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June 2005 News, photos & stories from the Lamma Island community and its fascinating inhabitants. Edited by Lamma-Gung. Send me stuff on Lamma/Lammaites! |
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June 30: Garoupa Goes Underground!
"All Garoupa news can now be accessed at blog.garoupa.net or via www.garoupa.net. But would be very grateful if
you could stop calling us the Pheromones of Musical Fertility as
people keep asking us if we've changed our name and why! It seems I've been naughty, taking this evocative name from a BC Magazine story about them! I'm very sorry, Pheromones, eh, Garoupas! But I still like the new name better, grumble, grumble... OK, quoting from the Underground site, describing our fast rising musical stars: "GAROUPA: A jolly bunch of lads from all over the bloody place (UK, NZ, Sweden, Philippines, Hong Kong), Garoupa brings together diverse musical influences and experiences to form a unique blend of rock, funk, blues and reggae. Alex Sommerville spazzes about on guitar, and lead vocals, complete with epileptic knees and spastic facial contortions, Gary Hill flails mercilessly at the bass, sometimes lending a delightfully discordant air to the backing vocals, drummer Magnus Norberg stuns the ladies with his enormous prowess. Nell Inciong brings wistful vocals, thunderous rhythm guitars and picturesque bongo paddling to the mix while Tim Hills shreds it up with his ludicrously over-the-top lead guitar and xylophone stylings. Mmmm, creamy." Great logo, guys! Designed by Harry, it looks like this Garoupa had a swim in Victoria Harbour or lost a fight with a swarm of piranhas! Like a swarm of their many groupies descending on Garoupa after a concert, hungry to get a piece of their idols, or at least an autograph? If you can make it to the Garrulous Garoupa Gig tonight you might catch me or my new assistant photographer & gig review writer Nick the Bookman, taking candid photos all over, above & below the bar. It's the very first time ever that Nick is using a digicam (borrowed from me) - the results should be most "interesting"... If you can't catch any of the Garoupas spazzing,
flailing, stunning or shredding tonight, you'll have another chance on
Saturday: LINKS: poster, blog, website, more info, map, Underground website.
June 29: Lamma Sunrise/Sunset Photo Contest
Send your photos of sunrises & sunsets to me - either
June 28: Power Station Beach Clean-up Above: Lamma Fun Day 2004. Below: same beach today, photo by Katherine.
Lamma Fun Day, Nov 21 2004, on Power Station Beach.
June 27: Sunset Watchers After weeks of subtropical rains every day, the sun is finally breaking through again and we're getting some amazing sunsets. With Yung Shue Wan harbour facing the sunset, it's a great spot for watching it. Some of us love to congregate at the beach to admire this free live spectacle, alone or with friends (see right). Nothing strange, religious or "nature-worshipping" about it, we just love sunsets! As they're so uniquely beautiful and constantly metamorphosing, pictures can preserve my fleeting memory. But after the end of nature's show, I got attracted by an artificial sun shining all through the night... P.S. A few people liked my sunset photos below. Here are a few more: Lamma-rama 2002; Sha Po Village Nights; Panorama Lammarama Sunset Chuckm from Vancouver just suggested a Lamma Sunset Photo Contest!
June 26: Sunset at Lowest Tide
Would you also like to see how Yung Shue Wan harbour looks like during maximum tide, when the ancient stone jetty gets actually flooded for just a few hours twice a year (2.5+ metre)? See photo on right.
June 25: Who's Paying for This Website? Some new forum members have been asking how this site is run and financed. Some have even been wondering if this is a semi-official site of the District Council, local politicians, a special interest group or some local business, for example a property agent or moving company. No, no, this website started out as just a little hobby, something fun to keep me (a semi-retired dotcom dropout) occupied. Almost three years later, it's grown from a self-financed labour of love into a fully advertising-supported website. There were ONLY forums at first, founded solely by webdog, a HK-Chinese guy, on July 23, 2002. I joined him a few days later as co-site administrator, soon adding the Lamma-zine parts of this website (see top of this page).
