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Press to Pay
July
30 - Is it still operational, this DIY self checkout contraption
in Yan Yan Store, home-made in 2015?
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Good-Bye to Marckq
July
25 - "Lamma Lamma Lamma. What an island. My home away from my
new home."
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Beach Partayyy!
July 22 - Marckq: "Great party! Thanks for coming and hope everyone enjoyed it!"
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Reopening Diesel's
July 7 - Our longtime readers and most Lammaites will remember the former Diesel's, an iconic bar!
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Visiting LegCo
July 6 - Pre-registration, airport-style security check-in, phone call, bags X-ray, id card check.
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July 31:
Ring-the-Bell! for 16th
Anniversary
Renovated performance stage with
newish backdrop, plus the
fast-growing array of fancy
trophies won by the
often-victorious Lamma
dragonboaters all over HK:
Lamma-Gung & Lamma-Por ringing
the famous Bell.
Sorry, we're
too shy to show our faces!
Teeheehee...
Drinks were sponsored by
The Island Bar. Many thanks
to the very generous
Brad Tarr &
Oliver Armistead & silent
partners! And many thanks to the
precious friends who attended!
The usual very peaceful and
highly sociable life in The
Island Bar goes on, undisturbed
by the occasional, rare Bell
ringing and other distractions,
overlooking the Beer Garden,
neighbour Man Fung Chin. restaurant and YSW harbour.
July 30:
Press to Pay
Is it still operational, this
DIY self checkout contraption in Yan
Yan Store, home-made in 2015?
Just cash payments and credit
cards, no Octopus
or other electronic payment.
For comments from current and
former customers, click below:
Below is a little mock-up I made
of a possible future upgrade: A
brand-new co-operation of HSBC
(Lamma's only 2 ATMs) with Yan
Yan Store's DIY self-checkout
contraption?
(Photos by
Marckq Schmidt
and
Craig Hurst, combined by
Yours Truly. Thank you to
Mark Dineley
for the inspiration.)
July 28:
Total Lunar Eclipse Photos?
 Total
lunar eclipse this early
morning! Getting up at 4am,
setting up my tripod and zoom on
the rooftop, full of expectation
for great views of a reddish
blood moon.
But my efforts failed due to the
cloud cover and my zoom lens
unable to focus on the very dark
moon behind almost-constant
clouds before and after the full
eclipse.
2 hours of unsuccessful waiting
to get a good zoom shot during
the few minutes the clouds
cleared a bit. Total failure.
Alastair Gray seems to have
created the best and most
creative photo of the Red Moon
night, an amazing "Holey
Planet"-style creation!
Congrats, click for more:
I had to wait till sunrise after
6am to get a half-decent shot.
The sunrise was amazing and I
got some fine shots. A failure
turned into a success through
long-time patience? A lesson
learnt? Nah, just luck!
July 25:
Good-Bye to Marckq!
Marckq Schmidt,
Lamma Book Club,
ex-Lammaite:
"Lamma Lamma Lamma. What an
island. My home away from my new
home. Just had my leaving dinner
and on my way to the airport
now.
So many new beautiful
memories - thanks everybody for
giving me these 2 amazing weeks.
#lammabookclub4life"
Plus a little "Leaving Lamma"
story Marckq wrote and
illustrated exclusively for the
Lamma-zine a few months ago.
Many thanks! We'll definitely
see you again someday soon!
 "In September last year I
moved away from Lamma.
I
lived on Lamma Island for 4
years - arriving October in
2013. Previously to that I'd
been living in Beijing for a few
years, but after getting a job
offer to work in a financial
advertisement agency in Hong
Kong, I happily accepted to make
this move south (I actually
later ended up working in
Digital marketing for a global
health insurance company).
I'd
been in Hong Kong a few times on
a visa run, and knew that I
didn't want to live in the city.
After considering Sai Kung and
Lantau, I can say now that I am
very very happy that I chose
Lamma Island to be my new home.
In
my first few weeks I had already
met dozens of people that I
ended up spending a lot of my
time with. I got introduced to
the Outrigger and Dragonboat
club after I bumped in to Henry
and (pirate) John. These clubs
played a big big role in my
social life, I got to meet so
many inspiring people! I had to
drop out from the paddle clubs
due to a back injury, but still
enjoyed the races and parties!
