Ten days of rain is enough for anyone but for me it brought back memories of California the year my second boy was born. The rain didn’t stop then for nearly a month and I remember my mother taking my older one out in the stroller during moments of sunshine.
Here in Hong Kong last week the moments of sunshine were not as often but interestingly enough it also occurred. You would have a massive down pour and twenty minutes later the sun was out the clouds had gone and you could see way into the distance of Aberdeen Harbour. If you blinked twice it was all gone and the rain was back with vengeance.
New comers were asking if this was normal summer weather? I guess we could all argue global warming as Mr Bush educates us with his current stance on the situation. But it seems friends who have lived here longer have seen it before. I do remember hearing that the handover in July of 1997 was a washout. And the first and only time my brother has come to visit in 1998 – it was a black rain storm weekend but we were unaware and still ventured out to Stanley for shopping.
This last week we never got Black rain signals only Amber and Red were hoisted. Depending on the time of day the red is hoisted school is closed and a as result your principal will call and tell you it’s time to collect the children. The school buses don’t return them and for some this must be prove cumbersome. For me it meant taking the little 121 out to collect two boys but on the way the rain was so heavy it created a short and the car alarm kept going. I had visions of roadside assistance, explaining to police why my car was stranded, the thoughts ran on and on. Fortunately none of it came true and I managed to gather my children up and ride home with flashing lights and alarm blaring. Oh what fun.
There are all degrees of rain warnings here and for quite valid reasons. Some people question the timing of when the warnings are given out and some wonder why we have them. But I have heard through the urban legend grapevine that once a school bus got stranded under a bridge and supposedly some children died.
The lesson I learnt this week is it’s hard to explain to a four-year-old that just because it’s raining today we can’t go to school. I think he’s going to be like the Unionist at Loy Yang when we return to California - “mum there is a drop of rain on the newspaper out in the yard – NO SCHOOL TODAY”.
