Lesson learned

When the rain starts falling horizontally, I start looking for a taxi.

Not that I usually find one before I get to the bus stop, soaking wet. It’s like all the cabs in this town disappear as soon as it starts raining.

And if I have learned one thing in my year and a half in Hong Kong, it is that all bets are off when it comes to getting taxis in the rain. The cab belongs to the person who gets in first. Nice guys get wet.

The Australian woman who called me a fucking bitch tonight as I got into the cab outside the office obviously has yet to learn this lesson.

She left the building soon after I did. We stood several feet apart in the shelter of the highway overpass, umbrellas wobbling in the strong wind. Within minutes, I had managed to flag down a driver. And when he stopped, she stepped out from behind the pillar, obviously expecting she would be the one to get in.

But I got in first, and she started screaming at me. I slammed the door, shrugged at the driver, and gave him my address. She stood there fuming.

It doesn’t matter that, technically speaking, she was farther up the road. I was there first. I flagged him down as soon as I saw the “for hire” light. He stopped in front of me. It was my cab.

Get your own, bitch.

Incoming!

Typhoon Nuri is on the way. It's getting exciting, y'all.

From the Hong Kong Observatory:

"The No. 8 Northwest Gale or Storm Signal is in force.

This means that winds with mean speeds of 63 kilometers per hour or more are expected from the northwest quarter.

At 1 p.m., Typhoon Nuri was centred about 60 kilometers east-southeast of Hong Kong Observatory (near 22.0 degrees north 114.7 degrees east) and is forecast to move northwest at about 14 kilometers per hour in the general direction of Hong Kong.

Gales are already affecting many places in the territory. Local winds are expected to increase further."

This is the second time I've been in town when they've raised the T8 warning, which means the whole city pretty much shuts down. Buses stop running, taxis are scarce, and most offices close. By law, you can't be forced to go to work (though I did last time, anyway, as did most of my coworkers).

It's pretty windy in my part of town, but there's not much rain. It is, however, expected to get much worse. Usually, Hong Kong gets nicked by the outside of the storm. But this one is supposed to hit the city directly -- which last happened in 1999, I understand.

We're supposed to be able to work from home, but the system doesn't like Macs. (Reason No. 5,432 to get one.) So I've been told to think of today as a snow day. I'll bunker down and catch up on "30 Rock." (Why was I not watching this before?) And maybe do some cleaning.

They've just raised it to T9. Definitely getting interesting.