Picture of the Day: Statue Square Post-Typhoon

Sir Thomas Jackson's statue seems to be surveying the fallen tree in Central

After work I went to the gym -- which some middle-aged women members there say is like "going to work".

On my way to the Central MTR station, I passed by Statue Square and saw it was cordoned off because a giant tree had fallen down right in front of the statue of Sir Thomas Jackson, who was the chief manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation now known as HSBC.

Jackson seems to be surveying the damage, following Typhoon Pakhar. Luckily in Hong Kong we are relatively well prepared for typhoons and clean up is relatively fast afterwards. Guess that's where part of my tax dollars go.

But there are reports in the Chinese media that there may be two more typhoons coming in the next week or so! Crazy weather this year!

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.