 放大圖片
■香港的春天大霧潮濕，矗立於中區的摩天商廈隱藏於一片霧海之中。 資料圖片
Fai
My apartment looks out to the Tolo Harbor, and we are normally treated to the wonderful sight of the Pak Sin Range. Last week, however, there was such heavy mist hanging in the air that we could hardly see the train tracks only hundreds of yards away, let alone the gorgeous view across the harbor. We could still hear the train, however, and were spooked by the eeriness (n.陰森怪異) of it all.
Yes, the humid weather has returned. Barely a week earlier, the temperature was in single digit Celsius. People were heavily robed(v.使穿上) in the morning. They exchanged grimaces (n.歪扭的表情) instead of hearty greetings when they saw each other. I was actually quite happy about the cold, for it reminded me of winters of the 1960s in H.K before we felt acutely the effect of global warming.
But then the moisture in the air brought me back to reality. The wall was covered with condensation. Things were getting moldy (adj.發霉的). The laundry stayed up on the clothes lines for day without getting any dryer. So were the beddings, which stuck to the skin when one lay down at night. The worst is the stairwell (n.樓梯井) and the elevator landing of the building, which are insulated from the outside by doors that, because of fire regulations, have to be closed all the time. There was no circulation at all as a result. The floor looked as if someone had carelessly spilled water on it and forgot to mop(v.擦乾) it up. The floor got so slippery that it became hazardous(adj.危險的) to walk on it.
It has often been argued as to which of the two, the heat or the humidity, is harder to bear. Having lived in and traveled to a number of places with arid(adj.乾旱的) weather, I would choose the high temperature any time as long as the air is dry. Most of the state of Utah in the U.S is covered by desert. The temperature is so high there in the summer that mirages (n.海市蜃樓) are a common sight. Yet, people go about their business from day to day without much complaint, because as soon as they step out of the sun, it feels quite comfortable. Perhaps for the same reason, as soon as the sun goes down, the temperature drops precipitously.
Or consider the reverse of what we have been talking about so far: places that are cold and damp (adj.潮濕的), of which the basement of my house in the U.S is a perfect example. I had always imagined the basement to be a good place to be in the summer, but my actual experience showed how mistaken I was. The temperature indeed is much lower than the ground level, but who could stand the musty(adj.發黴的)air that makes one think of torture chambers in an old castle? In the beginning, we put a pool table(美式桌球)in the basement thinking that we could play there in the hot summer days. Before long, however, the table was wraped by the moisture. Regardless of how hard we shot the ball, it would roll back to the center of the table. Even worse, the heavy air tended to set off my son's asthma. Friends suggested that we put a dehumidifier (n.除濕機) there, which turned out to be excellent advice, but we had to leave it running almost non-stop.
As a matter of fact, the dehumidifier in my apartment in H.K was left running almost non-stop in the last few days, too, not because we wanted to play pool here, but because of the damp laundry. I hope I have a clean shirt to put on tomorrow. ■kingfaitam@gmail.com
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