 Shortly after joining the paddle
club I met Axel and Tom and
somehow we decided to build our
own 6 meter canoe. Building the
White Dragon took us 2 years to
complete. We spent so many
weekends, evenings and days on
this, haha! I learned so much,
we had a 1,000 set backs, pretty
much everything that could go
wrong went wrong - but we kept
going.
She
was taking shape as the months
progressed. It was sometimes
hard to keep going I have to
admit, we had our full time
jobs, relationships and our own
social lives. We laughed, we had
arguments, our hands had a 100
cuts and blisters, oh, those
mosquitos…. And the sun…. We
didn't know each other well
before we started this project -
but 2 years later I think it's
ok to say that these 2 guys mean
the world to me.
 Launching the White Dragon was
one of the most beautiful things
I've experienced in my life. We
paddled her from PSB in to the
YSW harbour and towards Pak Kok.
So smooth, so stable. It
floated. I was proud.
Not
everything is meant to be,
shortly after a few friends took
her out for a paddle and got
caught in a storm. She flipped,
filled with water and was later
dragged back to shore, where a
wave picked her up and that was
the end of that. No hard
feelings, the process of the
build was beautiful and I'll
always keep that in my heart.
 Another beautiful thing that
happened to me on Lamma was 'The
Lamma Book Club'. Together with
Oswin, Eileen, Jake and Luke
(and later Cameron and Adam) -
we got to organise a few really
nice events. We started with our
first 'Lamma Island Reggae
Festival' in 2015 (with much
help from John Parks!) and that
snowballed in to a lot more
events - NYE festivals, Beach
cinemas and floating cinemas,
secret Raves and many more. Wow
looking back at this now - we
were so lucky to be able to do
this. We had quite a few run ins
with the police, but towards the
end there was a good (well
almost always good) cooperation.
 But
- all good things come to an
end. I'd been on Lamma for 4
years, and felt like it was time
to move on. I moved to Barcelona
for love and a new job. The love
wasn't meant to be, and we got
separated shortly after the
move. To be completely honest,
it is/was very hard to find my
way, my life in this new city.
Making new friends, finding my
'routine', learning the
language. All I wanted to do was
move back as fast as I could
back to Lamma Island.
 But I told
myself I have to give it a try
for at least 6 months. Those 6
months have just passed now that
I'm writing this - and I've
managed to renegotiate my
contract - which gives me the
opportunity to work from Hong
Kong from time to time.
I'll be back on this little
island in July '18, after a
quick stopover in Bali to go to
Tom's wedding. I am smiling and
full with excitement now while
I'm writing this - I can't wait
to see all of you soon and have
bonfires on the beach, go swim
and hike around.
I
am and will always be a
Lammanite!"
July 24:
Cook of Western Food Wanted
Call
2982 1168 or
message.
Some of the
sample dishes the new cook
should be able to prepare, or
add his own Western-style
creations:
 
 
July 23:
16th
Anniversary of Lamma Forum
16 years today since the
Lamma forum on this
site started! I'd ring the
celebratory bell in The Island
Bar, if I could afford to buy
everybody present a drink. I can't
afford my own drinks these days,
so if somebody wants to sponsor
a Ring-the-Bell!, that would be
grand. ;~)
Till just a few years ago, the
Lamma forum was Lamma's
free-speech version of Facebook,
where you could discuss anything
Lamma-related, from parties,
pets, pet peeves, restaurants,
sunsets and the latest gossip to
local development projects,
classifieds or just being plain
silly.
 It
got very creative and great fun
for years, but also occasionally
aggressive, resulting in me, the
admin, being blamed for anybody
else's negative posts, being
badmouthed and/or ignored by
former friends, even threatened
with slander litigation and
physical violence. With lots of
Swiss diplomacy and keeping my
cool, the forum and I "survived"
all of this, not even mentioning
all the
spam attacks,
email bombs,
trojans, viruses, worms,
tracking cookies, firewall
attacks, in the earlier, wild
days of the Internet. This gave
me quite a few sleepless nights
and lots of diving deep into
technical countermeasures and
installing fixes.
All the mischievous, anonymous
forum trolls in the early days
made the introduction of basic
rules in the open forum
unavoidable, plus the
introduction of the closed,
members-only "Fight Club" forum.
