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Easy Moving With
UniGroup
Apr 24
Sometimes you meet the nicest people just before
they move away. |
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Insulated
Bitumenised Steel Wire Armour -
Apr 23
Along Cable Road, just outside Power Station
Beach, these 5-ton cable rolls have been
appearing. |
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John the
White-Haired Stallion -
Apr 22
"Dragons roared, Stallions galloped and Vipers
hissed on April 22, the first game-day..." |
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Helicopter
Videos, In/Outdoors -
Apr 19
The latest videos by lammajoeyu, VV Driver and
renowned Quadrocopter Aviator! |
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Extremely Loud &
Incredibly Close
-
Apr 18
Lamma people photo gallery by Sean Creamer -
www.WorldlyImages.net. |
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Huntsman Spider
Trained to Kill Roaches? -
Apr 17
"Typically Lamma!" pictures and story,
demonstrating how some Lammaites react when
seeing.... |
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Lamma Hoops
Stars -
Apr 16
"New-Look Hoops League Shoots Into Action:
Lamma Island Pinoy Basketball League, now with
six teams." |
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Sunday Crowds on
Mt Stenhouse -
Apr 15
Lammaites reaching the top once again: Pawel the
Rambling Guide, David from Boston, MTR Ollie,... |
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Fairy Merry
Lamma -
Apr 12
From the latest newsletter of Hans Andersen Club
Lamma Island Centre. |
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LAMMA DAY - Fri,
April 13
Apr 11
Quoting ex-Lammaite superstar Chow Yun-Fat in
the recent Time Out HK mag cover interview: |
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Big Breakfast,
Anybody?
Apr 10
Yes, I'm one of those annoying people who take
quick snapshots of their food before tucking in! |
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Chinese Easter
Eggs? -
Apr 9
There's been a wide variety of religious Easter
celebrations on Lamma, from a Sunday mass with
spiritual healing to a sea.... |
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Visiting
Gung-Gung -
Apr 8
Many of our regular readers probably know by now
that Lamma-Gung, means Lamma grandpa in
Cantonese. |
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Photographers @
HK Flower Show -
Apr 7
Photos of pretty flowers? Boooring! Photos of
photo- graphers taking photos.... |
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Faster Broadband
for Lamma! -
Apr 6
Are you happy with the Internet Broadband speed
in your home? |
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Here Lies
Lamma-Gung,
Part II -
Apr 5
How to get a new, unused niche in the
no-waiting-list, lowest-cost Lamma Columbarium! |
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Here Lies
Lamma-Gung
Apr 4
What to do
on a pretty & dry Ching Ming Festival holiday like
today? |
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We Need More
Photos, Videos, Artworks, Wildlife & Websites of
the Day! -
Apr 3
ARCHIVE Gallery -
SUBMIT Your Own Photo! |
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Laughter Yoga @
Northern Lamma School -
Apr 2
"Healthy
Day", Thu, Mar 22,
Northern Lamma School, YSW. |
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Lamma Eco-cycles! -
Apr 1
"Another "green" enterprise is about to open its
doors on Lamma Island. Local entrepreneur Bike
Mike...." |
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Email newsletter submitted by
Living Lamma:
P.S.
YSW Community Recycling Points:
every Fri & Sat, 1-4pm, Mar 2012-Mar 2013:
Fri: near YSW Main Street public toilet;
Sat: outside YSW Football Playground:
More info,
website.
UniGroup Worldwide UTS moving crew, plus VV driver
& baker
Winston Fu on the left (whose crew moved us locally a few years back) and Romain on the right.
Sometimes you meet the nicest people just before they move away. This is
what happened to me recently when doing a little photo shoot of the
Kaehler family: Ben, Holly & their lil' girl Tilly (see below). After
15 months on Lamma, they are moving back to Canberra, Australia, and had a
20ft container of belongings to pack, ship and deliver. Many Lammaites will
miss this young family. Lamma Dragon- boater Romain, Senior Consultant of Global Mobility,
HK,
UniGroup Worldwide UTS, coordinated and organised their entire move.
He even agreed to
pay for this Sponsored Lamma-zine Feature, a still pretty rare
occurrence. Thanks, Romain, and many congratulations on your recent
marriage to your
lovely and very smart Mainland sweetheart!
 |
Not
having witnessed a major international move for quite some time, I
tagged along for a very pleasant morning watching the very professional and
well-organised proceedings running like clockwork. The Kaehler family
occupied a top-of-the- market $15K 700sqft rooftop flat in a new Village
House with an amazing view over Yung Shue Wan, just besides the "Chow
Mansion" in Tai Yuen Village (opposite Yan Yan Store).
 Reasons
for moving to Lamma from Australia? Ben's an avid mountainbiker (see his
T-shirt), it's convenient to commute to HK Island and they even claim that
Lamma.com.hk helped them to decide to move to Lamma! Returning to Australia,
they requested quotes from several movers and
chose UniGroup based on price, international experience and
their one-stop, complete services for the
move on both ends. Their smiling
faces and especially the arm on Romain's shoulder tell you about how happy
they were with the friendly and professional services provided. Moving is
often such a major hassle and full of problems, frustrations, delays,
disappointments and tempers flaring, it's great to see such a relaxed and
easy-going move. I'll warmly recommend UniGroup for international
relocations!
 
