little, maybe have a word about those hairy palps....