Typhoon Pakhar Storms in on Sunday

When the typhoon signal was lowered to T1, storm clouds began to gather...

Typhoon Pakhar approached Hong Kong in the early hours of Sunday morning which meant a lie-in for most people. The Hong Kong Observatory raised the T8 signal for the whole morning with an amber rainstorm warning as well.

While the rain wasn't particularly heavy in Kennedy Town, it kept coming down in a northwesterly direction. Down below in an apartment complex across the street, I could see two white plastic chairs had blown into the swimming pool (they have since been fished out).

There's going to be questions about why two hikers didn't get down by Saturday evening from Kowloon Peak. A woman had an injured leg and had trouble making the descent, and rescuers tried to get to them yesterday evening. But it took 160 rescuers, including one fireman who was injured, to help them get down.

Most of Sunday was rainy thanks to Typhoon Pakhar

The typhoon conditions made it treacherous for everyone to descend the mountain, so the rescuers had to build a rain shelter and call for more reinforcements.

Then there was a ship that was sinking and 11 crew members had to be saved at the height of the storm. By the time the rescuers arrived, the ship's bow was already submerged.

Within 30 minutes of locating them, the sailors were rescued by helicopter.

After the typhoon signal was lowered to T3, the city slowly sprang back to life. Apparently gyms were very busy once they opened around 3.40pm. People must have been having cabin fever in their flats.

As for myself, I headed to the Kennedy Town Swimming Pool at 9pm though it started raining heavily.

When I got there, I was thrilled to find only a handful of people in the entire complex. I had the 25-metre pool practically to myself, though the water wasn't very fast today so it was a bit of a slog.

Nevertheless, it was refreshing and quiet. Another weekend gone, just like that.

True Love Conquers All

Victor and his now fiancee posing for pre-wedding pictures in Iceland

People are still talking about Victor and Stephanie BB's wedding proposal from last weekend, gobsmacked that he spent HK$400,000 ($51,590) on a 1.5-carat diamond ring, a hotel suite with a view and a helicopter flying by with a banner that had the proposal written on it.

Many are wondering if it's a publicity stunt and if the media who reported it were paid to cover the story.

But we'd like to contrast this with two other couples.

A couple in Turkey got married near the Syrian border and celebrated the nuptials by inviting 4,000 Syrian refugees to eat with them. The bride and groom even spooned out food for the less fortunate.

A Turkish newlywed couple dishes out food for refugees

It was the idea of the groom's father, who was glad the couple began their married life "with such a selfless action".

The bride admitted being shocked at the idea at first, but then she was so happy she was able to help others in need.

The groom added, "Seeing the happiness in the eyes of the Syrian refugee children is just priceless. We started our journey with making others happy and that's a great feeling," he said.

And in Anhui province, a 30-year-old man paid for a 12,000 yuan ($1,932) diamond ring in coins to give to his former childhood sweetheart.

Liang Liang wheeled a tricycle loaded with 150kg of coins into bags to a jewellery shop in Fuyang. The highest denomination coin was 1 yuan.

Staff counting the coins Liang used to buy a ring

It took four employees half a day to count all the coins, that were neatly wrapped in newspaper.

Liang said he was fulfilling a promise he made to his fiancee made 20 years earlier when they were children.

"Do you remember 20 years ago I said I would earn money and marry you?" Liang was quoted as saying. "Now I've earned enough to buy you a ring, please marry me!"

His fiancee accepted and was reportedly so moved by his proposal that she burst into tears.

Liang had said that several jewellery stores turned him away when he asked if he could pay for the ring in coins. But the manager of the shop that sold him the ring said staff were touched by his story and would put the coins on display as "the best evidence of true love".

We hope this brings everyone back to reality, that there are some people out there who are celebrating their love with true hearts.

A Very Public Proposal

Interested in shooting your pre-wedding photos in Iceland?

The big story trending in Hong Kong now is the guy who spent HK$400,000 ($51,588) to propose to his girlfriend.

Thirty-seven-year-old Victor Tang spent HK$200,000 on a 1.5-carat diamond ring, then book a corner suite at the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong for HK$26,000, and hired a helicopter for HK$150,000 to carry a 100kg red banner that read: "I love you! Stephanie BB, will you marry me?"

A public engagement complete with helicoptered proposal

Oh yeah and another HK$15,000 for a video crew to film it all.

What did his girlfriend Stephanie Cheung of one year say?

Well, yes.

Once this over-the-top proposal was reported, people managed to find out online that the couple had already taken their wedding photos in April -- in Iceland.

From the documentary-style video, it seems like a wedding photographer called Muse Chan persuaded the lovebirds to fly all the way to Iceland to take some dramatic and romantic photographs despite the below freezing temperatures.

Stephanie & Victor ~ Iceland Pre-wedding (冰島拍攝花絮 ) from Muse Muse on Vimeo.
Stephanie & Victor ~ Iceland Pre-wedding (冰島拍攝花絮 )

不知不覺MUSE MUSE的冰島之旅以經一個月了！
回想每一步的足跡都是經歷，都是難能可貴的。
感謝Stephanie 和Victor，也和我們一起留下美好的回憶～
同時極端驟變的天氣也是最考驗一個團隊的拍攝技巧和默契！
大家一起來感受冰島拍攝的點滴吧〜：]

Video & Edit by Man Ho @ Muse Muse Cine

** More about this Trip :
Muse Chan X Profoto - The Extreme Iceland
https://vimeo.com/125996091

Muse Muse ~ Iceland Trip Showreel 2015 ~
https://vimeo.com/125427732

Sure there are some amazing shots -- her in a strapless floor-length red dress lying on a block of ice, or her in a wedding dress and veil hugging him from behind in a barren landscape -- but there are some odd ones too like posing by the carcass of a crashed airplane? How is that romantic?

It just seemed like the shots were taken there just because they could, but not because the couple had always wanted to visit Iceland or had some mutual interest in the country.

A dramatic picture of the couple on an airplane crash site...

And yes the photographer did give out his secret of using a Pentax for the shoot...

So the media was totally had by the couple, who were totally had by the photographer.

It seems like a total publicity stunt for everyone involved while the media were duped into thinking this was an interesting story on a very slow news day.

Lots of people commented on how outrageous so much money was spent (this was before the wedding photo shoot was discovered), and mocked how Tang said, "I'm not a rich guy but I control my budget".

In the end he must have spent way more than HK$400,000 on wooing Cheung... God knows how much. But was it really worth it?

We'll find out after the wedding - if it happens... or maybe they're already hitched and they're doing everything backwards...