The Kaehler family & Lamma Dragon Romain - Family friend Nonna, a member of
the Xtreme Eagles team who won the last
Pinay Volleyball League tournament!
 
Your entire life being
neatly packed up in boxes cut to the size of the contents.
 We
went for a nice, chatty lunch in Green Cottage while the movers were
working fast and efficiently, finishing this huge job well before the 6pm
deadline, transporting everything to the YSW Gaido Pier (see below).
Ben, Holly & Tilly then retired for their very last night on Lamma, splashing out
on a deluxe ocean view suite in the
Concerto Inn Hotel.
I hope to hear from them after settling down in Canberra and reading about
their experiences at the other end of this smooth move.
Ben, I'm hoping to see your collection of Power Station chimney photos soon!
Holly, a few words about living & parenting on Lamma as a new, first-time
mother?
Finally, a bit more info about UniGroup's relocation services,
in case you might be interested in repeating the positive experiences of
the Kaehler family for your own off-island and international moving needs:
"We provide a full suite of relocation services, CITYPOINTE is a service
of
UniGroup Worldwide UTS, namely Relocation & Move Management services, a
one stop solution aiming to benefit you(r) company with cost savings and
process efficiency, rather than getting in touch with multiple parties, we
offer you a fully responsible single point of contact, CITYPOINTE.
 As your
Destinations Service Provider (DSP) specializing in HR and Pre-Move
Advisory, Immigration assistance, Orientation programs, School Search, Home
Search, Settling-In and Departure services; our team of global professionals
understands the tedious process and challenges of any relocation, while
facilitating you and your family in embracing the new living environment,
minimizing the stress involved.
With our assistance, you will be able to
focus and perform while managing assignees on assignment, reducing the risk
of failed relocation, resulting in an expensive exercise of repatriation.
Looking forward to your reply and would appreciate any opportunities,
showing you how we make Living Easy Beyond Boundaries."
Contact Romain for a free quote;
here's a nice presentation to
potential clients:
UniGroup Worldwide UTS - The
world moves with Us.
Along Cable Road, just outside Power Station Beach, these
5-ton cable rolls have been appearing in recent weeks, making many people
wonder what's happening exactly and how far these works will extend up Cable
Road #2 to Lamma Winds? By the way, it's officially called Stacker
Road, according to HK Electric and the Govt. maps. Cable Road #1 to Pak
Kok is called Reservoir Road:
I've had a closer look at the works and the cable rolls
and then asked HK
Electric for comments. I also took the opportunity to ask for
another English guided tour inside the Power Station for our readers, like
this tour I coordinated last year.
Did you know that all the electric power for Lamma
doesn't come from the Power Station directly, but does a round trip to HK Island
first?
HK Electric: "Electricity generated at Lamma
Power Station is transmitted to Hong Kong Island via 275kV submarine cables
and gets transformed down to distribution voltage at 22kV and 11kV, i.e.
just 4-8% the original voltage.
The 11kV and 22kV systems are used to distribute electricity to the whole of HK
Island, including Lamma.
On Lamma Island, the 11kV voltage which is fed from HK Island via submarine
cables is further stepped down to 380V 3-phase or 220V single-phase via
transformers."
This is the 22kV cable used:
HK Electric: "The network
enhancement work outside east gate of Lamma Power Station, a
total of 600 meters of power cables will be laid in phases and
