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Best of February
Feb 26 -
Still dabbling in creating Mandelbulb 3D fractals. Any comments?
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Medical Services
Survey
Feb 25
- "...submit the result to the authorities
reflecting our medical needs and concerns."
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Dear HK Exhibition
Feb 16 -
"Join our creative sharing workshop to find
out how the 80 portraits...."
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Firing Cupid
Feb 14 -
Still my favourite Valentine's Day cartoon, by Harry Harrison, of course!
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We Love Our
Cleaners
Feb 13
- "A huge Thank You to everyone who donated
towards our cleaners on Lamma Island."
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Fiery & Noisy!
Feb 11
- YSW Tin Hau temple, Lunar New Year's Eve, Feb 11, 2021.
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More Dining Coupons!
Feb 9 -
Remember the vastly popular HK Electric coupons for HK and Lamma restaurants
last year?
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Dolphins!
Feb 6
- "Yesterday we were paddling off Lamma and
saw the dolphins."
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Record-Runner
Stingray
Feb 4 -
Congratulations to my PK Village neighbour 'Stingray' for setting a new HK
Trail record!
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Feb 28:
Lamma Island has never been
connected to the Internet via
high-speed fiber, relying on
measly microwave links from the
top of Po Wah Yuen for all
Internet and mobile phone
connections, delivered to our
village houses via ancient
copper telephone wires.
In 20+ years of living here, the
available max. Internet speed
from sole provider Netvigator
has halved from 6Mbps to 3Mbps
and doubled in cost. It's always
been one of the
major reasons for
people NOT moving to Lamma as
most households depend on fast
Internet.
Read more
about our Internet/mobile phone
woes here and get some good, but
ever-changing advice:
Faster Broadband For
Lamma.
Netvigator started offering a
horrendously expensive 30Mbps
option recently in just a few
villages, but their capacity
filled up within a few months
and it's no longer available to
new customers.
FINALLY, Internet glass fibre
will be connected from Sandy Bay to the
far end of Pak Kok (see above),
bringing faster Internet to
N. Lamma Island in a few years; but
just to 13 villages, excluding
the ones already getting the new
30Mbps Netvigator.
More Internet fibre info...
P.S. It looks
like we'll have to rely on
faster Internet via our mobile
phones and Wifi routers for
quite a while longer, mostly 4G,
as 5G is available only in a few
areas of Lamma. My recent home
office PC speed test,
Wifi-connected to my mobile
phone hotspot:
Feb 27:
Did you know there are at least
74 restaurants on Lamma? How
many have you visited so far?
OpenRice listings
for 74 Lamma restaurants have
been updated. It was years out
of date before, not listing new
places, but listing many places
closed or which had changed name
and cuisine years ago. So I
stopped looking at it
completely.
It's all very informative and
quite up-to-date now, especially
like the ratings and guest
reviews. It lists almost all new
restaurants and even a few
exotic Lamma places I've never
visited yet in more than 2
decades of living here and
writing about restaurants often.
I'm listing these few mostly
little-known places
here.
Most Lamma restaurants do not
have websites anymore these
days. They rely instead on their
free and simple Facebook pages
and advertise on a few
commercial aggregator
websites/Facebook pages like
HK-wide OpenRice
and YSW's new, home-grown
IslandMarket. Have
a look!
Feb 26:
Still dabbling in creating
Mandelbulb 3D fractals. Best of
February. Which ones do you like
(or dislike)?
Any comments?
Feb 25:
 
Chui Caan:
"This is a survey on Lamma
existing medical services that
we now team up with other
outlying islands and will
collectively submit the result
to the authorities such as
islands district council
reflecting our medical needs and
concerns.
The deadline is on 28
Feb, this coming Sunday. You can
do it
online, too."
Feb 24:
What a difference 2 years make!
See the public Lamma-related events
listing above from just 2 years
ago, so much happening in just
the rest of this short month.
Then compare to the current
"WHAT'S ON?" section at the top
of this page. Just one event
coming up and it's not even on
Lamma but our "sister island" Po
Toi.
Let's hope that our public
events calendar will soon again
be vibrant with local events &
happenings!
Feb 23:
Lamma Life in the 1990s,
excerpts from
Journeyman's Journey in
Journalism 1960-2020,
Memoirs of Itinerant
Journalist Christy
McCormick:
"We headed for the Lamma
ferry pier for the 40-minute
voyage to Hong Kong's
southernmost substantial island,
which was as popular with
gweilos (European whites) as it
was unpopular with Chinese. It
also served as a graveyard,
which made it a less attractive
place of residence for Chinese.