For a few months now, the advertising on this home page can cover all the numerous little site-related bills & expenses (website hosting w/lots of server disk space; Broadband charges; printer ink, paper & color-photocopies for promotional flyers, posters & rate cards; CD-ROMs; camera memory, etc.) There are currently three great, long-term, paying advertisers on this home page: Links Relocations, Life Cafe & Village Bakery (soon). If your co. would like to appear on this home page, contact me! Huge commission for you for introducing a new advertiser! Building & maintaining other websites for paying clients (Compunicate! Web Publishing & Interactive Marketing) is what pays my own modest household bills. As the only remaining site owner & administrator, I perform all the work on the site (html, graphics, programming, webmastering, troubleshooting, backups,...), plus most of the editorial, design & photography for the Lamma-zine pages (Blog, magazine, Events, Links, Galleries). I also moderate our non-commercial, free-speech forums, with the invaluable help of 10 volunteer moderators. All together, it's almost a full-time job, especially with this news-hungry, 7-days-per-week Lamma-zine Blog, fed with interesting material from many great sources & most helpful contributors, like yourself, I hope! All clear now, like Yung Shue Wan harbour water?
June 24: Loverly Flat with Porn Star Bathroom
But I'm still wondering, what's this 'porn star bathroom' the 'loverly flat' got? If you're looking to let or rent a place, you're welcome to place a free ad into our 'Buy & Sell, Rent & Let' forum. For more details on renting a place on Lamma, check out my quite comprehensive advice in this blog on April 17.
June 23: Giving Birth on the Ferry (Almost)
Another option is simply to take the ferry. Mr & Mrs Pretty recently managed to get from Lamma to Queen Mary Hospital in a mere 50 minutes! That's 10 minutes faster than by Lamma ambulance and helicopter, according to my own helicopter flight with Lamma-Por 2 years ago! Here's the story of pretty Isabel Pretty's birth on June 2, as told on my request by Mr Pretty himself - the happy father of 3 (so far) little, healthy Pretty ladies - in his very own new blog with family pictures:
June 22: 'In at the deep end'
Our all-pink Lamma Dragons Ladies team at the International Dragonboat Races in Victoria Harbour last Sunday! Happy about their performances, they were very unhappy about the lousy organisation of the races again this year. They posted a forum message and wrote emails about it, as hardly any of all the many problems were reported in the press at all. Let's address these here and let them air all their grievances freely:
June 21: English Day at Northern Lamma School
"The Northern Lamma School was founded on 12 December 1949, and it is the only primary school on Northern Lamma. The NLS’ historic roots can be traced back to 1922 as the “Chan’s Education Centre” in Tai Wan New Village. Moreover, another school was founded in Tai Peng Village in 1913. The Tai Peng school was successfully registered with the Education Dept. and became a government-subsidized school in 25 March 1946, and school fees were reduced. In a move to provide better education facilities and environment for all school-aged children on Lamma, the local villagers built a new school at its present location (Editor's Note: Yung Shue Ling) in 1949. On 12 December that year, the Northern Lamma School officially came into being, while the Tai Peng school was closed. Student numbers have increased since the Northern Lamma School’s establishment in 1949, an extension building was opened in 1963 and the school adopted its current name in 1998." For any school questions, call them at 2982 0242 or email them. I'd love to publish more articles about this great little school where the most famous Lammaite Chow Yun-fat is one of the alumni. Parents with children in this school would be most welcome to write a few words for this blog! Contact me!
June 20: What's Up in the Chinese Forums, Part II?
If you'd like to read for yourself, in English, here's a tip from our moderator Alan: Click here to get an instant Altavista Babelfish translation of the entire Chinese forum, in the original format. You can move around normally inside the Chinese forum, jump from topic to topic and get not very good but instant & automatic translations!
