Roller coaster weather

The English always seem to find the weather a good topic to start a conversation on, so let's be English for a moment.

The weather here has been quite topsy turvy (is that spelled with or without a hyphen?). Last week, it was thunder, lightning, strong winds and lots of rain. So strong were the winds that the trees in front of my house fell over and obstructed part of the road. Twice! The trees had rather thin trunks and were not all that strong to begin with, but to have trees toppled over by the winds on two separate occasions within a space of three days is something. Fortunately, I have a rather civic-minded neighbour two three doors away who voluntarily hacked up the trees and cleared up the roads. Thanks neighbour!

And it was so wet that at least one main road at a hillside just outside the city collapsed due to a landslip. There's another similar road which I use occasionally to get back from work if traffic is a bit heavy, and these past few days, I have been seeing men doing some kind of project along that road. My guess is they're trying to prevent a similar fate happening to the road.

But, that wild wet weather has gone, and in the space of a few days, has been replaced by heat and dryness. And the haze is back though the air quality hasn't quite deteriorated yet.

I'm just waiting if the weather will come full circle and we'll be greeted by more thunderstorms and wet. Then, many people will have a whale of a time falling sick...

And then it came

What a relief! What a blessing! What a joy!

I had braced myself to endure the really dry spell till at least the month of August before there was even an iota of hope for rain. But, apparently God had different plans.

Three days ago, I heard the pitter-patter of raindrops on my roof. What started out as a slow tapping eventually built up to an incessant drum roll. It was raining, really really raining! And it continued till evening. And the next day, it rained again during the day and at night as well. And it rained today as well! And the whole place is just so cool!

After church this morning, the three of us went for lunch in town with several church members. After lunch, a few of us couldn't help but notice that we were not sweaty at all, even though we were sitting under a marquee-like thing which, under usual circumstances, would have been quite warm.

So, the weather's absolutely lovely right now, especially after weeks of bearing the scorching heat.

I'm cool. Hope you're cool, too!

Good golly, Miss Molly

You know what? I just realised when I logged in just now that my last post was actually my 100th post! Woohoo! That's certainly a milestone for me. I've certainly surprised myself with my persistence in this whole blogging thing considering my previously aborted attempt after less than 10 posts. So, a pat on my back for myself on that point.

Another thing that I've realised is that as I'm typing this post out, I'm feeling all icky and sticky. There's a heatwave of some sort that we are going through right now. It's scorching dry! There hasn't been a single drop of rain for at least a week now. And the sun's relentless beating on the poor denizens of Kota Kinabalu during the day doesn't make things any more bearable either. I'm convinced that even if I just sat still, and do absolutely nothing, not even twitch a finger, I'd still start to perspire in a short while. It's that hot.

And just yesterday, I read in the papers that the Malaysian Meteorological Department expects this current spell to last till July! Some even predict that it'll last till August! Gasp!!! I'd expect we'd all turn into dried-up fossils by then.

I wonder if the weather is the thing that has been causing me to be a bit short on my fuse lately. Hmmm....

Stay hydrated people.

Wet, wet, wet

Looks like this bratty wet weather's going to stay with us people here at the Land Below the Wind for a few more days...so says the Malaysian Meteorological Departmet. Wet and windy. Of course, in the mornings, it's just fine and dandy (which is good for me since I do have to take a speedboat to my workplace!). But come evenings, you see the trees shaking, the rain pelting on the rooftop, and sometimes you see the flash followed by the rumble.

Yikes! That was lightning...think I'll better sign off! Wouldn't want to fry my computer from power spikes!

Hope the weather at your end is better...

It's gonna be a bright, bright, sun-shiny day

Scorching. That’s how the sun’s been feeling lately. Just two weeks ago, people here in Sabah were facing torrential rain and strong winds almost every day. Flash floods occurred and I even saw a billboard torn down by the winds one morning during my drive to work. That was no thanks to Sabah getting the tail-end of some typhoon.

But these past few days, it’s been almost unbearably hot. Just to prove how hot it is, yesterday, my wife and I had some clothes washing done in the afternoon. By the time the washing cycle was finished, it was already 1.30 pm. I took out the clothes from the washing machine and proceeded to dry them on the line under the sun. By 5.20 pm, the time I went back out to take the clothes in, half-expecting them to still be damp, I was absolutely surprised that there were all dry! And they were not thin articles of laundry even! I had some thick towels on the line, and they were dry, too! In 4 hours! How’s that for hot?

Today was equally sizzling. My car air-conditioning felt like it wasn’t working at all – all I felt was warm air blowing at my face and that was at the highest fan speed at the coolest temperature. And my car is tinted so it’s supposed to reject a lot of the heat. I can’t even imagine how drivers whose cars are not tinted feel when driving under these blistering conditions. Thank goodness for such technology as air-conditioning and window tints.

But at least in the evening it gets cooler. But I just had lamb chop for dinner and I don't think that's going to help any in getting a cool night's sleep...

Oh well.