Smoke signals

I won’t do a rain dance, I won’t, I won’t. I’ve waited TEN LONG MONTHS for the famed ‘dry breezy’ season to get here and what happens? WHAT HAPPENS? A huge great bonfire, that’s what, smoke from Indonesian land-clearing wafting over our picket fence and tampering with our laundry. We need clouds and rain to put it out and measures are being put in place, with talk of an elegantly named process known as “cloud seeding“. Sounds romantic but it’s actually very necessary because the haze (a mild term that really doesn’t do justice to the grey menace hanging over this town) is very bad this time round, but to pray for rain: really? Rain, my old enemy, my nemesis and one of the main reasons for my hesitation in moving here (because surely going from one rainy country to another was just bonkers?).

Yet here I am checking the skies and crossing my fingers. I can’t see much up there, mind you, it is all white with a hint of yellowy brown. The sunrise over the last two days has had an odd sunset flavour; twilight segues into night much more gradually than the usual light/dark plummet; at lunchtime when the PSI reached an all-time peak I honestly couldn’t  see the buildings at the very end of our road. Now I know what ‘acrid’ means; now I know, having had mild asthma-type twinges for the last few years, what it is like to have a properly tight chest, to find proper relief from those little blue puffers I’ve had rattling in my handbag for years. The local pharmacies have run out of the coveted N95 masks (you can’t just stick a paper mask on, it could actually make things more uncomfortable), my eyes are itchy and I’ve had a sore throat for the last two days, but enough about me. If it’s like this for us I hate to think what it’s like over there, not to mention how the wildlife is coping: orangs and birds who have escaped the tree-felling will now be living in a toxic haze.

So a prayer for rain it is, then, for the remaining six days before we fly back to another kind of rain, the cold, UK kind. As SmallMonkey has been pulled from school this week, with threats of further closure hanging over next week, I will be stocking up on hip flasks as well as n95 masks (when I can find them).

5 thoughts on “Smoke signals

  1. Hi Mo
    I’m going to be emailing you properly in the next couple of days. Lots to tell. Looking forward to a good catch up in the UK! So sorry to hear what you’re having to deal with over there. All a bit alarming and frightening, I’m sure. Take good care and it makes a potentially soggy Wimbledon next week look a bit tame!! Poor you and all the best to the boys too. Love Della & co x

  2. Good to hear you Della and looking forward to catching up back in the other Smoke xx

  3. Makes me feel very sad indeed for all the helpless creatures trapped in the haze, or worse. I remember living in LA when the wildfires would rage and the Santa Ana winds would make the fires spread and the smoke travel even further. I remember frantically driving to hardware stores in search for air purifiers which were, of course, sold out. Thank goodness you’ll be out of there soon. xxoo

  4. No smoke over here…………….the blue sky is just covered with rain clouds.
    Lets hope the few good days we have had will return when you come home. Looking forward to seeing you both. Lots of love A xxx

  5. Aunty I am packing some sunshine just for you. Let’s get a date in xxx
    Amy, did they work (air purifiers)? Thinking of investing in one. Horrible memories for you 🙁

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