Brrrr, it's cold in here...

I woke up this morning to a balmy -19 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit). According to the Korea Times, it was the lowest official temperature for Seoul in six years. (You might remember that last week, it was -21 degrees Celsius. It was not an official figure.) "Even the usually warm southern resort island of Jeju registered minus 0.9 degrees," says the article. Thankfully, it's supposed to get warmer starting this weekend, possibly back to above-freezing temperatures.

But in comes Murphy's law -- because of the cold temperatures and how many people here have no gas heating and must heat their homes with electricity (me included), there is a warning that there might a possible power blackout next week due to high energy consumption. In fact, earlier today, South Korea set a new record in peak power use.

The current forecast for the rest of the week:

Tonight: -11 C (12 F) <-- the weather gadget on the right side of this page says -13 C as I write this.
Day Thurs.: -10 C (14 F)
Night Thurs.: -6 C (21 F)
Day Fri.: -2 C (28 F)
Night Fri.: -8 C (17 F)
Day Sat.: -3 C (26 F)
Night Sat.: -10 C (14 F)

With that said, I can't wait until my trip to Hong Kong... It's like the light at the end of the snowy ice tunnel.