Archives: Stories Sorted by  Date

     2004: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

     2005: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

     2006: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec

 

July 31:  Panoramic Lunch Atop the Ferry Pier

Returning home today from HK Island at lunchtime via the IFC Mall flyover in Central, I was stopped by the sign below advertising the lunch menu in Discovery Forest. This outdoor restaurant is located atop the DbAY (Discovery Bay in advertising lingo) ferry terminal, adjacent to the Lamma ferry terminal. The rest of this story is being told in panoramic, pollution-free pictures only, see below:

July 30:  Island Toes A'Tapping – Island Hearts A'Flapping

Sometimes the music stopped for photo opportunities.

The Acadian all-girl band Chiquesa found cause
for mirth.

Lamma Author Jay Scott Kanes has just returned tired but triumphant from a successful major book & CD tour! He's been concentrating on becoming as famous on the opposite side of the globe as he is on Lamma and in Hong Kong already:
Prince Edward Island in Canada.

Jay's musical guide to the multitude and variety of their local musical talent has won him many new fans and admirers, especially among the local lovely ladies where he seems to have set many hearts a'flapping, see photo.

Jay Scott Kanes - Lammaite Author of "Island Toes A'Tapping":

(Text, photos and captions by Jay, July 27 2006. Click to enlarge any photo.)

The eventual book inspired compilation
CDs and bookmarks.

Glory to the Music Gods!

The Lamma Islander Didn’t Sing

Following a series of distractions on another island half-a-world away, author Jay Scott Kanes has returned to Lamma’s footpaths weary but pleased at having launched a new book.

Island Toes A’Tapping profiles leading musicians and explores the music scene in Kanes’ birthplace: Prince Edward Island, Canada. A series of “back-home” launch events ran from late June until mid July, taking Kanes to P.E.I.’s capital city, Charlottetown, and to towns with names like Alberton, Borden, Montague, Murray River and Summerside.

Provincial tourism minister Philip Brown (right) secured a copy.

“Promoting the book became enormous fun because local musicians stepped forward to play at each stop,” said Kanes. “The launch tour took me across the province with a really diverse soundtrack. Memorable songs included ‘Gumboot Clog A Roo’, ‘Lester the Lobster’, ‘Poor Bob’ and ‘Don’t Laugh Too Much’.

My greatest fears swirled around the chance that someone might yell for the author to step onstage and sing. Luckily, that never happened.

“In reality, I couldn’t warble a word without causing earaches for miles. Musical impotence gives me a tremendous respect for real musicians, of which P.E.I. has thousands.”

Bookstore proprietor John Martin (right)
and his daughter Rebecca appropriately decorated a shop window.

Once the book arrived in its target market, Sandcastle Recording, a local studio, swung into action to create two CDs with 32 songs by P.E.I. singers and bands. “That delighted me,” Kanes said. “The CDs supply ear-pleasing examples from the book.”

Plans for the book emerged from Kanes’ regular visits to Canada. In 2005, he conducted research there. “Thanks to the hundreds of people who somehow helped me,” he said.

Separated by the Pacific Ocean and by North America, the islands Lamma and P.E.I. show distinct differences in size, climate, landscape and lifestyles. Although several times larger than Hong Kong, P.E.I. has only 135,000 people (still enough to dwarf Lamma’s 6,000). Spud-farming, fishing and tourism count as the main industries.

For months, Kanes pondered words in a Lamma office.
What's next?  Lamma Bands?

Despite its Canadian content, the book remains a Lamma product. Kanes wrote at a desk in Yung Shue Wan. Tai Shan resident Li Suk Woon supervised the production and printing. Alex Ng, from near Tai Peng, designed the cover.

Island Toes A’Tapping represents Kanes’ first attempt at non-fiction following two novels, High Degree of Atrocity (2004) and Dog-Gone Cat Case (2005), the latter set on Lamma.

Maybe now Kanes should focus on Lamma’s musicians. “Possibly,” he said. “Inspiration for another book has yet to strike. I welcome suggestions.”

July 29:  Civil Celebration of a Lamma Wedding

Lamma can be a wonderful place to get married. Several local places can handle wedding parties well. With the recent introduction of getting married outside the marriage registration offices, you can get married anywhere you like - as long as you can convince the newly appointed "Civil Celebrants of Marriages" to perform the registration ceremony in your chosen location.

Some of them seem to think of Lamma as a distant, remote location, too far away for them to leave their cozy, cool offices. Being a Civil Celebrant is becoming a nice new side line for some more adventurous solicitors to make an extra few thousand bucks per marriage. See name card above.

HK might have a long way to go before we'll see marriage vows being exchanged while jumping nude out of an airplane - as has happened in the US. But more unusual and romantic locations than the marriage registration office might soon become more fashionable, like a rooftop harbourside in Yung Shue Wan, with a ferry pier/Lantau sunset back drop (see above).

This was also Lamma-Gung's first paid stint as a Wedding Photographer and it was a great fun and enjoyable project. We did a photo session three days before the actual wedding, Lammaites Steve & Jennifer posing all over Yung Shue Wan for scenic shots for their relatives and friends. We might have startled and surprised a few people who were used as impromptu photo models. Steve & Jennifer graciously granted me permission to show the best of all those photos to the Lamma-zine readers. They've even added captions and wrote a few words for our readers. Thank you, happy Lamma couple!

Hopefully, this photo gallery might inspire more weddings on Lamma. If you need a good Wedding Photographer, you know where to find one...

Click on any photo for the wedding gallery!

July 28:  Gas-Fired Units Go Online

Blue Skies China - Blog entry by blueskyguy, re-published with their friendly permission.  (Photo above by blueskyguy, the Lamma Power Station gas-fired extension the night of its connection to the Hong Kong grid.)
(3 photos and captions below are courtesy of HEC.)

 335MW Lamma Island gas plant hooks up to grid

Posted by blueskyguy @ 23:15:36

LAMMA ISLAND, HONG KONG, July 28 -- Hongkong Electric is counting down to using liquefied natural gas (LNG) to power Hong Kong's energy needs, as its new gas-fired unit (L9) was connected to its network at a synchronization ceremony at the plant on Lamma Island today, the company said in an announcement here.

Built on reclaimed land to the south of the existing Lamma Power Station, the 335MW combined cycle gas-fired generating unit will be used as a base-load machine.

Following the synchronization, a series of performance and reliability tests will be carried out in the next two months and commercial operation is expected to commence later this year. L9, together with other coal-fired generating units already in use, will bring the total installed capacity of Hongkong Electric's facility to 3,755MW.

Managing Director of Hongkong Electric, Tso Kai-sum, said at the ceremony that the synchronization represents a significant milestone in the Company’s commitment to supplying clean electricity for its customers.

"The gas-fired unit ranks first in Hong Kong on many fronts - it is not only the first machine using LNG as primary fuel but also the most environmentally friendly and most efficient generating unit using the combined cycle technology," he said.

"Compared with coal-fired generation, sulphur dioxide and dust particulates emissions of unit 9 are minimal, while carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions will be greatly reduced," Tso said.

"By using combined cycle technology, the waste heat from the gas turbine will be utilized for steam generation to drive the steam turbine, boosting the unit's operation efficiency to over 55%," he said.

