rain, lovely

london 7.44am rain 15.8C tuesday 2016

lovely cooling rain this morning. i like that it is so variable, hot and dry yesterday, and today cool and wet. that means it never lasts long, which is the secret of a good ideal weather. 

Digital StillCamera

53mm of rain

london 8.55pm rain 8.9C sunday 2016

Almanac for March 27, 2016
EGLC	Forecast	Average *	Range *
Temperature
High	10 °C	11 °C	3 to 17 °C
Low	7 °C	6 °C	-1 to 7 °C
Precipitation
Rain	53 mm	0.0 mm	0.0 to 0.0 mm
Snow	0 mm	mm	to mm

i could hardly believe it when i saw that… 53mm ,2 inches of rain… well actually once i converted it to inches it did not seem that much. haha. now i get to see it in perspective, the usual 3mm of rain is only 0.11 inches. really those weather people are trying to sex it up by using mm instead of inches.  i thought we are going to get floods but if it is only 2inches (this is over 24hrs) it is not going to happen is it?

so nothing to see here, move on…

haze in malaysia, singapore

i london 6.05pm raining 17.8C monday 2015

it’s been raining practically the whole day today in london. I welcome it, but that is because i consider it as just nature doing its own thing to keep a balance in the environment, and maintaining the ecology of this country. and i have more reason to be thankful for this rain when i read in this blog in penang about the very bad haze that is the worst one.

most people have forgotten why this haze happens every year. it is because of the underground fires in indonesia. fires like this are common and occurs elsewhere in the world.  this fire has been burning for a long time, and gets dampened during the raining season , but still smouldering, except  the rains have soaked into the ground and so kept the fires in check. but once the rainy season is over and the land dries out, the fires comes back with a vengence, and appear overground. there is really nothing anyone can do about it, these fires can burn for years and years. people blame the farmers etc, but really it is a permanent fire underground that is the cause of it.

it is amazing that fires can burn underground for ages, it goes against all logic, because where do they get the oxygen to burn? but it does. i suppose u could say it is one of the wonders of nature. but the haze makes living there very difficult. 

today, i decided to walk to the library instead of taking the bus

london 3.59pm cloudy with sunnybits, 17.5C tuesday 2015

following that article i read in the papers finding that walking for 20mins a day can lead to good health, i decided to walk to the library from now on and resist the temptation to take the bus. it’s a pleasant day, not raining, when i set out, so it was a nice walk.

just as i got out of the block of my flat, i saw my neighbour who lives across the hallway on the same floor as me, (there are only two flats on each floor) and he was pushing a double decker pram, his baby girl on the lower deck, and her older brother on the top deck.

i asked him where he is going and he said, spelling the words, the zoo. he said the boy does not know it, but that is where he is taking them. not sure why he does not want the boy to know. the kid is at the talkative stage and very independant. 

i said with surprise, its in regent park, isn’t it? you are not walking there are you? he said he walks everywhere, because it is his only chance to keep the boy quiet and not have him wander off, as he has to ride on the pram.

our path soon diverged, so i branched off. i did not have time to ask him where the au pair was. or have they decided to release her and take turns, mostly him, to look after both, now that the little girl is older.

at the library, i got to read not only today’s newspapers, but also yesterday’s, because even though the library was closed for the public holiday, they still get the papers delivered. it even got the sunday times, the only paper they order on sunday. this library closes on sunday but still order the sunday times.

there is something about yesterday’s news. somehow it is not so interesting as today’s news. i daresay it is psychological, but nothing i think is as stale as yesterday’s news. haha.

i noticed the library wifi has the same problem with connection as saturday. my chrome wont allow me to connect with it. saying it is unsafe, something about their license has expired 3days ago.

i went to the desk and told him about it, and he was puzzled why. we found a lady sitting nearby and asked her, and she said she could not get online either. the librarian did not know why. 

but later, a  chap came ,sitting next to me, i found after peeking at his screen that he was online. so i asked him how he did it, and found out he could not get online using chrome but could do so with microsoft windows. 

