The 2013 Southeast Asian Haze left us with deeply etched memories, on account that it wasn’t just because the PSI index was hitting hazardous levels at its peak (401 on 21 June!), but we were resigned to have little Peter born right into smog. As luck would have it, winds direction changed barely days before his birth and for the better too. The 2014 haze event was mild, but it’s back full-on again in 2015, and with the remarks made by certain politicians.
Like the many commercial and educational establishments on the island, we’ve developed our own little haze management plan at home, and it basically involves having the kids sleep in our room with the Novita HEPA filter we bought last year finally put to good use. Our Minton master room is a little smaller than our old place at the Rivervale. Initially we tried having Hannah sleep with us while Peter sleeps on his mattress on the floor – which we’ll scrupulously vacuum up first. But Hannah is a kicker, and the first night saw the wife complaining to an amused hubbie that she barely slept after being kicked every hour or so by our 6 year old. So, Hannah got banished to the floor to, albeit on her sizable super-single 8 inch thick mattress – and she couldn’t be happier LOL.
Thing is though that while Hannah will usually obediently try to go to sleep when it’s time to dos, Peter won’t turn in nearly as easily in this new sleeping arrangement. He’ll crawl out, run around the darkened bedroom, leave the room, turn lights on etc. That’s necessitated one of us routinely having to jaga (or stand guard/sentry for our ang mo bud) in the room for almost an hour each evening until he eventually tires. And on a few evenings, we’ve woken up to find him gone from his mattress and sleeping peacefully underneath the changing table. Beats us how he manages it each time!
Jaga! I’m going to add that to my verbal arsenal!