we have just completed the first phase of around 100 meters.
The [yellow]
communication cables are used for HK Electric's
network enhance- ment purpose and not
related to other companies
[like HGC's future,
highly- anticipated
high-speed Broadband Internet].
It is our pleasure to arrange
another Lamma
Power Station visit for Lammaites.
However, due to the heavy visit schedule, we would like to
propose it be held on either
Tue 14
or Wed 15 Aug 2012. I'll send you
the visit itinerary upon receiving your confirmation."
 Email me which date you'd prefer!
I'll only start collecting
registrations much closer to the actual date, as this is 4
months away. See photos from 7 Lammaites of
our last visit:
Inside the Lamma Power Station, Feb 17, 2011.
Forum:
New HV Cables being laid.
|
John Cairns
- Official Court Volleyball/Basketball Correspondent:
(Photos
below by
John Cairns,
photo above by
unknown) |
Dragons,
Stallions, Vipers
Step Ahead
LAMMA ISLAND, Hong Kong -
Sun, April 22
Dragons roared, Stallions
galloped and Vipers hissed on April 22, the
first game-day in the revamped Lamma Island
Pinoy Basketball League (LIPBL). Three teams,
the Golden Dragons, the White Stallions and the
Purple Vipers, share first place after opening
victories.
Under blazing sunshine following
a week of rainy weather, two strong teams, the
Golden Dragons and the Brown Lions, squared off
in an energetic opening contest at Yung Shue
Wan's outdoor basketball court. Impressively,
the Dragons flew to a
 big
lead and held off the gritty Lions 65-54.
Led by hard-driving,
perpetual-motion man Kervin Yu, and by a
tall, agile newcomer, Sunny Wong, the
Dragons looked at times like the best team ever
to appear in the LIPBL. They out-roared some
powerful Lions, including Anthony Bito-Onas
and Alvin Diego, from last season's
title-winners, the Lamma Archers, and the
perpetually potent Makha Diop.
Read more and view many
more pictures...
|
Between the hoop and its
shadow, Arno Linder (right) and [perpetually potent]
Makha Diop do an aerial ballet.
|
The latest videos from all over Lamma, by
lammajoeyu, VV Driver and renowned Quadrocopter Aviator, including
indoors in his flat! Click above to play the videos.
Email me to
showcase YOUR Lamma-related videos and photo galleries!
Lamma people photo gallery by
Sean Creamer -
www.WorldlyImages.net:
Today, another little, "Typically Lamma!" picture and
story, demonstrating how some Lammaites react
when seeing a huge spider (1 inch body
length) devour a cockroach on the flat door of
Sean Creamer. He immediately
snapped a picture with his mobile phone camera on the way
to work, posting it on Facebook.
 A
good neighbour,
Howard
Sheard, seeing the photo, rushed over right away with his professional photo gear and
took some amazing close-up pictures (click on photo above). Then he
Facebooked
them as well, getting dozens of admiring and disgusted
comments within a few
hours, summarised in
Strange bug forum topic.
This is quite similar to the common reaction from
Lammaites when encountering a snake: After getting to a safe distance, we
grab our pocket or mobile phone cameras and try to take a picture or video,
sharing it in our public
Lamma Snake Sightings Facebook group.
Afterwards, Howard continued adding more stunning photos
of pretty flowers, cute butterflies and colourful dragonflies to his
definitive
Random Lamma 2012 wildlife album. He was trying to soothe the
frazzled nerves of the few Lamma friends grossed out a bit by his grisly,
ghastly, gruesome portraits of this domestic
Huntsman
Spider enjoying a crunchy brunch. The lady of the house tried to put
this experienced but definitely not cute pest killer pet up for adoption,
but nobody has stepped forward yet, so its final fate remains unknown at this
time. Anybody?
  
