Jan 30:  SouthLammaWayForward

Today, just a link to a most interesting document about what's been happening recently in South Lamma developments, mainly between Shek Pai Wan beach and Tung O Village:

The Way Forward for South Lamma, written by the Chairwoman of Living Lamma, Jo Wilson, after meeting with Mr Chan, the Tung O Village Head.

See also the Lamma-zine photo gallery:
Jan 10: What's Going on in Tung O Wan?

Jan 29:  Goodbye Lama

Bought on YSW Main Street, directly from the Yung Shue Long valley farmer (probably the last commercial farmer in YSW?)

You won't find these beautiful, irregular, organic shapes in any supermarket!

Warmly welcoming Lunar New Year visitors from the Mainland yesterday, Nick the Bookman, TV commercials talent, mover, DJ, music reviewer, and probably the most-photographed Lammaite ever.
(Photos by Jane Ram, CNY vase in the Lamma-Gung&Por household.)

Why did I put these photos above together? Well, Nick's beard has similar rustic, naturally-grown, irregular shapes like the roots of the Lamma Carrots, and his face a similarly healthy colour with all the knobbly bits....

Jan 21:  Happy New Year of the Panda!?

"So you thought it was the Year of the Dragon?
This practically perfect panda begs to differ!!"

Sarah Brennan, author of the "Chinese Calendar Tales" and "Dirty Story" series of children books, emailed me to announce her latest collaboration with Harry Harrison, Lamma's most famous cartoonist and illustrator. In addition to the UK launch at Edinburgh Zoo, they'll also launch at Prince's Building's Bookazine on Feb 4, 2pm. I attended last year's launch at the same venue (Facebook album) and it was such a beautiful event full of enthusiastic children listening to Sarah reading from her books and Harry signing. Plus free wine ... and cupcakes....

I asked her for a review copy (thank you!) and a few of Harry's amazing, hilarious illustrations. They're so different from his cartoons, but unmistakably and uniquely "Harry". Sorry, I sound like a fanboy ... maybe because I AM a fanboy!

Sarah Brennan writes:

"Pin Yin has beauty, brains and a healthy ego to match…but her attempt to replace the coming Year of the Dragon with a brand new Year of the Panda has come badly unstuck in a re-run of the Lord Buddha's race. The order of the animals in the Chinese Zodiac was of course determined by their order of arrival in the famous Great Race, one of China's most enduring, much-loved folk tales. Pin Yin Panda almost changed the tradition of millennia...until vanity got in the way!

But needless to say, this practically perfect panda will not be defeated! She's been invited to her very own official launch at Edinburgh Zoo for Chinese New Year, together with her creator Sarah Brennan. Sarah will be visiting the Zoo as part of a two week tour of UK schools and bookshops to launch The Tale of Pin Yin Panda.

Another highlight of Pin Yin's visit to the UK will be a meeting at the House of Lords with Hong Kong's last Governor and current Chancellor of Oxford University, Lord Patten of Barnes, who has endorsed the book with a blurb on the back referring to his eight grandchildren. "Naturally, they'll all get a signed copy!" says Sarah."

From the FAQ section of Sarah Brennan's colourfully interactive, cutely animated, sound-effect- enhanced website:

"9. Who does the amazing illustrations in your books?

My illustrator is Harry Harrison, the much-loved cartoonist from the South China Morning Post. He's also a regular contributor to international publications like The Guardian, Time magazine, and the Far Eastern Economic Review. It's hard to believe but Harry has never had any formal art training! His favourite things when he was a kid were insects, exploring, climbing trees, making dens and playing war, but he didn't like sport!

10. What is it like working with Harry Harrison?

Harry is one of the funniest and cleverest people I know, and when we have a book in production, and Harry is sending me the new illustrations, every day feels like Christmas! We work together at the very beginning, when Harry sends me his "scamps" which are like very rough little sketches of his ideas for each page. I might make a few suggestions then, but after that stage, I leave Harry to it because I know from experience that whatever other ideas I might have, Harry's are generally much better! Harry always gets the humour in whatever I write and then expands it or gives it a tweak, and this is what makes his collaboration so important to me and to the finished book.

