I was told yesterday that Suzhou has a wet season. The humidity has been really high in the last week and so the mosquitoes are coming out to play at night. And they seem to like my blood quite a lot which is a bit of bad news. Funny thing they sound the same as any other mosquito I have encountered around the world. I have resorted to using mosquito repellent. You plug it into the wall and put in a small pad that then begins to burn slowly and the wonderful mix of chemicals keep the mosquitoes at bay. However I do not like to use such things because you have no idea what carcinogenics you are sucking into your lungs. So I usually put it on for a few hours with the room shut and then I open the windows when I go in and hopefully the mosquito nets will keep these ravenous beasts at bay.

A few nights ago I had a terrible sleep, the heat, the mosquitoes, but last night it was the rain, oh and the accompanying thunder storm. No idea what time it was but it was kinda light outside and the rain was pissin doon, it wus stoatin’ aff the road and it woke me up.

So it’s only the start of June and it’s going to be like this for some time. If I had access to a car then I really wouldn’t care because I can put on the aircon and be cocooned in my bubble, but when you have to go everywhere by public transport and then you start to feel that first bead of sweat starting to make its way down to the shuch o’ yer erse, well it is not a pleasant feeling ah tell you.

And you could cut the air with a knife, party due to the high humidity but also the high level of pollution. A blue sky is a rare thing in Suzhou at the moment. As I write this it is very overcast obviously but sometimes it’s a haze. The buildings in the distance don’t seem to be in focus.

I live on the top floor of an apartment block and so if there is any wind then I will get it. I’m on the eleventh floor, so how the fuck do these mosquitoes get up here. They do call Suzhou the Venice of the East and so there are plenty of canals around, in fact there is a lovely green one outside my apartment. I don’t like to use the air conditioning and so I will lie in bed and seek out the faintest breath of wind coming in through the window and what a pleasure it is when it finally reaches you. If you are lucky for it to land on a pressure point then your whole body will fell the benefit. So when you are sitting in the car for instance, all you have to do is place one of your wrists over a vent and your whole body will begin to cool down. There is no need to have the air conditioning belting out.

This time next week I should be back in Australia and one thing I’m looking forward to is driving my wee car again,  just hope that she will start after sitting for nearly 12 months. I will keep you posted. But in Australia it is also winter and so I will have a couple of weeks of relief from this miserable Suzhou weather.