I can’t believe it’s been nearly a year since I wrote a weather update – it feels like only a few months ago.  I was just reading my update from last April and got scared that the same pattern was repeating itself. The weather’s been really good since just before Christmas: with the exception of a few chilly weeks it’s been very mild, warm even (late 20s at times) and we’ve had a fair share of blue skies. It’s definitely seemed warmer than last year anyway – Paul sat outside for Christmas lunch which we wouldn’t have been able to do last year. But I fear that we will once again be calling this month “Mouldy March” as, since Sunday, it’s been cooler and windy, with some rain. Not quite as bad as last year so far but not a good start to the month. It’s still just about warm enough to go without a jacket, but definitely not sundress weather. I really should write these updates more often as I really can’t remember much about what last summer / autumn was like.  It definitely wasn’t the hottest we’ve had – temperatures remained in the 30s – and I don’t think it rained as much, although there were a few stonking storms, including one which hit when I was at a ladies get together at an open air beer garden. Of all the places to be! That took trees down, squashed cars and killed a few unfortunates. I hid with...

I apologise for posting about the weather but every year I intend to keep a record for future reference and forget. My blog seems a sensible place to store the information but feel free to ignore it entirely. Winter in Hanoi is not generally a pleasant time of year to be here. As I wrote in my Travelfish wire a few years ago, it really does get cold in Hanoi. Or maybe I should re-phrase that: it really does feel cold in Hanoi. The temperature rarely drops below 10C — not cold in the English sense of the word — but the damp air, lack of insulation in buildings and windchill, especially when on a motorbike, makes it feel a lot colder than the thermometer may suggest. This winter, however, we thought we’d got off lightly. We were still seeing blue skies and reasonably mild weather in early December, and during Tet, at the end of January, the weather was glorious: blue skies, dry air, a bit chilly but who cares when it’s sunny! Unfortunately it then went downhill: it started raining. For the end of February and most of March we had grey skies and drizzle…every day. It was miserable. So miserable that I had to run away to the beach in Hoi An to get some sunshine. Thankfully I brought the sunshine with me back to Hanoi, and we had a week or so of good weather before it got a bit wet again. Fortunately it’s not been raining too much in the day, but it’s pretty damp. Very warm though — with the damp and humidity it’s starting to get uncomfortable to walk in. And there’s mould everywhere! Now we just need the rain to stop and the blue skies to appear and we may still manage a brief spell of spring before summer kicks...