How has your July been? I hope you haven't melted in the heat wave!

On my end, summers have continued to be blazing where it's almost unbearable to even step out of an air-conditioned room -- I start sweating after just five minutes out on the street! A friend of mine recently said that heat waves in Europe are still better weather than summer in Hong Kong: our sweaty, humid, hard-to-breathe (even without masks!) summers last from late April and sometimes into mid-November! Fall is almost non-existent here. 

(and I need to stop using newsletters as a way to complain about the weather...)

I hope that those of you who are living in other parts of the world are having a good warm summer, though — what with those European blue skies and cool breezes that keep you company while you nap under a tree. Or something along those lines.

I've recently come to terms with the hard truth that I'm exhausted, burning out, and that I'm getting older much quicker than I would like to -- I'm pretty sure I accidentally freaked out some of my colleagues when I broke down during a few especially stressful mornings. But I'm okay now, am re-learning to take each day on its own, and to reprioritise my work and obligations in my personal and professional life.

I've had a rather pleasant, though hectic (and stressful at many moments) two months experiencing a lot of new things, and wrapping up the projects I've mentioned in the last newsletter, handling small day to day stresses while I was gearing up for the trip, as well as physically packing up the library I currently work in for renovations. I've also been taking my time regaining momentum for work and just getting my bearings again after a very lovely trip to Ireland, and saying goodbyes.