crazy rain

Umbrellas are a big business in china. They are used to keep off the sun as well as the rain making a colourful parade everywhere you go. I left Lyndhurst Terrace a little unsure of where to go today. Being Saturday, and therefore no work, I am once again at leisure and at large in Hong Kong!
Last night's excursion to Mui Wo turned out to be a rather messy evening and I woke up jubilant not to have a hangover. Kylie, however, was not so lucky so I left her to sleep. I later found out that she had picked up a bug as well and so she was really suffering. The staff meal out at a harbour restaurant had been a traditional Chinese affair with circular tables and 'lazy susans'. We had about 5 main dishes to share. One was a very big fish that we just had to pull off the bones, a tofu delight with spring onions and peppers, a sweet and sour prawn dish, chow mein noodles and vegetable rice. I felt sorry for the poor old fish in the tanks but fortunately I had my back to them.The beers were flowing and rude notes were being passed around on a napkin via the lazy susan between the Kiwis contingent. I was happy to be eating as earlier at the China Bear bar I had lost the drinking game twice in a row and had to down 2 pints (well they were probably more like halves). The food was being prepared on large worktops in the centre of the restaurant which was little more than a shack. Food hygeine was questionnable at this establishment. It had no walls and the floor was simply the quayside. We all laughed and bantered in our usual raucous manner and fought over the food, spinning the turntable this way and that, drinks spilling, people cheering, glasses chinking. The ferry we took there and back was much smaller and more rickety than the one we take to work. I recall it having a tarpaulin awning but I could be making that up! The gang plank was made of old tyres and there was a crew member there to help us on and off. Mui Wo is certainly a more peaceful place than Central or Discovery Bay. It is the other side of Lantau Island with a spattering of outlets, restaurants and bars. Most of us caught the ferry back to Discovery Bay with others heading direct to Central. We had a few drinks at the Plaza and caught the ferry back to central just after 2am.
Kylie and I had had good intentions to go to Wan Chai today to collect our ID cards but this failed spectacularly following a much needed lie in this morning.
I met an antipodean lady on the corner of wellington street today who asked me if I thought it was going to rain. I said "yes, definitely and it could be quite heavy" looking up at the sky. She had been considering buying an umbrella from the shop where we stood. I learned that Debbie was new to Hong Kong looking for an advertising job and had been flat-hunting this morning. I answered a few more of her questions before we went our separate ways. "Aren't you going to buy an umbrella?" she said as I turned to go. Nah, I'm going on the escalator to the IFC it's all undercover so I'll be OK. This would have been all well and good if I actually did what I said I would do. I had been toying with the idea of finding Wyndham Street and looking up a friend of a friend who runs a dance studio there. So I thought I would walk a few blocks and see if I could find it, that's when the heavens opened. When it rains here, - Fook Mi - it really does rain!
It was like running the gauntlet, umbrellas were bursting open at every turn, I dodged their spiky prongs and the puddles along Queens Road Central. There were children laughing or screaming as the splashed through the onslaught. The thunder and lightning started and I darted breathless and wet-through into the underground. Once there I studied the different exit signs as sometimes its easy to get where you want to go just by walking from one exit to another and not even going on a train. Alas, this was not meant to be. I hovered with a few other umbrella-less idiots at the exit. A few went 'over the top' and were instantly drenched in the rain's relentless fire. Their purchases of brand new shiny umbrellas from the opposite stall were rather pointless now.  I made a dash for an open doorway and continued to do this, zig-zagging down the street ducking and dodging the umbrellas and people and trying to stick to the dry pieces of ground with the buildings looming up ahead into the blackened skies. I stood in another doorway, 3 metres away an oasis of umbrellas in my price range were displayed. A woman chorused something in Cantonese from the shopfront, her box of umbrellas at her feet. I couldn't understand her but it probably translated as something like. "Stop standing over there getting wet you complete fools, do yourselves a favour and come and buy an umbrella". I ran, scooped up a red one and went to pay, the assistant followed me in and quality assured the item inspecting it with great care, nodded gleefully and tied the little bag in a bow around the cord and wished me a good day.
I would like to say that the umbrella kept me dry for the remainder of my journey but it did not. I rolled the bottom of my jeans up and sloshed through the pavement streams in my flip flops. I waited for what felt like too long for the red man to turn to green and the bell to signal to cross and took the elevator up to the Sheng Wen bank building, shook off some rain and was back in the throngs of people marching in all directions. I reached the IFC Shopping Mall and marvelled at the little machines you put your umbrella in to cover it in plastic. I remembered Karen showing me these a few weeks before.
I spent the afternoon window shopping and managed to spend all of $26,80 or 2.68 pounds to include my shiny red umbrella. Found refuge in the Internet cafe. Ever the economist these days. looks like it might have stopped, might log off now and go home.
God bless x