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AI Writing My Bio
Nov 16 -
Merlin AI (powered by GPT 4) seems to know me well, maybe
too well?
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Photogenic Nick
Nov 6
-
Nick the Bookman seems pretty comfortable in his newish spot.
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Happy!!!
Nov 1 -
Just a few weeks ago, Internet fibre finally arrived on Lamma.
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3-Camera Sunset
Oct 26
-
Tonight's stunning sunset, shot for the very first time with 3 cameras.
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Snake Warning!
Sep 30
-
Alarm!! Big Danger!! Beware!!!! Put up a warning sign!
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Lamma's Spine
Sep 29 -
"...various landscapes—coastlines,
historical Japanese war tunnels, and hidden beaches."
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FREE
DRINKS!
Sep 27 -
"...community welcome day to celebrate the
opening of Terracotta Lamma."
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Black Rainstorm!
Sep 9
-
Highest-rainfall rainstorm with worst flooding in 100+ years.
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Close
Encounter
Aug 1
- Close encounters of our island ferry with
container ships.
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T3 Sunrise
Jul 16
-
"Tropical Cyclone Talim will intensify gradually today
and tomorrow,"
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Daily Sky Shows
Jul 14
- Tonight's sky show, well worth setting up my
tripod on the rooftop.
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No Water!
Jun 30
-
Domestic disaster struck all of North Lamma today.
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FINALLY!
Jun 19
- Fiber-to-the-home has arrived on Lamma!
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Wow!
Jun 12
-
Dusting off my tripod tonight, setting it up on the rooftop...
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Lightning Storm
Jun 1
-
"Number of lightning strokes detected between 05:30 and 06:29"
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Nov 17:
Lamma Fun Day Tomorrow!

After 4 long years of no more
yearly
Lamma Fun Day, the
biggest Lamma event of the year
is finally restarting
tomorrow!
Click on the posters
for more info,
22 bands,
Lamma8
races and the multitude of
donated
charity aution prizes.
My favourite prize, a
Harry Harrison
original:

Nov 16:
AI Writing My Bio
Merlin AI
(powered by GPT 4) seems
to know me well, maybe too well?
Kind of worryingly accurate...
Tell me about Lamma-Gung on
Lamma Island in Hong Kong.
"Lamma-Gung, also known as
'Uncle Lamma,' is the founder
and editor of the web
publication Lamma-zine (Lamma.com.hk ).
He is considered the resident
expert on Lamma Island. Sporting
a heavy Swiss accent,
thick-rimmed glasses, and a long
ponytail that he trims annually.
Lamma-Gung has been a resident
of the island since 2001. He
moved to Lamma Island to start
over after facing the aftermath
of the dot-com bubble burst, and
has since established himself as
a notable figure on the island."
Read more...
Nov 6:
Photogenic Nick

Nick the Bookman
seems pretty comfortable in his
newish spot up on YSW Back
Street, just before the bike
shop. Some tourists and
locals passing by love taking
pictures. Some of
them submit the photos to him
by email.
Photos by
Katrin Kutayfan
& Moray Wedderburn
(Nick walking).
Nov 1:
Happy!!!
 
Just a few weeks ago, Internet
fibre finally arrived on Lamma,
after my 22-year wait! So happy
now, as illustrated by my new
exuberant Photoshop AI
Generative Fill pictures.
The speed jumped from 3Mbps via
telephone wire to almost 1,000
Mbps (up to 10Gbps are
available)
at just $34 more than I've paid
before! Internet Nirvana!
 
My
newly hatched, err, created AI
assistants above are happy as
well. But so are the malevolent
forces of the Dark Web, generating
new, repeating attacks. All failing so far,
fortunately:


Oct 26:
3-Camera Sunset

Tonight's stunning sunset, shot
for the very first time with 3
cameras (mobile phone & pocket
zoom camera on tripod on our
rooftop; public YSW ferry pier
webcam).
Oct 25:
Ex-Lamma Quarry Plans Revived
The latest news, pushing the
Govt. to revive and modify the
former plans, announced for 2024:

Here are the former, very
detailed, but abandoned 10 years
ago plans for a new town of
5,000 residents:

Oct 16:
"HK Electric Enhances Power
System Resilience Against
Abnormalities with Innovative
Technologies"