i walked back, it rained whilst i was inside the library because i can see the roads were wet, but i missed it, so the walk was a pleasant one. you would think it would be cold, 17C after all, but it was not. really very pleasant even though the sun was not shining, the clouds were blocking it, but it was still quite bright.  i think because there was no wind. 

i went into the underground carpark underneath the sainsburys to emerge inside the store right next to the toilets so an easy route to the toilets. i found this route when it rained one time, and to escape it i ran into this underground cave like area to find that it is a great shortcut into the sainsburys above. that time there was no one at the gates, but this time there was a man,at the in gate. ( i wonder if they charge to park there, or is the charge offset by a sainsbury receipt. but he let me walk through, just greeting me. i greeted him back. 

i had all the shopping i need, so dont need to do any so did not bother to browse the shelves further into the sainsburys after my toilet but headed straight out and walked the rest of the way home.

there was a summary of august weather in the papers, and it seems it was a wet august and less sunny too. and it was making fun of the met office prediction that this summer will be hotter and drier than most, when it looks like this august may be the wettest for cornwall. the el nino effect it seems.

from personal experience i dont really notice that it was raining so much , not consciously, it might well have rained a lot but if i am not caught up in it at that moment, i wont notice it. and if i am indoors it is a strange thing, but unless i look out of the window i am not aware of it raining. i cannot hear it , the rain here is very quiet, unlike in malaysia where it does make a lot of noise, thunder and lightning and noisy roof, and noisy gush of water from the guttering.

to me it was a nice august , not too hot and no hay fever, because the rain washed out a lot of pollen from the air. 

how to do your own forecast

london 9.59am cloudy 15.5C thursday 2015

saw a letter from a guy called harry kennard , peasmarsh, sussex, in the letters page of the daily mail, where he said that u can access a live rainfall radar that will show exactly where any rain is falling and in which direction it’s heading. he used meteox.co.uk and it is true. i can see how easy it is to predict rain. 

raining all day

london 7pm 2015 thursday.

it was only yesterday that we had such a strong sunny day, but today practically rained the whole day. and quite heavy rain too. i don’t mind it, because i know it dont last long, so that it gives me pleasure for the variety’s sake.

i am reminded of malaysia where if it is the rainy season, the rain is everyday, so that every thing in the house is damp, and it is cloudy with dark clouds and u never get to see the sun at all. and it can go on for months. and all outdoor activity ceases, the pasar malam getting rained on and the stall holders losing business if it rains, and esp the night time hanging out in mamak stalls; so that u yearn for it to end. than the dry season comes and for the first few weeks it is glorious, and then the heat gets too much, everything is dry and parched and dusty, and its hot hot hot. and it last for months and you yearn for rain. it is like everything is just too much of it. haha.

that is why i like the english weather. nothing stays too long to make me fed up of it.

that reminded me… i wonder what the weather is like in kuala lumpur now, so i googled it and it shows forecast of thunderstorms all week. so it must be the rainy season now there. the top temp is 35C, so at least the rains will make it feel less hot. right now it is about 2am in kuala lumpur and 26C. 

did u got woken up by the electricial storm last night?

london

That was what simon asked me just now. he said he got up at about 5am to go to work, and suddenly there was sudden huge pouring of rain and bright lights and thunder that shook the windows of the flat and flooded the flat with light. and it was over in 2 or 3mins.

I slept through it all. If he had not told me that he saw it, i could scarcely believe it.

when i read of it here, showing photos of the lightning flashes over london, i thought it cannot be happening in my area and must be localised elsewhere in london.

Not the first time i thought that what they said happened did not happen where i live. But after hearing what simon said, i guess i shall have to change my views about these things and just accept that i tend to sleep through the most momentous happenings. 

there is a video that they were showing in that article of the path of the lightning storm, and from it i can see why it lasted only a few minutes as it was a fast moving broad front heading across  england from south to north with the front bringing in torrential rain and lightning and thunder and passing over very quickly.

But i slept through it all. Next morning i did see the road was wet, and i thought a gentle rain had fallen last night. haha.

today is hot, 31.8C at 2.43pm according to this chart i follow. But it was very pleasant in my flat as my flat seem to be cooler. I was indoors.

