Top Tip Tuesday

Regular visitors to the blog may have noticed that I've added a few pages. Lazy followers who just get my emails will have to actually go to the website to see these. For a while I was a frequent visitor to parenting forums like GeoBaby, and I found I was responding to a lot of the same types of queries. There are so many parents out there struggling with the same issues of sleep and feeding, and so much conflicting advice on both. I don't know all the answers, and I haven't found many through reading books, but I felt like I had an opinion worth expressing (doesn't everyone?). I wanted to write about my experiences in the hope that someone might benefit from them, and rather than being confused by all the different opinions out there, be relieved that someone else has a baby that doesn't fit the mold, and that they survived. The things I think about certain topics related to parenting can be found on the page I've titles "Parenting 101."

I also started this blog with the intention of writing about life in Hong Kong. I got a little off track with this one so I've created another page titled "HK Top Tips." I realised after I created these pages that I had very little time to add all the necessary information so I'm going to write a special post each week dedicated to my top tips, and each one will be added to the page for future reference. I'm not sure yet whether that'll make sense but it's a start!

So here's this week's Top Tip:

Be Prepared for all Eventualities: Hong Kong is hot at this time of year, really hot, and humid. But, the air quality is as good as it gets so it's worth sticking around if you can stand the heat. Despite the outside temperatures it's often positively frosty indoors, and it's not uncommon to get sick from the constant hot/cold change. June and July are the wettest months of the year too so there's always a chance you'll get caught in a downpour if you leave the comfort of your climate-controlled living room. So, if you do leave the house there are few things you need to have with you.

1. An umbrella. A golf-umbrella is the only thing that will protect you in a typhoon, but a hand-bag sized one will suffice if you're just walking down Queen's Rd between Marks and Spencer and H & M.
2. A cardigan or pashmina. No matter how hot it is outside, you will get chilly if you step into any building or use public transport. Same goes for little people. 
3. A sense of humour - whatever the time of day you'll either be hot and wet, or chilly and damp, and as gorgeous as the place is at this time of year, it's easy to lose patience. And people of all ages seem to go a little bit batty whenever there's a typhoon coming. You just gotta roll with it and laugh about it.