If you'd like to see more of Harry's work, visit:
www.flickr.com/photos/harryharrisonillos"

More "Chinese Calendar Tales" in this series are planned, just 7 more books, 7 more years to complete all the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. The first 5 books are still available in HK bookstores, at below $100:

P.S. Bookazine is a former, but NOT a current Lamma-zine advertiser.

P.S. II - Sun, Jan 22: Just in from Sarah, photos from the worldwide book launch in Edinburgh Zoo, courtesy of A. & J. Simpson, News and Pictures.

Sarah with Tian Tian in her indoor enclosure --
Before the launch in the Zoo gift store

Jan 20:  Boys & Their Big Toys

The valiant engineers, construction experts and civil servants bringing sewage treatment to Lamma Island. Drainage Services Dept. organised an on-site media briefing today, bringing in media from HK by special ferry.

"3 Groundbreaking Attempts" were highlighted: Horizontal Directional Drilling - Miniature Helicopter Device - Membrane Bioreactor

YSW Sewage Treatment Works in progress, seen from lammajoeyu's quadrocopter.

Notice the abandoned shack in the upper left corner in Kam Lo Hom (formerly "Hunter's"), just approved to be rebuilt as a Village House (in the middle of the Green Belt forest and with a great view of ... sewage treatment!)

 Click to enlarge almost any Lamma-zine photo, as usual.

In the spotlight, ready for fame & glory: lammajoeyu, VV Driver and Quadrocopter Aviator, hired as a contractor for "construction works monitoring". He's even got a name card now, for his new Sky View venture!

Wow, look at that drill! It was used for magnetically-guided Horizontal Directional Drilling of the outflow from the Sewage Treatment Plants, deep below the seabed.

Joe's quadrocopter flying high above the Horizontal Directional Drilling rig (the "oil drilling rig" as some people wondered) in YSW harbour, now drilling in SKW.)

The Effluent outflow from the Sewage Treatment Plant, after going through one of the almost 20,000 0.4-micron membrane filters of the Membrane Bioreactor which will filter out even bacteria. The sewage will be treated first with bacteria for 30 days in completely enclosed tanks with odour filters in this automated plant.

The Effluent is definitely much cleaner than the sea water it's being pumped into, but none of The Boys I asked dared to take a sip or even let me have a smell. The filter's remaining sludge will be dried and dumped into landfills.

Joe's quadrocopter flying high above the Big-Helipad entrance.
Live video feed to a large flat screen TV, overlooking the media briefing.

Drilling the 500-metre-long outflow pipes under the seabed,
avoiding corals in YSW (60m below seabed) and fish farms in SKW (30m).

Photomontage of future $120-million Yung Shue Wan Sewage Treatment Works,
scheduled to be completed in 2013, operational after May 2014.
$90 million for the very similar, but smaller SKW plant, adding up to a total of $440 million, including Phase 1 and 2 of the sewerage pipes, the pumping stations (to O Tsai, Hung Shing Yeh and Mo Tat Wan) and the marine outflows.

By the way, Phase 2 of the North Lamma sewerage pipes, connecting all the way up to the top of Tai Peng and Hung Shing Yeh (but not Pak Kok) will be tendered for construction only by end of this year, 2012, taking several more years after that. So no hurry yet to start up saving your money to connect your building to the sewerage (usually around $10-30K per building, to be shared by owners.)

If you're interested in more details, here are the digital handouts from the media briefing. They're short and concise, little technical jargon, well-illustrated and presented "in order to enrich visitor's savvy". Have a look:

Briefing Notes: Eng. - Chin.  |   Fact Sheet: Eng. - Chin.

SCMP Story and discussions in our forum: Lamma Village Sewerage Phase 2

Jan 19:  'Beware Of Pedestrian'

Yung Shue Wan is changing so fast these days and there's so much construction going on all over the place, so much changing in a formerly very quiet and peaceful village. To demonstrate, let's look at a single street corner in Sha Po Old Village (close to the waste bins and the public noticeboard):

Farewell to Myrna's former C5 Pinoy Store in the Red House, which closed down just a few days ago, after the landlord broke the 2-year rental contract after just half a year for unclear and undisclosed reasons (I've asked). Oct 13: Halo-Halo, Myrna!

