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Sheila's Spiders LAP's Sheila loves taking pictures of creepy crawlies, much smaller and less cute than all the abandoned dogs & cats her charitable organisation is finding homes for (www.LAP.org.hk ). This beautiful spider on the
left is spinning her own home and just caught her own lunch. A little
(maybe parasitic?) fly The spider on the right seems to have eyes on her back. Plus a cute, red-bug-eyed fly. More buggy pictures in Talkback! Wed, Sep 29: Mid-Autumn Festival For a photo gallery of this Chinese festival, as it is celebrated on Lamma, have a good look at: Mid-autumn Festival My favourite discovery at this year's festival were these mean-looking nuts, sold ONLY around this time of year. They're called Water Caltrops, "Horned Water Chestnuts" or Ling Gok in Cantonese. Discovering them in a
mooncake tin at breakfast, I found some later at $5/catty on Main
Street. After cooking them they taste like a nuttier version of
As a friend pointed out, the
initials of Ling Gok and Lamma-Gung are the same, so I adopted
this intriguing nut as my new personal icon and Avatar. Learn more
about Ling Goks by clicking on Talkback!
My 2nd step-daughter got married today in City Hall! At the joyous occasion of the formal marriage registration, so many of my Chinese relatives were present. Being the only Gwailo, it was an interesting feeling to be ignored but tolerated by most of them... The photo shows both my step-daughters' families. The two boys are my step-grandsons Man Hin & Tung Lam, the ones calling me their "Gung-Gung" on Lamma, Lamma-Gung... Mon, Sep 27: Do You Know Susan Sheers, Senior Lammaite? Addressing mainly current and former Lammaites today who know writer, poet, painter Susan Sheers, who submitted this beautiful poem below: Sep 15: The Banana Tree? If you do, please give her a call at Queen Mary Hospital right now. Email me for her mobile phone number, if you don't have it already. I've met this great person today for the very first time when visiting her in the Emergency Dept. She was helicoptered from Lamma a few days ago. She's in OK spirits now, but would love very much to hear from people who know her. Do your good deed for today and give her a call! Thu, Sep 23: About the Lamma-zine
32 issues have been published so far and sent out by email to almost 1,500 (free) subscribers monthly. Supported by local sponsors & advertisers (see ratecard), it's being edited & published by Lamma-Gung, with the help of many non-regular, occasional contributors, writers & photographers. Subscribe! All Lamma-related contributions are most welcome, hopefully shaping the Lamma-zine into a community platform of diverse ideas, views and opinions, showcasing the amazing variety of great local talents. Email me! |
is hitching a free ride on her hindleg. 
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"Lamma. A softness, a delicate space and place, which I have loved and lived, which has offered me rest and respite, sanity and peace, beauty and hope. I cherish my beautiful circle of friends there, the old beautiful house I made my home (from 1996-2001), the sound of rain on those clay tiles. Bring me back the big, slow ferries, and I just may return...." by Madeleine Marie Slavick, poet, photographer, editor and publisher living in Hong Kong, whose latest book "delicate access" with 88 poems and photos will be launched on Oct 6 - See Events Calendar. Wed, Sep 22: One-Upmanship, Lamma-Style Do you believe Lamma is full of rent refugees, down & outs and other prosperity-challenged individuals? Not at all! Personally overheard yesterday in a local bar for the well-off, discerning drinker, two people were comparing their domestic rent and utility bills: "My aircon bill is so high this summer, over $1,800!", complained one guy. Reply: "Hah, MY aircon bill is higher than your rent! Even my gardening bill is higher than your rent!" Stunned silence from the "defeated" party... Of course, this reply came from somebody living up on "Millionaire's Hill"... Tue, Sep 21: New Blog Page Header
A pretty amazing & rare butterfly photo has been submitted by Sheila today. Our experts, the Flora & Fauna forum moderator and the Official Court Lepidopterist-in-residence are still stumped to identify it, classify it and stick a needle through it. Fortunately, this one got away and only left us this photo as a memento of this rare close encounter. Mon, Sep 20: Yung Shue Wan's Harbour Reclamation, 1. Phase
The 2nd phase of the planned reclamation - reclaiming the entire rest of the shoreline - was successfully stopped. New, reduced plans have been drawn up and will have to find a new govt. budget, which will take years!
