November 26, 2012

I couldn't blog yesterday as my dongle ran out of dong.

My friend has still not come home, and I suspect she won't.  I am sure now that she is dying.

I have my former landlady looking for something for me down in Galle.  I have heard good things about it and it was one of the places on my list anyway.

Yesterday I spoke with Oliver Perumal who lives in Qualicum.  He is normally here for 6 months of the year, but is going back next Wednesday as he has been thrown out of his normal digs.  He tells me that it is easy to get a 1 year visa.  Just fill in the piles of forms, provide 2 photos and pay SLR10,000, about $83 and your have it.  Tomorrow I am going to the Canadian High Commission to confirm this info and then I am off to get my visa.  Easier than I thought if it is true.

Here are some pictures of the place I am staying.  Believe me the pictures do not do it justice.  It is a dump.  Literally falling apart.  When it rains, a dozen buckets have to put in the upstairs sun room and even those will not catch all the water.  At least my bedroom does not leak and I have not gotten sick from the water or the food.

Later today, I am meeting my old friend Devaraj.  He is one my favourite people in the world.  I am so pleased that he is still alive.  He must be in his mid-eighties by now.  We spent many long and happy hours debating the Mahabarata.  It will be very nice to see him again.

In the meantime, I am waiting for Devaraj's niece Jayanthi to come back from Kandy so we can go to Galle to check things out.  It is not a good idea to travel alone here, especially out station, meaning outside of Colombo.  After Galle, I will check out Kandy.  Anyway, I want to get out of here as it is physically bad and I am bored.

November 24, 2012

Here we are on day 2.

I don't know how I get into these things. I find myself running a household with 2 live in servants without speaking their language. My sign language is good enough to write a dictionary. Mind you, there are some short comings. Today I found out that no-one had bought them enough food.

But back to the beginning of the day. I am starting to acclimate. I did sleep part of the night. Up at about 6:30. Hopefully, that should have me up long enough to sleep through the night. It is hot, but there is no air conditioning here, so I have had to get used to it fast. I am sticky all the time, but that is just the way it is. I was dripping wet with sweat the minute I got out of the shower. Thank God for deodorant.

As it is the tail end of the monsoon, it thundered like mad overnight and rained like crazy. That makes for high humidity.

I have found a reliable auto-rickshaw guy who I can phone for transport. I went out with him this morning to ARPICO. It is a huge Wal-Mart style establishment. They even had cheese and olives; two things that it was impossible to get 25 years ago. There are no milk alternatives though. It is all cow's milk with more powdered than anything else.

So that is something new. Some things never change, however. This is still the land of the lumpy pillow, thus the trip to ARPICO to buy a new one. Should have a better sleep tonight.

Things are still bad on the cleaning front. I have told the seemingly clueless people who are supposed to be running the bungalow that it needs to be scoured from top to bottom before Nirmala comes home. I think she is dying and I would hate to contribute to it by bringing her into such an unhygienic environment. We will see. People always tell you what you want to hear and then do nothing. Thankfully, I have some competent contacts that can help me.

One of Nirmala's friends dropped in to check on things earlier this afternoon. I could hardly believe my eyes. An attractive Sri Lankan man. His family and Nirmala's have friends for more than 2 generations. That is how things are here. Time moves slower and reaches back farther than in our culture. Anyway, he is the one who established that the servants had no food. We promptly went out with the peon to buy food. At least Amal (that is his name) knows how to get things done having a Ph.D. in business and having lived in Australia for a long time.

The market we went to was very different from ARPICO. Now this is more like what I expected. It was large and relatively clean and well organized. Even Amal was impressed. Needless to say, we got a lot more groceries for a lot less money than I had paid earlier in the day.

It is funny that ever since I got here, I was sensing that the politics is very similar to what it had been when I lived here before when a socialist insurrection erupted in the south and most of the cabinet was assassinated. Amal confirmed that this is indeed the case and the President and his cronies are setting themselves up for something similar. Why is that when I show up in a place, it erupts in revolution? Let's hope it is no worse than last time.

My former landlady, another get things done type, has an apartment for me to look at. We will go either tonight or tomorrow morning. At this point, I really can't leave until I know that Nirmala is OK or she dies. Everyone who will admit anything seems to thing that the latter is the most likely. Anyway, she is supposed to be coming home on Monday or Tuesday of this week. I just hope we can get things ready in time. I guess I was supposed to come to Sri Lanka now in order to help her. Well, what are friends for? It makes me very sad to think about it though.