"The AI-based Cable Health
Condition Monitoring System
conducts cable health diagnosis
by analysing operational data of
underground cables, helping
engineers to formulate a repair
solution."
A detailed technical
press release from
HK Electric, great for geeks
like me, even mentioning their AI-based
systems.
"A Smart Circuit Breaker
Monitoring and Analytic System
is invented to analyse the
waveform of the trip coil
current of the circuit breakers
which help identify
abnormalities and early symptoms
of circuit breaker failure."
Oct 9:
Low-Cost Tours for Lammaites
 
Low-cost tours are starting up again after the summer season,
sponsored by Govt. and organised
by the YSW Rural Committee.
This is the first one I've seen advertised on YSW walls. As it's in Chinese only,
I've Google-Lens-translated my
photo of the poster. Let's hope
the next tour will be announced
soon.
Lamma-Por and I have joined a
few of these fun bus tours
(incl. lunch!) in previous years
(when they cost well below $100)
and can warmly recommend them.
But you'll need a Chinese
speaker/translator to come along
if you're not fluent, as these
tours are guided in Cantonese
only.
Sep 30:
Snake Warning!

Snake warning sign at Aberdeen
Promenade. Somebody saw a
half-metre, little snake 5
months ago:
Alarm! Big Danger!!
Beware!!! Put up a warning
sign!
Some Lammaites saw a snake
today: no big deal, take a
close-up picture, maybe post it
to
Lamma Snake Sightings,
then carry on normally, all
ready for the next snake
sighting.
Sep 29:
Lamma's Spine

Drone and Phone
writes:
"Starting with lunch at Sok
Kwu Wan, the duo traverses
various landscapes—coastlines,
historical Japanese war tunnels,
and hidden beaches—before making
their way to Yung Shue Wan by
sunset..."
Sep 28:
Open Space Events

Sep 27:
FREE DRINKS!

Meet you there next Monday
afternoon, a holiday?
Formerly Blue Goose Tavern.
Opening in late October!
 
Sep 26:
Zero Bills for 17% of HK
Electric Residential Customers

(Photo by Martin Chan in SCMP)
Good news from HK
Electric:
"A spokesman for HK Electric
said that the company's Fuel
Clause Charge (FCC) for October
will decrease further to 54.8
cents per unit of electricity,
representing a 12.2% reduction
when compared to 62.4 cents per
unit in September...
As a result of the FCC
reduction and various subsidies,
more than 630,000 zero-monthly
bills have been recorded for HK
Electric's residential customers
in the first eight months of
this year, representing about
17% of HK Electric's total
residential customer bills...
The spokesman noted that
with the stabilisation of
international fuel prices, the
outlook for further reduction in
the FCC in the remainder of the
year continues to be positive."
Read the entire Press Release...
Sep 25:
Quirky Characters Galore
Conde Nast Traveller:
"Lamma Island is a natural
wonderland, not to mention one
of the city's coolest outlying
islands. You've got the best of
everything: excellent seafood,
nature trails, chill cafes,
waterfront bars, local markets,
and quirky characters galore."
Intrigued by this remark, I've
asked ChatGPT to tell me more
about these quirky Lamma
characters. The first one it
listed was me! I felt kind of
honored, kind of.
Somebody on FB suggested asking
ChatGPT to name and rank all
Lamma villages. I did and a
lively
FB discussion
ensued, naturally, especially
from the guy living in the
"worst" Lamma village!
Sep 17:
Reconstruction of YSW Pier
Gangway

Reconstruction of the YSW Public
Pier gangway (not the already
renovated pier building) has
finally started, see attached
plan. Targeted for completion
in 2026, cost $157.4 millions!
The piles for the temporary pier
gangway are being driven into
the seabed these days, starting
from close to the pier building:

Sep 16:
Free Mooncakes!
 
Picking up the pair of free big mooncakes:


Thank you to the sponsor, HK and China Gas co.!
Sep 9:
Black Rainstorm!

Photo collection by our District
Councilor,
Ting Ting of this
highest-rainfall rainstorm with worst flooding in 100+ years.

Pak Kok New Village, just downhill from our home (HK
Standard story).
P.S. Sep 25:
Repairs have started, many VVs
full of liquid cement have been converging on this landslip
above.
Sep 8:
Super-Expensive Water?

