like moths to the flame - or international sporting event

The unseasonably warm weather and the enormous floodlights at the main stadium of the 2000 Sydney Olympics brought the bogong moths out in their thousands. These chubby, hearty meal-sized moths had overseas tourists wide-eyed and nodding to one another, as they made mental notes to tell the folks back home that the stereotype of Australia being a land of giant deadly creatures, was spot on.

It doesn't happen often, but every few years, when the conditions are right, the bogongs all wake up from their growth inducing slumbers to seek the hydroponic warmth of a floodlit stadium. And so, they descended in plague proportions on the 'Games of the XXVII Olympiad'. During the Opening Ceremony, as Suzanne Johnston sang her operatic lungs out, a moth perched itself still and proud on the breast of her expensive suit, like a brooch. (Perhaps another moth had dared it do pull off this brazen stunt). In any case, it left spectators tense with anticipation of it flying into her mouth, as she opened wide to hit those booming notes.

Such was the atmosphere at my workplace this week as the fancy new designer lightshades were installed. Three swarms of butterflies now grace our office, like moths to a flame (or opera singers breast), they hover and flutter around the globes within.


I must admit, they are actually quite cool and kind of pretty. Though every now and then, out of the corner of your eye, you'll catch one of us flinch. Shiver with one of those heeby-jeebies you get when all of a sudden, for no reason at all, you feel a phantom bug crawling through your hair.