Travels of a Grey Cat: July 2012

Monday 23 July 2012

Vicente

Last night we had an unexpected visitor named Vicente. Vicente was a tropical storm that was hovering out at sea and it was predicted to make land fall well west of Hong Kong. The weather forecast was for some squally showers and a bit of wind, not nice, but not bad. Vicente has other plans though, and it decided to prove that Mother Nature is unpredictable. It hovered out at sea for a while, gathering strength, then changing course and visiting Hong Kong for a spell. Maybe it had a craving for Dim Sum or Egg Tarts, I don't know but by 6pm a Signal 8 was issued and it was getting noisy, but we were comfy and dry in our flat so we watched a movie. Next thing we knew it was a Signal 9 and the winds were loud and the rain was heavy. Then sometime around midnight - 1am a Signal 10 was issued. Signal 10 is the highest and is rarely issued. In the past 65 years there has only been 13 Signal 10's issued, the last in 1999! A Signal 10 means you are in for it. And boy where we! Vicente had now been upgraded from a tropical storm to a Severe Typhoon (aka, Severe Hurricane). The winds were howling and the windows rattling. They were also leaking profusely by this time. Buckets and towels were deployed and just when we thought we found all the leaks, we found a few more. Mr. Grey Cat tried to patch a few spots with Sugru, but it didn't do much. It was just too wet and the wind just forced water through every gap it could. And so started our night, we would try to sleep for a bit then one of us would get up, empty buckets and change towels, throwing the wet ones in the dryer, only to do it all over again. I was wondering to myself why we didn't change the windows when we renovated the flat. Not that it is a guarantee against leaks, but I am sure there would have been less. Interestingly we did not loose power or internet so I did manage a very late night Skype chat with a friend in New Jersey! Finally at about 5 am the winds lessened and we fell asleep. I awoke grateful that the only clean up I have to do is a few loads of laundry and that most importantly everyone I care about is safe.

Sugru, the silicone wonder!

Towel in deployment.

This is where most of the leaks were. Not the window that you see, but the
ones just above it out of the frame.
They are above the bay and so were dripping onto the window seat.
But even if we hadn't emptied the buckets a few times we still
would have been fine.

More towels.

While my windows leaked, I am grateful they did not break, unlike these
unfortunate people.
Looking down from my flat I could see
that we were not the only ones with leaks, many people had towels and
buckets in their windows.

Friday 20 July 2012

The Kindness of Strangers

I always enjoy my outings with my fellow AWA Shutterbugs. They are all wonderful women and we have a fun time together taking photos and exploring different parts of Hong Kong. Each trip out is its own unique experience and after each I take something with me, whether it is new ideas or photo techniques, a bit of cultural knowledge or just the lingering pleasure of time well spent. Today though we had an extra treat.

It started normally enough. I planned an outing to Peng Chau. It is a small island with lots of character and I thought it would be a fun place to practice shooting the alphabet. There are new buildings, old buildings, ruined buildings, temples (several hundred years old!) and if you go far enough there is a trail that takes you up to the highest point on the island which has wonderful views of Lantau, Kowloon and HK island. It also passes an old limekiln, which is one of the first industries on the island. Evidence shows that lime production was likely started around 618AD! However the kiln is much newer and was abandoned in the 1950’s. In short Peng Chau is a fun place to take photos, but today, we had a little extra character to the outing.

This week there is a Chinese Opera being performed on the island. Chinese operas are quite fascinating. In 2009 the Cantonese opera was listed as one of UNESCO’s ‘Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity’. I have been to a Chinese opera before, and to be quite honest, and even though they are interesting, it is something that I can only take in very small amounts, so I was pleased that while we were there the opera was not being performed. Since the venue was (we thought) empty, we decided to go take a look around and see if we could find letters to photograph. Soon we were joined by a couple of men, who were working on the stage. They started to talk to us and ask us questions about what we were doing. I should point out that I have taken Cantonese lessons but so far about the only thing I can do is count and say a couple of very basic phrases so we had no idea what they were trying to tell us. At first we thought they didn’t want us to take photos, but when we were on our way out, we were told (via hand signals) to come back. Next thing we knew we were ushered back stage and they started showing us around!

It became even more fun when they started bringing out the props and letting us try on some (hat & sword). Soon they figured out what kinds of photos we were taking and started helping us find letters! He then saw that one of the actresses came into the stage and brought her out to talk to us. She was very pleasant and spoke English quite well. Apparently she is the lead actress for the afternoon performance and the third lead for the evening performance. She then invited us to stay for the afternoon show. It was still a few hours away and we still had plenty of island to explore, but it was certainly one of the days highlights.

During the rest of our wanders we ran into several other locals who treated us with warm smiles. As we wandered we would run into a couple of them several times always to have a smile, wave and pantomime picture taking. All the while giving us the impression that they were happy to have us there and glad we were enjoying their home.

People are often complaining about how rude people are these days and that nobody seems to care about others anymore. Certainly big cities have a “numbing” effect on people as we rush about our daily lives. But today on a tiny island on the doorstep of one of the world’s biggest cities, people still have time for a smile and to show kindness to strangers.