We've received this astounding water bill a few months ago. It's usually around $50
for the regular 4-month billing
period, so this was quite a
shock!
Checking the water pipes - all
running on the OUTSIDE of our
village house - no leakage
detected.
Taking a photo of our water
meter to show the Water Dept. that the
recorded reading on the bill was
wrong, then emailing it
to them to get the bill
corrected, hopefully.

No reply at all for several
weeks, no comment or apology for the wrong meter reading,
just a revised bill, after probably getting
their meter reader to have
another look at our meter and
correct the former, erroneous
reading. Revised bill:
$53.10!
After all the recent troubles
with
no water supply for
N. Lamma for an entire day and
the resulting toilet flushing in
our house not working properly
for an entire week afterwards,
we're a bit disappointed.
3 water-related problems in just
a few weeks from a usually
problem-free, dependable,
invisible Govt.-run utility,
supplying clean, safe-to-drink,
extremely cheap, subsidised
water for all of HK and
especially our little island
with just 6,000+ widely
dispersed residents.
Living in the middle of a banana
forest, up a hill on our little,
traffic-free, clean-air,
peaceful, fantastic-views,
almost crime-free island, we're
spoilt with highly reliable
services like power, aircon,
water, mail, terrestrial TV
reception and, best of all,
fiber Internet since a few
months ago, finally! We're very
grateful!
Aug 25:
Catching Flying Fish

Amazing, rare video by
Robert Hope-Jones, shot
at night around our new Lamma
ferry pier. He writes:
"A frenzy of flying fish is
not uncommon at these piers
during different times of the
year, but the haul of fish taken
home by passengers and ferry
staff was a first, thanks to the
new Pak Kok pier design.
Lamma Island, August, 22, 2023."
Aug 1:
Close Encounter

Just the other day, one of our
frequent close encounters of our
island ferry with container
ships in the Lamma East Channel,
one of the busiest shipping
channels worldwide.
These
massive container ships are
loaded to the maximum height
when arriving or leaving HK
harbour, crossing the path of
our tiny commuter ferry to HK
Island, our only way off our
island to get to work, shopping
or eating out (no shops,
restaurants or any
public/private traffic in our
local village, far from busy
Yung Shue Wan).

Occasionally, we're getting the
exciting experience of 2
container ships crossing each
other just in front of our tiny
ferry (photo by Alamy). It's an
extra-exciting adventure when
you're on an expensive private
sampan boat, used just for
moving and as a "water taxi" if
you miss the last ferry home at
10pm:

Missing the ferry in Aberdeen
back to Lamma the other day by
half a minute, I had to wait 2.5
HOURS for the next one, sitting
on a harbourside bench with my
heavy shopping in the mid-day
heat, too far from any
restaurant or cool area to reach
with my very heavy shopping
bags.
There are 2 of these 2.5-hour
gaps in the ferry schedule
to/from Aberdeen to Lamma, 1 gap
even on Sundays and holidays,
all during times of day when
there'd be too few passengers to
make this adventurous sea
crossing worthwhile even for our
small ferries:

July 16:
T3 Sunrise

"Tropical Cyclone
Warning.
The Strong Wind Signal, No.
3 is in force. This means that
winds with mean speeds of 41 to
62 kilometres per hour are
expected. At noon, Severe
Tropical Storm Talim
was estimated to be about 390
kilometres south-southeast of
Hong Kong.
The
outer rainbands of Talim are
affecting the coast of
Guangdong. Locally, winds are
generally strong offshore and on
high ground. The Strong Wind
Signal, No. 3 will remain in
force today. According to the
present forecast track, Talim
will be closest to Hong Kong
tomorrow morning (17 July),
skirting within about 300
kilometres to the south of Hong
Kong.
Tropical Cyclone
Talim will intensify
gradually today and tomorrow,
and move in the general
direction of western Guangdong
and Hainan Island. It will bring
squally showers and
thunderstorms to the coast of
Guangdong. Talim is expected to
depart from the coast of
Guangdong midweek this week.
An anticyclone aloft will
strengthen towards the weekend,
the weather will improve
slightly over Guangdong."

