6/23/13 - Hazy days are here again

It seems like when you think you may have experienced everything your new home has to offer you get served up another surprise.  Every year around this time some of the palm oil plantations in Indonesia start burning their land to get ready for the upcoming year's crops.  They aren't supposed to, but inevitably some of them do.  Usually it isn't an issue, but with how dry its been and the way the prevailing winds are blowing its turned this little island/city/country into the second coming of Beijing.  Just a few of our 'learnings' for lack of a better word from this past week:

1. If you smell a smoky smell that reminds you of a campfire, its probably not a good thing.  Last week Sunday evening, right before going to bed, it had rained for awhile and when we were closing the sliding patio doors we smelled something burning.  Naively, the first thought that came into our head was that lightning had started a fire somewhere.  Turns out there were a bunch of fires a few hundred miles away.

2. We are now PSI experts.  No, not PSY experts, even though yet again a little kid with a British accent serenaded us at the pool the other weekend, horsey dance and all.  PSI is the pollution standards index regarding air quality and the government issues an hourly reading.  The previous high had been in the low 200s - this week we broke through 400.  The best way to think about this is, if its over 400 you essentially can't even see the building next to you.  Oh, and its not exactly comfortable to breathe outside.  You also bring that campfire smell with you everywhere.  It isn't as endearing when you aren't roasting s'mores.

3. I keep expecting to see Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchett coming around the next corner.  You also expect the temperature to be about 40 degrees cooler, but of course its still quite warm.  I guess this is why people in Dicken's London didn't really make it past their 50's.  I can also see why people didn't want to run the marathon in the 2008 Olympics, but hey, at least this is wood smoke vs. coal, that has to count for something  right?

4. Much like snow or rain, poor air quality can ruin your weekend plans.  We were going to go to satay street, sit outside and have some grilled chicken and beef on a stick.  Part of the fun is the fresh grill smoke that envelopes the street.  Not as much fun when the whole street is already covered in smoke.

The good news - the winds seemed to have changed yesterday afternoon, the air cleared enough to go swimming and hopefully there is rain coming soon.  At least Starhub made every TV channel free for the weekend to keep us entertained with endless movies.