A 25-year contract has been secured for gas supply through a 93km long submarine pipeline from the LNG terminal in Shenzhen (see stories here and here).

The new unit will account for 15% of the plant's total electricity output in 2007. "We are committed to improving the air quality in Hong Kong. In addition to switching to gas, plans are also in place to retrofit two existing coal-fired units with flue gas desulphurization (FGD) plants and low nitrogen oxides (NOx) burners. We expect that after 2010, over 90% of our annual output will be electricity generated by gas-fired unit and coal-fired units fitted with FGD and low NOx burners," Tso said.

Hongkong Electric’s first gas-fired generating unit.

A group picture with contractor representatives.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr. Tso describes the gas-fired generating unit as a perfect project and thanks representatives of contractors attending the ceremony for the good teamwork.

July 27:  Lamma Misfits Give a Hand to Jogjakarta

A little follow-up story for 'A Nudist, a Garoupan, a Couple of Donkeys and Ivy' on July 19, the benefit concert for the earthquake victims in Indonesia:

Hugh the Drummer - Drummer of new Lamma band Beats Working and several other Lamma bands.  (All photos by Steve Cray)

Hugh the Happy Drummer.  

The HK Groove Gave a Hand to Jogjakarta in style at 1/5 on 21 July with all the entertainers living up to expectations and keeping people on their toes.

Joves warmed up the night with her unique blend of mellow jazz and rock before surprise successes of the night Fabio and Melody strutted provocatively to their reggaeton grooves.

Lamma misifits Beats Working turned in a solid set that did credit to the 2 and a half rehearsals they managed for the gig. HK veterans Helter Skelter rounded the night off nicely with their brand of infectious blues, soul and funk.

Stars of the evening preceding them however were the Oasis Dance Troupe who effortlessly seduced the crowd to follow them on stage with their elegant swagger.

Parksy presided over the acts with characteristic cool and all those skipping the last ferry were treated to the magic of DJ Nipper for a few hours more.

Many thanks too to Steve Cray for the ace photos - check 'em out whether you made or missed the gig: Indonesian benefit gig.

July 26:  'His light was too bright to be contained by this mundane forum'

We've lost a forum member this week, resigning from the forums because he didn't get enough positive encouragement and feedback. Some long-time forum members even dared to criticize his "verbal diarrhea" openly, after he posted what they thought to be so many rambling, convoluted, confusing messages that even some of our smartypants members couldn't follow and understand them anymore.

Spinoza the Ghost Teacher will be missed by some forum members. He introduced a new level of sophistication, erudition and incessant, literary quoting to our forums which were never known for being literate and sophisticated before.

I often didn't know what the heck he was on about, but it was entertaining to see the reactions of the other forum members to being baffled and flabbergasted. An intellectual battle of wits, fought with Shakespeare citations, esoteric facts, multi-lingual quotes, dictionaries and thesauri, is unfortunately an all too rare event in most online forums; but it can be very amusing for the observer.

But some forum members reacted very unkindly, as you'd expect. He got ridiculed and taken down several notches by forum members who started to feel "stoopid" for not understanding his messages. So the Ghost Teacher left at the beginning of the Chinese ghost month, disillusioned, an example of "being voted off the island" for not fitting in with our cyber crowd. As somebody remarked: "His light was too bright to be contained by this mundane forum."

But we're still upholding a rigorous free-speech stance in our forums - except for personal attacks that get moved to the restricted Fight Club forum - so people with all kinds of persuasions, opinions and quirks are still most welcome. But you need a sense of humour and sometimes a thick skin to survive the rumble and tumble in our forums. Try it, you might like it!

Let's remember our most high-minded, mystifying member with some of his memorable messages which baffled and flabbergasted Lammaites so much:

A note concerning Martin Booth's book "Gweilo"

Screaming ferry

What else did the Chinese invent apart from exams?


By the way, for the people who might miss Spinoza already, he's got his own column in Lamma's Canned Revolution website's Little Red Email, wherein they nickname Lamma consistently as "Fantasy Island".

Here's the Ghost Teacher's personal blog, but it's more about programming than about Lamma... He's got his very own admiring, adoring fans there, who shower him with praise and big WOWs! Sample of a comment posted: "I just completed reading the article and wow! you are really amazing sir, in all possible ways!".

No wonder he left our forums behind, not getting such great feedback! In fact, I'm quite envious of him as I rarely (never) get fan email like that for the Lamma-zine!

July 25:  Loooong Lamma Photos

Shooting Lamma scenes in panorama format seems to be extremely well-suited to the subject matter, but it's still a very rare practice. Below, Siuyu shows us how it's done and done well. Great job, we'd love to see many more panoramic photos from our readers!

We also still welcome all Lamma-related photos for Photo of the Day on the home page of this site. Email me your best shots, any file size and subject matter!

July 24:  Annie's Lucky Cats and Dogs

Community of Artists on Lamma Island (CALI)

Lamma artists and photographers who show their work at existing establishments in and around Yung Shue Wan.

Lucky Cats and Dogs

Annie exhibits a selection of her recent acrylic paintings of lucky money cats and Lamma dogs. Most works for sale. Reasonable prices.

@ The Island Bar

Saturday 22nd July 2006 from 6.30pm.

Exhibition and drinks, followed by live music by local celebrity band the Yung Shue Wankers. Find out more about the Lamma Artist`s Community and join us for a glass of wine before 7.30pm!

The famous author and the famous painter - The Helicopter Guy - The Bookman

 

Exhibition? What exhibition?   

July 23:  4th Anniversary of Lamma.com.hk!

Forum Statistics:

Statistic Value Statistic Value
Number of posts: 23,124 Posts per day: 15.76
Number of topics: 2,238 Topics per day: 1.53
Number of users: 1473 Users per day: 1.00
Board started: Tue, Jul 23, 02 10:07 Avatar directory size: 1.81 MB
Database size: 32.99 MB Gzip compression: OFF

FOUR YEARS OLD?  That's really hard to believe when I've been working at it so closely and intensively every day for such a long time already.

Many thanks to all of you who helped this website to grow and prosper with all your many and varied contributions!

To celebrate this anniversary, Lamma.com.hk just got a new, much faster website host with double the hard disk space for forum messages, images and web pages (2GB!) The new Lamma-zine PC (see below) will also speed up and simplify the daily updates significantly. Lamma.com.hk has a great future ahead, I hope! Here's to many more years, with YOUR help and support, hopefully!

...and now for something completely different, never seen before in the history of this website:

Laurence James Lucas - Life Change Facilitator - Presenting a series of talks on Lamma Island in the autumn:

Laurence, a Lamma newbie, has just been appointed "Official Court Astrologer of Lamma.com.hk". Just for fun, I asked him to do a horoscope for this website, even though I'm extremely skeptical about astrology. But I had never seen a website horoscope before and Laurence happily obliged, "I am delighted to accept the challenge, what a fun idea!"

Prepare to Ride the Dragon!

The destiny of Lamma.com.hk suggested by its astrology chart is that the website evolves as a communication tool towards practical information that increasingly serves or reaches the Chinese population of Lamma and HK.

