The weather is a standard conversation topic in Hong Kong in the same way that renovations, house prices and taxes are in Sydney.

Having been here for four Chinese New Year holidays, and chatted ad nauseum with residents who have been here either much longer, or forever, I can say with some authority, that this CNY was the warmest and most pleasant on record. The others have been drizzling, cold and generally miserable (similar to those that miss out at the auctions in Sydney).

Those that hadn’t been here so long (and surprisingly, a few that had) mistook this as the start of the sunny and hot season and began talking of ‘bikini bodies’. While it’s never too soon to get fit and healthy, it is definitely too soon to think about a bikini unless you’re about to holiday somewhere tropical.

Since then, it’s been cold. Very cold. So cold, that every day last week had a cold weather warning issued by the HK Observatory advising the elderly and the sick to stay indoors and stay warm. It’s good advice that I try to follow too. Nice to know the Observatory is looking out for us.

Some of the Bikini Body Brigade have been in denial over the past week, not wearing coats to work and trying to eat traditional summer foods such as salad. The rest of us have been wearing coats and scarves in (yes, it is cold here!) and continuing to have Friday as our Triple Os burger day (I’m guessing it’s called Triple Os because that’s the number you’d call after eating too many of their burgers – there’d be problems though as that’s not the emergency number here).

Those that aren’t in denial have now acknowledged the truth. The weather for the next few months will stay cold while becoming increasingly humid. It is time to buy the camel packs for the cupboards so the clothes don’t go mouldy, get the dehumidifier cranking and don’t pack the winter woolies just yet. It’s the time of the year where you’re cold but can still manage to sweat without really doing anything. It’s also the time of year where the sky disappears to be replaced by low hanging grey/yellow/brown tinged stuff. Some would call this smog, some pollution, some cloud. This is why a lot of people go away over the weekend during this time of year, to see blue sky.

After this, it will become hotter before one final cold snap just prior to the Dragon Boat Festival on 6 June (this year. It’s a lunar calendar festival and the weather always follows this pattern).

Then it will just be hot and humid.

* Thanks to Billy Idol for the title to this post.