Haha, I can just see you standing there, balancing on the picnic bench, but the poor snake probably got a bigger fright!
Our domestic worker once found a long grass snake underneath a couch in our living room. Fortunately, we'd not left for work yet, and hubby would not kill it and he somehow managed to get it into a bottle which I had to hold in the car so he could drop it off in the bush halfway to work!!! I was freaking out! Sat with my feet curled up on the couch for a long while after that!
Me and snakes also ain't friends so I know exactly how you must have felt!