Monsoon, Please End Soon!

Singapore's seasons are pretty easy to decipher. We have warm and muggy, hot and stagnant, warm and rainy and rarely we get a glimpse of warm with humidity less than 80 percent. I don't think the temperature has dipped below 73 degrees in the past 3 years.

While we enjoy plentiful rainfall throughout the year, there's a noticeable difference when monsoon season begins in September/October each year. This year was especially wet, with rainfall occurring for what felt like a week at a time. We had flash floods periodically, which continued to embarrass the government because they couldn't seem to figure out a way to keep stores that are below sidewalk level on Orchard Road from filling with water when it rained hard. I give Starbucks credit for adjusting though, as they now have concrete floors and metal furniture inside that store.

The good news about the rainy season is that the temperatures fall. We're not sweating every time we walk out of the house. But we do pay the price if we don't remember our umbrellas every time we leave the house. One way or the other we end up damp by the end of the day.

While I've grown to appreciate the benefits of rain and the relief it brings to our tropical island, I had enough of the constant rain this year. It gets depressing when you don't see the sun for days on end and there's only so much indoor entertainment to offer the kids.

The locals claim that monsoon season ends at Chinese New Year, which begins January 23 this year. I can already tell the rain is going away as we enjoyed three days in a row of sunshine and no rain this past week. Bring on the sun!