There is nothing quite as sweet as the feeling of waking up on a Saturday morning secure in the knowledge that you don’t have to go to work. No alarms, no rushed shower, no putting on suits and stockings. Nope, you don’t have to do anything other than make the coffee and sip it outside on the balcony in your jammies.

However, I think I would enjoy this lazy Saturday morning if I could sit outside without fear of getting some kind of respiratory infection. This week has been remarkably bad air quality, so bad that the three mountains I look at every morning have literally disappeared. Forget about seeing the other islands — you can barely see across Victoria Harbour.

This is a picture of the filth that I breathe every day in Central, where I work. You see how close those buildings are — they are swimming in a thick soup of smog. My brain tries to fight the reality that I too am walking around, inhaling this disgusting pollution 24 hours a day, but it is the reality.

To give you a true sense of the difference between a good day in Hong Kong and a really bad day in Hong Kong, contrast these two pictures. Both were taken from the waterfront of Hong Kong island, looking across the harbour at Kowloon. They are of exacty the same location, you can see the same buildings in the left and right sides of the pictures.The top one was taken on a beautiful clear day, and the bottom picture was taken yesterday.

GOOD DAY…

BAD DAY…

It’s pollution magic! Now you see the mountains, now you don’t.

I tell you, Hong Kong is a really interesting place and a fun city, but there is no way in hell I would ever, ever, EVER choose to stay here long term. I get no joy from living in a place where you can see the air that you breathe.