Lamma.com.hk, born 23 July 2002

The identity of Lamma.com.hk is Leonean: proud, leisure-directed, fun, creative and laid-back-community-orientated - and needing to expand in influence. The parallels between Lamma online and Lamma real time and space are accentuated in the near future.

From March 2006 to October 2007, the website is being uprooted; is it moving? It seems that the site needs to feel more deeply rooted and at home. With this comes a new form and image that will emerge during October 2007, building upon the continuing removal of cultural barriers that has been taking place since 2005.

The regeneration becomes gradually more visible after early September 2006, until the end of the year, where the feeling grows stronger than a much more integrated connection is needed with a larger population extending out to HK. The community image of the site is now well established, but a new chapter is in process.

The prosperity of the site requires it to expand out of its confinement and incubation. In late 2007, the site takes its first steps as a new entity aiding the economy of Lamma by reaching out to HK. Though this might not appear to be popular or comfortable with Lamma locals who love this island as a haven, the inevitability of change requires a surrender to the Dao.

The rebirth suggests a new status for the website as it matures from an image of celebratory and light interest to a more focused, economic and ambassadorial role, as a tool of practical information, reflecting the expanded role of Lamma as a tourist destination. It would be better to work with this energy rather than to ignore it.

In this way the shape of Lamma's community island infrastructure and development can be guided by those that love it for what it is now?. Prosperity is not the motivating factor for most of us living on Lamma, but it is better that the Lammaites prosper and engage with the developments of the island than hand it over to opportunists who do not live here.

Lamma.com.hk comes of age. Its necessity and importance for the future of this island increases markedly from 2007 to 2010.

Lamma needs this Lion to stop sunbathing now, show it can roar, awaken the assertive, activist spirit and then lead - not fight - the Dragon.

 

P.S.  One last little birthday present for Lamma.com.hk: a search function, finally!

The forums have always had their own separate search function (top right of every screen).

Try it and let me know about any problems. This search function will be added as a permanent feature to every page of this site very soon.

 

 

    Google
 
    

Blog & Lamma-zine 24+

Forums & Lamma-zine 1 - 23

Entire Web

July 22:  Green Mean Machine: 'Hello World!'

Article in progress...

July 21:  We Love Our Landlady!

Today, Lamma-Por and I would like to sing the high praises of our landlady, Mrs. Tsang in Sha Po Village. You hear too many horror stories about greedy landlords/landladies who don't maintain their flats and have unreasonable demands of their tenants. Not from us!

Our old living room aircon was starting to make big trouble, occasionally causing a short-circuit when filling up with rusty water, tripping the fuse switch for the entire flat. All electrical appliances went dead, including the Lamma-zine PC, especially annoying when in the middle of creating a new daily story! It took a few days and sever short-circuits to isolate the problem.

The technician brought in by our landlady didn't even open the aircon, looking at it from a distance muttering something like that he can't fix it right now. He simply walked away without ever coming back or informing anybody of what to do next.

Following up by our landlady got a new aircon ordered, paid for and delivered the very next day!

We were considering getting a split-aircon, paying for the difference from the regular new aircon our landlady was paying for. But they are DOUBLE the cost, including installation costs of over $2,000. Toooo much!

To our big surprise, we found that the new electrical shop in the former Bistro quoted considerably cheaper than the private contractor our landlady used. We can recommend Express Engineering Co.: quality service (we hear) and lower costs than some of the private contractors who are usually not experts at all.

Installation happened the next day and was quick and smooth, generating the usual mess that all contractors seem to leave behind...

Costs:
Regular aircon:
around $3,000+ for a big living room aircon in a 700sqft flat, incl. installation. Basic High/Low cool modes, but strong enough and reasonably quiet.
Split-aircon:
$4,300+, plus $2,000+ installation costs. Almost totally quiet, but not quite as strong as a regular aircon; uses more energy for the same effect!

Recommended aircon contractors (NOT Lamma-zine advertisers yet):
Fok Ming Electrical
(at Nick's Corner): C.Y. Lau: Tel. 2982 0163 or 2982 5835.
Express Engineering (former Lamma Bistro): Toppy Yue: Tel 2982 2787, Mobile: 9811 6287.

We love our landlady! Anything defect in the bathroom or kitchen, or any plumbing, aircon or electrical problems? She'll get somebody to fix or replace it within a day or two and she'll even pay for it in full! This is far from usual with Lamma landlords/landladies and most appreciated!

Our nice & friendly landlady has even agreed to lower our rent by $500 every year from 2002-2004. In return, she gets some nice, quiet tenants (yes, us!) who don't smoke, damage anything and have no children or pets, and, absolutely most importantly, always pay the rent on time.

All of these are just some of the reasons (a quiet, new-ish, clean, cheap, green and very sunny flat reasonably close to Main Street and the ferry pier) why we've never moved again since moving to Lamma 4.5 years ago. First time lucky!

In general, first floor flats on Lamma are cheapest. Ground floor flats get too many bugs and other animals. We'd love a 2/F with rooftop but wouldn't use it frequently enough to justify the usual 50% rent premium over a 1/F flat. We might be happily stuck for a while longer in our current flat, with our landlady taking good care of us.

Thank you very much, Mrs. Tsang!  Mahjong with Lamma-Por again this weekend?

July 20:  What's Your Favourite Island?

Laudable Lamma Luminary Mr DickStock, an Alert Reader and Frequent Contributor to the Lamma-zine has alerted me to an important democratic election going on in one of the deepest recesses of the Internet. Mr DickStock is urging me to urgently urge my readers to "Put Lamma on the map!"

The election is being held at http://www.grupthink.com/poll/1035 and the polls are open RIGHT NOW! So hurry on over and cast your ballot! Every registered member with a unique email has one vote. You'll have to register first before you can vote, though. A quick and easy process, similar to registering in our forums. Lamma Island is No. 5 in the poll right now. But we can't accept any ranking lower than #1! Help our home to earn the top recognition it deserves!

Mr DickStock describes our island in the poll:

"A half-hour ferryboat ride from Central Hong Kong, Lamma is a laid-back little village community with an international flavor.
No cars! Walk or bike to the beach."

As Mr DickStock writes about searching the Internet for funny and silly stuff:

"If you're someone with waaay too much time on their hands, it's oddly addictive."

We hear ye, guy, we hear ye! It's great that you admit to it, enjoy it and even revel in it!  Keep your odd little gems of Lamma-zine submissions comin'!

July 19:  A Nudist, a Garoupan, a Couple of Donkeys, and Ivy

(all photos and poster courtesy of HK Groove)

From the HK Groove website: "Beats Working bring together a group of musicians to create something new especially for the gig. They promise a mix of styles reflecting their various experience with Black Seraphine, Garoupa, Nude, Shockin' Rockin' Donkeys and Red Star Rising among others. They are Lammaites Ivy on vocals, Nel and Chris on guitars, Nudist Kevin on bass, with Hugh on drums."

Hugh writes: "Beats Working, another new Lamma band, is a hybrid. We got together specially for this gig basically. Lamma connection wise - I'm a long term Lamma resident and drummer, as are most members of Beats Working, DJ Nipper, Parksy the Sound Engineer and I hope a large proportion of the audience!"