|
John Cairns
- Official Court Volleyball/Basketball Correspondent:
(Poster
by
Lamma Hoops, photos by
John Cairns, animation by L-G.) |
New-Look Hoops
League
Shoots Into Action
LAMMA ISLAND, Hong Kong - Sun,
April 15 - With revamped teams and a
new-again feel, the Lamma Island Pinoy
Basketball League (LIPBL), now with a record six
teams, has opened another "season". The first
games take place on April 22.
Activities began on April 15 with a colorful
parade of brightly uniformed players, plus fans
and officials, along Main Street in Yung Shue
Wan, Lamma's largest village. After the
procession reached the local basketball court,
each team and player participated in an opening
ceremony that featured national anthems of the
Philippines and China, a prayer and a
sportsmanship oath. Then more activities ensued
with skills contests, a youth exhibition game,
food and music.
Organized by the Lamma Island Pinoy Sports
Association (LIPSA), the league showcases Lamma
basketball players (aged 14 or more) of all
nationalities. For this, its third season, LIPSA
disbanded the five previous teams and redrafted
players onto six new squads. So the league now
consists of the Aqua Sharks, Black Panthers,
Brown Lions, Golden Dragons, Purple Vipers and
White Stallions. Past champions, the Glorious
Tigers and the Lamma Archers, temporarily at
least, disappear into LIPBL history.
 On Sunday, a youth team (with players too
young for the league) coached by Jimmie
Lamsen overcame an early deficit to defeat a
rival side guided by Ivan Fernie. The
score was 18-10.
Many LIPBL players entertained the
opening-day crowd by engaging in skills
contests. The winners were: see poster!
Read more...
|
With helping hands and
teamwork, even tiny stars can shoot and score as the
crowd roars.
Golden Dragons march along Lamma's Main Street. |
A group of adventurous HK youngsters close
to the top (click to enlarge any photo)
Lammaites reaching the top once again: Pawel the Rambling
Guide, David from Boston, MTR Ollie & Lamma-Gung (not pictured, holding the
camera).
Lammaite Henry and an off-island friend, posing proudly during their ascent.
Finally, after months of searching, I found an
experienced guide
confident enough to lead us up the rarely used back route up to Mt. Stenhouse,
the highest peak of Lamma Island, from Lo So Shing Beach, via our long-running
forum topic,
Climbing Mt Stenhouse, where I've been polling our forum members:
Have you ever climbed to the summit of Mt
Stenhouse?
| Yes,
more than 5 years ago |
|
13% |
[ 5
] |
| Yes,
less than 5 years ago |
|
28% |
[ 11
] |
| Yes,
more than once! |
|
28% |
[ 11
] |
| I
tried, but didn't make it all the way to the summit |
|
2% |
[ 1
] |
| Not
yet, but I'd like to try it soon |
|
23% |
[ 9
] |
| No way,
I'm not nuts! |
|
2% |
[ 1
] |
Total Votes : 38
  
Route map created by MapMyHike and my Android phone
w/GPS, climbing up from
Lo So Shing beach; then down via the pavilion (4) to the SKW Tin Hau Temple.
I can still hide behind the Trig Point atop Mt Stenhouse! I plan to return
yearly to test my fitness and check if I've expanded beyond the width of
this pillar again.
 
Intrepid explorers facing up to the tough challenge of the 350m
summit, each of the 4 of us from a different home country. We didn't
encounter any snakes, centipedes, feral dogs, wild boars or other
fascinating Lamma wildlife,
to our disappointment!
 
Lo So Shing, 1 of only 2 public Lamma beaches - Backside
of Sok Kwu Wan
 
South Lamma, Ling Kok Shan and Tung O Wan - Zooming in on
Shek Pai Wan beach
  
Through tall grass off Lo So Shing - A deep cave close to
the top,
very narrow for humans, maybe home to some of the Lo So Shing wild
boars?
  
We stopped over for drinks and Durian ice-cream (me only)
in the LoSo Shop
(current Website of the Day). Several of the relaxed guests were involved in
playing with and taking pictures of crawling insects, some I had never seen
before.
More photos in our
Climbing Mt Stenhouse forum topic.
From the latest
newsletter of the
Hans Andersen Club Lamma Island Centre.
Quoting ex-Lammaite superstar
Chow Yun-Fat in the recent
Time Out HK magazine cover interview about the Top 100 HK films
(he's starring in 7 of them!):
 "When
I was living on Lamma Island as a kid, I was mostly watching Cantonese
opera. [Laughs] I mean the bamboo theatre for the Tin Hau Festival...
when you didn't have electric lamps and were only using oil lamps in the
tents... when you see things light up in the darkness... it's like being in
a dream. And you know how detached the music and lyrics of Cantonese opera
could make you feel, how their costumes and makeup [could make you feel]...
so I felt 'wow, that was really amazing!' [Chuckles]
With an endorsement like that, how about checking it out
yourself? Fat-Gor (Brother Fat, as he's locally known) has been known
to sneak into these performances in YSW and SKW even nowadays. It's all
free, if you stay just on the outside of the bamboo arena and is just a
great photo opportunity which I've covered almost every year in many
photo galleries. The
Cantonese opera in the YSW Football Pitch is performing from today, Wed, Apr
11 - Sun, Apr 15!
The best day to see it will be Friday, Apr 13, on
LAMMA DAY, when there'll be so much more happening at the Tin Hau temple and
the Gaido pier in YSW:
 