This solved the problem within
weeks as it deprived the
anonymous trolls of their
much-treasured,
consequences-free, wide
publicity, so they lost interest
quickly in trolling our forum
(and almost no banning or
censorship was needed).
I couldn't have done it all
without the help of some
wonderful volunteer moderators
in the various forum topics who
brought their expertise and
passion to their pet topics of
discussion! Thank you all!
This entire website started as a
free-speech forum only. Soon I
added the initially weekly, then
monthly, then daily Lamma-zine,
plus an e-newsletter to promote
the forum to my fast-growing
subscriber list (6,000+
currently). Adding several other
sections, the website grew and
grew to over 4 million
hits/month worldwide, accessed
in over 100 countries.
Nowadays, the Lamma forum is
kind of on life support, almost
killed off by Facebook. It
serves as an easily
searchable archive
of 1,000s of stories, 10,000s of images,
plus quite a number of
videos/multimedia about anything
Lamma-related of the last 16
years; an online time capsule,
public and searchable by anybody
on the entire
Internet.
The forum's webhosting is cheap
(US$59.95/year) and sponsored
for this year, so I might keep
it alive and maintained for a
while longer. The rest of this
website, hosted separately, is currently under
sponsored renovation to give it
a modern look and make it fully
"mobile-friendly".
P.S. If you ever get tired of
Facebook - where your personal
information is being widely shared and
(mis)used - our anonymous,
free-speech, personal-info-free
forum will still be here, for a
little while longer. Will it
survive to its 20th? I hope so!
 P.S.
II: "I'd ring the
celebratory Bell in The Island
Bar, if I could afford to buy
everybody a drink ... if
somebody wants to sponsor a
Ring-the-Bell!, that would be
grand!"
My casual, non-serious wish
above has been fulfilled, to my
big surprise!!!
Ring-the-Bell! this
Thursday, July 26, 7pm
in
The Island Bar!
Free drink for everybody present
when the Bell rings.
Sponsored by proprietors
Brad & Ollie. Thank
you!
Marckq Schmidt,
Lamma Book Club, ex-Lammaite:
"Great party! Thanks for
coming and hope everyone enjoyed
it!"
Discussion paper of District
Councils:
"The
existing Pak Kok Pier ("Pier")
is located at the northern tip
of Lamma Island. The Pier was
first built and financed by
villagers and reconstructed in
the 1970s and 1990s.
The
villagers of the Pak Kok Tsuen
and Pak Kok San Tsuen mainly
rely on the Pier to commute to
urban areas. Tourists also use
the Pier to the Lamma Island.
The location of the Pier is
subjected to strong monsoon wind
and exposed to sea swell.
The
boarding and alighting of
passengers at the Pier are
inconvenient. Therefore, there
is a need to implement
full-scale reconstruction works
to facilitate alongside berthing
of vessels, as well as easier
and safer boarding and alighting
of passengers.
The
Pier will maintain operation
during the construction stage.
The existing landing steps will
be demolished and replaced by
seawall blocks with handrails
upon commissioning of the new
pier.
Subject to the progress of
funding proposal, the proposed
works are anticipated to
commence in the second half of
2019 for completion in 2021. We
expect to gazette the project
under the Foreshore and Sea-bed
(Reclamations) Ordinance (Cap.
127) in the 4th quarter of
2018."
It's rare that this proud
Gung-Gung posts about his HK
relatives (from Lamma-Por's
former husband.) But I can't
contain myself today!
The eldest of my 3
grand-stepsons and some of his
schoolmates are celebrating
their success in the
DSE exam! His excellent
grades allowing him to choose
any university and discipline he
wants to study (making up his
mind from 3 top choices now). At
the last family dinner, I gave
him quite a bit of advice
pre-exam, from my own Swiss
student days.
Lamma-Por and I are remembering
well the Y2K millennium night
spent in hospital, awaiting his
birth. But I've never seen him
in a tie before, I think!
Thuis is how I remember him and
his brother on Lamma, frolicking
at Hung Shing Yeh beach just 6
years ago, visiting their
Gung-Gung and Ah-Por overnight:
P.S.
Counteracting the feel-good
story above, another
step-grandson just failed his
extensive entry test to Lamma
Primary School, asking him to
repeat his (successfully
completed) year if he'd move
here and join the
Lamma Northern School.