Yes, before I forget, what gig are we talking about here anyway? It's Friday's revived HK Groove's benefit gig for the earthquake victims: "Give a hand to Jogjakarta":

Fri, July 21, 7pm - late, 1/5, Star Street, Wanchai, HK Island: Earthquake relief concert. $150 in advance, $180 at door, tickets from Diesel's, 1/5, and Club 71.
Click for website, and poster.


Besides all these Lamma connections,  you'll also have the chance to enjoy these other star attractions at the same event:

Pretty-pretty couple Fabio & Melody dancing to Reggaeton music,

Joves who performed on Sat, July 8 @ The Island Bar.

"Helter Skelter is a band that fuses the heart and soul of traditional Blues with the energy and flair of hard rock."

The Oasis Dance Troupe: "The belly dance divas from Oasis will enchant you with their oriental hip swings, shimmies and undulations!"

An amazingly varied programme, definitely worth to venture off Lamma Island for one night! Your entry fee will support earthquake victims, so what are you waiting for: Get ready to dance your own "oriental hip swings, shimmies and undulations!"

July 18:  S U B S C R I B E !    (please, please!)

Every two weeks, a simple, short text email is being sent out to all Lamma-zine subscribers, informing them of what's new in this daily blog/magazine. Obviously, most readers are not checking out this home page every day, so the biweekly reminder is usually quite welcome as an update of what's new on Lamma.

If you'd like to be updated every two weeks about what's new on Lamma, then subscribe now by clicking here or on the drop-down menu at the top right of this page! Thank you very much for your support!

Newcomers to Lamma Island might have heard about this website from their friends, posters on the walls or flyers, but often haven't subscribed yet. They might be happy, even grateful to receive a gratis, spam-free, biweekly update of what's new in their new home. Forward them this website or let me know their email addresses and I'll invite them to become subscribers.

There are currently slightly over 2,500 active email addresses in our database, mostly current, former and future Lammaites, tourists and visitors, friends of Lamma, people who are interested in Lamma for various reasons and lots of HK media who occasionally pick events & photos from this website and follow up on stories for their own publications.

Only I, Lamma-Gung, have access to the subscribers database, nobody else has ever received a copy of it or (mis)used it in any way. So you won't get ANY additional spam by subscribing here! But it will help to attract more advertisers to support this website and help it to survive if we have more subscribers, same as in a print magazine.

Click here to subscribe or invite your friends to subscribe!

If you're a registered member of our forums, you'll get an automatic subscription to your registered email address. If it has changed in the meantime, as is often the case, please let me know! If you've subscribed a long time ago, but don't receive the biweekly email anymore, let me know your new email address, please!

Also, if you receive more than one copy because you have more than one email addresses subscribed, let me know the email addresses, so I can delete the extra ones in my database. Unsubscriptions will also be handled immediately, of course.

Here's a sample of the biweekly email to subscribers:

Lamma-Gung's email to Lamma-zine subscribers, July 18.

(If you're a subscriber already, you can skip the entire rest of this article.

If you haven't received this email from me in your inbox today, then you're NOT a current subscriber and are most welcome to subscribe):

Subject: Lamma-zine: Community of Artists

 

Welcome to the island full of artists, from creative artists and lifestyle artists all the way to our many "B.S. artists"!

These last two weeks, more personal stories written by Nick the Reviewman, Artist of the Month Roz Keep, bbChris, the Ghost Teacher, Molokko, Samson the Sha-Ponian, Amateur Scientist, Director Alastair, and... Alan the Enlightened!

But we haven't heard a word from Prof Red Star, Harry the Excellent, e, c, Bob Davis, Leglessonlamma, Cheshire k@ and the Official Court Village Idiot in quite a while! Whatever might they be up to these days? Anyone knows?

The daily Lamma-zine has been featuring another artistic palette full of colourful photos and stories about a challenge to Lamma bands, translucent Transnoodles, Lamma's Little League, high tides, aquatic apes, newly founded CALI (Community of Artists on Lamma Island), and the happy retirement of the PC used to edit and publish ALL Lamma-zine stories so far...

All of this and many more Lamma "artistes" at http://Lamma.com.hk.


Story, photo and video submissions are always welcome, but we're most importantly LOOKING FOR WRITERS FOR THESE TOPICS:

1. What do you personally love or hate about Lamma?
2. Interviews with Lamma personalities
3. Inside the pet lovers community
4. Environmental and political issues
5. Being religious/spiritual on Lamma - Catholics, Christians,

    Muslims, Wiccas, New Age religions, etc.
6. A new mother's look at the Lamma community
7. Growing up on Lamma - written by a youngster or teenager
8. Retiring on Lamma - advantages & disadvantages
9. Lamma after midnight - the Dark Side emerging?
10. Lamma in the last century - the good or bad old days?


Visit our active English/Chinese forums: http://Lamma.com.hk/forum.
Our July headline stories so far, all online at http://Lamma.com.hk:
 

S U B S C R I B E !  (please, please!)
Happy Retirement, Lamma-zine PC!
Ferry Service During Typhoon Season
Lamma's Little League
Roz Keep - Artist of the Month - July
Maximum High Tide in YSW Harbour
Lamma-(ec)centric Lyrics
Wind Power for 50,000 Families?
Director Alastair Wants to 'Turn Your Lights Out'!
'Community of Artists on Lamma Island'
Best of Chinese Forum - June 2006
Pinky Enlightened Me!
Aquatic Apes & Lamma's Amateur Scientist
Any Lamma Bands Dare Taking up the Challenge?


Low-cost advertising & sponsorship on Lamma.com.hk is welcome.
The Lamma-zine is an advertising-supported, 4-year-old web publication with over 2 million hits/month and over 2,500 subscriber emails, reaching a major portion of Lamma Island residents & visitors.
For more info: www.Compunicate.com/Lamma-zine/ratecard.htm

...

Last chance to subscribe or invite your friends to subscribe!

July 17:  Happy Retirement, Lamma-zine PC!

The 4th anniversary of this website is coming up next Sunday, July 23. As a little present to myself and this website I decided to replace my ancient PC which has been used daily to update this website. My main business (web publishing, photography, e-marketing, editing/writing) has improved nicely recently. For the first time since living on Lamma and after saving up for quite a while I can finally afford a new PC. Nothing fancy or expensive, no flat screen, but it'll have to work reliably for many years to come.

My current one (see above) has served me well since the last millennium, a Dell PC bought on their website in 1999. It was top-of-line back then, Dell's finest, it even came with a DVD drive and a 5-channel home theatre sound system with a subwoofer bigger than the PC itself.

But it has started to show its age badly now, the hardware creaking and moaning, floppy drive and USB connectors becoming unreliable, mouse behaving erratically and the paint coming off from all the heavy use (see above), backup hard disks crashing occasionally, main hard disk totally filled up with tens of thousands of photos of Lamma, RAM overloaded with too many programs running at the same time, no CD-ROM writer, error messages popping up frequently, occasional cold reboots, new software & hardware not being supported by my ancient version of Windows, etc.

But the Lamma-zine PC has served me well and pretty reliably for so long, I won't trash or sell it, but retire it as a backup machine. From running 24/7 it can look forward to a more relaxed schedule, just helping out in case my future machine will have any problems or needs help from an experienced "oldtimer".

