A horror story from the Oz branch of the famiy, via facebook:

"It started with an innocuous-sounding request on a typical wet and stormy Sydney evening: "Dad, I'm trying to get to sleep but there's a huntsman in my room. Can you catch it?". "Sure" I replied, confidently walking into the room with my usual spider-catching kit: a plastic cup and a small piece of card. Moments later, I backed out, feeling slightly less confident. "Gulp... I think I'm going to need a bigger cup. Hand me the plastic salad bowl - no, the big one".
The plan seemed simple enough: catch the brute in the bowl and put it out in the garden. Unfortunately, it had seen the weather outside and had other ideas. I had to call for back up.
The next ten minutes saw me and Jeanne in a frantic chase / arm-wrestle around the room against a determined foe (and arm wrestling is no joke when your opponent has eight of them). It was basically the scene from Alien when Ripley and Newt get locked in the med-lab with the face-hugger, re-imagined by the Keystone Kops. Finally we cornered it when it jumped onto one of those giant exercise ball things, and Jeanne bravely picked it up.
The spider made a dash for freedom along the equator of the small moon on which it now found itself, heading straight for Jeanne's face, while she frantically spun the ball backwards to keep the spider on the "Dark Side of the Moon" so to speak. So the three of us ran through the house like this, Jeanne yelling "Open the door! Open the door!" and spinning the ball; the spider running for dear life; and me crashing into things, tripping over things, fumbling with the front door lock, fumbling with the catch on the screen door, until finally I got the door open and we flung the whole caboodle out into space, err, I mean, the front yard.
Phew! Until next time..."

I have met those Huntsmen Spiders on my visits, and the average one would make me hide behind the nearest Alien.  I don't like to think about this one.

We - my siblings and me - were out on the doors yesterday.  I set off feeling tired and depressed, but we had a good time together and then on my way back I called in on a lovely gentleman on my magazine route and got such a warm welcome, that I arrived home feeling much happier,