The Waterfront Bar and Restaurant --
Bookworm Cafe
 
Pizza Milano --
LaLa mama
Yes, I'm one of those annoying people who take quick
snapshots of their food before tucking in, and then even posting them online
occasionally! But at least I'm (rarely) blogging about it and I try to take
flattering pictures, doing justice to the surprisingly and consistently high
quality of most local restaurants.
By the way, I'm still looking for one or more Official
Court Gluttons to review Lamma restaurants. The new couple I appointed a
few months back got too busy with work (and hiking all over the place),
basically giving up after a single review, unfortunately. Send me your
little food reviews and pictures, please, instead of just posting them to
OpenRice like everybody else! Up there you'll only be one of
gazillions of food reviewers, but in the Lamma-zine I'll make you feel
special and admired by your friends, becoming a local celeb, an Official
Court Glutton! Here's a list of recent, upcoming and rumoured changes in the
local dining & drinking scene, to get you started with ideas for your own
reviews:
Bar & Restaurant news
There's been a wide variety of religious Easter
celebrations on Lamma, from a Sunday mass with spiritual healing to a sea
baptism off Power Station beach and various Easter egg hunts all over. But
for the majority of Lammaites, it's just another long holiday, an
opportunity to visit the Outlying Islands. I was sitting at the outside wall
of Diesel's this afternoon, for one of my favourite sports, people watching;
gazing at the huge crowds mill and meander below while I was enjoying a cool
cider. Nobody was carrying or wearing anything traditionally Easter-related,
no chocolatey, sweet goodies, nothing egg-shaped, except...
Fish balls the size and colour of brown eggs, white on
the inside!
The snack shop to the right of Diesel's Sports Bar
was doing an absolutely roaring trade on this beautiful weekend, people
lining up to buy waffles, "egg balls", brightly colourful drinks, etc. But
their absolute bestsellers are their 3 egg-sized fishballs on a stick,
selling a stick every few seconds at one point; obviously a local delicacy
which I had never tried till now. High time for a fishball review and photos
of visitors enjoying them while dripping and strolling down Main Street!
 
 
  
So many visitors enjoying these 3-for-$14 snacks, how do
they taste like?
 Well,
surprisingly quite nice, actually! Firm, springy bite, pleasant texture and
crunch, finely minced, pleasantly warm, really juicy and quite but not
overly sweet. They come with a choice of 6 (!) colourful condiments in
squirt bottles, from Soy, Sweet, Mustard to Chilli Oil. So here's another
great opportunity to get creative and paint your Easter eggs, eh, fish balls
in pretty designs. Afterwards, you're even able to eat the coloured sauces,
unlike egg paints, and no need to peel them!
Thinking about it, this is actually much smarter and
tastier than boiled Easter eggs which all taste the same and the only
available seasoning is salt usually. These convenience and taste advantages
might be the main reasons that nobody seems to have been selling painted
eggs on Lamma this Easter weekend? So these fish balls are kind of the
Chinese version of Western-style Easter eggs! Another Confusing Cultural
Conundrum solved and explained!
This tasty and succulent snack is also big enough and
well suited to be shared with 2 more people, so it's a pretty good value as
well. Try them and share them!
Most of our regular readers probably know by now that
Lamma-Gung, Lamma Ah- Gung, means Lamma grandpa in Cantonese. When I came to
HK over 24 years ago, I gained an instant local family, 3 school-age
children who lived with my gfriend's ex. By now, two of them have their own
children, so I've got 3 grandsons now. I still remember millennium night
waiting in
 the
hospital for the birth of the first one, finally being born in the morning
of Jan 1, 2000.
I usually meet some of my local family around Chinese
festivals, playing the role of slightly weird, eccentric uncle living on an
Outlying Island whose Cantonese is still so poor. But by now, they've learnt
English and we can communicate pretty well. To improve their English, their
mother sent the two oldest ones, 10 and 12, to stay overnight and talk with
Gung-Gung, as they call me. Showing them around Lamma, it was interesting
how this local children, raised in a housing estate this millennium with
mobiles Facebooking photos and computer game scores, reacted to the "rural
deprivation" of Lamma (no fast food!!), what they liked and didn't like.
Well, they definitely loved the pizzas here, trying most of the YSW
restaurants serving them!
Here are a few photos I took and posted on their Facebook
Walls where they were quickly viewed and Liked by their mum and relatives,
even before the two sleepyheads awoke mid-morning:
 
Will Tung-lam be able to devour this entire Pizza Milano
Special all by himself?
Spencer is inventing an entirely new and advanced Sleep Yoga position?
Spencer exploring peaceful Lamma Island on Easter
Sunday.
Is Spencer going to join the Lamma Outrigger Canoe Club on Power Station
Beach?
 
