It’s been a while since I wrote here, mainly because none of the things that happened in Hong Kong these last few months were easy and breezy enough to write about. If you read news, you will know what I’m talking about.
There is one more thing I was occupied with and that is the challenge to survive this hell of a summer. As it is in Asia, it’s not exactly the summer I have ever imagined when I was still living safely in mild climate of Polish south.
Here are the top 5 things I “love” about summertime this year:
1 – Temperatures.
The base element to create a hell summer is high temperatures. We got them. And we have them here for long spans without even one day rest. In July and then August, it would be over 34 degrees Celsius for 2 weeks in a row or longer. It is a crazy kind of temperature with humidity over 80% and you feeling all soaked just by walking outside for 5 minutes to a metro station. Add to that super cold AC settings in all areas, like offices, shopping malls, metro, buses and you would want to have something at least covering your shoulders. So you end up overdressed or always carrying a light jacket with you no matter where you go. Not a good situation for the weather – both ways, it just makes you sweat more.
2 – Rain.
After 2 weeks of crazy heat, we get some rain. Not some, lots of it! It wouldn’t be this kind of rain that relieves the heat and lets you cool down a bit after. Not at all. It has to be thunderstorm with typhoon somewhere. It rains so much, Weather Observatory issues amber or red rainstorm signals which basically means that norther part of Hong Kong is screwed because of the flooding. And of course the temperatures aren’t really changing much, it will rarely go below 30 degrees anyway. So no help – just a different way to make you soaked when you arrive home.
3 – Face masks.
Hong Kong has not tackled the virus problem completely yet – not unlike any other country in the world. That means ever since February, we are wearing face masks everywhere we go, inside or outside. With the requirement to wear them even at work in the office for full 8 hours, there is not much time we spend without masks on. I’m starting to feel almost naked when I don’t wear it. And of course in the middle of summer, this is not helping at all. You end up soaking the masks when walking on the street and your face under the mask is sweating double to the rest of the body (or is it just me?).
4 – Typhoon timings.
The one thing I always hope for is to have typhoon come during work day so I can stay at home and not work. Lately, we’ve been slowly moving back to working in offices, so now would be the best timing for a typhoon to give me one day additionally for work from home, which I so got used to now. Then again, lately typhoons seem to avoid coming to Hong Kong, maybe they also got a travel advice against travelling to Hong Kong?
5 – Hong Kong crowds.
When you finally decide that that’s enough of sitting at home, time to go out there, even with the current weather, you are faced with another challenge. Since the virus restrictions are being relaxed a bit more each week, the crowds go out to play! Actually even when the restrictions were in place, crowds of HKers suddenly all had the same ideas to spend time in “safe” way: they all run to hike, to beaches and other outdoor spaces. Now, beaches are closed, hiking routes still crowded, shopping malls going back to main weekend activity and restaurants are growing queues. So yes, there is not much places to run to. My main entertainment these days is getting in our car and practising driving.
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