The rumours of Lamma as extremely fertile and a fantastic place to bring up children are all true! Below is the latest picture I received today, showing Aya Walker, 2-week old baby daughter of one of our Laudable Lamma Luminaries: Kumi the Drum Queen! Email your congratulations!
Sun, Sep 19: Palm Snail Walking past this young palm every day, it looks fascinatingly different every time. It just makes me stop and observe closer. It's
in the blooming/fruiting cycle right now, the most active period in the
Sat, Sep 18: "manna in lamma"
(click for full story: page 1, 2, 3) "A ferry ride from high-rise Hong Kong, Jonathan Margolis discovers an offbeat, car-free island with dreamy scenery, sublime walks and secluded beaches. Welcome to Lamma...
The Lamma power
station makes a trip to the island rather like a date with a
beautiful woman who has one major flaw, such as calamitous ears or
regrettable teeth. One the plus side, the power station isn't
dirty, smoky,
polluting or noisy, so there's a case for living with it... To me, though, Lamma is so very wacky, so supremely charming and such a spirit-elevating place that I forgive it this one eyesore." We Lammaites couldn't agree more with this sentiment! |
Having seen Kumi jumping up and down at her numerous Drum
Jam events around town, I and all her legions of fans & friends wish
her and Aya (2nd generation Drum Queen!), all the very best! Kumi (plus
Aya?) will perform at this year's Rockit Festival in Victoria
Park again, of course, hopefully together with many other bands from
Lamma! 
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Fri, Sep 17: Sampan Thoughts - by Andy Maluche
Andy:
"I have
finally been initialized, 12 years of going back and forth Thu, Sep 16: Original Harry Cartoon Artwork For Auction!
Famous cartoonist Harry (SCMP and many other magazines) has donated the original artwork above for auction to benefit the production/hosting costs of the Lamma-zine and this Blog. It was originally created for the Lamma-zine Sep 2004 issue.
It shows the old cliché of Lamma Island as a
Hippy
Haven & drug-addled place. The "rival" island of DB (Discovery
Bay) might think we'd love to have a drugs supermarket on our fair isle.
We've recently been doing a little online survey what kinds of shop local residents would like
on Lamma. Nobody but
To bid for this unique original artwork (A4, art paper, ink & water colour), contact me for enquiries or bid online by clicking on the Talkback! button on the right. Wed, Sep 15:
The Banana Tree:
(Click above to enlarge) Susan
sent me this beautiful, heart-felt poem today, for
Let her know what you think of her poem! Click on Talkback and I'll forward your feedback to her!
The Legislative Council Elections are over, with a few hiccups like not enough ballot boxes for the record voter turnout. European countries would love to have problems like this, with their voter apathy and voter turnouts of not even half of HK's almost 60%! To everybody's surprise, especially the concerned parties, the formerly largest party, the Democratic Party, lost votes and seats (9), while the pro-Beijing, "anti-democratic" "Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of HK" party won seats, up to 12 legislators now to become the biggest party in HK's Legislative Council. Their posters all over Lamma have been "adorned" with photocopied stickers to gloat, eh, celebrate their surprise achievement. Well, the voters have spoken... Mon, Sep 13: Lamma-zine Sep 2004
1. Leaving Lamma 2. Bishop Zen Visiting Lamma Monastery 3. High Degree of Atrocity 4. Where on Lamma? 5. What Kind of Shop You Like? 6. This "Alternative" Cabaret That Is Lamma 7. Tai Peng Castle For Rent 8. Restaurants & Bars - Aug 2004 9. Alastair - Sculptor Extraordinaire 10. Strictly Fashionable 11. Silly Spins on the Magical Spinney Thing 12. Do Pink Dragonflies Like Drainage Channels?