Shrimpy food painting on a plate in a fancy Central
restaurant -- Steamed fish.
The Fearless but Exhausted Nighttime Mosquito Killers still soundly asleep
at 9:30am on Easter Monday!
HK Flower Show, Victoria Park, HK Island, March 16-25
This yearly event might feature the highest density of
amateur photographers you might ever see in HK,
except maybe when "pseudo models" are promoting their sexy books at the HK
Book Fair. But while everybody else was snapping the amazingly colourful
displays of flowers & plants, I was more interested in the crowds, flocks,
gaggle of photographers themselves, showing off their cool, but often highly expensive gear
while trying so hard to frame and capture just THE perfect shot.
My trusty, dusty, slightly chipped, 4+year-old, but still very reliable
Nikon D80 made me feel slightly inadequate & old-fashioned when looking
all this leading-edge photomagic equipment, gadgetry & assorted
paraphernalia. Gear envy raised its ugly green head. But how many of these
Great-Gear Guys actually do get paid for their photos, as I occasionally do,
but still too rarely. Do you need a wannabe professional photographer who
will "Work for Food" (and a drink, or two)?
Photos of pretty flowers? Boooring! Photos of photographers
taking loads of photos of pretty flowers? Even more boring!??
 
 
 
Apr 6 - Good Friday: Faster Broadband for Lamma!
Are you happy with the Internet
Broadband speed in your home?
If not, check out our
Faster Broadband for Lamma forum and post the results of your
Speedtest Wave, please. Then join the
Faster Broadband for Lamma Facebook group, hopefully lobbying for
much better speed and service from our so far sole home/business Broadband
provider, PCCW Netvigator. The only non-mobile connection to the Internet
world for private users on our island is still a single microwave link from
a hilltop, used for all 1,000+ Internet fixed-line accounts, plus hundreds
of streaming NOW TV accounts clogging up the telephone landlines still
carrying almost all our Internet traffic.
 We'd
also love to convince
Hutchison Global Communications to finally announce their much
faster service, after laying optical fibre in much of North Lamma over the
last several years! HGC, loads of very frustrated and unhappy PCCW customers
are waiting for your fibre Broadband! After a recent massive price increase
and massive reduction in speed by PCCW (down from 5+ to typically BELOW
1Mb/s these days), many of us would be most eager to switch over to your new
service! Hurry up, please!
P.S. Did you ever get a
broken internal link on an old page of this website*,
before Dec 1, 2010, linking to a forum page? If yes, simply replace
/forum in the link with /forum-OK. For example:
www.lamma.com.hk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8332 would need -OK added:
www.lamma.com.hk/forum-OK/viewtopic.php?t=8332 to work fine.
* I had to change the
forum folder's name quite some time ago because of relentless spam attacks
almost killing it. We've been mostly fine since then, but there was no easy
way of changing all these thousands of old forum links manually.
If you know a way to do this easily on many basic HTML pages, please let me
know.
For a lot more info on how to get a new, unused niche in
the no- waiting-list, lowest-cost, but very pretty & clean Lamma Columbarium
up on a lush, forested hillside, check out my latest "research" and
up- to-date info in our forum:
Lamma Garden of Remembrance
 What to do on a pretty & dry Ching Ming Festival holiday like today?
How about avoiding the crowds of visitors and grave sweepers by walking up to 4 Lamma peaks,
after paying respects to an old friend in the Lamma Columbarium?
It was devoid of visitors even today, as there are only a few dozen niches
occupied so far, only 2 non- Chinese so far.
There's room enough for my own ashes someday,
I hope, in the far, far distant future.
At an estimated 3-4 niches/year usage over the last several years (I've
counted), there's almost a 100-year reserve of empty niches available.
As columbarium niches are extremely rare, expensive and have years-long
waiting lists, we Lammaites seem to be very fortunate,
A few years ago, I've been
soliciting possible epitaphs for my own niche in the
"Lamma Garden of Remembrance", for example "Here Lies Lamma-Gung,
the Self- styled Online Voice of YSW", "...Still Loitering with Intent to
Commit an Arrestable Offence", "... He's
Finally Shut Up!"
 I've been hiking up the hillside above the Firestation
today, through the expanding graveyard covering much of the hillside below
the 1st Cable Road, along newly concreted paths and ever-larger graves, some
almost the size of Lamma flats, with interesting offerings, from beautiful
flowers to an entire
pig's head.
Hiking over Mt. Panorama in front of the windturbine, I
continued along the Snake Trail to the Youth Hostel and the nearby "Lamma
Garden of Remembrance", deserted even today on Ching Ming, the official
grave-sweeping day, where I paid my respects to
David Kerr.
Still energetic and feeling invigorated, I climbed
another 3 nearby hills, taking more photos, passing some abseiling training,
then descending down to the Green Lamma Green pavilion on the Family Trail,
returning to YSW. See my meandering "Stumbling
Randomly" trail above, almost all off-road, courtesy of the MapMyHike
Android app and GPS. "Enough words, show us the photos!"
Grave sweepers from town visiting their ancestral graves.
    
