Malaysian Tapas

I do have a strange life I think.

It's early evening. It's hot and steamy. And exotic.

Here I sit - alone - in a traditional Spanish restaurant, listening to The Archers podcast on my iPod. I've just enjoyed the most wonderful (vegetarian) tapas and three glasses of ice cold salty-tasting sherry.

Outside I can't see Seville or Grenada or Barcelona (but I fully expect to).

No, what I can see are the streets of Kuala Lumpur with muslimWare clad ladies arm-in-arm with their strutting perfumed manicured Bulls - the spectacular Petronas Towers as a glowing backdrop.

Very strange life.

Just about to get an overnight flight to Shanghai to witness the total solar eclipse (assuming the skies clear - unlike Cornwall in 2000). Longest totality this Century ... Fingers x'd.

M

Ps La Bodega: 'tapas y vinos'

Typhoon Molave - Anti-climax

Hmmm was that the best you can do?

Although MANY typhoons have blown through Hong Kong in the 4 summers we've lived here, I've always somehow managed to be out of town during the big ones. And so, naturally I was excited (and a bit nervous) to hear that a full-blown level EIGHT typhoon was scheduled for the early hours this morning.

Last night the weather did turn particularly nasty and so we stayed @ home - cleared the roof; put towels under the windows (in case of leaks etc).

Went to bed as the weather service were confirming a T8 was on the way.

I vaguely remember Joss waking me up @ 03:00 "it's a bit blowy Mark". Then sound asleep until Archie Tiggered in @ his customary Sunday hour of 06:54 :-(

It'd blown to a level 9! 12cms of rain in an hour. Rockfalls. Landslides. Trees down. 140kph wind.

And I slept through it ... there'll be more!

Mark

Perfect Storm

Tropical cyclone "MOLAVE" is heading straight for us - due to land in 48 hours time. 98kph winds -- we get cyclones/typhoons all of the time of course, but I've not seen the map show a cyclone path predicted to go bang on top of us.

They're telling us it's not a fully formed cyclone complex, so although there will be "disruption", it won't be as bad as it might otherwise have been!

M

Summer in the city

Last Saturday it rained all day and we barely left the appartment. Minor excitement from a Typhoon 3 but short-lived as it was a pretty tame one, not a good biblical storm, leaving a rather depressing caged in day - you can only put up with so much wii and lego-making - extraordinarily good though I have become at locating the vital pieces needed for Exoforce lego warriors.

So when Sunday dawned bright and clear, it was definitely time to get out and about. We haven't ventured off the island for a while so after a little bit of research and inspite of the fact you're not really supposed to swim in the sea for 3 days after a typhoon because of all the crap that gets washed out of the drains and down into the sea, we decided to go to Lantau to Cheung Sha beach to check it out. What a great day - all the connections worked - ferry to Lantau, Bus to Tai O, some other daytrippers on the bus going to The Stoep (S African Mediterranean restaurant on the beach) so we knew we were heading in the right direction. The beach was great - huge waves, good food and great weather. Billy and Archie spent about 5 hours in the sea - and 3 days later no one has been ill. Either we are getting immune or the water really was quite clean. Suspect the former. Anyway a great day out; South Lantau is so green and rural that Archie asked if we were in another country.

We're definitely going back.

J