Staying safe, hydrated 'n' smiling in the Singapore haze

Wowzers!  This Singapore haze has been the talk of the city and has spread like 'wild fire' :-O

PSI @ 401 Friday 21st June 2013
...scary, scary pic - like a movie where the zombies climb out of the River
and launch their attack, Yikes!!

Waking up to the smell of smoke and peeping out of the window to see, well, not very much to be honest, is a shocking state of affairs!  Suddenly our beautiful view of the city and over the River had completely disappeared behind a smoke screen!

PSI somewhere around 200 Thursday 20th June 2013

The whole of Singapore, well the ones who had nothing much else to do and could tap into safari on their iPhones (i.e. that's me), were getting the psi details as and when updated each hour.

So, by Friday we were well and truly choking!  A record breaking psi of 401 !!!

Of course crazy panic buying and stock piling saw the masks, type N95 (really the only mask to protect effectively) simply disappearing and turning into gold dust :-)  Luckily I had a supply of the regular surgical masks in my little medical cupboard (these are better than nothing) so to double them up and damp them slightly is the best my family and I can do for now.

Type N95 mask
promises to filter 95% of the tiny particles

I have N95 masks winging their way from worried family in the UK, I may end up with so many of the masks that I need to sell them on the street LOL - course I would give them away to the needy :-)


Friday saw me and my eldest little man at the doctor.  Little man was wheezing and feeling dizzy and both our lingering asthma was back.  Our doctor was quick to see that the dizzy and tired feelings we had were due to lack of oxygen getting into our bodies and our bodies needing to work that little bit extra hard.  His and hers Seretide and Ventolin inhalers did the trick.  We did suffer a minor set back late Friday night (eldest little man had a high fever and was falling to sleep - even before he'd eaten dinner!!) which called for a nice cool bath, paracetamol and mum (me) going into full blown worry and panic mode.  Quickly though I calmed myself and soon got his temperature down, food in his belly, 2 puffs of the Seretide and he was away to bed.  Happily feeling better when he woke Saturday morning, thank goodness :-)


Course, like everyone we have been housebound for the whole of Saturday (not much to smile about there).  We did however have to don our masks to walk Mr Dog...oddly no one else was about walking - didn't the other dogs need to pee?  Quick toilet walks are the best thing for Mr Dog and mine is drinking around double the amount of water he usually drinks...take a queue from Mr Dog - we humans too need to drink lots to keep hydrated in this smokey dry atmosphere.

So hydration in and out is needed:-

• drink lots of cool water
• drink less coffee or caffeine based drinks
• use a water spray or hydration spray for your face and lots of moisturiser (I've been doing this 4 times per day as my dry-ish skin is really feeling the tightness :-(
• Bodies need lots of moisturiser too, don't neglect your legs and arms and neck area - when this haze has passed you'll want to slip into that bikini (or swim shorts) with supple gorgeous sexy skin because flakey dry skin is such a turn off! xx :-)

Staying happy and healthy is the main thing...ok, staying indoors is a tad boring but take it has some much needed R&R time.  Pile up the movies, get out the board games and generally have some good old fashioned family time.  Not got a family, then do the movies with snuggles and lots of 'we time' xx :-)

If you do NEED to venture outdoors then, as well as the mask (whichever type you have), I would also suggest wearing a hat too...the tiny particles in the air will be falling onto your clothes and into your hair...spending any time outdoors and then bringing the 'haze' indoors on your hair will not be good for you either.  So, I suggest, wear a hat and change your clothes when you come back indoors or, better still, shower to rinse away the smog.  I bathed my dog today and he, not only smells so much better but he's not coughing as much.

Take notes from Mr Dog -

drink lots to stay hydrated and

take regular showers to wash off those tiny smokey particles :-)

Breathing difficulties can be made worse by milk based products.  Try to avoid these as they can block the respiratory tubes and make an already strained breathing harder - I've always followed that advice with eldest little man because of his asthma when he was smaller but it's the same for these hazy conditions too.

