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Published: August 25th 2008
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What a day today! Woken at 5am by the rumbling and flashing, and unusually this was all outside. This was easily the biggest storm we have encountered so far, and unusually it was in the morning rather than early evening. Luckily we have a couple of budding storm chasers living with us and both Sophie and William came in to check that we knew it was rainy out. Secure in the knowledge that we knew there was a storm going on they promptly went back to sleep while I unfortunately couldn't.
At seven I finally abandonned any pretence of sleep and went to make a cup of tea for the working woman (xx) only to find that the boiler was leaking all over the kitchen counter top and we now had a lakeside view out of the kitchen window. The cars parked outside had water half way up their tyres, and a quick check of the cars on the other side of the building confirmed we were now living on an island ... at least I know why they don't do basement flats out here. I nonchalantly gave Joanna her morning cup of cha and casually threw in the possibility
that her shower would be cold and quickly relocated myself to the kitchen to pretend I might be able to fix the boiler, while calling the landlady.
Unfortunately I don't understand these Chinese boiler thingies and so I turned my thoughts to how Joanna was going to paddle to work. Owing to a lack of wellies or a canoe (an unusual lack of planning and foresight on Joanna's behalf but we will let it slide this time) I suggested she could maybe go in her flip flops and a skirt, taking a towel and proper shoes in her bag - and then we all stood at the door and cheerfully waved a gleeful mummy off to work from the comfort of our 2nd floor appartment and watched her stomp down into the waters.
Well I was wondering how she was faring when my phone rang and it seems I was in luck .... I was to receive a running commentary of the journey. The english language is a beautiful thing but its hard to gain much information from a narrative mostly taken up by 'Oh my goodness's' (censored) and 'I can't believe it's' and 'Madness'! When Joanna did
get to work she rang me up to let me know what all her colleagues journeys had been like, those of them who had made it that is, as of 9.30 (1 hour late) only 16 of the 28 had made it in! The most notable misadventures amongst them being the PE teacher who took one small step into a giant puddle and fell down an open manhole cover - well to his waist anyway, and a group of four teachers who all saw .... and they swear this is true ... a drowned rat!
Anyway to cut a long boring story short - it was wet out - apparently we caught the end of the typhoon which had previously visited Hong Kong. Needless to say I protected the younglings by keeping them indoors. Meanwhile the streets of Shanghai ground to a halt as traffic stopped still and taxis weren't to be found anywhere. Our friends children, not sure I need to name them as we only have the one set, enjoyed their first day at school - sitting around waiting to get a bus back again as school was cancelled - see Suzannes blog for more details and
video footage!
Joanna here again, Ian is exhausted from all the humourous story telling! On my return from work, we braved the improving weather and took a taxi to the hospital for Sophie to get more IV antibiotics. We are supposed to be there at 3pm daily, but clearly there was no way we were going to make it for that time, with the roads at a standstill and the lack of taxis. Sophie was as brave as ever and we have attached photos of her bravery and the great hospital which we have come to know and (kind of) love over the past few days!
As for work today, it was really interesting, if exhausting. We are being trained by an Australian guy and Indonesian woman from the International Baccalaureate Organisation until the end of Wednesday, by which time we should be all genned up and ready to go. One really interesting thing they showed us was a video which is available on You Tube, or there is a web address which is shifthappens.wikispaces.com. The video is called 'Shift Happens' and is really thought-provoking, all about facts and figures of learners and technology.
Anyway, we are
both exhausted by our exploits today and off to bed, not quite sure what we will awake to tomorrow! Watch out for tomorrow's update!
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