Dry dry dry

Pretty soon I'm going to have to turn on the air conditioning inside the house. I'm pretty comfortable but I find my palms being sweaty a lot. Also, the air is mega dry (not that the a/c will help with that part).

This morning I had an attack of eczema on my face again. It was twice as big as the lump posted here. When my ayi saw it she gasped in shock. Luckily it's gone down a bit now.

I just checked Yahoo weather and it's 27% humidity now at 4pm. In Beijing it's only 15% - wow!

Apparently it should be between 35-50% for comfort. Other sources say 40-70%. Personally, I find around 45-60% the most comfortable. I don't know why people keep saying that Shanghai is humid, last summer I noted that the humidity rarely went higher than 65%.

The changing of the seasons

In doing research for our Japan trip, I have discovered the weather here in Shanghai is very similar to most parts of Japan. The summers are scorchingly hot and the winters are bitterly cold and autumn/fall and spring are very pleasant, mild and lovely.

Well the changing of the season is certainly here! and right on queue too.

On Friday it was still very hot, around 32-33 in the daytime if I recall correctly. But over the weekend it started becoming very cool, right on the dot of the first of September (start of autumn).

Today, it is in the low 20's. I can't believe I put a cardigan on for a walk outside and still felt cold. The air was cool and the wind was even cooler.

Before, when I went to bed I would turn the air conditioning on at least ten minutes beforehand. Then when I felt myself almost falling asleep, I'd turn it off. Then when I'd wake up in the morning all sticky and gross I'd turn it back on again. There was a period of about two weeks where I didn't just wake up sticky, I swear I was literally dripping in sweat, litres of it. It was so horrible. (I don't like to sleep with the air con on as I find it too cold and too drying, not to mention too expensive!). I used to sleep without the blanket and now even with the blanket on, I still feel a little chilly. Such a stark contrast - I am still shocked the temperature has dropped 10 degrees in just a few days.

I know this sounds strange after all my complaints about the sticky summer heat I think I am going to miss it already. :(

Hello Summer!!

Every single person I had spoken to about Shanghai, every book I had read about Shanghai, mentioned the horrible summer that exists here. So I got scared. I got really really scared. I don't mind the heat but the humidity gives me a rare type of intensely itchy eczema that doesn't go away until it starts to become cooler and and drier pretty much (probably September at least - aaarrghh!).

Anyway, I had been marvelling to myself at how lucky I was that the whole time we had been here (from May 6th) the weather had been really nice. Sure there were some hotter days but overall, it was comfortable and especially in the late afternoons and evenings it was nice and breezy and cool almost - down to the low 20s or high teens. I even had to wear a long sleeve fleecy jacket at night! It was so breezy and cool.

Well I guess all my friends and books were right. Summer just hits you in the face here in Shanghai. One minute it is nice (all of May and around half of June) say the guidebooks, but then it's humidity city.

HOT. HUMID. WET. RAINY. That is what summer is like in Shanghai!

The week started to get hotter and hotter starting from Monday and today was the hottest it had been. Yesterday was pretty hot too but nothing like today. Today was the first day I had to use the air-conditioning since we moved into our flat. I tried to tolerate the heat but it was just unbearable, plus my poor computer couldn't cope either.

Earlier it was reported to be around 34degrees on a site, but I went to Yahoo and it said 32deg, 70% humidity, feels like 40deg. I thought - Wow, I'm not imagining it. Even Yahoo tells me it feels like 40deg!!

At around 7pm there were some massive thunderstorms complete with lightning. Since we are so high up, it felt like the lightning was right outside our window! Incredible (and scary).

Now, at 9pm, according to both Yahoo Weather and Shanghai Daily it is 26deg, 89% humidity, feels like 29deg.

I suppose there is no point hoping and wishing it would cool down. This is Asia afterall, and this is summer!

I suppose I should be thankful, though, I am not in Taiwan, Hong Kong or southern China where it would already be this hot in April or May.

The funny thing is, everyone back home in Sydney had been complaining about how cold it has been there. Down to 6 degrees some nights. Brrr...