No 8 signal whips up light relief
2001-07-08
Terms and Conditions
While Typhoon Utor helped almost bring Hong Kong to a halt, it still gave rise to a few light moments.
First up was Pacific Century CyberWorks, where the joke was that cheering broke out on Thursday night when it was announced that "No 8 is up".
The joke goes that staff thought it was the company's beleaguered stock - which has stock code No 8 - that was rising rather than the typhoon signal being hoisted.
Smoke and mirrors: The Hong Kong Government did a belated disappearing act for magician David Copperfield who has been performing his show, Portal, here this week.
The following announcement was posted on the Government's news wire service on Thursday night: "David Copperfield - Portal scheduled at 8 pm at the Hong Kong Coliseum has been cancelled due to the hoisting of Typhoon Signal No 8."
The only problem was that the Government issued the statement at 8.13 pm, making the whole exercise a little pointless - slamming the stable door after the horse had well and truly bolted.
Ticket holders for Thursday night's show were asked to keep their tickets to ensure they get a refund. Some patrons sourly asked why Mr Copperfield had not made the typhoon disappear instead of himself.
Class act: On the same theme, some people were paying too much attention to the typhoon signals and not using enough common sense.
On Thursday afternoon, one of Lai See's colleagues telephoned the language centre where she attends evening classes for Cantonese. Was that night's class going to be cancelled because typhoon signal No 8 - which usually brings Hong Kong to a virtual standstill - was widely expected to be hoisted in the evening?
A short time later, a reply was received that the class was still going ahead. But what about the typhoon, the colleague asked. The class cannot be cancelled until the signal No 8 is raised, was the pedantic reply.
And surprise, surprise when our reporter braved the elements and trooped over to the evening class it was, of course, cancelled.
Forward planning seemed to be a bit of a no-no. We have heard of people crossing that bridge when they come to it but this is the first case of people waiting to be shoved on to the bridge before acting.
Come hell or high water: Lai See feels it is only fair to make a quick mention of those unsung heroes of Hong Kong typhoons - the check-out staff of 7 -Eleven.
The stores stayed open throughout the typhoon, enabling everyone to stock up on emergency provisions. And Lai See was pleasantly surprised to find our local Pacific Coffee outlet open for business as usual yesterday morning. All helped make the typhoon mayhem a little more bearable.
Seeing stars: Moving away from typhoons, Americans everywhere marked Independence Day on July 4, but a few celebrated it with a bigger bang than others.
One Kansas man and his friends celebrated by launching fireworks from his home for a few hours on Tuesday night after a bout of heavy drinking.
The fireworks disturbed neighbours who called police, according to Reuters.
As the police approached the home, one member of the group hid some of the fireworks in the kitchen oven and forgot about them.
In the early hours of Wednesday, the homeowner turned on the oven to bake some lasagna and . . . well, the lasagna got more than a little burnt. Thankfully, there were only slight injuries despite the kitchen being blown apart with the oven flying through one of the walls, according to a Kansas City fire marshall.
At least our Kansas friend threw everything he had into the Independence Day celebrations - including the kitchen sink by the sound of things.
Terms and Conditions
Copyright© 2000 LEXIS-NEXIS, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights Reserved.
quamnet.com |