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Today - 9/12 - Election Day for HK's Legislative Council I shook the hand of a REAL-LIFE LegCo candidate on Aug 22! A bolt of lightning went through my body when touching the candidate and now I have this irresistible urge to vote for List 7, DAB, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong! Go, DAB, go! DAB, DAB, hurray!!! If I'd only be a registered voter and permitted to vote... Their posters (right) are all over Yung Shue Wan, sometimes 2-3 on the same building, all numbered by hand. Lammadonna, our District Councillor, Village Representative and DAB member, told me personally that NOBODY has ever been fined for putting up a poster or flyer on Lamma, even though the official fine is $1,500. Lucky for them... Lammadonna took her party's LegCo candidates and a swarm of volunteers through the village, a sea of gold and red, sashes, flags, banners, flowing through Main and Back Street, greeting almost every shop and restaurant owner, shaking hands, "kissing babies", and smiling, smiling, till their jaws hurt... I was sitting innocently in Tropicana having a late lunch, when the DAB swarm descended upon us, some of them even entering the place.
I even got an English leaflet (very rare in HK politics) from the sashayed candidate who blessed me, Mr Leung (right on the poster above). The DAB caravan made it all the way to Sha Po Village, turned around, rushing to catch the boat out of here (see below) to the next meet-the-voters opportunity... The leaflet made fascinating reading. It's here: page 1, 2, 3, 4 It sounds so amusing & satirical, but I suspect that they actually tried to be serious:
I couldn't make it up as well myself... Sat, Sep 11:
Lamma band BAHOUKI won
Email from "Laudable Lamma Luminary" John Hutton:
Bahouki get gold!!! "I thought it might be of interest to you that Lamma band, BAHOUKI won the Tom Lee "SoundBase" competition in the Ko Shan theatre last week. This was a music festival to find Hong Kong's best acoustic band...and we won! Bringing it home to Lamma, indeed. You can get a hold of some photos at the Tom Lee website, though when I tried to find that link today it was gone. I'll send you a photo anyway. (above and right)" "Also, our instrumentalist, Olie Quinn from Ireland, joint won best individual performance...so all in all a nice night's work. We re-arranged an old song called "Istanbul, not Constantinople" dressed up in giant fezes and pretty much brought the house down. We were also the only non-Chinese finalists out of 77 bands! The members were:
Fri, Sep 10: Hong Kong's first commercial-scale wind turbine Received the press release and more pictures from HK Electric by email this morning. Here's a nice artist's impression of how it'll look like from HK-side, from the East Lamma Channel:
The SCMP has also picked up the HK Electric press release today, AFTER it has been published in this Blog already last night (below). Here's a link to the full SCMP story full of interesting facts and opinions: Turbine as quiet as air conditioner
Artist's impression of the proposed wind turbine viewed from Tai Ling Pavilion, end of 2nd Cable Road, overlooking "Mt. Panorama" and North Lamma HK Electric (HEC) has issued one of their rare press releases yesterday, announcing the construction of a wind turbine in Tai Ling - above Tai Peng - to start in early 2005, completion by early 2006: "EIA Report on Wind Turbine Submitted to Government". The press release gives a good overview and background of this hot-topic project and claims that "By erecting a wind turbine on an otherwise barren hilltop, the project will boost Lamma as a tourist spot with educational and environmental value." They promise to "maintain a close dialogue with the local residents." Having established a good working relationship with HEC, this Blog, the discussion forums and the Lamma-zine will publish turbine updates & news as soon as they'll become available! The executive summary of the EIA report will go online for public inspection early next week for public consultation, comments & feedback for one month. I've published 2 Lamma-zine stories about the wind turbine project so far: Silly Spins on the Magical Spinney Thing (online tomorrow Sat, Sep 11) Discussing this project in
some detail with HEC recently, they confirmed to me that this 600kW
turbine will be sufficient for 3% of total power consumption of
Lamma residents.
Thu, Sep 9: Where Magic and Romance Remain Quoting from the only website by a Lamma-based property agent:
As night falls, sounds of jazz, laughter and celebrations created from the many fine dining eateries gathers the people on the Main Street. There is only a fistful of places in Hong Kong where magic and romance remain. Lamma Island is one of them."