Expect a few delays in the daily schedule of this Lamma-zine till the new machine will be installed and has settled in well. All my stuff, contacts, emails, files & settings, accumulated over 7 years of almost daily use, will have to be moved over to my future main PC. Wish me luck!

July 16:  Ferry Service During Typhoon Season

SOLSTICE STORM - watercolour painting by Roz Keep. Click to see more artworks...

In our very active "Lamma Ferries" forum new member canadian was thinking about buying a flat on Lamma. But he's wondering about ferry services during the typhoon season - meaning right now. Lots of different advice was coming in about what to do if you get stuck on Hong Kong Island if you've missed the last ferry leaving about two hours after typhoon signal No. 8 has gone up.

The advice ranged from "Why worry, enjoy the day off!" to "Head down to the typhoon parties in Lan Kwai Fong or Knutsford Terrace!". But the most detailed advice about "one-night accommodation options" in town came from our "Ghost Teacher" spinoza1112, who's obviously very experienced in this topic, offering practical but also fun recommendations:

Spinoza1112 - most wordiferous & eloquent forum member; or as tjungarayi describes him: "maligned poet, ghost teacher and wordsmith":

If the ferry service is curtailed and you are on the big island or Kowloon, you have to stay with friends. If you don't have any friends, you can get a cheap-assed hotel room most of the time.

I have found that the Imperial hotel on the Nathan road opposite the (pricey) Peninsula will often have $700/night rooms in the Western style, meeting Western expectations, that is, on short notice. The YMCA is great next to the Peninsula but often has no rooms on short notice. The Peninsula at $3,000+ a night might represent pure self-indulgence but if you are otherwise miserable it might cheer you up to spend all that money.

The Chung King and the Mirador are at the other end of the scale, with windowless and humid guest rooms as low as $120/night. By the standards of parallel American establishments they are quite safe, but one needs one's wits about one.

On Hong Kong, I have discovered a number of small guest-houses off Percival Street at Hysan Avenue. These appear to have several functions. One is to provide a place for lovers to do the deed. Another is for the use of local hos and their clientele. A third is to provide you with a place to stay if you are like me merely a member of the white collar proletariat.

Apart from the mirrors on the ceiling I have found these places quite civilized at about $300. If you are offended by porn don't tune the TV to channel one.

However, if you are truly Bohemian, and given sufficient cause, swimming the Lamma channel should be nothing. Just watch out for the larger containerships: their draft is quite deep and you will have to hold your breath as you dive under their centerline.

P.S. Meanwhile, the "Screaming ferry" forum topic about noisy kids on the afternoon Lamma ferries is still going strong. The topic has been ballooning to 53 replies and 1,445 views so far and getting more and more heated by the day...

Meanwhile, the late ferry forum topic has also been revived by a new generation of Lammaites. The requests for additional ferry schedules remain the same...

July 15:  Lamma's Little League

The World Cup is over, but Lamma's young football talents keep on practicing, training hard and getting ready for future wins & glory, while us couch potatoes go back to zapping our remote controls hunting for other entertainment in the 52-channel satellite multiverse.

Well, I always thought that playing football is way more fun than watching it on the telly, at least when I was young and still able to run, way back in the last millennium. Chasing and kicking a ball was our favourite pastime growing up.

Enjoy a few photos from The Island Bar's Dan Peterson shot on July 2 at an ESF playground in town. They show Lamma's Little League (trained by Creative Sports, red shirts) and the famous "Middle League" Lamma Football Club (sponsored by Deli Lamma). Click to enlarge my photo montage below. It might make a nice PC/Mac wallpaper for the parents and many local fans of these potential future football superstars!

P.S. Dan's email after seeing the photos above:

"Looks great, thanks. "Wow!", said Andrew when I showed it to him a moment ago. The whole family here enjoyed the photos and the memory of the day. We're in Canada at the moment, but no matter for Internet communications, fortunately.

"Cheers, Dan, Sharon, Andrew (above bottom, right of center, dribbling the ball), Sascha"

July 14:  Roz Keep - Artist of the Month - July

Roz Keep - Watercolours - Click above to view her online art gallery!

Roz studied art at home, at school and at Brighton Polytechnic in the UK. She was born in HK and has made Lamma home for many years.

Recently all work has been in watercolours.

Roz is inspired by walking in the hills of Lamma and while traveling.

She has exhibited in HK in 2002, 1999 and 1995 and on Lamma in the past few years. Roz has also been teaching painting for several years.

All paintings in the exhibition and the additional ones below are unframed and are original copies. No prints here.

Roz also teaches outdoor sketching classes on Lamma and will be promoting a Thai painting holiday in the Autumn.

Roz also paints commissioned views for souvenirs for Lamma folk who are leaving. The cost of these ranges from $1,200 up. Please feel free to contact her for anything at:

9275 1550 or 2982 6965 or roz@philipkeep.com

P.S. Visit the Banyan Bay Cafe  (formerly Aroy Thai, The Corner Pin) to see Roz's exhibition of Lamma watercolours till Aug 7.

July 13:  Maximum High Tide in YSW Harbour

Click on the photo above for a photo gallery of Yung Shue Wan harbour at the highest tide this summer, flooding the old fisherman's jetty from where this 360-degree panorama was taken.

A few times per year, coastal communities around the world get record high and low tides, when the gravitational forces of the sun and the moon add up and pull the world's oceans up to record levels. In Yung Shue Wan on Lamma Island, the difference in water levels can go up to 2.5 metres. It's one of the few times of the year when parts of the old jetty, the ancient fisherman's pier, will be flooded for just about half an hour.

To find out when these weather extremes will happen next, check out the HK Obervatory's Predicted Tides page (up to Dec 2008!). I have to admit to be quite fascinated by how the look of Yung Shue Wan harbour changes during these rare extremes. See a photo gallery of the most recent maximum high tide, from 9:30am this morning, July 13.

Global warming will make all the oceans rise significantly over the next decades. Yung Shue Wan will be one of the first communities to notice this major effect of global warming. Photos (including another 360-degree panorama) from the visually more dramatic low tide will follow very soon (already photographed!).

July 12:  'Lamma-(ec)centric Lyrics'

Click above for Nick's exclusive concert review and L-G's exclusive photo gallery of last Saturday's gig in the Island Bar!

Check out the Lamma-zine exclusive photos of ex-Lammaite lead singer "The Josh" (above center) and his wife Colette (right). She's the "human companion" of famous Catster Molokko! This is how Molokko describes him and Transnoodle in his own blog:

"The Josh is in a band. They meet at our house sometimes. It is very noisy and I usually lounge on the bed in the other room while they practice. Katya [their 2nd kitty - Editor] likes music, so she goes and sniffs the instruments and amps and gets excited and runs all over the house...

"I snuggled with The Josh because he was sick. I usually do not like him because he is boisterous and loud like a pirate. Very ungentlemanly, I think. But, he was toasty warm due to his fever and quite restrained. So I made him pet me."

We've got lots of photos of all the other band members as well, of course...

July 11:  Wind Power for 50,000 Families?

The Project Profile for the Development of a 100MW Offshore Wind Farm is online now and open for public inspection and comments. It's a quite fascinating and informative read. Check it out! The inspection period ends on July 17 and the Environment Impact Analysis study will begin soon afterwards, lasting till end of 2007. The construction is scheduled from 2009 - 2011.