I can take these temperatures without going mad and rushing out and sitting in the sun just because it is hot. most people are starved for days like these and cannot get enough of it, but i know better. haha. being from a hot country i dont worship the sun so much and want to avoid it.

in winter I will join everyone and walk in the sun and avoid the shady parts, every chance i get. because then, the sun is warming and welcomed.

but not in temperatures like today. thank goodness it is forecast that it will come down as soon as tomorrow.

the nice thing is that i dont have hay fever. i guess the pollen from that particular plant that i suffer from has gone. i think it is from grass, and most of the grass is turning to hay now. good. 

I saw a tv program about our discarded clothes that we give to charity, thinking that they are all sold in charity shops here, but it seems 80% are packed and sent to ghana, and places like that in africa. where the locals fight each other to get it to sell on. and it seems it has destroyed the local traditional clothes industry of the region. now they all wear western style clothes rather than their traditonal clothes.

it seems the people in africa like british second hand clothes, because the size suits them, unlike american sizes which are too large . and i read here that americans put their old clothes into landfill. and recycle the clothes by breaking them down. 

it is something i have noticed happening all over the world, traditional clothes giving way to western style clothes; in malaysia we dont see anyone wearing the traditional clothes for day to day wear, they are worn only on special occasions like weddings, or funerals, or birthdays or new year days. 

reunion

London
Sunday 10.2.13
I had thought to post some pics of the Chinese new year celebrations in London round Trafalgar square and Chinatown. But it rained practically throughout the time allotted for it, a small drizzling rain.

I don’t mind the rain, as I was able to use my rain coat, but it cannot be very nice for those who want to celebrate it outdoors. And it cannot be much fun for those providing the entertainment or food stalls or souvenir stalls. And the day was too dull to make happy pictures. Haha.

But London is such a large city and have so many people I am sure even if a small number of those people who came there are young enough to enjoy the day and bring their boisterous nature to it, it will be enough to lighten the spirit for everyone else.

So if my friend and I don’t stay long, (my friend suggested we move on to the south bank); it does not mean the day was a washout.

We are too old to hang around. One of the things about being old, or older is that u really come to realise that new year celebrations are really for the young. They get to receive ang pows, and new clothes, and lots of food to eat… and they will be indulged in, with parents who are normally very strict the rest of the year, relaxing and giving tacit permission to play the fool a bit.
Not that my parents were strict, but I know my parents are unusual in this respect. A lot of my Chinese friends have very controlling parents.

 

I met up with a German friend of long ago who moved to panama to live with his Mexican boyfriend, and works for a hotel chain, and travels half the year abroad a lot for his work. He seldom come to uk, but this time he did and so we met after many years.

It is actually rather a sad and nostalgic meet. Because both of us have grown old… and all our friends have gone. Not gone away from London, but we lost touch with them even though they are living in London. So that there was only two of us to meet. We remember the younger us and those days of frolic in London, unlike now when we all have our separate lives and cannot even muster a big reunion of all our old friends.

Reunions are not always a happy affair, and can be more of a chore. I know we Chinese always rapsodise the family get together reunion at Chinese new year, but I know it can be rather a bore . Like taking a holiday to the same place every year. And with added horribleness in having to socialise with those in the family if you cannot get along with them in the first place.

I get along well with my brothers and sister, but I am glad I don’t have to go back to Malaysia for a reunion.

That is the reality of life. We grow old. Friends come and go. And we change too, and as we go older, our outlook does tend to concentrate too much on musings on health a lot more than when we were young.

I don’t recall we talked of our health that much when we were young.

And the interesting thing I noticed with our conversation, is that instead of curiosity to hear what the other’s sexual adventures are , we tend to talk of our own adventures and for me anyway, comparing theirs with mine and realising that I don’t really fancy their adventures.

So different from when we were younger, when we have not done things and are not experienced in sex. And when we hear of some unusual sexual practices we are just agog to hear more, even though secretly thinking how awful, I don’t like that.

Not realising that many years later , we will be doing it, liking it and doing it a lot now.

My friend says he goes to saunas a lot during his trips abroad on business . He works for a hotel chain which have many branches worldwide.

