Typhoon Nuri

August 22, 2008, 11:00 a.m. Storm approaching

We have a Typhoon on the way. We did not have one all of last year. I hear that there was one this Summer that blew through quite quickly. We received a call from our director last night that school would be called off today. The word "typhoon" comes from the Chinese 颱風(T) / 台风(S) (pinyin: tái fēng; Jyutping: toi fung, according to wikipedia. The name of this Typhoon is Nuri (Karen). They started stacking sand bags everywhere yesterday. So I think the expectation is for a lot of rain. Here is a pic of what it looks like right now.

Typhoon Nuri barrels into Hong Kong

Agence France-Presse

HONG KONG - Typhoon Nuri lashed Hong Kong with heavy rain and strong winds on Friday, sparking major flight delays, disruption to public transport and a halt to trade on the city's financial markets.

Many offices in the southern Chinese territory were closed, and ferry services suspended as meteorologists issued the level-eight storm signal, signifying the likelihood of gale-force winds.

At 11:00 am, the typhoon was centered about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east-southeast of Hong Kong and was moving towards the city at a speed of about 14 kilometers an hour.

"Nuri will be rather close to Hong Kong this afternoon and tonight with a chance of a direct hit," a spokesman for the Hong Kong Observatory said.

Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific and its sister company Dragonair announced that all flights would be cancelled for 12 hours starting at 2:00 pm (0600 GMT).

Organizers of the Olympic equestrian events staged in the city breathed a sigh of relief, as the competition ended Thursday with the show-jumping final.

Seven people were killed when Nuri (Philippine codename: Karen) slammed into the northern Philippines on Wednesday, packing maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometers an hour and gusts of up to 170 kilometers per hour.

August is Hong Kong's hottest month and typhoons can often force the entire city to close down -- as happened three days before the start of the Olympic Games, when Severe Tropical Storm Kammuri delayed the arrival of some horses.

Summer in the States

Braden and Tyler in Disneyland June of 2008

Braden and Tyler in Seaworld, San Diego, CA

Tara, Tyler, and Jacob in Colorado

Tyler in Colorado

Tim and Kylee

Just before we left Washington State, Braden and Kylee in Lynnwood, WA

Tim and Makayla, in Henderson, NV

Makayla

We were able to see our very good friends, from QSI, Rob and Anne in Nampa, Idaho

Wow, What a Summer. Lots of time with family and friends. A big highlight was spending time with grandkids and especially our time with the grandsons. Here are some pics. The little Red Car did get right at 8000 miles added to the odometer this Summer! Bev does not want to drive it so. Zoom Zoom.

Sculpture in Shenzhen

Near Moonbay Park

OTC

At the OTC Area

On the street

On the building!

Right Next door

Also within a block

At Moon Bay Park, close by Shekou

Sculpture is everywhere. China really trys to add sculpture to many areas besides park areas. I have been very impressed with the design and quality of the art work that is displayed. These are just a very few examples of what can be found.

International Shenzhen Auto Show

My future car, assuming it runs on some fuel other than gasoline. Much smaller than the Mazda 3!
Rob where are you we need to take a test drive.

One shot of a small area of the display floor.

I have not hear the final count but some say daily attendance is over 30,000!
The crush at times felt like a million. We left by early afternoon.

Lambo's for any with the money to buy, (Imports are about 25-30% more expensive than US!
I don't know where you could drive this though not on China roads.

Future Model

My Friend Brad

My friend Brad and I went to the Auto show here on Sunday. Wow lots of interest in cars over here. This was by far the largest car show I have ever seen. I don't know what to compare it to in size, nothing I know comes even close. the above pic is about one fourth of one of 10 huge areas. The Shenzhen Exhibition Hall is at least 2 by 3 city blocks in size. This show had all the glitz of a European car show introducing new models although the only new models were cute and young. Each manufacturer had lots of floor space, lots of lights, lots of girls, lots of brochures, super loud music and a few cars. We had a good time, we really couldn't see much of the cars except when they had a model attached then we took pictures along with 1-200 other people. Many of the areas of the high end cars had glass walls to keep you away from the cars. Look but don't touch held true in most cases!

2008 QSI Shekou Graduates

Britt the director handing out a diploma while Robb the Sec. principal calls names.

The Grads

Tim and Jocie Valedictorian

Tim and the ten Grads

QSI had its 2nd ever graduation program this Friday. It was fun with 10 seniors graduating, Here are some pics from todays program which was very nicely done. All 10 have been accepted at Major Universities around the world.

Line Up

Me Do is one of the massage places that we go to.
They line up for over 10 minutes and have a number of songs and dance they
do no matter how much street noise they have to compete with.

This Tappanyaki is where you sit at a grill and have many kinds of great Japanese style food
cooked for you and served hot. Typical ingredients used for teppanyaki are beef, shrimp, scallops, lobster, chicken etc. and assorted vegetables. Bev and I have eaten here many times with friends.

Both of these businesses are within a very short distance, maybe no more than 2-3 blocks from our home.

Almost every retail type of company will do this line up prior to the beginning of the shift. I have seen this at virtually ever kind of business but especially in the service sector. So usually everyone has to be in uniform and in there spot in the line-up, roll is called then announcements are made and singing and chanting proceed. The singing is rather nice sometimes it is just one song other times it is a medley also there are almost always hand and leg actions that go with the song. It is fun to watch this happen. It is almost always outside the front door of the business. I rarely see it with small retail businesses that do not have many employees. If anyone has any other insight I would like to hear about it.