You can send comments to Environmental Protection Dept. here  (go to "Project Profiles" section at the top and click on [Send Comment]). Make your arguments and opinions known, positive or negative!

Have a look at the map and diagram below from the Project Profile. The 40 wind turbines (red dots in the map below) would cover an area almost the same size as entire Lamma Island, the turbines being set up 550 metres apart. Click on the map to enlarge.

The wind turbines will be considerable bigger than the existing one up on the hill overlooking Yung Shue Wan, producing about 3 times as much electricity each. This would be enough for 50,000 families and could be 1.6% of HK Electric's total electricity sent out last year, saving 62,000 tons of coal/year. But this is just one of 2 potential locations, the other one being Southeast of the Ninepin Island, close to Sai Kung.

Quoting from the Project Profile, about the "Potential Site at Southwest Lamma":

"The Southwest Lamma potential site is located in the waters between Lamma Island and Cheung Chau lying adjacent to the West Lamma Channel. The closest distance of this potential site is around 3.5km west of Lamma Island. The average water depth at this site is around 15m. This site encompasses the proposed Lamma breakwater and one submarine telecommunication cable. Adequate separation distance between these two seabed utilities and the nearby wind turbines has been provided to encompass direct encroachment.

"One or more 275kV transmission cables will be installed between the offshore wind farm and HEC's power grid at Lamma Power Station. The length of the submarine section of the transmission cable(s) is around 2.5km, which will be buried underneath the seabed...

"The proposed offshore wind farm site, cable landing point and transmission cable corridor will be located adequately away from any major navigation channels, gazetted marine facilities and third party seabed utilities. The sites are not expected to encroach upon any gazetted bathing beaches, marine parks, marine reserves, sites of special scientific interest, fish culture zones, recorded cultural heritage and other conservation areas. Residential dwellings are far away from the proposed site and the nearest populations are more than 4km away at Yung Shue Wan."

July 10:  Director Alastair Wants to 'Turn Your Lights Out'!

Click on Alastair's nose to enlarge these TV screen shots

It's always fun to see a fellow Lammaite featured in the media, be it print, radio, Internet or even on TV. But few have had the blanket coverage in most English media yesterday like our local sculptor, commercial artist and all-round funny guy Alastair Robins!

TVB and ATV featured him on the Sunday evening news, announcing the Lights Out campaign. TVB promoted him to "Director" and even spelled his name correctly. But ATV only called him "Organiser" (above right) and introduced two typos into his name ("Alistair Robbins", instead of "Alastair Robins").

To learn more about what Alastair is up to when he's NOT on TV, check out his former "Lamma-zine Artist of the Month" art gallery: Alastair Robins - Sculptor Extraordinaire.

Alastair Robins - Director, Lights Out HK campaign:

Dear Friends,

If you are not happy with the pollution here is your chance to show it.

Its a peaceful protest aimed at showing that the public of Hong kong want cleaner air and less pollution.

Please turn off your office and residential lights to show that you want change at 8pm on the 8th of the 8th for three minutes,

turn your lights out!

Forward this message and poster to all your contacts and visit the web site:

www.lightsout.com.hk

Thank you for your support.

Poster in PDF format:  English, Chinese. Image format: click poster above!

July 9:  'Community of Artists on Lamma Island'

Click for photo gallery of launch party with many local artists & celebrities!

Roz Keep - Artist & Spokesperson for CALI:

Bringing together Lamma artists for the first time in a community project for Yung Shue Wan, we hope to display original artwork in the restaurants, bars and shops of the village on a grander scale than has been done in the past.  Our ultimate aim is to have as much original artwork up around the village at any one time as possible, therefore helping YSW become known as a place to see good artwork.

The artists will benefit from the exposure, training and financial gain. The restaurant, bar and shop owners will gain good publicity at the time of exhibition openings and have a chance to earn commission on art sales once we start to become known for our quality work.

This exhibition today is the first of what we hope will be many.

At the time of writing, the idea is young and there is much to do but with help and participation from as many artists and businesses as possible.  We shall enrich our lives culturally and Yung Shue Wan will grow in reputation as a good place not just to eat and hike but also as a place to see and buy good artwork.

If you would like to join us either as an artist/photographer or as business/restaurant owner, please contact the CALI spokesperson (for now):  Roz Keep - 2982 6965

July 8:  Best of Chinese Forum - June 2006

Samson - Official Court Moderator of All Chinese forums:

  1. Sha Po Burglary!
    As the world watched the Portugal vs. Great Britain World Cup match, our dear bunnyrabbit‘s place was robbed!  Read more...
    [Editor: This topic got very heated, see below, in the usually very friendly, good-neighbourly Chinese forums. Do we need a Chinese Fight Club?]

  2. Dude, Where’s My Bike?
    In other theft-related matters, fellow Sha Po resident, mo, had her groovy and stylish purple bike with a yellow bell stolen at the pier! Could this be the beginning of a conspiracy against Sha Po residents? Read more...

    (If you have seen this bike, let us know!)

  3. Green Bins
    Having recently moved to Sha Po Village, Samson wondered where the nearest recycling bins are! Meanwhile, suggestions on where to install additional recycling bins are welcome.  Read more...

  4. There’s A Red House Over Yonder… Part 3!
    The members continued their fascination with the single-storey red house in Sha Po, which has recently been touched-up with new red tiles. Perhaps our former artist of the month, mo, could help paint graffiti on the tiles?
    Read more...
     

  5. Main Street Shops Shuffle
    2nd-hand shop Consignment moved from the end of the Main Street to Emily’s Ice-cream Parlour, which is now across from the LAWC Thrift Shop.
      Read more...

  6. Lamma Newbies
    A big welcome to a number of aspiring and new Lammaites, together with their many questions about life on the island:

    Buying or Renting on Lamma

    Renting on Lamma

    Short-Term Rental

    Setting up a Shop and Living in the Same Property

    Life on Lamma.  Read more...

    Heads-upsRead more...

    Beach Parties

    Overnight Sampans

  7. Love Is Still In The Air!
    Our Golden Couple, nicole_kam and the farmland have exchanged their vows early this month, and the congratulations just kept pouring in!  Read more...

  8. iPod Repairs?
    iPods have become great companions to Lammaites, especially when killing time on the ferry. Where could we go and get our much-loved iPods fixed?  Read more...

July 7:  'Pinky Enlightened Me!'

A few days ago, I've been asking a number of people for their positive memories and photos of Pinky Chan, for a tribute I'm putting together. They introduced me to other people who knew her well and I got about 10 mostly nice tributes by email so far. Word about my search for tributes spread through the village like wildfire; even people who are not using email or Internet at all came up to me telling me their favourite personal Pinky stories!

White-haired Alan (of Alan & Linda fame) came up to me in Best Kebab, even though we had never spoken in person before. I seem to be too widely-known in the village, after almost 4 years (July 23) of doing this website on a daily basis? Alan insisted in a very urgent and enthusiastic manner on telling me the following story immediately, even making me take notes to get it all down correctly:

Alan - as told to Lamma-Gung in Best Kebab:

30 years ago, I was living in Japan.  I was yearning to be free and independent!  So I took off all my clothes, left behind even my passport and climbed up a tree.  Yes, I was a raving loony back then!  From up there, while enjoying the beautiful, unblocked view, I saw into a private garden with a lush peach tree with luscious, ripe fruits.