July 14:
Daily Sky Shows

Tonight's sky show, well worth
setting up my tripod on the
rooftop and getting my ancient
dead-battery pocket zoom plugged
into a powerbank and Wifi-connected
to my smartphone. We're admiring the
almost daily amazing sunsets
these weeks and we love sharing
our best photos on social media.
Map of today's sunset,
overlooking Lantau Island:

Jun 30:
No Water!
Domestic disaster struck all of North
Lamma yesterday, announced by message
in our
village's WhatsApp group at
10:30am:
"The guys digging in new
drains in Yung Shue Wan have just
broken our main water pipe. No
water for at least 5-8 hours."

The updates on the repairs
during the waking hours of the
day - without any water for
cooking, washing, showering,
toilet flushing, etc. - kept on
coming throughout the day. In
typical Lamma fashion, some
people had good advice:
 

Photo of the actual damaged
water pipes - Water tanks
set up at the ferry pier for
residents
 
Free bottled water available at
our only village shop, including
free deliveries by VV to
walking-impaired residents -
Our rooftop flush water tank
still didn't work after the
water supply came back on, 8.5
hours later!
It took almost a week
for the repair guy to diagnose the problem causing no
toilet flush water in our entire
village house and get the stuck valve
ordered and replaced!
June 29:
Welcome to Lamma Island

Sampan Rest. seawall painting
has just been completed. But
who's the artist of this
"official" graffiti, we wonder? Lamma-zine interview, we hope!
June 28:
Spot the Sunrise
Contrail

Today, before 6am, the early
birds (greeting the sunrise by
singing loudly all around me)
catch the worms, err, the jet
plane contrail.
Top picture, Pak
Kok Shan, our local hill and
hiking/mountain biking
playground in the foreground,
Aberdeen on HK Island in the
background, across the
East Lamma Channel,
one of the busiest container
shipping channels worldwide.
Lower picture, Pak Kok Shan
often looks a bit like a volcano
about to erupt at sunrise.
June 19:
FINALLY!


June 12:
Wow!

Dusting off my tripod tonight,
setting it up on the
smouldering, buggy rooftop,
plugging a power bank into the
portable 20x mini optical
zoom...
It was worth the
small trouble as for the first
time in many days, the sun
wasn't hiding behind clouds at
the exact time, less than 1
minute long, of setting behind
the Lantau Island peaks.
June 11:
Happy Buggy Sunday

Photos by
Peter Kline, master
wildlife (especially birds)
photographer.

June 4:
Sok Kwu Wan Tin Hau
Festival

My photo album of visiting South Lamma's
Tin Hau Festival today

Time lapse of building the Sok Kwu Wan
Canto Opera tent

Dragonboat races today! (both videos by
Mike Chau)


June 3:
Getting CABLE, Finally!

I took a little stroll yesterday
to Northern-most Lamma, to the
brand-new landing point of the
undersea fiberoptic Internet
cable, just connected and
encased in concrete. 20+ years
of waiting for
Faster Broadband For Lamma.
While waiting, the Internet
broadband speeds dropped by half
to HK's slowest speed (below
3Mbps) and doubled in price by
the sole provider.
Looking forward to 1000+Mbps
fiber-to-the home later this
month, they promise, but
initially only for those lucky
enough to live not too far from
this landing point above, like
myself. Hurrah! We can now
finally retire these
locally-popular
Lamma Brand
baseball caps:

P.S. Jun 2: Sunday,
June 11,
installation of 1000M
fiber to our home.
P.S. Jun 9:
Installation postponed to
June 25. Keeping my
cheap, fast and reliable 5G Wifi
router as a backup; just to be safe to
always have a vital, working
Internet connection in future.
P.S. Jun 10: As
usual, I couldn't resist playing
with the iconic (at least
locally) photo above, via the
brand-new Photoshop's AI
Generative Fills:
 
 
June 2:
Abandoned Visions in an
Abandoned House

Dickie
wrote:
"We held an art show in an
abandoned house featuring 14
talented artists last weekend.
Guests were brought in from
Central and blindfolded to
maintain the location's secrecy.
Attendees enjoyed Champagne and
canapés and were given tours of
the breathtaking artworks on
display by the artists
themselves."

June 1:
Lightning Storm

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The Lamma-zine started in 2002 and will be updated frequently with anything
vaguely related to Lamma Island or her residents, be it news,
stories, events, links, photos, artworks, videos, etc.
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