No more cheerful neighbourhood hangout/meeting place for Filipinos, their international relatives and friends, and no more Halo-Halo drinks for me! Want to rent a pretty unique one-floor house?

Just opposite the Red House, there's Vanoclamma the Guerilla Gardener's project-in-progress, transforming an area full of rubbish and dumped waste into a flower garden. Weeks of (unpaid) work, just a labour of love and it's not even his land.

The local land owner was sceptical at first, but was quite happy to take it over and continue, after most of the hard work has been done.

Just opposite, on the very same street corner, a two-floor Village House is being torn down - jack-hammering much of the day! - to build another new, maximum-size Village House. We looked at the rooftop flat just half a year ago when considering to move....

This will be the third brand-new Village House built in this short street in just the last few years, all neighbouring each other, continuing the feverish building boom all over Sha Po Old Village with more than a dozen houses going up or being "re-developed" in the last few years, rentals booming. We've lived in several flats in this village for the last ten years ... time to move on?

Finally, more traffic signs and mirrors are appearing close to that same corner, after the recent serious accident of a VV hitting a pedestrian on a nearby street corner. Usually, these signs warn to beware of speeding vehicles only, but "Beware Of ... Pedestrian"? Maybe this refers to me, or to anybody rushing or even running for the ferry?

Jan 18:  Dog Rescuer Acquitted

You might have seen today's SCM Post's story, Sally Andersen cleared over dog attack, also featured in many other printed, electronic and online HK Media.

The Lamma-zine has been very supportive of all the fantastic dog rescue work that Lammaite Sally's charity HK Dog Rescue has been doing, so I won't comment much on this controversial case. Here's a photo I took for a Dec 14, 2004 Lamma-zine story. But have a look at this in-depth interview last year, by Jay Scott Kanes, our Senior Pet Correspondent:

Who Lives? Who Dies?
How to Decide?

See our Pets forum for some of the stories, press clippings, plus additional facts and lots of frank opinions from Lammaites: Quarry dog attack case.

Jan 14:  One-Armed, Evil Dictator Ruling Lamma?

"Lamma Island, only recently discovered by Bruce Lee and famous for its
yearly martial arts tournament operated by the one-armed, evil dictator
who rules over the island. I could be wrong."

Anthony "No Reservations" Bourdain
(introducing Lamma in his new TV series "The Layover", episode 1.05
about Hong Kong - The Travel Channel - broadcast Dec 20, 2011 in the US.)

A few months ago, Anthony Bourdain of long-running (7 seasons) TV series "No Reservations" was filming on Lamma for his brand-new series "The Layover". As part of the "Hong Kong" episode, he and a posse of off-Lamma expat yuppies had lunch in Lamcombe Seafood Rest.: "pissing shrimp, jumbo scallops and clams." (Photo courtesy of Travel Channel)

Check out his irreverent and idiosyncratic HK Travel Tips: "Go to the Aberdeen Fish Market, where true Hong Kongers shop. Just remember to wear your Wellingtons." Plus Just the One-Liners.

Mr DickStock noticed the filming (a quite frequent occurrence in YSW these days, usually for HK TV soap operas). He recognised Mr Bourdain, but neither called me nor took any pictures himself! If you see anything newsworthy happening anytime, anywhere on Lamma, give me a call at 6498 6960 and I might come running or biking ASAP, if possible!

Jan 12:  Dragon Garden & CNY Market Tours

Jan 11:  Happy New Year of the Balloon Dragon

Photo gallery of the Annual Dinner Party of King Wong Development, the company behind "Lamma-1" on Tannery Beach and partners in "The Baroque on Lamma".

Piles of construction materials have been appearing besides the path along Shek Pai Wan Beach in Tung O Wan, the location of several beach cleanings in recent months and close to the location of the proposed spa resort hotel (rejected by Town Planning Dept. last month). This had many people worried, some complained and the Lands Dept. stepped in, putting up Stop! signs last month.

The man behind all the construction-in-progress, Mr. Chan, the Village Head of nearby Tung O Village then contacted Damon Wong (defeated District Council candidate), calling for a meeting with "green people" to explain his plans and get their support, hopefully, to convince the Govt. to let him continue his construction & river restoration plans. I tagged along, taking pictures, asking lots of questions. See my captioned photo gallery of the Tung O Village Head Tour.