Onion, My Saviour

I’m probably going to sound like an onion marketer or sales agent, but do bear with me. So what happened is, for the past three months or so – the time we started have to turn on the air conditioner at all times due to the unbearable heat of Hong Kong’s unforgivingly hot summer – I’ve been woken by the desperate urge to cough, complicated with an extremely stuffy nose. The diabolical ‘routine’ took place at around 2am every night, and every time I’d have to go to the living room to unblock my nasal blockage, not really getting much sleep as the saga usually dies out at approximately 5am.

I’ve never had any nasal allergies so it goes without saying that I hadn’t an inkling whether an air purifier actually works. But we got one anyway, for a friend claims to have had similar symptoms but has been able to get undisrupted sleep once she got an air purifier. For a few days the air purifier seemed to save the day, and yet all of a sudden its effectiveness seemed to wear off as soon as its novelty. What we also tried was aromatherapy with peppermint but other than filling the apartment with refreshing scent, it was pretty much useless.

So last night, the boyfriend decided to take inspiration from his mother and use power of the onion. I’ve known of the bacteria-killing power of onion but I must have underestimated it in hindsight. We cut two onions in halves and put them under the bed, with one half right next to my pillow. And lo and behold, I woke up this morning, though not feeling like a Disney princess rising to birdsong, definitely more reinvigorated than I’d done in a long while, because I was able to sleep till the alarm was due to wake me.

Just my two cents. The onion doesn’t have to work for you, but at least for now, it is on my side. 

Because Air Quality Matters

Credit: Awair

As a new victim of nasal allergy, I must concur with my fellow sufferers that yes, at times you just wish that you could cut off your nose and be done with the allergy, once and for all. What’s tricky about nasal allergy – in my case, at least – is that you never know when it’ll strike. It basically comes and goes as it pleases, causing stuffiness in your nostrils just when you’re about to sleep, or making you sneeze like a maniac in the middle of a work meeting. I can blame it on the severe air pollution in Hong Kong, the shedding seasons for my cats and what-not, but whatever the causes, nasal allergy is simply annoying.

Enough of my rant. It looks like help is at hand. A sleek device with an appearance that resembles a retro-style amplifier, Awair is designed to analyse your indoor air quality in real time, learn your routines, and communicate with other home devices to help you achieve optimal air quality for your home or office. By allowing you to choose from the list of habits and lifestyle preferences, Awair tracks the daily air quality levels in a given room, and can then recommend ways to help change your behaviours, such as activating the humidifier (to which it is connected) to increase moisture content in the room if it’s deemed too dry for comfort. With sensors that survey carbon dioxide, fine dust particles and volatile organic compounds in the air, Awair shows you the quality of the air that you’re breathing through a companion app that illustrates the data using infographics and digital cards.

Good news is Awair is now available for pre-order at USD149, and will be shipping from autumn this year onwards. I don’t know about you but I’m seriously tempted.