silver belles

Some nine or ten days has gone by since the Lamma Ladies were chastised for their vulgar ways in the public http://www.lamma.com.hk/ forum.

Since then, there has been some confusion over the activities of the Lamma Ladies, as we have been away racing (as we are wont to do), and lammaladies-spotters have mistaken the fishermen's night training for the usual riotous Pink Ladies. Nkarraker mourned what he/she believed was a silent Lamma ladies crew:

Well, you all have done it now. We were eating in one of the seaview restaurants tonight after dark and on the horizon we saw a dragonboat with its tiny lights coming into the harbor, I am certain, from another part of the South China Sea. In utter silence. No boom, boom, boom. No big tamasha. No shouting, shouting. No intricate rhythms on the drum. Like so many faceless seagoers paddling on a quiet communal rowing machine. I hope you are happy now.

We would hasten to assure Mr/Ms Nkarraker that nothing shuts the Lamma Ladies up.

Those were, in fact, the Lamma Fishermen, who - we are delighted to say - won a spectacular traditional fishermen's race in Cheung Chau on Sunday, April 29th! Those fishermen's boats are FAST! So the Yung Shue Wan, Lamma North Fishermen were superfast! And victorious. And Fantastic. And did we mention that they are the greatest?

Back to the Lamma Ladies:

We are pleased to announce that the Beast Master (known to laymen as the "drummer"), has taken on a new nick-name: Big Tamasha.

She seems to like it.

In racing news, the Pink Ladies attended their first race of the season in Shatin on Sunday, April 21. There is nothing quite like getting up at 6am to catch the 6:40 ferry to Shatin on a Sunday, then waiting for several hours between 1-minute races (our average time was 55 seconds over 200 meters). However, the day can be summed up by this photo:

How time just flies between those races.

And did we mention the toilets? There were FOUR porta-potties available for some 600 people. What can we tell you about that? We can tell you that it was revolting. Anyone who doubts the Lamma Ladies dedication to their sport has NEVER had to use a porta-potty that has served 600 athletes over an 8-hour period. Gas masks may have helped, but we are dubious that even that would have been enough.

Note to race providers. Get more bloody toilets next time!

As for the races: the Lamma Lovelies were split into two boats for the 200-meter Shatin drag race. In the following photo, our A-team boat is racing against four other crews for the final event.
After a blistering start, the Lamma Ladies pushed on to win a silver medal in their first event. It was, in fact, an excellent start to the season, although some of us were a little sniffy that we hadn't won the gold.

Well that is just hubris, and the Lamma Ladies would hate to be guilty of unwarranted pride. In any case, we are very happy to say that our second-place medals give us greater incentive to make Big Tamashas in the harbour, scream louder, and paddler harder!

Above are five tired boats at the finish line. We are the pink boat, in case there is any doubt.

And here we are, making faces and cheering over our fist silver medal of the season! Two of us are drinking wine in this photo. For purposes of fairness and anonymity, we cannot identify Georgie, in the pink tights and blue hat, or Michelle, in the black dress and fashionable white sneakers as the wine drinkers. But if we could, we would say that was them.

Drinking wine.... On the podium.... Shocking.

(The rest of us hid our beer cans behind our backs).

On Sunday, April 29th, the Lamma Ladies were invited to a traditional colour boat race in Cheung Chau. This is the same race that the Fishermen attended and won (we mentioned that, right?).

Again the Lamma Ladies took a silver medal, though we had never raced in colour boats before.

This is what we have to say about colour boats:

• They are about 20 feet long.
• They are about 1-foot deep.
• They are evidently designed for women who weigh less that 40kgs.

We are afraid to say that although the Lamma Ladies may be working on "perfect asses," we have never stipulated that they be perfectly tiny asses.

And so, with each stroke from our magnificent arms, our boats would lunge across the water like demented, drunken beasts; skittering sideways and throwing up bow waves that could have sunk barges, and generally foiling our best efforts to glide across the water in graceful unison.

What the hell: we lunged our way across the finish line, picked up our two trophies (two boats won trophies!), and then ran off to eat shellfish and race sampans back to Lamma, with lots of "shouting shouting" along the way.

See us at our next race: THE TIN HAU FESTIVAL - in Yung Shue Wan, Lamma Island, on May 9!

There will be only decorous 'shouting shouting' at Tin Hau, since we have tremendous respect for our local race to this benevolent goddess of the sea.

Not even the Lamma Ladies mess with the sea gods. That's just stupid.