Lean to the right

1) Last Saturday, we had a little party of 250ish people for my little side venture. I woke up in the morning to some of the worst haze in a long time. I found out a few hours later it was because of a typhoon coming from the east; when that happens, it sucks all the pollution from west of HK into it. That was also the first time I had heard a storm was nearby, but because they never do anything, I thought nothing of it.
On Monday, about 2pm, we heard they might be raising the sever-weather flag to a T8 around 6pm, which means we should leave work. Sure enough, at 5:55, it went up (The government usually waits until the average workday ends to do stuff like this, when public transportation is at peak capacity anyway, making it easier for people to get home). I wandered down to the bus stop near work (just to the right of the photo above; the orange strip is the bottom of a bus), saw my umbrella crumple in the wind and got soaked as I waited for the trip home.
Around 11 pm, they put it up to a T9 flag, only the second in my time here. Sure, no problem; it was raining hard and very windy, but no problem. I fell asleep around 11.30 at night, then woke up at 7 am to find out that they raised it to a T10 about 12.45 am; it was then one level below a super-typhoon warning.
And the end results? The next morning, there were lots of down branches everywhere, some standing water in low-lying areas and lots of broken umbrellas everywhere. I couldn't get a cab on my street that morning because a tree fell down and blocked the street feeding into it. But damage was kept to a minimum.
Oh, and you can see what it did to the trees at my bust stop in the photo above. East is to the left, west is to the right.

2) And, less than 48 hours later, you never would have known a typhoon came through. Every sidewalk was washed off and swept, all debris was clear and it was back to normal. This city amazes me sometimes. If this typhoon happened in the US, debris would be there 6 months from now.

3) It also meant there was no construction behind me for a day. It has not been bad, but they now are doing more jackhammering and piledriving, and they start right at 8am on those days. It sounds bad, but you are used to that in HK. And they don't do it all day long, but for a few hours. I have had friends who have had it start at 7 am and go on next door until 9pm. Nope, there are no noise rules here.

4) Random, possibly permanent, food appearance in the grocery store across the street from me: Johnsonville turkey sausages.

5) Random, not permanent food appearance in an upscale store: Fresh flour tortillas for a good price. From France. Go figure.

6) Observations while running a business. The small businesses pay on time and are easy to work with. It's the chains who try to whittle you down to nothing and want 6 months to pay.

7) I am missing my favorite music fest, Fuji Rock, this year due to work commitments. On the upside, I get to see Wilco when I am back in Chicago in September. Score!

8) 3 months to permanent residency!