Death by fan

"Death by fan?" you ask. "So what's this all about?"

People (and this is limited to the people of South Korea) believe that if you leave an electric fan on overnight you will die. That's right: die. One can only assume that Koreans are more susceptible to death by fan than the rest of the world so, being half Korean, my level of risk is significantly increased.

So, it is thus that I endure the ever-increasing heat and humidity and attempt to embrace sleep without my trusty electric fan. Air-con is just a no-no for me; the dry recycled air that leads to a twitching nose and a scratchy throat can stay put while the weather is still tolerable.

However, despite managing to fall asleep reasonably easily, at the strike of 04:00 this morning I found myself rolling around in a sweat, internally complaining about the heat. To make things worse, my ears caught a glimpse of that incessant whine that cannot be mistaken for anything but a hungry mosquito. Now, once you know one of those is in the room, sleep just doesn't come easily. You try to remember that it's going to bite you whether you are asleep or not, but this is not always a comforting bedtime thought.

After giving the air-con a whirl to ease my discomfort I finally drifted off, inevitably to wake up to find the little booger had bitten me no less than three painstakingly itchy times, with a collection of nibbles thrown in for good measure. I may have to risk the possibility of death by fan in order to keep myself dormant as flying insects make a meal of me. Alternatively, I could buy some repellent.