June 19: Wow, Forum Message #20,000! Message
#20,000 has just been posted by
Samson in our Chinese forum! In his message, Samson suggested to go on an evening excursion to find these creatures! He writes: "A pun here, the Chinese characters literally mean to use a torch to find toads in the fields or farmland at night - but it can also mean catching passionate lovers in the act at night, in colloquial Cantonese..." Samson is the recently-appointed moderator of the Chinese forum, I still wonder if this is all just a lucky coincidence or if he "timed" his message, watching the slowly rising message # counter closely to post just at the right time? He says that it's sheer coincidence... Hmmm... It's just been a little over a year since message #10,000 was posted by Foxy on Apr 27 last year. He won ONE beer back then for this achievement. Samson obviously has just won TWO beers! It took two years to reach the first 10,000, only one year for the second 10,000, so it might only be half a year to the next milestone? Who'll get THREE beers (or any other drinks) in half a year or so? In recent months, we have been averaging over 30 messages/day, one of the most active forums in all of Hong Kong! These forums are speeding up so much, especially thanks to all of our very active posters of Chinese messages! Next summary of what's happening in the Chinese forums is coming up this week in this blog. There are a lot more Chinese messages than English ones these days! After almost 3 years of English totally dominating our bilingual forums, Chinese is fighting back and leading, at least for now! Like some more figures? 914 registered members
opened 1,540 still active topics in currently 23 forums, writing over
20,000 messages (24 MB) with 737
attached pictures (35 MB). Contrary to
The 3rd anniversary of our forums is coming up on July 23, just 5 weeks from now! Reason to celebrate?
June 18: Happy 2nd Anniversary to New Holiday Mood!
They celebrated with an All-You-Can-Eat-and-Drink Buffet at $88, plus one child/parent free! It was a sell-out, obviously, in part thanks to their very prominent ad poster on this home page (Want to get your own ad?).
After a few early service & food problems, they've managed to create a friendly, stable restaurant with good, dependable food at great prices. They offer Western, Chin. & Indian food, incl. catering, parties & takeaway. Really popular with tourists, for birthday parties & large groups coming in from town! Best wishes for many more happy & successful years, New Holiday Mood, and I hope you'll remain a loyal Lamma-zine advertiser!
Our discussion forums sometimes suffer spontaneous outbreaks of creativity, infecting numerous members within just a few hours. They all congregate in a single forum topic and join in a creative ritual called colloquially "making up loads of BS"! It can be a real joy to watch & behold, but it's even more fun to join in this Lamma ritual. It's been happening spontaneously numerous times in the almost 3-year history of Lamma.com.hk. There was an outbreak observed today, started by senior member Beanburglar, who's always very quick with a clever quip or a merciless tease. He posted this message and picture: "I managed to snap this rare moment with my Bontempi Megapix Fandango i-Watoozi. The Lamma ladies dragon bait team are never far from any party." (see right) It initiated a small "bit torrent" of infectious messages within hours. Have a look in our still quite new, sleepy & innocent forum about "Pictures & Movies". Yes, the "Bontempi Gigapix Fandango i-Bamboozler" above is a future digital camera, the successor of the prototype on the right. Many Lammaites are hobby shutterbugs and quite a few are famous professional photographers. Walking into a YSW bar, you can catch them sometimes comparing the latest models & specs; and "making up loads of BS", of course!
June 16: What's Cooking
It's been a little while since our last restaurants update feature. Quite a few changes have happened, places closing & new ones opening, the eternal "Cycle of Life" of Lamma restaurants: Closed: Lamma Bistro (future uncertain), Honey Bee (for sale). Opened: Lily Garden (Tai Yuen), The Full Monty (fish & chips) Kiwi Cafe (our favourite new place). New menu in Deli Lamma (see right). Click on names above for more info & reviews.
May was Tourism Promotional Month of All Outlying Islands. Did you notice? Me, neither. None of the local restaurants seems to have been participating, putting on any promotions or special dishes. But some spent money for being included in a Delicious Food Promoting On Lamma tourist guide. It was only available locally in our "City Hall", besides the Policebox, amongst heaps of other "educational govt. literature". See below. But what else is new in Lamma's restaurants? Let's show you via pictures I shot recently, totally non-representative, of course:
DISCLAIMER: The following restaurants
mentioned above are Lamma-zine advertisers:
June 15: Bluelotus - New Online Art Gallery P.S. If you know other Lamma-based artists who'd like me to set up a free online art gallery, like the one above, tell them to contact me! Painters, sculptors, cartoonists, graffiti, computer & multimedia artists, photographers, designers, any visual art form!). Free photo shoots of the artworks, if necessary. For earlier Artists of the Month, click on Galleries at the top of this page.
