It's like a jungle sometimes

I wonder if Grandmaster Flash lived in Hong Kong?

It's like a jungle sometimes
It makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under

Quite humid here at the moment. 36 degrees or so yesterday with 95% humidity according to the Hong Kong Observatory (good website BTW). There's a tropical storm gonna hit us this weekend -- lightning etc on Sunday. The lightning here is like NOTHING we experience in the UK. Real horror movie forked stuff with a simultaneous explosion booming right in the centre of your skull. AWESOME

I was going to write about the humidity in this entry, and still will, but the lightning has made me to digress ...

I've been fascinated with 'Fulgurite' for years -- I saw some in a museum in the US once. When lightning hits the ground - especially sand - it can instantly turn the sand into glass. Entrepreneurial Arabs (living in deserts), go seek the fulgurite and sell it off -- it's beautiful (see pic above).

And available for sale on the web HERE (hint, my birthday's coming up soon!).

About fulgurite ...

Lechatelierite Var. Fulgurite is the varietal name given to fused Quartz, Si02, which has been fused by the action of lightning striking the Earth and locally melting the sand. The best known Fulgurites are found in Quartz sands, where the Fulgurites take the form of tubes, sometimes exceeding a half inch or more in diameter. This type of formation is called a Sand Fulgurite. As the lightning strikes the Earth and courses downward through the sand, the sand is instantly super heated (i.e., melted and fused). After cooling, glass-like hollow tubes (Fulgurites) can sometimes be located beneath the surface of the sand, generally decreasing in diameter and sometimes branching as they descend, sometimes extending for several feet. The outer surfaces sand fulgurites are often rough with adhering, unfused Quartz sand grains. The inner surfaces and openings of the tubes are usually smooth and glassy, in some specimens resembling an applied glaze, sometimes with blister-like bubbling present. Rock Fulgurites are formed when lightning strikes the surface of a rock, melting and fusing the surface, and sometimes the interior of the rock. The melting point of Si02 is 2950oF. The color of the glassy, fused Si02 varies from pale gray, to smoky gray, to shiny black. The name Fulgurite is from the Latin: FULGUR (lightning).

Cool. Want one! Yes, Joss is right I am a geo-geek. If ever I finish my Doctorate (HA!), I'd like to study physical geography.

Where was I? Oh yes, humidity.

So it's humid here. But people say we've got off lightly .. April and May in HK are usually unbearable for humidity ... but it's not been that bad. We have been running the de-humidifiers throughout the day, and typically collect a bucket of water per humidifier per day.

Like I said, it's not that bad - perhaps that's a function of living @ sea level and/or being so near the sea? Others who live on the Peak, live in cloud for 3 or 4 months of the year (defeats the object of living up there I think i.e. no view). We hear stories of clouds appearing in sitting rooms up there (seriously) and books + clothes going moldy in days. Yuk. Hence the name "Gweilos in the mist".

Ha!

Mx