Scary typhoon

Tropical cyclones were much scarier when I was a child – feeling the strong winds battering and shaking windows, seeing the unsecurely fixed objects flying through the air in those days. Thanks to regulations and better building, these are almost a thing of the past, and I actually feel a lot safer.

Although Typhoon Molave threatened Hong Kong on 19 July, it wasn't the strong winds or possible physical damage which frightened me. The prospect of having to delay our holidays, on the other hand, was alarming. We had visitors in town in the form of the human swine flu. School has been out since 12 June because of it, and kids have been going wild with cabin fever, so our long anticipated European holiday was much needed on that front.

It was touch and go: Typhoon Molave set on collision course with Hong Kong. The Observatory predicted it would be on top of the city at 2 a.m. Our flight was scheduled for 23:40. We checked in in good time, and it was nail-biting until the moment LH731 took off. I'm glad to be escaping these 30°+ temperatures.