Being hungry, I sneaked in and tried to pick a fruit from the tree.  The tree complained to me, "Don’t pick my fruits, wait till I give them away freely, after they have fallen on the ground!"  Surprised, I listened to the tree's warning and picked up a pretty-looking peach from the grass.  But on the bottom side the peach was all rotten and crawling with ants!  The ants shouted at me, “Get in line, buster! We were here first!”  I dropped it quickly.

7-8 years ago, I was living on Lamma - Pinky was my first landlady and a friend.  I was visiting her in her flat.  She played Tibetan and other Asian meditative music and we talked about many spiritual topics.  Then we went down to the small Tin Hau temple near her house where she handed me some oranges and incense sticks.

Afterwards, I was walking alone down to the ferry pier, peeling the oranges, when it struck me like a sudden revelation!  Pinky had just turned me on to something extremely important, kind of enlightened me!  She inspired me, making me suddenly aware that I already possessed what I had been longing for for decades: I was free!

I didn’t have to pay rent or utilities, many friends helped me out - Ivy frequently gave me expired fruits, for example – and I had no worries what other people might think of me.  I was free to live my life any way I liked in a place I loved, together with my wife Linda and many dogs!  Happiness!  And I wasn’t even fully aware and appreciative of it before that day!

I’ll love my friend Pinky forever and be forever grateful for her for this life-changing inspiration back then!  She made me aware of my many blessings, by the simple, kind act of giving me these blessed oranges and incense sticks.

 

After relating this story, Alan was still in an excited, enthusiastic mood, shaking my hand so many times and even kissing it, startling me a lot!  This guy really seems to be feeling free and happy these days, which is very understandable after some of his recent "challenging experiences"...

To end this story - which tells so much more about himself than about Pinky - Alan told me that he's never actually told this tale to Pinky herself!  That's quite a pity, as she'd surely have gotten a great kick out of it, making her smile very broadly or even laugh out loud with her famous and infectious belly laugh!

More Pinky tribute stories next week...

July 6:  Aquatic Apes & Lamma's Amateur Scientist

With so much media attention focused on Tibet and its spanking-new railway these days, let's look at the Lamma-Tibet connection. Yes, there is one, beyond many longtime Lammaites going on spiritual hiking treks in the Himalayas during the last millennium. Did you know that our earliest ancestors might have been aquatic apes living in the great Tibetan Sea 10 million years ago? Yes, I didn't know that either, despite having studied some paleoanthropology at university level...

An eminent "Amateur Scientist" (new Lamma-zine nickname!) promoting a new theory of human evolution has been calling Lamma home for many years. He's the former webmaster and forum administrator of www.Lamma.net which was the leading Lamma tourist website up to about the year 2000, kind of an ancient ancestor of this website, but not connected in any way. I vividly remember the beautiful beach bunny bare buns on the home page back then... Maybe we should have more bare bums on this home page as well, driving up the traffic even more (or driving it down, depending on the bums)? But I digress...

Nowadays, www.Lamma.net has been totally transformed into the home of a quite new scientific "argument that Homo Sapiens did not originate in Africa but in Tibet 10 million years ago". Have a look, it's a reasonably easy read, very opinionated but also well-illustrated. But beware, some of the field reports are password protected and top secret! Click on "The Proposer" to learn more about this soon-to-become-famous Lamma Amateur Scientist.

He's even made it into the SCMP recently, a really major interview with photo! Click above or here to read the full story. But I've got the nagging feeling that the reporter didn't show Lamma's Amateur Scientist the proper scientific respect, not taking him absolutely seriously, even mocking him and his theories! Unacceptable! How dare they! Check out the theories yourself at his website!

Some day, when we'll see him up there in Stockholm on stage in a suit accepting the BIG PRIZE, nobody will dare to ridicule him anymore. We'll be able to say, "We know him, our Amateur Scientist, a true Lammaite, we always knew he'd go far some day and become a great success!"

Meanwhile, this possible Aquatic Ape descendant here is returning to his native habitat, the beach!

July 5:  Any Lamma Bands Dare Taking  up the Challenge?

bbChris - Moderator of our Music forum, concert organiser, member of numerous HK bands,...

ANY LAMMA BANDS TAKING THE CHALLENGE?

Last year "nude" were runners-up in the 2005 World Battle, having the opportunity to play loads of times to various audiences in cool venues. This year could the winners be from Lamma?

Garoupa has just entered, after pulling out last year in the middle of the race because of summer holidays (choosing holidays over fame! Very Sid Vicious! Very Lamma!). Does another Lamma band DARE to take up this challenge? Of possibly competing in the finals AGAINST Garoupa??

Click for website!

Heats start on 17 August till 2nd September!

This year bands will compete against bands from Beijing and New York!!

Venues this year: The Edge and The Cavern (top of Lan Kwai Fong) have been confirmed and one more venue to be confirmed in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Prizes: The chance to win recording contracts, studio time, slot on main stage of Rockit 2006 and more! The overall publicity generated by the event is great for all bands - especially the finalists! Last year HK finalists had articles and reviews in BC magazine, HK magazine, MILK magazine as well as a full-page spread in the SCMP.

Contact Chris B (mobile: 9486 4648) for more details.

July 4:  Catsters Love Transient Noodles!

Molokko - most famous ex-Lammaite kitty with his own blog on Catster.
He's penning a review here of Lamma band Transnoodle.
His mistress Colette's hubby ("The Josh", both recent ex-Lammaites) is the lead singer  (Photos courtesy of Colette, showing Molokko and herself):

The Josh is in a band. They meet at our house sometimes. It is very noisy and I usually lounge on the bed in the other room while they practice. Katya likes music so she goes and sniffs the instruments and amps and gets excited and runs all over the house.

I think some of the songs should be rewritten to reflect a more kitty point of view. The Josh is the lead singer. He made a MySpace page for the band. It is pretty nice. My space is like catster for bands. He asked me to wrie a plug for the band website. Seeing as I am a kitty writer and my page is more popular than his.

"If you ever wonder what is it like for people to live and play in HK. Listen to Transnoodle. Transnoodle writes witty lyrics about life on Lamma island with a SkaLatin flavor. Recorded in the Orange Flat Studio in Tin Hau. You can even hear the sounds of HK in the background.Transnoodle is the best theme band since Josie and The Pussycats. Except they do not have a lame detective agency. And the boys of Transnoodle could do with some image consulting."

Transnoodle is having a gig next month on July 8th, 8pm, in The Island Bar. They'll play a couple of sets with about 12 of their new songs! Another local artist will also be playing in the evening, but they don't have info on who yet.

On their MySpace page, Transnoodle has 4 demo songs online to listen to for free (Spicy Island, Port Royal, Sampan, Ferry Pier). They describe themselves:

"About Transnoodle: Just another Hong Kong band playing ska and latin-tinged stuff with a bit of eastern European thrown in for good measure. Music for people to dance to...

