May 27:  Lamma Website of the Day:  Wind Farm

Let's start a new regular Lamma-zine feature, highlighting very interesting, but low-key, little-known Lamma/Lammaite-related websites. I'll be showcasing and linking them for several days on the right side of this home page, under a brand- new Website of the Day heading. Afterwards, they'll move into the permanent Lamma Links page, which is linked from the top of every page of this site, including our forum.

Today, Building an Offshore Wind Farm near Lamma Island, an almost unknown website about the 2nd largest renewable energy project in HK. Approved already, with very little local opposition, to be constructed by HK Electric by 2015, this is their official project website with the basic info. Check it out, as well as this Lamma-zine story: Marine Wind Farm off Lamma.

If you'd like to get YOUR Lamma-related website featured for free and wouldn't mind quite a bit more traffic and visitors to your site, email me.

For not-free advertorials, ads and email shots to market your website, business, products or services, you're also most welcome to email me, of course.

I've just received the very first The Baroque on Lamma (BoL) Newsletter in English and Chinese (pdf, 1.6MB). The newsletter describes BoL as an "innovative green project, embodying a world-class marina, an ecological tourist destination, a sailing/windsurfing training centre, a 6-star spa resort hotel, a public waterfront plaza and low-density residential communities."

You can subscribe to these news and updates at their new, comprehensive, bilingual website. The promotional, bilingual Blog of Baroque has just published new stories about the former Mo Tat Wan School (see above) and the Tin Hau Festival in Sok Kwu Wan celebrated last week.

The BoL newsletter also encourages anybody to send in comments to the Town Planning Board this Friday, May 27 (Town Planning Board, TPB). According to TPB, a total of 768 public comments have so far been submitted for the BoL rezoning application, probably a record for a Lamma-based project. Some of these submitted comments have already been made public, for example those from Living Lamma, WWF, and green groups on/off Lamma.

Keep an eye on the Lamma-zine which will continue to provide facts, links and info on any local matters, trying hard to present both sides. For more info, details and background of this controversial project, see my last BoL story, or click on any of the text and picture links in this story.

There have been so many public comments and strong opinions expressed already (our BoL forum, on Facebook, RTHK Radio, etc), let's focus today on the most interesting parts of the BoL proposal: the numerous proposed "green features".

Green seems to be their favourite corporate colour and their proposal looks and sounds like the most ambitious and comprehensive eco-development we've seen on Lamma, or all over HK, perhaps. Click for overviews of their Green Building, Green Marina, Green Tourism, Green Community, Green Partners,....

GREEN INITIATIVES (summarised from BoL proposal, using some of their words):

"Conservation Corridor":
This is mostly abandoned agricultural land, woodland and tall shrubs at the Tung O Wan foothills with an variety of indigenous flora and fauna (see right, from lower left to upper right corner, no. 2 in the map, click to enlarge, legend). They propose to conserve these habitats and restore identified pockets and streams for public enjoyment, education and research, with help from specialists and interested NGOs.

Abandoned farmland will be re-farmed for organic produce. Part of it could be converted to artificial wetland for waste treatment of public facilities within the Conservation Corridor.

Restore abandoned/damaged village houses and artefacts (including those found in archaeological sites at Tung O and Sham Wan), trying to "re-create" or at least showcase the old-times Lamma lifestyle for visitors.

Waste water will be treated and recycled for irrigation, cleaning and other purposes. Waste sludge will be reused as fertiliser, kitchen waste composted in package plants. The buildings will adopt "smart" design to be energy-efficient, supplemented by solar and wind energy. Rainwater will be stored and reused to further reduce the demand on fresh water.

Green Marina: The proposed design of the marina stays away from the existing rocky shore and the rocky portion of the seabed where some corals can be found. The design of the marina and the breakwater will protect water quality and provide an environment where marine life can flourish. The marina structure and the breakwater will become even better habitats for all sorts of marine life than the current sandy, silty seabed.

The marina is also committed to achieve international "green marina" standards (such as Blue Flag, Green Marina, Green Anchor and similar certifications). A major criteria for these will be maintaining good water quality and public education.
The breakwater structure is also suitable for high-capacity rainwater storage, district heating/cooling, waste recycling as well as desalination (if required).

Green Community: BoL believes to have sufficient scale to create a self- contained "green community" without sacrificing the natural environment or the quality of life. They'll carry out carbon audits during different stages of the design to make sure they're achieving their goals. They can also expect to be held accountable about their green initiatives by the HK Govt. after the land grant.

A final word from BoL to attract more Green Partners:

"We have been inviting participation from local scientists and institutions to help explore and develop our green initiatives. We are pleased to have Mr. Lucien Gambarota of the Motorwave Group [well-known HK wind and wave energy expert] to participate in the exploration of utilization of tidal stream energy to generate not only electricity but also compressed air (for heating/cooling and as a power source) for the development:

"We also welcome the participation of the Ichthyological Society of Hong Kong and the Zoological Association of Hong Kong to form an expert committee to prepare a Ecological Master Plan for the proposed Conservation Corridor and marina basin.

