Battening Down This morning we awoke to discover that Typhoon Chanchu might be about to hit Hong Kong. Wow! I'm quite excited by this as I've never been in one before. A friend of mine has, and tells a very funny story about rushing out to dance around in a typhoon in Taipei and then spending a couple of days soaked to the skin because the fresh towel service in his hotel had been suspended. So I won't make that mistake.



The sign above is posted in the foyer of our apartment building. Signal 1 isn't very exciting really - what we really want is Signal 8 so no-one has to go to work.

In preparation for a possible Signal 8, I went out today and got the following provisions:

beer (8 cans, San Miguel)
3 litres of water
orange juice
savoury biscuits
deodorant (not typhoon-specific - I'd just run out)
toothpaste (as above)
a torch (in case the power goes out)
6 D-cell batteries (2 for the torch, 4 for the record player)
more biscuits
some chips (apparently snacks are very important)
coffee
apples
milk
eggs
instant noodles (6 packets, various flavours)

Now apparently all I need to get is some masking tape for the windows. I am not convinced by this though - the whole point of masking tape is that it only bonds weakly to a surface so it can be easily removed. I can't see masking tape doing much to stop glass flying around should strong winds start smashing the windows.

Hmmm, I wonder if 8 cans of beer will be enough...

tags: hongkong | typhoon  ¶ 1:45 PM