Urns, fresh flowers, hell money,
offerings and one of many guard lions.
Another busy day at the Lamma Winds windturbine,
our unique tourist attraction.
    
Ever-expanding graveyard above the
Firestation, with some huge graves with terraces and trees --
View from Mt Panorama in front of Lamma Winds Plaza --
Snake Trail meandering along the hilltop ridges --
Mountainbiker riding the demanding Snake Trail (I rode it once, never
again!) -- Above Luk Chau
Village, with HK Island in the distance.
The famous Pair of Chairs on the
Snake Trail, with a different look and position almost every time I pass
them, just above Lo Tik Wan pier and the fish farms.
    
Brand-new staircase from Lo Tik Wan to the middle of the
Snake Trail. Is it just a matter of time before they'll concrete over the
entire scenic Snake Trail,
my favourite dirt-path hiking trail?? -- Chinese family & dog on Snake Trail
--
Clambering up the rocky hillside to the highest mid-Lamma peak, high above
the Lamma Quarry Lake -- Descent -- Return via the scenic and popular Family
Trail.
"Lamma Garden of Remembrance", just beyond the Youth Camp/Hostel, besides path
to Luk Chau Village: Enough space (for Lamma residents only) for 100+ years to
come!
"Here Lies Lamma-Gung"... someday, I hope....
 
RIP, Dave, 1945 - 2007, truly a "Friend to many" and an
early supporter of this website, donating his digital camera 7+ years ago.
 
Abseiling training for teenagers
high above the Lamma Quarry.
Yes, I dare to do it, stepping down a steep rock cliff!
(Pictures taken while balancing off an overhanging rock ledge, without a
rope or any safety.)
On the highest peak of mid-Lamma overlooking the Quarry
Lake, with one of a number of Trigonometry Point pillars all over the
island. Did I miss any so far?
Back to civilisation: Concerto Inn Hotel's "Palm
Tree Pigeon & Seafood Cafe"
looking so cozy and inviting at sunset.
 