"There are so many aspects of the project that we need external advice and assistance! BoL welcomes participation particularly from local groups who have the knowledge, passion and expertise to participate in the project to make it a reality and a showcase of how conservation and ecology can co-exist with new development."

Quoting the (obviously not unbiased) Green Partner, Motorwave boss Mr. Gambarota (see his letter to the SCMP Editor on the right):
"The Baroque on Lamma project is an extremely good opportunity for private developers and the government to show they have learnt something from environmentalists. Being an environmentalist is not always about keeping everything like it was but rather ensuring the positive integration of humans and nature."

The proposal sounds all pretty wonderful and very promising, addressing many of the most popular eco-issues (even fashionable carbon audits). But how many of these proposed green initiatives will they be able to implement in reality, and at what price to the natural environment, beloved by the (still very rare) visitors? I've collected the major critical questions from Lammaites, submitting them to the developers, hoping for answers. Keep an eye on this home page!

May 25:  Boost Your Body!

This is how dynamic and fast-moving you'll feel after a BoostCamp! It was all just too fast even for my professional Nikon in Action/Sports Mode. It couldn't capture our trainer, Donna the Body Booster, well, as she rarely ever stands still or stops her non-stop moving around. Her body is so boosted, it's tough for us mere mortals - especially me after still being on a 2-month working-out hiatus due to skin surgery - to keep up. But we all try hard and do our best, getting a bit fitter, stronger and faster each week ...

... and after just a few weeks, some of us also start to move really fassst ...

... until the entire BoostCamp class is becoming just a blur of fit 'n' fast action ...

... while some of our animal companions are watching us, probably puzzled and bewildered about our strange behaviours and vaguely dance-like contortions, fueled by Donna's iPhoney, err, iPhoned workout play lists:

Besides the 3-times weekly, low-cost BoostCamps for Lammaites in the YSW Basketball Court, Donna the Body Booster is also offering BoostCamps for Kids, Weight Loss Challenges and Personal Training. Check out her new website and her Herbie Shop to find out how YOU can become so fit'n'fast-moving yourself. Leave your non-Body-Boosted friends in the dust, while they admire your brand-new, dynamic fitness & health. Then buy them all a round of healthy beverages of their choice to stop them from becoming too jealous.

May 20:  A Sea Bass Out of Water

Seeing the word Lamma-zine on our table's name tag in this swish ballroom (see below), with "real" journalists and "old media" people from Now TV, Cable TV, Sing Tao Daily and HK Economic Times at our table, it felt like a little validation of my 9+ years of my "new media" work on the Lamma-zine, with almost 3,000 stories published so far. Finally, after all these low-key, little-appreciated years, a little, tiny, miniscule speck of respect! {*Sniffle!*}

There was a fund-raising auction for the association, including a bottle of Methuselah Red Wine, opening bid $100,000 (no typo)! Jimmy Lai - "a business adventurer and pioneer who transformed the media industry in HK and Taiwan" - offered a Warren Buffet-like dinner invitation up for auction. To save money, it'll be at his home and he'll even cook.

Chow Yun-fat, Lamma's favourite, most famous son was donating (not in person) a "mysterious photograph" with his own autograph, up for auction starting at a bargain price of $8,000. Maybe we should try to convince Fat-Gor to auction off a dinner with him, raising much-needed funds for the Lamma-zine's highly- endangered future survival?! Wow, that would be quite something, saving and maintaining it for years! Well, I'm still allowed to have crazy dreams, don't I?

Well, hey, I won the most valuable table prize, a Lavender Vanity Case by Crabtree & Evelyn (see above). An instant surprise present for Lamma-Por who loved it, fortunately. If not, could you imagine me walking down Main Street with this pinkish case, the butt of even more jokes than usual?

But the Lucky Draw prizes all eluded me; very sad as I had really set all my hopes and dreams on the #1 prize, 2 CX business class tickets to anywhere in the world, worth $100,000! It would have been so nice to join my brother's wedding in Brazil this October, especially after not having been on a plane for almost as long as we've been "involuntarily semi-retired" on Lamma. Our carbon footprint is really, really low; it's almost exemplary, though somewhat involuntarily.

Mid-dinner, we got the top-urgent update of THE Hottest News of the Day, iPhoned in to the journalists and then whispered from table to table within minutes. What was this news, getting all these professional journalists so excited? Breaking news from a war zone, a terrorist attack or a natural disaster?

No, it was "3 winners in the record $130+ million Mark Six draw tonight!"

