Surviving the Heat Wave

We are currently experiencing a severe heat wave. I think the heat can truly melt our flesh off our bones.

*picture taken from Malaysia Meteorological Department website

38C!

I have been overwhelmed by the heat so badly that I blew out a gunk of blood from my nose. It's not time to fall ill yet. It's only March. And the haze has been ever present too!

To combat the heat, I've been doing a few things very religiously.

1. Drink TONS and TONS of water 

2. Drink lots of soup

3. Shower to Cool Down

4. Eat More Fruits & Vegetable

5. Sweat It Out

6. Hide in the AirCon Room

7. Drink Coconut Water

*all Keep Calm pictures taken from KeepCalmAndPosters.com

Do share if you have any other ways to survive this heatwave!

The El Nino Heat Wave Effect

The weather everyday has been like an oven on fire. We had a heat index of 45C last week. Hot is truly an understatement. 

*Minions picture taken from HERE

**For those of you who do not understand what 'Goreng Pisang' means, it is "DEEP FRIED BANANA!"

Haze, Heat & H2O Disruption!

The heat is so awful and yet we've been told that El Nino isn't here yet! We'll be roasted ALIVE! On the average, it's 36C.

The haze was bad last week. And then it got blown away.

Clear skies again!!!!!

And then there was massive disruptions due to over consumption of water due to the extremely, freaking hot weather. All the huge containers were taken out again. But we were lucky. We had low pressure. Many did not have water.

Some places have had their water back, but some still do not have. This water problem is far from over...

The Bloody Haze is Back!

The acrid burning smell is in the air again. With the heat wave and El Nino combined, we have been baking in an oven everyday.

On some days, it reaches to 40C! Such heat triggers lots of peat fire and fires.

Scorching hot weather is truly an understatement. And the haze is back.

Sometimes the things that people do during the haze really do make me wonder...

1. Parents bring kids to the playground as the children 'need to exercise'.
I heard this parent exclaim this to the child as they were walking past my house on their way to the playground to 'exercise'. And the parent was talking in a very loud voice which even the deaf could hear. I could hear them behind my closed doors!!

2. Men, women, old men, and old women exercising and chatting in the haze.
Really????! It's a wonder their lungs didn't turn black and expired on the spot.

3. Families in a car with all windows wound down.
Excuse me, this isn't the Genting Highlands or Cameron Highlands where that 'misty-looking-air' is REALLY mist. And the child was poking his head out of the window 'enjoying-his-super-duper-fresh-air'.

4. People hang their laundry (EVEN the bedsheets and RUGS) out in the HAZE!
I know not everyone has dryers. But one can get the octopus laundry hangers to hang them indoors. The heat will dry them. If you hang them outdoors, the dust particles from the haze will stick to your clothes and they smell of SMOKE when you keep them.

5. People use their palms to cover their face when outdoors...

6. People open their windows to 'air' their house during the haze.

Coming up next: What's In The Haze???!!!

The Glorious Heavens - Part 20 (Hot Days!)

It has been so hot of late, that at one point it reached 40C! We've been having heat waves almost everyday. Even the tap water is HOT! By 8am in the morning, the sun is already blazing away. Thank god for air-con! 

The Hippo-Rain-Dance Worked, BUT....

The haze was not washed nor blown away even though it poured cats and dogs and the wind howled like a mighty banshee. It poured yesterday afternoon too but it did not make a difference either.

Joel has succumbed to the haze and is down with a severe rhinitis and is currently sick at home. His stomach caught a bug too. Many of his teachers and classmates have been having the sorethroat+flu+cough+fever sickness the moment the haze arrived.

Well, it will be porridge and barley water for tomorrow. But I have great news and I will post it tomorrow. Right now I'm feeling like one of the characters from 'The Walking Dead' of HBO. Joel woke us at 5am as he was feeling sick. I'm off to bed now. Goodnight!

Braving the Heat

The weather has been insanely insane. You could fry an egg on a car bonnet which is parked under the sun. Add the haze to the heat and we have the oven phenomena. We are currently being fried alive!

I had a severe migraine from hell late afternoon yesterday which lasted till 10pm. I literally banged my forehead with the wooden massager till I could at least lie down and fall asleep. And I woke up with ulcers in my mouth this morning. My body has never been able to tolerate heat. Cold yes, but not heat. The massager did the trick, but I have a swollen forehead today. Totally worth it. At least the pain is gone!

The weather is so humid that the clothes literally stick to the body. We are drenched in dripping sweat with hair plastered to the forehead and at the sides of the face. Not a very glamorous picture. Not even presentable. So tonight is barley chicken soup with stir-fried lettuce. Hopefully this will help my system to cool down.

Do the rain dance with me wontcha? ;)

'Tis the Season to Be Hazy!

Not forgetting hot too!

The haze is back. Un-officially, that is. I don't see it being on any news, but it is back. It always happens at around this time of the year. The farmers in Indonesia burn their farms by the hundreds and thousands of acres and the direction of the wind blows the smog and remnants of their burning over to Malaysia and Singapore. And it will envelope our air. There will be no sun. No rain. No nothing. Just gloomy, terrible, unhealthy and poisonous air.

There is this acrid, burning smell in the air all the time. Today's air is better than yesterday. Monday was very bad.

With the scorching temperature of 35C to 37C, imagine the unbearable heat that we are facing over here in Malaysia. Add the haze and we have a catostrophe for people with allergies, sensitivities, sinusitis and asthma. It has not been raining for many days now. It is so hot that even 5 minutes under the 10am sun will burn the back of your neck.

And my eyes have become chronically dry. I went to see my ophthalmologist yesterday morning as I have been waking up with crusts around my eyes. And it itches so, very badly. And the searing pain! I though I had contracted conjunctivitis. But the eye check showed no infection whatsoever and minimal allergy. The cause? Extreme dryness! So dry that my eyes could beat the Sahara desert. And the preservative-free eye drops that I used last year is not working now. My eyes need a thicker solution. So it's another experiment with a new product. But it is a preservative-free eye drop.

Here is a picture of the haze last year.

*taken from here

I think I should do a rain-dance. The gods will definitely laugh till they cry (I mean, a hippo trying to flamenco! For crying out loud, the gods are screaming for mercy.) But seriously, I will be doing mankind a favour in Malaysia. Once the gods laugh hysterically till they cry, we will have rain.

Let's flamenco!!!

*By the way, what preservative-free eye-drops do you use for your eyes?