He's staying put in his current
school, no repetition needed. I
never knew that Lamma Northern
School is so tough? It seems a
great preparation for Lamma kids
to continue their education
off-island beyond primary,
according to local parents.
All we have on Lamma are a few
kindergartens, but just a single
primary school (P1-6) is left,
several former Lamma schools had
to close down island-wide (not
enough pupils, according to
Govt.) in the last years and
decades. Our population keeps
growing very slowly (1%/year,
slower than HK-average), but
it's also aging and has less
children.
Register as a Village Rep
voter!
Details here and
here...
 July 10:
Interviewing LegCo's
Eddie Chu Hoi-dick
"Went to interview with
Chu Hoi-dick
in LegCo canteen. We spent
almost two hours there. He's
fluent in English, very
well-composed, gentle and
approachable."
 These are
the comments from my
Lamma-zine volunteer, coming
along to our interview with law
maker
Eddie Chu in the
LegCo complex. I agree
fully.
Introduced
by a new friend of the
Lamma-zine, Eddie invited me
for this interview. We
discussed many issues
concerning Lamma and
Lammaites (Village Charter, rebuilding/renovating the
two
N.Lamma ferry piers,
ex-Lamma Quarry housing
plans dormant for now,
village rep and district
council elections, VV
issues, DAB dominance,
raising limits for
LegCo-approval exempt
village project from $20 to
$150 million, etc.) with our
official, independent LegCo
member (NT West, incl.
Islands District).
There'll be many
more Lamma-zine stories in
due time. He's also joined
the "Lamma Island
Uncensored" FB group,
posting occasionally about
these Lamma issues. Most
welcome!
 
Eddie's office is a very creative working
environment, bring your foldable
bike and personal knick-knacks
to the office.
This is probably not
the same bike of the staffer
who won this
Champion trophy in last
year's YMCA Mountainbiking
Challenge in the ex-Lamma Quarry
(Lamma-zine
photo story).
Congratulatory messages for CHD
gracing his LegCo office walls.
July 9:
Register as a Village Rep Voter!
 Designing HK:
"If
you wish to influence the
management of your village, make
sure you vote during the village
elections in January.
To
become a village voter, you need
to enter your name in the
register of electors for
Rural Representative Elections.
Permanent residents who lived in
their village for 3 or
more years have a right
to vote, but you need to
register first.
Please
register as a village voter on
or before 16 July,
2018 (next Monday). See below,
it only takes a few minutes
on-line:
Form
online (includes
postage-paid, addressed
envelope) or pick it up from the
public table in the Rural
Committee Building, G/F
(opposite HSBC).
Village Charter
We will
promote a 'Village Charter' in
the run up to the village
elections. Here is the first
draft and we welcome your
comments:
1.
Improve road networks and road
maintenance
2. Improve
parking facilities
3. Improve
road safety for pedestrians and
cyclists
4. Improve public
transport services
5. Reform
garbage and recyclable
collection
6. Upgrade refuse
collection points against
wildlife raids
7. Promote
local composting facilities
8. Control fly-tipping
9.
Expand green and amenity
facilities permitted for small
houses (NTEH)
10. Promote
solar energy installation on
rooftops
11. Improve village
water supply
12. Speed up the
roll out of village sewerage
networks
13. Promote 'smart
villages' with high speed
internet
14. Review the
standards and guidelines for
public facilities
15. Expand
elderly and child care services
16. Facilitate better management
of burial areas
17. Enhance
public areas and community
properties
18. Support a
transparent, accessible,
contestable and competitive
rural committee.
How to register as a village
voter:
Download the relevant
registration form here:
https://goo.gl/WBajwA
Complete the form and return:
(a) by
post (Address: Home Affairs
Department, 30/F, Southorn
Centre, 130 Hennessy Road, Wan
Chai, Hong Kong); or
(b) the
signed application form scanned
and attached as an email
attachment; or
(c) by using
the electronic form and
uploading the completed and
signed form to the HAD.
For more details on the
eligibility of voters:
https://goo.gl/tSx5nb"
July 8:
Philippe Colin, Artist
See who I met again by pure chance at the Pak Kok ferry pier last Sunday:
Philippe Colin, a
well-known artist who's painted
many scenes all over Lamma and
HK!