These actually employed (Hurray!) journalists on stage above spoke and even sang about the daily trials & tribulations of being an underpaid, overworked, low-self- esteemed and little-respected journo. Tell me about it, brothers & sisters, I feel your pain!
Each guest got a salt shaker with the Chin. words "I have a Bottle of Salt", which sounds like "I still have my DIGNITY!" in Cantonese. Very thoughtful of the organisers! If we impoverished journos can't afford to eat out anymore, having to cook at home, then at least we have a bottle of salt left to season our meagre rations, while dreaming of being invited again to next year's fabulously wonderful HKJA gala dinner. I hope our table host will read this story, thinking of me next year....

OK, that's all for tonight, folks! Sorry for this way too long article, but it takes only 1-2 glasses of good wine to make me tipsy and talkative. Go, Henry, go!!

P.S. Two days later, the SCMP newspaper featured a story about a Mainland Chinese pair arrested over theft at this gala dinner, basically for crashing the party, freeloading at the dinner and swiping some table prizes, till organisers became suspicious of them and called the police.
Nobody ever checked my identity at all; but I'm so glad I was officially invited, otherwise this story might have been filed from within a holding cell from my Wifi- connected laptop PC. Then I'd have lost even my last (salt) grain of DIGNITY!

May 19:  $5,000/sqft!

The SCMP newspaper's Alex Lo contacted me last week, fishing for info and pictures of the recent record-breaking sale of Lamma property, the $3.5 million sale of a 700sqft rooftop flat in a 30+ years old Village House in Yung Shue Long New Village ($5,000/sqft, see above.) As a rent slave myself, facing a 30-50% rent increase in Aug, I've expressed my views before: Red Hot Lamma. I've been showing SCMP cub reporter Jennifer Ngo around YSW today.

It's really about time to enquire about really low-cost rentals, for example in the Fishermen's Village, which is closer to the YSW ferry pier than almost any other property! For idyllic "flats" like the one on the right and below, how much rent, if any, would that be? I know an artist who lived in one of them till recently.

These two photos show the bottom and the top end of accommodations on Lamma, both unique:

Fishermen's Village, low-cost "Public Housing", Lamma-style?

Lamma Garden luxury development.

May 18:  Before Breakfast

I'm slowly getting back into my habit of early-morning power hikes from YSW up to the pavilion above our iconic Lamma Winds, with its 360-degree, long-distance views. Hiking before 7am, before breakfast, is highly recommended as the air temperature is not too hot yet (below 30 C). It's all a great little cardio workout and the sights, flora & fauna and people you encounter along the way you'd rarely ever meet in a gym. A few examples from just today:

Besides our numerous glowingly fit early-morning dog walkers, our cherished and cheerful Lap Sap Ladies are up even earlier than me, cleaning away all the messes we made yesterday. I greet them and they giggle and cheer, giving me a thumbs up, then making the universally understood "sooo fat!" gesture. I love those hard- working, underpaid ladies and I think they are more important and valuable to our community than any politician or even myself, for sure.

Many of the middle-aged or elderly locals know me well, but usually only as "the Gwailo who's lost so much weight", not being aware of the Lamma-zine and this website (never using this new-fangled, technical thingie called the Internet).
But quite a number of Internet-savvy locals like to call me Lamma-Gung in person, or simply Gung-Gung, making me feel kind of humble and honoured.

Feeling blessed walking up Snake Path, through the Cable Route 1 underpass.
A hitchhiker I picked up involuntarily on my trousers (these young butterflies are nowadays abseiling from many tree branches along metres-long silk threads).
A wood-fired, open-air stove in Tai Ling; with ashes, wood and newspapers.

This reminds me so much of growing up in the countryside, collecting wood in the forest, splitting it with an axe, kindling a wood fire with newspapers in our kitchen oven which fed into our Swiss Chalet's central chimney, boiling a kettle of water.
All of this was needed just to make hot water for our breakfast coffee.

After descending from Lamma Winds, high time to pick up takeaway breakfast!

The Congee Lady - Ah-Can of Tropicana - Tai Fook Café's baked goods

Tak Fook Café, similar to the ever-popular Man Kee Rest,
but with freshly baked Chin. breads throughout the day (but no seaview).
Lamma-Por and I are huge fans of this brand-new bakery, visiting often.
The Western bakery has been closed for so long, unknown if they'll ever reopen.

3 different breakfast options, all bought within a few metres of each other on
Back Street this early morning. Yes, breakfast is a major meal in our household, especially after a power hike up to Lamma Winds, and the leftovers last all day:

Fried glass noodles and congee from the Congee Lady,
Tropicana's fruit salad, HK-style filled baked goods from Tai Fook,
plus, last but best, Lamma-Por's special fruit jelly, exclusively available in the
worldwide Lamma-zine HQ (our home) to residents, volunteers and visitors!

May 17:  A Story about Dim Sum and Rock 'n' Roll
                    "Nutters like you are the reason why Lamma is a cool place"