"Band Members:
John: Guitar; Andy: Guitar; Josh: Vox.
We're from North Carolina, Manchester, Hobart & elsewhere. We all work all day all week. We like to eat in restaurants in Lamma Island, Hong Kong. Three regular members, usually without electric guitars and amps. 3 other much busier guys, with drums, guitars, amps and basses. And a trumpet. We write songs about the things that happen in those restaurants and... elsewhere.

"Sounds Like: It's odd. Most of the songs involve restaurants in Hong Kong and a fair number are about fighting with your girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse, etc. We don't really know why, except that we like to eat more than we like to fight. We just put up four *very basic* demos, so take a listen... and enjoy!"

July 3:  Lamma's Little Windmill to Get 40 Big Brothers?

Do you like our little windmill, a major new landmark and "green" tourist attraction ever since it started spinning up there overlooking Yung Shue Wan. How about 40 more, but really BIG ones? Remember, you've read it here first, almost one day before the printed newspapers will catch up with this story!

HK Electric has just announced that they've submitted a project profile to Govt. today for an environmental impact assessment (EIA) study brief to build an offshore wind farm at two potential sites, i.e. 3.5 km southwest of Lamma Island and 3.2 km southeast of Ninepin Group. As expected, no more windturbines on Lamma Island, fortunately. We like the one we have already, but it's enough for now.

The plan is to build 40 triple-bladed wind turbines, each of 2.5 MW, at the wind farm which can potentially generate about 175 million units of electricity every year. This is about 125 times the capacity of our current single Lamma Winds turbine, enough energy for about 50,000 families in Hong Kong, representing about 1.6% of HK Electric’s electricity output in 2005.

The EIA study will take more than a year and is expected to complete by end 2007, covering areas like potential impacts on the environment, ecology and fisheries, both during construction and operation phases.

Here's the entire press release: HK Electric to conduct feasibility on offshore wind farm.

The project profile of the offshore wind farm will be available for public inspection at http://www.epd.gov.hk/eia from Jul 7.

(Photo above by Andy Griff, taken at 5:22am after coming home from Diesel's where he was watching a 3am Football World Cup game feat. England:
lightning in a cloud above "Lamma Winds" (lower left). Click to enlarge.)


In the meantime, HK Electric's competitor, China Light & Power, couldn't lag behind in these two-horse race with the motto "Look how green we are!"  They've applied for a Commercial Scale Wind Turbine Pilot Demonstration at Hei Ling Chau on Mar 24, for a single mini windturbine similar to Lamma Winds, trying desperately to catch up with HK Electric's significant lead. Now HK Electric has even gone one better and applied for a study for a wind farm with 40 big turbines! Current result in the long-term PR game for the "HK Green Energy Cup": HEC vs CLP 2:0!

Give us your opinion about this wind farm plan in our windturbine forum!

July 2:  Tree Planting in the 'Lamma Forest'

Bobsy Jureidini - Chair of ABLE Charity, famous ex-Lammaite, 'Armani Hippie' & co-Manager of Life Cafe in Soho.

The Bookworm Cafe offspring Life Cafe in Soho has just spawned an offspring: a big Life shop at Aberdeen Street in Soho. Does that make Bobsy a grand-daddy, a Life-Gung? 

(All photos below by Ryan Blair. Click to enlarge. The last public ABLE Tree Planting Day was 3 years ago, May 10, 2003.)

on a rather wet but mild weekend earlier this month another 300 native trees were planted up in the ever-growing & beautiful forest.

the tree planting took place on the east side overlooking pak kok on the left and tai ping on the right. a big thank you to all the lamma community that came out to support this initiative on their day off.

for those who don't know we first started planting the forest back in 1997 and have mostly planted every year since. the once completely barren hills of north lamma are now covered in a permanent blanket of ever-green. the forest is not only looking beautiful, but more importantly attracting birds, butterflies and wild life.

the tree experts from the kadoorie farms were most impressed with the growth of this relatively young forest. thanks to their generous support & assistance we are confident that we can manifest not only an important legacy for all of hong kong people but also a place of calm & serenity as well as a refuge for local wild life and an all important green zone that will play an important role in the coming days of global warming and environmental challenges.

i would also like to thank hong kong electric for their continued support in creating this forest.

next time you are coming back on the ferry to yung shue wan why not look up and see the forest as you approach north lamma and stop to think that those hills were once barren.

together we can make a difference, together we can change the world.

Bobsy Gaia
"Be the change you want to see in the world"

July 1:  'A letter of complaint about the old people complaining about the young people on the ferry'

Gisela - Regular passenger of the Central - Yung Shue Wan ferry - Jun 12:

I was on the 3:15pm ferry from Central last Friday. I do understand that this is one of the 'after school' ferries that are filled with kids. However, this bunch seems to be out of any control and they were running wild and screaming at the top of their voices, as if they are in a playground.

The noise is unbearable (and even worse, the battery of my iPod gave up) and I had to resort to go to the outside section. I saw many angry adult faces as we were getting off the ferry.

Some kids do ride the ferry on their own, but many are with parents or caretakers. Please be considerate and try to exert some control on the kids so they do not disturb other passengers on the ferry!

This message triggered a firestorm of pro and contra messages, from protective parents defending their offspring to people agreeing with Gisela, guessing the reasons for the unruly behaviour and suggesting various measures to address the issue, from "catch a later ferry", "rubber ear plugs" to "mild pharmaceutical sedatives" and complaining to the schools.

I personally welcome the "infectious mayhem" on the afternoon ferries which I take quite frequently and never avoid.

Lamma children are a breed apart from the ones growing up in high-rises. They confirm the commonly held belief that Lamma is a great place to bring up healthy, vivacious & happy children. I grew up myself in the countryside as a "wild child".

But they're so busy being infectiously mayhem-causing that I haven't succeeded yet to get any local youngster or teenager to write a bit about "Growing up on Lamma" through their own eyes. I've tried several children and teenagers, unsuccessfully so far. Would be a really great story, I think!

But then I got the following email:

Peter Young - 9 years old, ferry passenger, email from Jun 30:

Subject: A letter of complaint about the old people complaining about the young people on the ferry

Dear Mr Lamma-Gung,

My daddy is letting me use his computer so I can write a letter about children from Lamma Island. I am 9 years old and my mum says I am preposterous.

It just is not fair that you older people complain all the time about us kids having fun on the ferry. Just because we are little does not mean we can't go on our parents computers and read what you have been saying about us.

If you don’t like noise go and live in a retirement village. You are just jealous because you are old and can't have fun anymore. You all ran about when you were young. Why can't we?

My dad says that I can make as much noise as I want as long as I don't hurt nobody. And my dad is big and strong and bigger than any of you and he will hit anyone who speaks to me badly because I am making noise.

Anyway, it's the girls who make all the noise. Girls shout a lot because they are not as strong as boys but they have louder voices and bigger mouths. My mum says that's not true, but my dad says it is.

My mum says I have to respect older people. Okay. You all look so sad on the ferry and unhappy and lonely. If you asked we can let you play with us on the ferry. Chasings or something. And what does bollocks mean? My mum says it's a dirty word.

Remember when you were young.


Read more of last month's stories...

 

Lamma-zine Blog started on Sep 1, 2004, and will be updated frequently with anything related to Lamma Island or its residents, be it news, stories, events or photos.

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