I did not notice what
everyone first notices about
Lamma Island, that there are no
cars. No buses or any form of
public transport, where bicycles
are regarded as wheelchairs for
the elderly and infirm.
She hurried off to catch the
next ferry, which I soon
discovered was the central Lamma
drama that governed the lives of
the 8,000 people who lived on
the island.
I met Dan, a part-time
schoolteacher who knew of me
from Sandra as Joel's brother.
He ran the morning coffee
operation, while his wife took
care of things when he was
teaching. I was introduced to an
Englishman in his mid-60s, with
a small dog at his feet. He was
called Jenks and had served in
the 60th Rifles, King's Rifle
Corps, it had a history of being
a British foreign legion.
So enthralled was I by his
story of the 60th Rifles that I
almost missed the ferry. Dashing
off to the pier was my debut
role in the essential Lamma
drama, psychologically marking
me as a Lamma-ite thereafter.
I began to appreciate Lamma
Island as the "international
life style centre that no one
knew about". It was indeed one
of the most idyllic settings for
alcoholic fun-seekers in the
world.
I remember an English woman
on arrival dismayed that were
was a Chinese woman being served
at the Capital on Lamma, and
then 10 years later I saw them
going off together to spend a
day together doing a "recce of
the dress shops in Central". A
lot of habitual prejudice melted
like April snow.
So even on idyllic Lamma
Island, there was many a Sunday
morning with drunks lying in the
gutters, some of them female
camp followers, demanding more
booze from long-closed bars and
before moving to alcohol
dispensing corner stores. These
sights were plentiful years
after the Handover, but
eventually thinned out over time
when all realised the good times
had passed and it was time to go
home.
David Kerr in his early 50s,
often could be found reading the
International Herald Tribune at
one of the outdoor tables at
Spicy Island restaurant, the
ownership Sandra shared
uncomfortably with an Indian
called Kumar, with whom I was
only on nodding terms, and
barely that as hostility grew
between the co-owners and the
partnership dissolved in
bitterness.
Lamma life was rather like
life at the bistro in Montreal
though rather than being settled
in one place was scattered in a
dozen bars and restaurants along
the waterfront. Some places were
dominated by one clique or
another. It meant, seeing some
fifty of the same people all the
time, with individuals remaining
in circles of about a dozen, one
might dine at three or four
waterfront establishments,
enjoying sundowners at half a
dozen bars before distant
Guangdong mountains and the
sea."
Feb 18:
Yung Shue Wan at night, shot
from mid-harbour, tip of old
fishermen's jetty (hand-held
smartphone).
Feb 17:
Sauntering the coastal path from
Pak Kok to YSW.
Feb 16:
 Dear
HK Portraits: Behind the Scenes:
Sat, Feb 20
"Join our creative sharing
workshop to find out how the
eighty portraits in Dear Hong
Kong are created.
Date:
Feb 20, '21, Time:
5:30-7:30PM
Venue:
Lamma Art Collective"
Exhibition will be running
till this
Mon, Feb 22!
Afterwards you'll need to buy
the hardcover book to view alll
these great portraits and
stories, featuring many
well-known HK personalities,
incl. these 2 Lammaites.
The
2nd
edition of the book (incl. more Lammaites)
is still looking for sponsors and
patrons!
Feb 15:
Marine Dept. notice,
excerpts:
"With immediate effect and
for a period of approx. six
months, dredging operations will
be carried out within the area.
The works will be carried
out by a flotilla of vessels
including one dumb lighter, one
flat-top work barge, three
hopper barges and three
tugboats. The number of vessels
engaged in the works will change
from time to time to suit
operational requirements.
The works will be carried
out from 0700 to 1900 hours. No
works will be carried out on
Sundays and public holidays.
Vessels employed for the works
will stay in the works area
outside the hours of work."
P.S.
One more notice on
Feb 11:
Subsea pipeline laying not far
off Power Station beach during
the next 4 weeks (Works Area
below), in addition to the
ongoing dredging works all along
the Lamma West coast:
Feb 14:
Still my favourite Valentine's
Day cartoon, published just 2
years ago, by Harry
Harrison, of course!
P.S. Poor Cupid
can't get a break from Harry.