June 15: The Pleasure of Decimating the Opposition! Another heat for the World Battle of the bands is on this Thursday night at the Edge in Central. Fast-rising Lamma band NUDE has entered and their exuberant, cheerful gaggle of local die-hard fans will surely cheer them on to triumph in this worldwide, friendly battle!
NUDE at the EDGE: Thu, June 16, from 7:30pm: Edge, G/F The Centrium, 60 Wyndham Street, Central: Entrance $60.
NUDE info:
6187 2280 / 9309 0701
"Greetings Nudists,
Featuring an
augmented line-up of dangerously talented musicians. Wave your
hands in the air, or just take off your rings and watch. No new poster yet, so this old one has to do for now...
Our Lammaite of the Day is Gisela, probably the most comprehensive pet photographer on the island! Her numerous photo galleries of pet/stray cats & dogs, sorted by location (Po Wah Yuen, Sha Po Village, Ko Long, etc.). She writes: "I am an aromatherapist /
aromatherapy tutor... Been living on Lamma for almost 3 yrs now! Have 2 cats of my own, Jack and Michael (you can view their album) adopted from the LAWC. I have been taking so many cats and other photos but not much of my own."
Photo Galleries Index, Herboland Organic Farm
(Hung Shing Yeh beach, it has pet chicken, ducks, even rabbits),
June 14: Trap, Neuter, Release!
June 13: Lamma Dragonboaters
Dragonboat Festival races last Saturday, June 11, all over Hong Kong. How did the Lamma teams do? Stanley: Lamma Dragons came 2nd in Women's cup final (like last year!), 3rd in mixed cup final! Incredible, as there were over 160 teams!
Aberdeen: The North Lamma Fishermen's team won two lower finals. One for the Fishermen's Group, the other an open race. The mixed team won the second (plate) final! The team to watch at the international races next weekend (Tsim Sha Tsui) are Luk Chau (of Lamma) who won the large, 50-man boat championship at Aberdeen. North Lamma will be competing in the medium-size fisherman's race, maybe the open category.
Sorry, no pictures yet, even though I've been trying hard to grab some from all of the teams. Can anybody attending the races help out? P.S. A few pictures have finally arrived!
June 12: Sandra's Shadows after a Sunday Sunset Former Lamma-zine Artist of the Month Sandra Tobias as another exhibition in the 5 o.p.t. art gallery, running till June 20, titled Shadows, part of the city-wide Australia - Art & About mega art show. She writes: "These recent colourful oil paintings and egg temperas by Australian artist Sandra Tobias based in Hong Kong. Sandra Tobias has been painting for
twenty years. Her work is represented in several Australian and
International Collections both private and public. She was recently awarded
the
These recent works reflect a sense of connection to the Urban space and to the traditional elements of Chinese life. Shadows for me are; Shadows are sometimes the darkness that follows sunset. I have been living in Hong Kong for a relatively short time (4 years). Hong Kong for me is a transient place, forever on the move. I live on Lamma Island with my husband (sculptor) and two children. The things I love about Hong Kong are the ferry life, the burning offerings and the aspects of reality that you find when you seek beneath the veils."
June 11: Below the Ferry Pier, Part II
For a hopefully welcome change, let's highlight a serious topic today, instead of my all-too-frequent features about "frivolous" topics full of ironic remarks and all that "Silly Stuff": Let's talk about ferry pier safety! Some of us stroll along the pier several times a day, sometimes even doing a 100-metre dash prompted by the ferry departure bell. Only rarely do we ever worry that the pier might just crumble under our feet, plunging us into our "fragrant" YSW harbour where only the most foolhardy would ever dare to go swimming.
"If you've seen a crackpot crawling & staggering around BELOW the ferry pier taking pictures in the last few weeks, that was Lamma-Gung on one of his photographic excursions, exploring some new, "unusual" views and angles of Lamma Island's "underworld". See for yourself how it looked BEFORE all the construction began: Below the Ferry Pier. (Photos in this introduction have all been taken BEFORE! See Part II for new photos).
Below the Ferry Pier, Part II - photo gallery
June 11 - Dragonboat Festival
- Tuen Ng: |