And I remember thinking when he said it that I don’t like to go to saunas anymore. Haha. At least not in London. I daresay if I were to be on holiday in Europe, or s.e.asia. I will go because most of the gay action is in those places. And it is a way to meet other gay guys for sex without a lot of complications or danger.

Everyone who likes saunas always say they like how clean they can be and how everyone else is clean too. My friend is no exception. He too praised the cleanliness.

So much emphasis on cleanliness… I guess they have not yet experienced the joy and sexual excitement of guys’ natural scent.

Some guys give off really exciting natural body scents.

It was too rainy to hang around outdoors or to watch the Chinese new year shows… and he was not that interested in them anyway, seeing most of the time u are looking over people’s heads, which is bad enough but this time there are the umbrellas to contend with as well.

So we walked across the river and after going into the festival hall and a number of others places to find a place to sit so we could chat, and finding them so crowded with people there was no room to sit, we finally settled on benches outside the film institute. I think not many sit there because the coffee is very expensive. Or maybe it was a cold day for them. The staff very kindly turned up the open flame heaters without us asking.

It was nice to catch up with him. And to have a glimpse of another life lived differently from mine. He told of his dreams to retire. Though interestingly enough his idea of retirement is to find another job , and set up a B&B in panama!!

I think he was just musing and testing out the possiblities, as he said he wants to buy a place elsewhere, in florida he said for the weather, and move between panama and that place. And of course that is not compatible with running a bed and breakfast in panama. Haha.

There are hurricanes in florida, and the summers are very hot. But I did not remind him of it. After all, we all like to dream and why not!

In fact, even now in panama, he tells me they have bought a place in the mountains near the panama city where they live, just so they can go there over the weekend, to escape the heat. So even though he likes the hot weather, I can see it can be too much sometimes, if not all the time.haha.

I know how it is like. I am from Malaysia, and the weather he said is rather similar in panama. Hot all the time, and either wet during the winter, or dry during the summer months. In Malaysia it is the other way round.

Makes u wonder why they live there when they cannot stand the tropical heat. It seems temperatures in panama is like Singapore. my friend’s reason may be to be with his boyfriend, so that might explain why he lives in panama now. And also explains why he likes going to the highlands. it is very similar to the british when they governed in malaysia, going up to cameron highlands or fraser’s hill , near kuala lumpur to escape the lowland heat. They do it in india too. 

People I find are very contradictory. And they say these contradictory things in the same breath and don’t seem to be aware of it. Haha. I don’t mind, I am very indulgent when I hear guys talking to me about their visions of their future and what they would like their life to be .

I made the observation that in terms of ideal climate, London is the best. Neither too extreme in heat or cold and so pleasant to live in all year round. I know not many will agree with me. Haha. But to those of us who have travelled the world and seen it all, I can assure u London weather is the ideal.

I like the rain. Because it is a nice contrast to dry days. I would be bored if the weather is sunny and dry all year round. It is too much the same. And today’s rain is rather pleasant, a small drizzle with not much wind.

But ‘say that to the marines‘, I hear your collective shout from you all who are currently living under these rain darkened clouds. Haha.

 

 

 

 

 

in praise of raincoats

London
Yesterday, I was walking from the supermarket, at about 8.30pm and it was raining.
Instead of using my umbrella, I was wearing a raincoat with a hoodie.

I had a revelation that day. I found out it is really wonderful to be wearing a rain coat instead of using an umbrella.

I was warm and snug and dry under there.

And it was not that waterproof either. Because I foolishly washed it and removed the water-resistant chemicals on it.

Even then it served its purpose and kept me dry.

I thought it was a drizzle, but I saw from the car headlights that it was pouring down. And yet I felt wonderfully dry and warm .

Now I realise why so many in this country do not bother with umbrellas. They get blown inside out by the wind and get broken. But not only that, u have to hold it up and it makes for very cold hands, and it does not really shelter u from the rain either. U do get wet, especially the back, because the umbrella does not really cover the back, and the drips from the edge actually end up on your back.

It looks like I am a convert to raincoats now.

I must look out for a waterproof one, or make this one I got more waterproof.