cyclone ( ) n

a) an atmospheric system characterized by the rapid inward circulation of air masses about a low pressure center, usually accompanied by stormy, often destructive weather.
b) a violent tropical storm, especially one originating in the southwestern pacific ocean or indian ocean.


saturday, april 19th

we were to do our last 20 mile run on the weekend and lo and behold, friday morning we were at a level 1 cyclone (that is described as a watch/alert). oh, but the forecast always makes me giggle ... cloudy except when sunny and thundery later in the day ... yesterday we went to look up the temperature and it merely said "fine"! ... too funny! anyhoo... we said no to a trviia night at the irish pub knowing we would not get in our 20 miles saturday if we did attend. then awoke saturday morning to great winds and rain - not anything that we wanted to run in. by this time the cyclone had moved to a level 3.

so in our infinite wisdom, or ignorance, we decided to go to zhuhai to shop and leave our run until sunday. it was a great day, felt great being so "spontaneous" and just enjoying the day; i might add that our shopping proved to be rather successful, got 2 pairs of shoes (dave adds "2 MORE pairs of shoes!")

what a nightmare when we finally got through customs on our return (this was about 3:30 pm). sometime during the afternoon it (the cyclone) had risen to a level 8 - yes 8 (the 3 bridges between taipa and macau close and ALL forms of transportation are supposed to cease) - and what a sight to behold it was. POURING, i mean POURING rain, winds like we had never seen before - horrific really - and evern worse were the queues for the taxis. someone (me) got the bright idea to walk a couple of blocks from the barrier/border gate to the shops and spend our time more wisely until the weather settled down. we have never been so wet, so fast - and the shopping wasn't great either, quite a few shops had closed - you could not hope to get a taxi, it was so unbelievable! we headed back to the barrier gate taxi lineup (which of course had multiplied by, oh, an easy 1 or 2000 now - NOT that ANYONE didn't mention that of course). ... we cut over into a new line up, but trying to get new taxis, ooh-la-la, just imagine ... knowing just how "vocal" these people are, how much they like to just sit back and be gracious in a lineup ... forming any pictures in your minds? we were a couple of hours in line and then were lucky enough to grab one, as we by then had too struck some aggression. it was quite comical watching this set of three older chinese ladies though - they were bound and determined that they were getting a taxi NOW (even though they were at the very back of our line) ... they'd walk right out in front of the taxi - but it must have ticked the drivers off because they just refused to stop for them, so then the "ladies" started switching lineups. it was really funny!

our first taxi driver told us right off the bat it would be double (but we were quite eager to pay - it had now been about 3 hours) and he actually spoke quite good english - said the cyclone was a level 8, all the bridges to taipa were closed AND WOULD BE FOR THE NIGHT, until at least the next day. we sunk even lower into our seats. soaked to the skin, tired, frustrated ... oh well!! the only place that i could think of to go to was the grand lisboa and only because someone earlier in the week was saying they had blackjack tables (very rare, most everyone plays baccaret here). once we got there we looked through the place and then thought, okay, we could stay here overnight ... YA RIGHT ... $2880 a night (they only had their deluxe rooms left) ... still soaked, we squeaked our way around the tables for abit and then thought it best to get some supper. thankfully their seats were leather and not fabric. later that evening dave thought he would try to "talk" to the concierge and just see if there was any possibility of arranging a taxi to taipa (we found out one of the bridges has an emergency tunnel - but earlier in the day the lineup/wait time was over 2.5 hours to even get near it). he told us there would be next to NO taxis coming around, but that we could "try" waiting at the taxi queue. well! within 10 minutes we hopped into a taxi, and headed out. JUST LIKE THAT! of course it took 45 minutes to an hour to actually get home (generally about a 10 minute taxi ride) - but we were home! oh that felt so good! a bit of a scary drive though, you just didn't know what was going to come flying at you.

needless to say, we probably will have the GOOD SENSE next time there is even a cyclone "alert" not to venture over the bridge into macau. this we will remember for years to come!