But where's this jazz place he mentions? And, more importantly, where's the "magic and romance" hiding??? One of the members of Lamma.com.hk responded that they must have gotten confused and actually meant "filth and pestilence"! But this was the same Lammaite (Granola Eater, see his avatar below left) who did his own very best to attract more tourists to our fair isle with the following promotional words of wisdom in our discussion forum What we like about living on Lamma:
Wed, Sep 8:
"If Hong Kong were the
United States,
These two great quotes by Laudable Lamma Luminary Nick the Bookman appear in "Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel" magazine this month, inside a story about our three main Outlying Islands: "Hong Kong chills out". It was written by ex-Lammaite Ron Gluckman, who lived on our island from 1991-2000.
The story mentioned a few local restaurants like Sampan, Green Cottage, Bookworm Café and Lamma Hilton in Sok Kwu Wan. But only a single shop made
it: Lamma Celebrity Nadia's
D&N Second-Hand shop (right). The editor of this story contacted us
here on Lamma.com.hk to get the name and contact details of this nice
shop. I helped him and he sent me
(2. & 3. picture by Philip Englehorn, © 2004 MSNBC) |
Sun, Sep 12
DAB is by far the dominant party on Lamma Island, but seen
as anti-democratic - despite their name - and Beijing-friendly. So
they're expected to lose a lot of votes to the democratic camp in this
election. They're resisting the tide of public opinion against them by
sounding more and more "democratic" themselves.
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Tue, Sep 7:
Contribution of the
Day:
What a beautiful place! I was there last week, and now look back from the city of Sydney, home again, work again, BUT: There's something about Lamma Island that stays with you. It's an atmosphere, a feeling, rather than a visual picture in your mind. Hard to get out of you once you are "somewhere else". I was
aware of it when I arrived onto the Island - this time by ferry into
Yung Shue Wan. Following the path as it winds around... The various notices for accommodation available, etc., make you aware of the community island feeling. You instantly want to rent something immediately rather than get back on that ferry again. Unfortunately, this time I couldn't but I will next year. I will know where to find the furniture... The little cafes on the pier are welcoming, and at night the lights provide an atmosphere not unlike a Greek island.
The commuters return by ferry like anywhere else in the world from "out there", and suits appear and disappear up the walkways. Further around as you wander through the High Street, you become aware of the village feel. Once you go up the Back Street and meander across to Hung Shing Yeh beach, you feel the tropics. You really can't ask for a lot more from life in one place, other than time to get to know every inch of this beautiful Island of Lamma. Perhaps not every inch - but, hey, thank goodness it is not PERFECT - or the whole world would invade. My thanks to Shelley, Carolyn and Marcus, little Miranda, and Mercy for their wonderful company (Shelley's farewell) and a group of the friendliest people I have met for a long time. Says something doesn't it about lifestyle..."
If YOU have a story to tell why you like Lamma (or not), email me and YOU might be published here! Mon, Sep 6: Lamma Fun Day: Looking for sponsors & volunteers!
We've already found some sponsors, but we're always looking for more, especially cash donors! There are many benefits for donors, depending on their contribution. Contact me!
Sun, Sep 5: Lamma-zine celebrates 2nd anniversary!
It owes a great debt of gratitude to many supporters & contributors! Click here for a free, spam-less subscription. The very first issue was written by Lamma.com.hk founder webdog and the 3 initial moderators, including myself. Since then it has grown from a little labour of love into almost a full-time, 7-days-a-week home office job for my alter ego: semi-retired Lamma-Gung. The currently active
moderators of the Lamma.com.hk forums
- plus their families - got together in Diesel's for drinks and
a truly delicious chicken roast dinner - see above right. It was
prepared by owner Lucy herself and paid for by the Lamma-zine
editor/publisher, myself.
Let's hope for many more anniversaries! Fri, Sep 3: More Lamma-zine previewsAlastair Robins - Sculptor Extraordinaire Do Pink Dragonflies Like Drainage Channels?
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Email from
Gaye in Sydney: "...from someone who is
already planning their return...
It's like changing worlds, from the bustle
of Hong Kong to a ferry pier, a walkway, and that sense of intimacy!
The Island Bar full of locals, with information and
gossip, and there is a true sense of belonging... the networking
and once again the sense of bonding and being a part of everything.