Oh and Vitamin C - keep your immunity up to fight off any of the infections your respiratory system may decide to get attached to!

Stay indoors where possible, stay smiling beneath the mask and drink, drink drink (water).  

kisses 'n' smiles from me xx :-)

P.S.  Since writing this post we've had a massive improvement which does, however, seem to be due to a change in the wind direction and not actually because the problem is under control.  The two pics here show Saturday 22nd June @ 3pm and 22nd June @ 9am and :-

Massive improvement but will it last???
Fingers crossed, hey! xx :-)

breathless, doctor's orders 'n' finding the breeze

I do believe it is that time of year when kids 'n' parents (especially mums) get really quite tired.

Kids because there's end of the year stuff at school to do and get excited about.

While we mums are a) stressing, b) getting excited ourselves (if the truth be known) and c) trying to remain calm and in control of the whole end of year and summer holiday situation :-)

Yep, that's about right....
getting everyone's stuff ready for the hols
...liquid medication in a wine glass is a good alternative :-)

Around 3 weeks ago I started with a sore throat which gradually turned into a cough and full blown cold (one evening I swear my head was going to explode).

The cold cleared up and I started to feel better (although did have to miss my SPCA shift).  The following week I'm on the MRT, start coughing and low and behold I have an asthma attack (not had one for 7 years!)  Course I panic and decide to go to the doctor, get a Ventolin inhaler and told I most likely have mycoplasma ...   Come out of the doctor with antibiotics and smiling thinking I would rid myself of this germ.

A week later, antibiotics finished and I don't feel ill but so exhausted I wanted to cry :-(  Imagine, the kids are home at 3.30pm and I'm just wanting to close my eyes.  Queue Mr Man coming home from work and I'm off to bed (sleep before 9pm for me!)

I was convinced it was just me and (dare I say it) I felt I was getting old...shock, horror!!  Anyways, after talking to a couple of other mums around my area it seems it's not just me and is a rather common thing that has to be suffered prior to the BIG RELAX during the summer hols/vacation.

I did visit the doctor again this week and came out with another weeks worth of antibiotics and she told me I needed to rest and fight of the germ before I would feel better and the exhaustion is normal it's my body telling me to rest.

So, with the mixture of my germ infested body and the holiday preps this tiredness wasn't helping me 'get well soon'...I need to rest like the doctor ordered.  Hence the blogging has begun again...the sitting quietly and typing until my heart is content is rather therapeutic :-)

Taking 40 winks with Mr Dog as my companion...

thnx Mr Man for snapping while I sleep! :-)

Resting is all well and good but when the temperature is over 30 degrees (mostly 34-36 degrees) even resting gets pretty darn hot.  So, to kill two birds with one stone and all that (exercise to get up the endorphins, and give energy, give Mr Dog his daily exercise and search out some 'air')  I've took to walking the extra km with Mr Dog and finding ourselves where the Marina Bay Reservoir meets the sea (The Marina Barrage).  Yes, finally we find the sea breeze and enjoy a moment of hair blowing and breathing in the sea air (I'm a true believer that sea air is good for the health)

Finally, I'm feeling on the mend and although still rather tired I am getting my energy levels back (although falling to sleep during my facial today was rather embarrassing :-Oooops!!)  Finish up this course of antibiotics and I shall be 100% back to normal (as normal as can be hoped anyways :-))

*the air quality does seem particularly bad right now...I see haze resting over the city and there's also a strong smell of smoke/fire in the air.  Playing havoc with my asthma, tight chest and rather sore eyes too :-(  Not a great day to be outdoors.  I know Shanghai and Beijing have it so much worse and I totally feel for those who live out there.

kisses 'n' smiles from me xx :-)



*kill two birds with one stone - no, I'm not literally tossing stones around to knock out poor birds...to kill two birds with one stone is actually a way of saying do two things at the same time with only the effort needed to do just one of those things.  I'm sure most people know that anyways :-)