Cabin fever and being chased by rabid monkeys

Day 1 of the strike and it got to 1pm and I was climbing the walls. I learnt that playing scrabble by yourself isn’t much fun and even Squirt got sick of my fidgeting and went to lie down in a quiet place where I couldn’t disturb her. Thankfully electricity then came on so I could charge my laptop and at least do some work. By 5pm I needed some fresh air so my roommate and I went downstairs to take out the rubbish and to buy a soft drink. I’ve mentioned before that there is a monkey that lives in our compound that is tied up by a piece of rope as long as my arm. I also previously mentioned that I felt sorry for this monkey. I would now like to take back that statement. As we went downstairs I saw the monkey sat on the step to the security guard’s room, off his rope. I stupidly thought that as he was off his rope he must be friendly, and didn’t really worry about the fact that he was there. But then before I could say “roast monkey” the monkey started hissing and running towards me. The security guard managed to get between me and the monkey, but only for a few seconds before the monkey ran around him. I tried standing still in the hope he would get bored, but no, so I had no option but to try and get out of his way, and fast. But it turns out monkeys can run a hell of a lot faster than I can. My roommate and I tried running out of the compound but the monkey got to us first, and it turns out I’m a terrible human being because my instinct wasn’t to protect her, but to hide behind her and make sure she was directly between me and the monkey. The things we learn about ourselves when we’re forced to go into survival mode. Thankfully before the monkey was able to actually make contact the security guard managed to restrain it, and we ran away somewhat more terrified than we had been before. So it seems that VSO were right to advise us not to go outside, but it wasn’t the strike that put us at risk, it was the beast of a monkey living outside our front door.