Frozen

There's an urban myth that illegal Mexican immigrants were being found frozen in the middle of the Southern California desert. How could anyone freeze in the heat? Answer: they were hiding in the wheel wells of jumbo jets, freezing to death and then falling out on a landing approach.

Welcome to my wheel well.

It's raining again. So I'm freezing my butt of in my office because the aircon cannot adjust for the fact there isn't sun streaming through the windows. It's like an English winter – gloomy and cold. Outside it's probably 82°F ... but that's about 4° below normal so indoors it's about 60°F. Everyone is in jackets and sweaters in the office and I'm considering bringing a space heater back with me from Canada when I go in two weeks. This is life in the modern tropics.

I still remember the first time I took a cab in Singapore about 12 years ago. I stepped out and immediately my glasses fogged up. That was mind blowing. My entire life, my experience of foggy glasses was when entering the house after coming in from the cold. Here you come in from the heat. When you go out, condensation sticks to every cool surface. As evidence of the barbaric conditions we're under with this lousy aircon, I even get condensation on my hands when I head home.

Anyway, before my fingers drop off from frostbite, I'm heading to the pantry for the 5th time today to run my hands under warm water. I even drank a hot chocolate today for crying out loud. I drank it with both hands cupped to the mug while shivering. I was in a Coffee Bean that was also freezing cold despite the fact their doors were wide open because it seems nobody on this island has a thermostat and everyone is destined to succumb to hypothermia if this rainy weather doesn't pass.

Labels: singapore