I recently caught an episode of Earth’s Natural Wonders on PBS. According to their website: “the series tells the stories of some of our planet’s most spectacular places and how they have shaped the lives of those who live there”.

Quite frankly, they’re underselling it. A better title for the series might have been:

You won’t believe what these people are up to.

Or, Damn, sucks to be these dudes.

Or, You think you’ve got problems? Quit whining, watch this show.

In the episode I saw, the filmmakers follow a group of poor Bangladeshi men on their annual hunt for honey. The half-dozen men set out in a small boat to a mangrove forest to harvest the giant hives of killer bees. KILLER BEES, as in, the bees that’ll kill you. The ones that don’t take too kindly to you stealing their honey. Yeah, those.

And as if that weren’t challenging enough, the forest is patrolled by Bengal tigers.

The men literally have to pray that they won’t be mauled to death by a tiger – on their way to work.

The worst I get on my commute is an unploughed sidewalk or a stalled metro.

• Pattern: Lagniappe Gloves
• Size: M
• Yarn: Palette in Clove
• Needles: 2.25mm
• Notes: Any complaints I have about the fiddly-ness of (albeit simple) cables at such a small gauge seem… trivial. I did however get a small cut on my palm while knitting these: I held a dangly bit of yarn too close to a curious kitty. Might I draw a parallel here? Occupational feline hazards?