|
|
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:
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| 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: |
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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. |
|
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: |
-
 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?]
-
 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!)
-
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...
-
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...
-
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...
-
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-ups.
Read more...
Beach
Parties
Overnight
Sampans
-
  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...
-
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...
|