Bike Shop -- Thai Thai 2's many
dinner takeaway
offerings in Tai Yuen Village.
One of the girls recognised me as
"Lamma.com.hk", so I asked them for a photo.
More info on Laughter Yoga,
contact Honey Pamnani,
www.LaughterYoga.org
Super Brain Yoga (for more info contact
Sheela @
World Pranic Healing):
|
Bike Mike
- Official Court Biking Correspondent:
(Extensively edited,
extravagantly extended,
exceedingly illustrated
& excessively hyperlinked by L-G.
Photos by Bike Mike, Chairwoman Jo, Alanikali & L-G) |
Lamma Eco-cycles
Soon to Open for Business
LAMMA ISLAND, Hong Kong -
March
28
Another "green" enterprise is about to open
its doors on Lamma Island. Local entrepreneur
Bike Mike, seeing the demand of Lamma
residents for good, cheap, reliable, ecologically
friendly transportation, will embark on this new
retail business.
Lamma Eco-cycles will
soon open next door to
Tigra da Lua in Tai Yuen Village, Lamma's
premier fashion and jewelry boutique, run by
Bike Mike's cousin, Maria. It'll be located not far
from YSW's popular
Bike Lady, but
not affiliated with her ever-popular Nam Fung
Bike shop.
A life-long bicycle enthusiast, Bike Mike has
evolved, bringing his avocation of cycling to
the new vocation of repairing and selling
recycled bicycles.
"This new venture just jumped out at me
today, Mar 28, as I was almost run over by
1 of the 2 VVs carrying confiscated bikes
from the YSW ferry pier to the
Waste Transfer
 Station",
said Bike Mike (see photo).
"I immediately
gave chase on my own bicycle, and after some
heated negotiations, I had purchased 1 VV- load of bikes
at scrap metal prices", he added.
The bikes on the other VV have unfortunately
been destroyed.
In keeping with the "3 R's of Ecology",
Reduce, Re-use, Recycle, Lamma Eco-cycles will
re-sell "executive-ridden", and "gently used"
bicycles. Purchase of one of these bicycles will
save on the energy used to produce a new bike,
and our resources, such as iron ore, which goes
into the bicycle steel, will be conserved.
"The reduction in rubber use alone, by
patching old tires will probably save several
forests of Rubber Trees", Bike Mike added. A
Lamma Rubber Tree Forest has been suggested by
some enterprising Lammaites to be planted in the
still-deserted Lamma Quarry, modeled after the
fine example of Bobsy's 12+years-old
Lamma
Forest above Pak Kok Village.
The Green Lamma Group might be interested to
continue their famous eco-hikes through the
future Rubber Tree Forest inside the Quarry.
Green Lamma Green might be interested to
organise Rubber Tree plantings
for their many eager volunteers and also
add the
Forest to their existing Lamma eco-tours (see
Eco-Tour Map) with eco-tour guides.
There's even been talk of organising
future
Lamma Enduro
mountainbiking races through the Forest,
continuing a former proud tradition of local
races. These future races would be sponsored by
Lamma Eco-cycles and heavily promoted by local
biking cheerleaders like
Lamma-Gung on his grass-green Eco-cycle, becoming
well-known (and feared) as the "Speed Demon of Cable
Road" (downhill only). These races would use
tires from the Lamma Rubber Tree Forest, keeping it all local.
These proposed Rubber Tree Forest eco-hikes
and mountainbiking races could become major
tourist attractions of the
YMCA Wonderland currently in preparation
inside the Lamma Quarry. This natural amusement
park would add these to the existing
long-time attractions & thrill rides, like the
Bike Ramp Jump into the
Quarry Lake,
the famous, heart-pounding Dog
Pack Chase,
the Wild Boar Petting Zoo, plus
skinny dipping & nude sunbathing
on the Quarry Lake Island (see below). A Govt. 3- year study is
currently in progress re: the long-term
feasibility of these attractions, plus other future uses of
the Quarry, including rumoured Public Housing
and an
Eco-park:
Lamma Eco-cycles
also hopes to rent a little
booth inside the future Bike Park to acquire
more 2nd, 3rd or 4th-hand bikes at source to
recycle and sell them at modest profit.
Lamma Eco-cycles will also carry a wide range
of used and nearly new wind surfboards, kayaks,
and small sail boats, which have been
"abandoned" in recent months on Power Station
Beach. Rumor has it that at least one OC-6, one
surfski and even a bright-yellow dragonboat might
become available for purchase soon at near-scrap
prices!
The picture
attached below shows the location of Bike Mike's
already planned Northern-Canadian branch,
Inuit Eco-Cycles!
All Lamma residents are invited to the Grand
Opening of Lamma Eco-cycles on April 1st. Big
discounts for the entire month of April!
|
Bike Mike in full action,
testing one of his Eco-cycles and gear in Northern Canada while wearing a Lamma OCC
shirt!
Confiscated
bikes being transported through Main Street
Bike Lady in the Nam Fung Bike Shop
Lamma Quarry Bike Jump
A provisional catalog of bikes available from Lamma Eco-
cycles soon
A wide range of Govt.- approved cycling safety gear &
apparel will be on sale
Bike Mike & his mascot welcome you to Lamma
Eco-cycles! |
P.S. Bike Mike has become a regular Lamma-zine
correspondent, see some of his former articles below. The most recent
articles, the most accurate and well- researched ones, seem to appear always
on the same date every year....
April 1, 2011:
Eco-Development Starting Construction
April 1, 2010:
Island Bar Reinvents Itself
Sep 29, 2009:
Mother of All Rock Piles
Jan 25, 2009:
Bike
Mike's Farewell
Nov 28, 2008:
Round Island Race -- Take 1 (Mike)
Oct 23, 2008:
Bike Mike's Further Adventures
Oct 17, 2008:
I'm Not Gay; I'm Canadian!
Oct 15, 2008:
Bike Mike's New Girlfriend
Oct 6, 2008:
Reflections
of a Lamma Newbie
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started in 2002, and will be updated (almost) daily with anything
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