My bags have finally arrived. So now I can unpack.

November 23, 2012

Well, here I am in Sri Lanka. I have not slept in 36 hours and feel like a piece of shit.

The flights were not bad, but I barely made my connecting flight in Hong Kong, so, of course, my bags did not make it. I am hoping for them to arrive tomorrow.

Add to that the fact that no-one was there to meet me at the airport. I had to spend a lot of time working out my luggage, then try to find my ride, which did not exist. Finally, I took a taxi and checked into the Ramada downtown. I was so over tired that I could not sleep. So I started to find out what had happened with my ride and my intended stay. It turns out the my friend Nirmala has had a recurrence of her cancer and has been deathly ill for over a month now. Today, after a lot of phoning around, I discovered all this news and finally came to Nirmala's house only to find it filthy dirty. I was going to move over to a clean hostel hotel, but Nirmala's secretary has mobilized the troops and there is a cleaning crew in here.

I have not even been in the country 24 hours and all my old friends are fully mobilized. My friend Jayanthi came to collect me from the hotel and brought me to Nirmala's. My former landlady has been beating the bushes all day and may have found an apartment for me to rent. In the meantime, I will be staying here because they have said that if I stay, they can bring Nirmala home. Needless to say, I am willing to put up with almost anything in order to help her out.

I am now linked up to the internet by a thing called a dongle. It is just a USB stick, but I love the name. I have a cell phone number which has been ringing non-stop. I am taking Nirmala's 200+ year old house and modernizing it. I even bought a power bar so I could plug all my electronics in.

It took from 10AM to 3:30PM to get here, get the dongle, buy the power bar, change money, do a grocery shop and activate the dongle. Now all I want to do is go to bed and my room is full of workers. Oh well, lessons in patience.

November 21, 2012 1139

So here I am at the Vancouver Airport. Check in went smooth as silk. Apparently, I will make my connection in Hong Kong without any problem as well.

Just as we were driving to the airport i started to feel a bit anxious with some shortness of breath. Still a little, but not bad. I guess it had to hit me sometime. I am flying into a brave new life. It is still hard to believe that the next bed I sleep in will be in Asia.

Once I have recovered from my long flight ordeal, I will blog again. Stay tuned. There will be a lot more.

November 21, 2012

Today is my last day in Canada. Last night I started to feel some trepidation. No point in dwelling on it. If you don't take a chance, nothing happens.

It has been a fun few days in Vancouver. Said good-bye to Granville Island where I decided to become a vegetarian almost 30 years ago. Saw the new Bond flick. It is great. He lived up to all my expectations. Unlike the other Bonds since Sean Connery, Daniel Craig's movies are getting better. Well, the second one was a bit lame, but they have redeemed themselves with this one.

Made it to the Bacchus Lounge every day. Great martinis.

So, it is see you later Canada. You have been great to me. I will always consider you to be home.

November 16, 2012

60 years old!  Who'd a thunk it!

It has been quite a day.  A lot of good-byes or should I say auf wiedersehen.  The emotion of the day has been a bit overwhelming but oddly invigorating as well.

My birthday party was wonderful.  I am so blessed to have so many good friends.  Friendship is not defined by time.  From some of my oldest friends who I have known for 43 years to ones I only met 6 months ago, they are all precious to me.

I am still not fully aware that I will be leaving Vancouver Island in just over 1 day.  My time in Qualicum Beach especially has been wonderful.  I had wanted to live here for so long and feel that I should have moved here before I did in 2001, but better late than never.  I thought then that Qualicum would be the last stop, but I was wrong.  Something impels me on, and I have to follow.

Next stop Sri Lanka.  Hold on!

November 15, 2012

Today was my last day at work.  I am doing the $10M happy dance.  I am very glad to be done.  10 years of anything, even something you like is enough.

However, it was emotional also.  Some people were very hard to say good-bye to.  My client Kathy I will miss very much.  She has blossomed into a confident, together woman in the 5 years we have been together.

Saying good-bye to my business partners, Grai and Wanetta was the hardest.  We have been together over 11 years.  It will be very unusual not to see them every morning.  They have had a huge impact on my life.  They will never know how much.