And the cats came back...

Hurrah!!
Our cats are home after 4 months in quarantine.
They seem pleased to be back with us, though a bit nervy of the new surroundings yet.

Going for a walk

The weather has cooled enough to make going for a walk a good activity. This isn't something we've done for 3 years as in AD we just taxi'd every where. Walking wasn't pleasant nor interesting.
Wednesday 1st October was Chinese National Day. So we all had a holiday. The weather was overcast but not rainy. So it seemed like a good opportunity for stepping out.
At the end of our road, is a barrier and a path goes behind it - good chance to have an explore.

Heather and Zoe walked up a hill.

This is our view when we stopped for a breather. We looked back towards our street.
We disturbed a boar who snorted at us and ran off.







Ah - this is not the lovely view we expected at the top of the hill. Hmm.








Let's take another route. Stepping out...

This was prettier but there was more road than we had puff, so we'll try this road again soon. I wonder what is at the top!

Our house

Here is our house. We have 3 floors plus a roof. We are very, very lucky.









This is a bit of our street looking down the road from the street entrance.







This is the end of our street looking towards the main road. Here be wild cows and wild boars.

New weather signals

There are three new weather signals we learnt today.

STRONG MONSOON SIGNAL

The Strong Monsoon Signal remains in force.
 Strong winds with mean speed exceeding
40 kilometres per hour are expected from the south.
Gusts will occasionally reach 100
kilometres per hour.

AMBER RAINSTORM WARNING SIGNAL

The Rainstorm Warning Signal is now Amber.
 This means that heavy rain has fallen
or is expected to fall generally over Hong Kong,
exceeding 30 millimetres in an hour,
and is likely to continue.

THUNDERSTORM WARNING

THUNDERSTORM WARNING ISSUED
AT 5:00 P.M. ON 5 OCT 2008
HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL 9:00 P.M. TODAY.
A FEW SQUALLY
THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO
OCCUR OVER HONG KONG.

GUSTS EXCEEDING 80 KILOMETRES PER
HOUR WERE RECORDED AT TAI O
AT AROUND 6:30 P.M.

GUSTS REACHING 100 KILOMETRES PER
 HOUR OR ABOVE MAY CONTINUE
TO AFFECT HONG KONG.

Amber Rain

The depression did hit directly but was not the typhoon we expected. It had lost its wind power.

It still did have a lot of rain power though.
Today it CHUCKED it down.
We ended up with an Amber Rain alert (black rain alert means no school).
The brook is full and flowing well and I don't think the washing on the line is going to dry soon.

Knitting

Knitting - yes indeedie.
There is huge inter-house spirit here. It really involves everyone in all activities.
This time there is inter-house knitting -knitting squares in house colours.
I went into my yr 12 class today (lower 6th) and my lads were all knitting their squares. One of the young men was casting on for another one as he was struggling!
So we did a lesson that let them talk about their maths whilst their hands were occupied.

Bored now...

I think they know we are here!!
There have been no T8s for years.
Last week another one threatened but turned away at the last minute - however we are now at T1 warning - again.
The expected path, as it stands, is turning straight over HK with a direct hit at the weekend.

Now, everyone I know says that a T8 doesn't count unless it gives us a day off work. So we can hope it slows down. However, Monday is a busy day of inter-school CPD, so it would be best all round if she blew over by then.