Here's the completed painting,
WhatsApped to me just a few days
later:
See more of Philippe's
Lamma paintings...
July 7:
Reopening Diesel's
Our longtime readers and most
Lammaites will remember the
former Diesel's, an iconic bar
in a traditional, old-style
village house on YSW Main
Street.
Many Lamma-zine stories have
been published about their
parties and other events in our 16-year history!
Despite local resistance the
house was torn down and rebuilt
as a standard double village
house. The G/F has FINALLY
reopened last Sat, June 30, as
the new Diesel's!
Interior-designed by Lamma's
HK-wide-famous
Debi Yeung Design. It's now
also a restaurant, just in case
you get hungry from all the
drinking and partying.
Logo by Lamma's incomparable
Harry Harrison.
Many congratulations! Many more
Lamma-zine stories to be written
and photographed soon, we hope.
Some of Diesel's own best photos
of the opening party:
Check out the Diesel's Bar &
Restaurant page...
July 6:
Visiting LegCo
Our first time ever in the new
LegCo complex in Admiralty, just
besides the new HK Govt.
skyscraper. But first:
pre-registration, airport-style
security check-in, phone call,
bags X-ray, id card check.
Here's the view from a
LegCo member office (who invited
us for an interview), all the way
to the Outlying Islands ferry
piers:
 .jpg)
Spotted in LegCo before and
during our interview:
Edward Yiu
(plus a Lamma-zine volunteer),
Dennis Kwok, Junius Ho and
various other former/current
LegCo members:
P.S. So what about
that LegCo interview we were
there for?
See this weekend's
Lamma-zine story...
July 5:
Baroque on Lamma News?
Another casual meeting with the
Baroque on Lamma's top man
yesterday, it's been a few
years...
Summary: No
news is good news,
basically just waiting for a
change in political climate
before applying again to the
Town Planning Board (turned down
the 1st time in 2011).
Their extensive, detailed,
modified plans to build a
high-class marina (large enough
for 100m superyachts), luxury housing development
and a 6-star resort hotel, all in
southernmost Lamma's Tung O Wan
area.
The hotel would be a
6-star
Capella
hotel by
the very same hotels and resorts group that
housed the Trump-Kim summit a
few weeks ago in the Capella
hotel on
Singapore's Sentosa Island.
So this HK$10 billion+ project
by the Mainland's
Agile Property group is
sleeping for now, to be awoken
as soon as the prevailing
political climate will shift, becoming more welcoming and less
hostile to their huge plans for
southernmost Lamma.
P.S. Keep up-to-date with this
project in our
Baroque on Lamma forum,
running since long before the
rejected TPB application in
2011.
Most recent
SCMPost stories from 2011.
Most recent
HK Free Press story from
2015.
July 4:
Transition Coal to Gas
"3 July 2018 - HK Electric
announced today a capital
expenditure of HK$26.6 billion
in the next five years to build
the infrastructure required for
the transition from coal to gas
generation in order to increase
the proportion of gas-fired
generation, while continuing to
provide a highly reliable power
supply and excellent services.
HK
Electric is pleased that its
2019-2023 Development Plan has
been approved by the Executive
Council today, said Managing
Director Mr. Wan Chi-tin who
pledged full support for the
Government in combating climate
change and improving local air
quality.
Under the new Development Plan,
HK Electric will invest HK$16.2
billion (see table 1) in
projects related to power
generation, which accounts for
61% of total investment. A large
part of it will be used to build
the new gas-fired units and
associated facilities required
to replace the retiring
coal-fired units...
...However,
following two years of
substantial special rebates in
2017 and 2018 - "Special Rent &
Rates Rebate" and "Special Fuel
Rebate", there is no room for HK
Electric to provide the same in
2019. These two rebates will be
reduced from 20 cents per unit
of electricity in 2018 to 4.6
cents in 2019, with the
shortfall of 15.4 cents to be
reflected in the 2019 tariff.
Mr.
Wan explained that though the
reduction of permitted rate of
return will lower tariff, it
could not fully offset the
impact of the substantial
reduction in the two special
rebates. As a result, there will
be a rebound in 2019 net tariff
by 7.6 cents per unit of
electricity, from 112.5 cents in
2018 to 120.1 cents in 2019,
representing an increase
of 6.8%."
