First T8 of the season!
Was going to write this post on my iPhone at IFC Starbucks yesterday, but for some reason, the keyboard doesn't pop up for the blogger content box in Safari. I could have emailed in the blog entry, but of course, I've forgotten the email address. So here it is, not quite live:
I love it when typhoon signals 8 or 10 are hoisted; it's like some higher power has mandated that we should all get a time-out. Other cities may get snow days, but if the snow is that bad, there's really not much to do aside from sit around at home and watch TV or surf the internet (that's assuming there are no power outages). Whereas typhoons are generally milder than a bad rain storm (we have rain storm days too), so it's pretty safe to wander around. Some people even take the opportunity to go surfing. The only down side is trying to get a cab. If you're lucky enough to get a cab, some cab drivers demand extra fare (supposedly to cover the lack of typhoon-damage insurance coverage).
I missed out on typhoon season last summer, so it feels like it's been a while since a big storm has hit Hong Kong. At around 2:30pm yesterday (just after lunch!), tropical storm Pabuk (where did they get this name?) gave the Hong Kong Observatory cause to raise the typhoon signal to no. 8 (10 being the next and highest). At 8, businesses shut and everyone gets to go home, supposedly for shelter. In reality, the mobile phone system gets jammed while everyone tries to call or sms their family and friends to set up typhoon entertainment. Once that's done, there's a mad rush to get from the office to the agreed upon venue. I took the opportunity to spend a guilt-free afternoon at the Four Seasons spa. I suspected that traffic would be bad and hailing a taxi nearly impossible, so opted to take the MTR to Central instead. I have never seen the MTR so packed!
Causeway Bay MTR station. Photo taken with iPhone camera.
By 6pm, totally relaxed and refreshed, I headed over to Zuma (yes, it's the same as the one in London) to join the yoga gang, who had all been drinking since 3:30pm. Which, fortunately for me, meant that I had arrived just in time to help them consume the bottles of Dom Perignon Rosé they were popping open without a care in the world.
Clearly, typhoon breaks are just one of the reasons making Hong Kong a much better place to call home than Monocle's recent list of 20 cities "that offer the best quality of life [for the Social Security set, I would have added]" (come on, Munich no. 1??!! Geneva?).
I love it when typhoon signals 8 or 10 are hoisted; it's like some higher power has mandated that we should all get a time-out. Other cities may get snow days, but if the snow is that bad, there's really not much to do aside from sit around at home and watch TV or surf the internet (that's assuming there are no power outages). Whereas typhoons are generally milder than a bad rain storm (we have rain storm days too), so it's pretty safe to wander around. Some people even take the opportunity to go surfing. The only down side is trying to get a cab. If you're lucky enough to get a cab, some cab drivers demand extra fare (supposedly to cover the lack of typhoon-damage insurance coverage).
I missed out on typhoon season last summer, so it feels like it's been a while since a big storm has hit Hong Kong. At around 2:30pm yesterday (just after lunch!), tropical storm Pabuk (where did they get this name?) gave the Hong Kong Observatory cause to raise the typhoon signal to no. 8 (10 being the next and highest). At 8, businesses shut and everyone gets to go home, supposedly for shelter. In reality, the mobile phone system gets jammed while everyone tries to call or sms their family and friends to set up typhoon entertainment. Once that's done, there's a mad rush to get from the office to the agreed upon venue. I took the opportunity to spend a guilt-free afternoon at the Four Seasons spa. I suspected that traffic would be bad and hailing a taxi nearly impossible, so opted to take the MTR to Central instead. I have never seen the MTR so packed!
Causeway Bay MTR station. Photo taken with iPhone camera.By 6pm, totally relaxed and refreshed, I headed over to Zuma (yes, it's the same as the one in London) to join the yoga gang, who had all been drinking since 3:30pm. Which, fortunately for me, meant that I had arrived just in time to help them consume the bottles of Dom Perignon Rosé they were popping open without a care in the world.
Clearly, typhoon breaks are just one of the reasons making Hong Kong a much better place to call home than Monocle's recent list of 20 cities "that offer the best quality of life [for the Social Security set, I would have added]" (come on, Munich no. 1??!! Geneva?).
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