Black Rain; Typhoon 3

Big is better! =)

The guide books always tells you not to visit a place during their monsoon/typhoon/flash flood season. My experience of rainy seasons tend to be around Christmas and early in the year. Countries like Britain are famous for the rain. People actually go to UK to experience the constant drizzle and to get their feet soaked and their toes chilled to the bone. I remember sitting in my living room in Glasgow watching the rain and it just would not stop raining! Then I decided that enough was enough and went back to sunny, dry Aberdeen for a lovely crisp winter.

Hong Kong has a season where there is an increased risk of typhoons and this lasts the whole of summer. This year they predicted the typhoons were going to start early. There are various levels of typhoon with 1 being mild, 3 being moderate and 8 & 10 being serious and people are supposed to evacuate. I was warned on evacuation procedures, to stock up on food, emergency contacts... I thought all this was a load of rubbish. I mean, how bad can a typhoon be compared to the gale force winds and horizontal rain of Glasgow? They had all the procedures for evacuation set up at the workplace and we were supposed to evacuate to safer grounds and all places shut down in the event of Typhoon 8. Today I woke up to lovely horizontal rain and howling winds. It took me a while to realise that I was in Hong Kong not Glasgow. The only difference? The rain was warmer.

The plan was to go to HSBC to pick up a card. I went last weekend and the stupid Central branch was closed on Saturday afternoon. They used to be open all day Saturday. So being the dissatisfied customer that I was since I travelled all the way there just because it was the only branch in Hong Kong open all day Saturday. I well and truly grilled the fifteen HSBC employees I had dinner with on Friday. Yea, the banker, the medic, the lawyer and I joined 15 HSBC employees for a seafood feast. I am still drooling over the lobster noodles. *yum*

So I didn't make it to the bank as I was watching for a wane in the intensity of the storm. But it didn't stop. I called up all my friends and everyone was out braving the elements *stupid people*. Hong Kong is so small that there was nowhere that escaped the storm. By 4.30pm I was well and truly bored with my own company so I decided that I would go check out the durability of my shoes in extreme weather conditions. They lasted but my feet are pre-blistering. When we were at the mall the warning was typhoon 3 with red rain. Now, they have categories for the rain as well. Whilst we were shopping away they upped the rain level to black rain. It still looked about the same as red rain to me. However black rain is supposed to be on par with typhoon 8. So I was warned to stay inside the mall. =)

The lawyer, pseudo-lawyer and myself want to go test our umbrellas in typhoon 8; black rain. That would be so cool! But then again we may get blown away by the winds. On a second thought, those tiny HK gals would be blown away first. This would reduce population density and thereby increase my chances of securing a guy. Hm.. this typhoon business is good stuff! I can now justify the krispy kreme.