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Published: June 20th 2013
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Bamboo Scaffolding Skills
As I was walking home, this nimble man was putting together some scaffolding above the busy road. He had one safety line secured above him, but worked alone and very quickly. Hong Kong Summer is here.
To many people, the idea of summer is all blue skies, fluffy clouds and of course, sunshine! Every year, however, I am reminded that a Hong Kong summer is not quite that! Hong Kong summer requires me to carry round a pair of sunglasses as well as an umbrella, all the time!
At any moment, the weather can change, and if you are caught without an umbrella, it is often not even possible to just get a bit wet....because it's usually torrential! I have been here for almost six years, and I still made this mistake the other day! Walking around Causeway Bay in the busy Times Square, it started to sprinkle a bit so I thought, I'm fairly close to the shopping mall, I'll just walk a bit faster. No, no! The "sprinkle" turned into heavy rain within minutes and the umbrella had to come out before I reached the mall! Of course, there are thousands of other people trying to do the same thing at the same time, turning Times Square into a potentially dangerous umbrella war!
Recently we had a "Black Rain" warning, which means that
more than 70mm of rain falls within an hour. The Hong Kong Observatory has a variety of warnings for every event, be it rain, typhoons, heat, fire danger or thunderstorm warnings. Early one morning, the black rainstorm warning was raised, amidst a very loud thunderstorm with lightning strikes that illuminated the sky. When the black rain warning is raised, nobody has to go to work, public transport is limited, and shops don't have to open. Schools are closed as well. Once the warning was lowered, people returned to work and the city went back to normal. Luckily for me, schools remained closed all day.
Hong Kong summer is bipolar, extremely hot and sunny or extremely wet! One thing guaranteed is the heat. It will remain hot and mostly humid regardless! I forget that summer isn't always like this! When I travel now, even back to my home country, I remember that there can be sunshine without the humidity and it is always refreshing!
Since my last blogs about Sydney, I have been busy as usual, teaching classes at the gym, alongside my day job teaching Kindergarten. I am now certified in five programs, so
that certainly keeps me occupied! Every Sunday I teach three classes back to back which is challenging, but great fun and I enjoy it a lot.
As usual in Hong Kong, people come and go. I've attended two leaving parties, one person heading off to Dubai, another to Mexico. On the flip side, I've also met new people arriving in Hong Kong, and it's fun to share their 'first' experiences of Hong Kong, and appreciate the things that I sometimes take for granted now that I have been here a long time.
I've managed to squeeze in a couple of trips to the beach when the weather has been reliable! I've also been to see the Hong Kong Ballet, which was excellent. They performed 'The Merry Widow' at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre. Now I am into the last month of Kindergarten before we break up, so I am gearing up for holidays and winding down with school!
Talk of the town has been the giant yellow rubber duck in the harbour. It was here for a whole month, linked to the Art Basel event that was held here in Hong
My favourite tree!
This tree is amazing. It literally grows out sideways from a wall - the roots clinging to the side, and the tree heading out and up! Kong. It was a giant inflatable yellow duck that sat in the water of Victoria Harbour, in Tsim Sha Tsui. It had previously been floating in Sydney. There were a lot of humorous news stories around when the duck actually deflated and needed repair work. The duck had fallen victim to Hong Kong pollution! Of course, being the commercial city that it is, there was not an opportunity to be missed, and suddenly one could buy duck toys, hair ties, pens, and even flower arrangements! All over a duck!
I've attached some pictures of Hong Kong from my travels around and about the place! Please do take a look 😊
I haven't secured my summer travel plans yet, so I'm excited/intrigued as to where the next blog might come from......
JHG
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
An amazing photo
Wow!