Of Flower Festivals, Earphones and a Lightning disaster

The Met department a few days ago forecasted thunderstorms this week and that hopefully they would clear the haze in the country. Yesterday evening, we experienced strong winds and a thunderstorm in the Klang Valley. The atmosphere is clearer today as a result and if you are in the vicinity and are a flowers and garden enthusiast, probably a great day to spend at the Flowers and Parks Festival at Putrajaya which ends tomorrow. Stay a little later after sundown, you'll get to enjoy the river floats all beautifully-lit and decorated with flowers, of course.

On the subject of weather and thunderstorms, here is an interesting article spotted in The Star about the danger of using the earphone when there is lightning. Good to take note and spread the word.

KUCHING: If you are in the habit of moving around with the earphone of your handset stuck in your ears, an incident here yesterday will have you thinking twice about doing that.

It was about 5pm and a mosque cleaner at a teachers' training school at Jalan Batu Lintang was happily working away with the earphone of his handset plugged in his ears when lightning struck.

A source said in the split-second incident, the youth, 18, was flung to the floor, and friends who came to his rescue were shocked to see what used to be his handphone looking like a mere lump of metal. Apparently, it had instantly melted and then hardened.

A lecturer rushed the unconscious youth to the Sarawak General Hospital.

The source said there were clear burn marks on the youth's ears.

At press time, he was still in critical condition.