After showing him fired 2 years
ago, he's in trouble now with
the police this year:
Feb 13:
Dave Singleton>
writes:
"A huge Thank You to everyone
who donated towards our cleaners
on Lamma Island.
Met the
supervisor and cleaners this
morning and it was a great
feeling passing the full box
over to them.
It was a fantastic achievement
in a short time and thanks to
you all we raised $11,150, which
means they get up to 4 red
packets each.
Thanks to Debi and others who
helped out.
I look forward to doing it again
next year.
Kung Hei Fat Choi Year of the
Ox."
Feb 12:
One more! I choose to be
optimistic about the coming Year
of the Ox! World affairs reaching such lows
last year, the only way is up!
Feb 11:
YSW Tin
Hau temple, Lunar New Year's
Eve, Feb 11, 2021
Click for
several fiery & noisy videos
Feb 9:
Remember the vastly popular HK
Electric dining coupons for HK
Island & Lamma Island
restaurants last year? Another
batch will be launched soon:
"HK Electric will continue
to launch the 'Care and
Share' SME Caterers Subsidy
Scheme, posting in batches
dining coupon sets worth
$250 each to eligible
families and other customers in
need for use at more than 200
participating eateries located
on Hong Kong and Lamma islands."
HK Electric Expands Relief
Measures to Benefit More SMEs
and Needy Families.
"Chairman of HK Electric,
Mr. Wan Chi-tin (front), visits
St. Barnabas' Society and Home
and prepares free lunch boxes
with the Chairman of the centre
for distribution to the homeless
and the underprivileged."
Feb 8:
Where to get the very best fish
& chips in YSW?
I enjoyed
them the other day and my big
thumbs-up has been awarded to
The Blue Goose Tavern
on Main Street; so succulent, so
tasty, so crispy, such a
generous portion!
Posting this on Facebook, a
lively
discussion ensued...
Some people added their own
praise:
"Best battered sausage in Hong
Kong."
"Best burgers and
chicken wings with coating,
too."
"Damn, that looks
amazing!"
Feb 7:
Photo by
DJ Clark! He
writes:
"Not
a bad place to grow up."
...and to semi-retire, I'd
like to add!
Sunset ferry to YSW in the
background, plus another
sandbox, er, village house
construction sand pile in the
foreground.
Sunset watching is a favourite
pastime around here, but we
oldies refrain from jumping for
joy, limiting our exercise to
lifting a
glass of wine, beer or coffee
while admiring the amazing views.
Feb 6:
The
 Lamma
Outriggers have been spotting
dolphins just off Lamma!
Photographed/videoed by
Amanda Holroyd, she
writes:
"Yesterday we were paddling off
Lamma and saw the dolphins. It
was amazing! Update, they are
long beaked common dolphins."
This extremely rare sighting in
Lamma waters has become the most popular
photo of the week in the
Lamma Island Residents
Facebook group I co-moderate, see above
right. Plus 325 Likes/Loves/Wows in
Lamma Island Uncensored,
a new record, I believe!
Feb 4:
Congratulations to my Pak Kok
Village neighbour 'Stingray' for
setting a new record for running
the 'HK Trail'!
'Stingray' Onifa breaks
11-year-old fastest known time
for 44km run from The Peak to
Big Wave Bay
(SCMP)
Feb 3:
The People of Lamma Island
writes:
"Listening to Emma play the
violin, it is hard to believe
the music is that of a
nine-year-old. Flicking through
her diverse collection of
colourful music books, Emma
points to some of her favourite
songs; 'I like classical, I
like pop and I like tango,'
she explains, 'I have a
list of songs that people can
pick from when I am busking.'
Emma began learning the
violin at age four after being
inspired by her mum, Chingmay
Jo, who was learning to play the
erhu, a traditional Chinese
string instrument. 'Mummy's
teacher said that I needed to be
at least eight before I could
start learning the erhu,' Emma
says, 'so mummy suggested I
learn the violin instead.'
Read more...
More feature stories with photo
shoots:
Feb 2:
Aerial view of Pak Kok Shan in
1985.
Photo courtesy of HKU
Library, posted by
Walter Koditek.
Pak Kok Shan these days. I
shot this from the hill in front
of the HK Electric windturbine
landmark.
Feb 1:
Living Lamma
writes:
"Thanks to the Lamma SUP
team and all volunteers,
together we make the change."
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