An Australian woman had a rude awakening while relaxing at home on a property just outside Bega, in south-eastern NSW on Tuesday.
Joyce Parbery was relaxing in her recliner chair on Tuesday morning when she reached into a side pocket to search for her glasses.
"There was something cold and slimy in there. I jumped up and couldn't speak," she said.
Mrs Parbery's husband Herb checked the chair pocket and discovered a red-bellied black snake curled up inside.
"It took over an hour to get it out, we had to drag the chair outside, put it upside down and cut the chair open so it could escape," she said.
Mr Parbery successfully released the snake unharmed, but the unexpected visitor left his wife a little shaken.
"I won't sit on that chair again," she said with a smile.
"Now every time I open something I think a snake is going to jump out at me."
It is unclear how the snake came to be curled up inside the chair pocket but Mrs Parbery said her friends thought it could have been there for months.
"I can't believe I was sitting there the whole time and had a snake cuddled up to me," she said.