This, my friends, is not a photo of a beautiful sunrise. It is a sad reminder that the haze is here and the sun is choking too. Photo taken on 26 Feb 2005 at 7.30 am at 5xmom apartment grounds.
It has been hazy here in Penang. And I recall the worst haze that happened sometime in the late 90s. It was a nightmare for me then because my eldest son had childhood asthma. And his lungs could sense a haze better than our meteorological department. Before they publicly announce about the haze, my son would be wheezing and coughing away. And the next thing will be a long hospital stay.
Those were the days. I was a full-time working mother. His primary school and daycare centre was about 40 minutes ride on the bas sekolah. At that time, a curfew was declared in Kuching, if I remember correctly. And over here in Penang, everyone donned a face mask. Some days, it got so bad, I would rushed out during my lunch hour to pick my son up, send him to daycare and speed back to work. It was very stressful to me as a mother to an asthmatic child. I wanted to do everything to protect him from the big, bad haze but the air that we breathe was just so, so bad.
But through the years, I am now a lot wiser and a lot braver. I hope this current spell of haze will blow away soon. Rain, rain, please come now. Don’t let all the little children suffer like my poor kid used to do.
I am thankful that the same little, asthmatic boy is now a young adult. He is not affected by the haze, had been cleared of his childhood asthma and is under the care of a great doctor. In fact, he is going kayak-ing tomorrow with his scouts members.
I hope mothers of asthmatic children will learn to cope with the right attitude. That is to take everything in their stride without putting too much pressure on the kid. Don’t make an asthmatic child feel like he is a freak with a weird lung and about to suffocate to death. I know many parents will be over protective, causing undue trauma to a child with their (parents) imaginative minds. Nowadays, the management of asthma is a lot simple and effective. Unlike those times when my son had to swallow oral steroids and inhaler was rare.
I had a conversation with someone from the medical line recently:
5xmom : Have a great weekend!
Someone : Cannot, haze problem.
5xmom : *sigh* A lot of asthmatic kids/patients ya?
Someone : Yeah, poor kids
5xmom : Not only poor kids, poor moms too, been through those nightmares
Someone : Poor mothers are a result of poor management
5mom : I know what you mean, I met lousy ones a lot
Who made me feel like the world is ending.
Someone : Yeah. Good explanation should make the mothers know what is asthma and alleviate their fears. The best way to counter fear is to know the enemy well.
5xmom : And look them (illness) in the eyes. Thanks, doc!
Poor sun, looking so gloomy.
Can someone, please perform the rain dance?
some are peat fire.. cant be put out by rain 🙁 hope that the temperature will go down and the damned spell will end.. it’s driving me crazy.. i have been like smoking the whole day..
why your site no trackback one.. wanna ping also tak boleh ::(
Its also the same here in KL, walausss just cannot tahan man. Go out also cannot one.
I hate the haze! I swear the one in the late 90s made my sensitive nose problem a lot more worse! Grrrr… I hate the haze!
IF it’s any comfort, it rained here in S’pore today. Was very hazy before that too. Clear up alot. Hope the rain gets there soon..Tonight is quite cool..
ET – go out and blow the clouds up north la.
MG – I hate it too, do depressing. And blardy hot, unsually hot.
Mr Kiasu – I saw a few people also blog it. So, I jump on the bandwagon to blog about haze. Kiasu mah.
MunKit – I informed my website engineer liao. He say ‘aisay, ya hor’. So I hope he has time to do it la. Meantime, you go out and do a rain dance la. You know…go naked, and go ‘hoo hoo haa haa’ and hold the feather type? And put cili on stick. Err..noleh, that wan to stop the rain during footballs. LOL.
baik baik :))) well it just rained over here! an hour after this post! ahahah damn good effect
Melaka here, today still very hazy. I could even sensed the smokey smell at home. (sigh now staying at home also not a good way to escape liao) Now, the sky seems like raining soon. Hope there’ll be a heavy rain to ease the condition.
Invest in a good air purifier and a humidifier. At least the kids and family would have good air at home.
Hooray! Melaka is now raining heavily
fuiyoh…never know earthtone so “long winded” can blow the clouds from Singapore to Penang.
KL’s haze worst! i can’t even see the apartment near my house, might take some picture tomolo.
Wah…Penang also raining early morning. Now, 9.30 am, still feel so cold due to the rain. Must be MunKit and maybe Jason’s dance.
Haha,still dun want say “thank you”?where’s the offerings?
yeah malacca also rained.. but i think the haze continues to linger.. not sure its mist of haze 😛
KL rained oso..nice melody for slepig o the midnight..hehe….zAfter the rain morning seem like not so hot liao..
Everywhere rained? Hmm…maybe they do cloud seeding lor…but this morning here in PJ rained liao now not that hot lor…
Everytime I fly back to Kl and be greeted by the hazy scene (this during non Hazy times even) I get a little longing to be back here in Sabah. Kl’s air is getting bad no kidding, even on a good day a view of the skyline is greeted by foggy scenes and not blue skies. Somehow the scene here in Kk is envigorating (hopefully fires do not start in Kalimantan and we all choke to death as well). But dry spell here as well, hot to the point I feel like melting and no rain for months. Minor fires have flared recently but nothing major.