SCMP
stories about the new tariffs:
HK households can expect
electricity bills to rise by 1.9
per cent next year
HK officials plan to give
consumers HK$8.7 billion helping
hand to pay electricity bills
over next 5 years
July 3:
1,000 Members!
I've just approved Member #1,000
into the
Lamma Island Uncensored
group yesterday night, being one
of several moderators.
Congratulations to my
Facebook/real-world acquaintance
Betty Hopperstad!
This Uncensored
group is the fastest growing
Lamma-related Facebook group; it
just took a few days more than 1
year to reach 1,000 Members!
I've asked
Betty Hopperstad for a few
words for the Lamma-zine:
"If someone had ask me in years
past where I might land in
retirement, Hong Kong was not
even on my radar, let alone,
Lamma Island. Then, in the early
2000's my son,
David Kramer,
moved to HK with his work and,
thereafter, found his way to
Lamma.
Fast-forward… I now have two
grand-children.
So,So, when I retired from my
faculty position in 2014, from
Napa Valley College, in
California, I made Lamma my home
as well, for one-half of the
year, Sept. through March. The
other half I'm in the US.
I
have grown to love Lamma, with
her majestic, sometimes magical,
and often other-worldly nature…
all in spite of her many jungle
creatures!
I
miss Lamma when I'm away. This
year will be my 10th year
visiting and now living,
part-time, on the Island. See
you all again in September!"
July 2:
What's
Up in July?
A full events calendar
at
Lamma Art Collective for the
month of July:
 
 
 
Colin Clarke of
The Blue
Goose Tavern writes:
Something precious has been
taken
So young, my baby
bird,
Why is God so cruel
sometimes?
Coz this, she
didn't deserve.
2
and a half years we got to know
Each other, it's been really
great!
But for reasons we
will never know
He's taken
our little cell mate.
You
showed us much love, you gave us
much fun.
You watched over me,
you watched over mum.
There
were things you hated, and
things you liked
And you'd
soon let us know, by giving us a
bite!
You'd lay down in your cage with
your feet in the air.
People
come running after having a
scare.
She'd just had a bath,
sung a song and good filling.
But scares turned to a smile,
coz she was just chillin'.
We
laughed at the stupid things
she's done.
The trust that she
gave us, was second to none.
She'd watch me at work, serving
drinks to the thirsty,
Knowing
if she sat quietly until about
10:30,
she'd be rewarded her
freedom, to come sit on my
shoulder
For an hour or so,
before I take her to a colder
Room, where she'd sleep, and at
the end of the day
I'd come
up and we'd chat and giggle and
play.
But
now she's gone, and boy, did I
pray!
She got this fucking
cancer, and it took her away.
My prayers for her healing,
we're never answered
By the
bloke in the sky, the bloke that
I thought would
Give my baby
a chance, and sprinkle some life
dust
To bring more joy to her
friends who'd spend long nights
with us.
Thought he'd help me coz we
didn't think he'd choose
To end her young life, why'd he
take baby Booza?
So young, so
cute, such fun, great company.
This happy red bird, fitted
right in with this family.
To
end her life, for no apparent
reason,
Like chopping down
roses at the end of the season.
But roses have a chance to come
back and grow again.
But this
little red birds life was taken
in vain.
I'm
speaking my mind, I'm telling in
rhyme,
I hate this savage God,
but I guess that in time
I'll
get over this murder, and the
pain will pass by
And I know
that Booza has flown up to the
sky,
To meet the mass killer,
who took her away,
The God who
has shattered my heart totally
today,
Thing is, she went
there, that's the way it now is.
She flew up to meet him, it's in
her soul to forgive
And if
she can do it, to forgive this
giver of sorrow
I'll also try
hard, and maybe tomorrow
I'll
start praying again, and ask
many questions,
Why he done
this, what were his reasons
For taking my bird on the 1st of
July
so far away, to the
place in the sky.
I'm
sorry, God, my words bitter and
twisted,
But you never
listened to the things I had
listed,
But this time I needed
you, but you never heard.
I
just wanted you to help my
little red bird.
But
it's done now tho, it's time to
move on
The damage is final,
nothing now can be done.
I'll
forgive and forget but I'd
rather I didn't lose her.
We
love and miss you.
My Best
little Friend Booza."
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