Spider on the ceiling

Why a photo of an ostrich with teeth? All will become clear. Think of it ultimately as a visual aid.
 
For the moment though, I would like to explain that I am not an arachnophobe, although photographs of leaping spiders, spitting spiders and tarantula types do make me twitch. I'm pretty much ok with anything up to about 8 centimetres in diameter. Not to pick up you understand. At this size it becomes a dustpan and brush capture. Until recently we had a house spider, which for some reason was christened Cedric. He must have arrived when quite small, and through determination and fertiveness of life behind our large bookshelf, was too fast to be caught. He therefore grew to a good size and moved home to behind the shove ha'penny board we have resting against the bookshelf. Cedric I would say, became overly confident and as a result,was caught and chucked outside. This took a couple of months.  

A spider on the ceiling however is another matter. Particularly at night. I know it's there and can't forget that it's there. Lights out. I start thinking what would happen if the spider fell off the ceiling. Where would it land? On our bed? On me? I have to catch it. How unfortunate therefore that a spider on the ceiling, clearly a major irritation for me, is in fact a French proverb. . . I'd not enjoy having to say it.  Il a une araignée au plafond, literally translates as 'he has a spider on the ceiling', but means he's a bit mad. The English equivalent is, 'he has bats in the belfry'. 

We were with our French conversation group yesterday and proverbs came into it, initially to do with the subject, but then moved to the stranger ones, which you find in most languages. It's their visual appeal I suppose which makes them so memorable and in some instances very funny. They can also be quite bizaare. For example 'I have another fish to fry' in French becomes, J'ai d'autres chats à fouetter or 'I have other cats to whip'. I came across another one which is used to describe the small, unimportant events column that you get in papers - La rubrique des chiens (des chats) écrasés, which literally translates as 'the squashed dogs or cats column'.

Anyway back to the ostrich with the teeth. This was the closest image I could find to match the sentiment of a particular French proverb, quand les poulets auront des dents or 'when hens have teeth'. In English we say 'and pigs will fly'. Meaning, in both languages, 'it will never happen'. Looking at the ostrich all I can say is, thank goodness for that.