Lots to report on now. I finally found a place to live. As Amal says, it is a dream house. It is right on the river, although across the street. That is actually better as during the monsoon, the river can get quite high. It is 4 bedrooms with 3 baths and a servant's toilet. The living and dining rooms are a good size and it even has a garden room. It has what we would regard as a kitchen, although here it is called a pantry as well as a kitchen which is in the more traditional Sri Lankan style. There are 3 verandas and a small garden. The house has been beautifully maintained. In fact, the owners are more concerned that I maintain the property than with the rent. It is SLR.30,000/month which is about C$231.
It will not be ready until about mid-January, so in the meantime I have found a furnished apartment for a month which is also great. I picked up the keys today and was going to move in there today, but Amal is down in Colombo and asked me to stay on with his Mother until he gets back on Christmas Day. They have been so kind to me, it is the least I can do.
Christmas will be different this year. It is Manil's (Amal's Mother) birthday, so the whole gang of us are going to the golf club for dinner. I'll have to get myself into a sari for the occasion.
Today I went out on my own with my new tuk tuk man,Jayakodi, for the first time. Considering that he does not speak English and I don't speak Sinhala, we made out quite well. First we went to the food wholesaler to get basic provisions. There are a lot of supermarkets here, but the stuff is more expensive and not at good. Thankfully the place is run by Tamils and they speak good English. After this I can just ring up and order and Jayakodi and bring it. Then it was off to the apartment to pay the rent and sign the rental agreement. Then on to Arpico to get a couple of things that the farm shop did not have. I will take them in there tomorrow and get them to start ordering them for me.
Then there was an advertisement that one of the big electronics dealers was having a sale on Canon printers. I went in there and got a UPS and an all-in-one printer for around $200. Not too bad. Amal needed a whole ream of documents photocopied for some stupid government request. I finally found a photocopy place on the third try where the machine was actually working. They did a great job and it was only about $2 for 50 pages, but the place was like something out of history. Apart from photocopying, they also have a scribe service where they write letters for people. Of course, they do it on computers now, but the idea is still the same. It was interesting to see a letter being produced in Sinhala as well. Picked up the laundry from the dhobi wallah. They do a great job and also charge very little. I may not even have to get a washing machine.
Lastly, we went to the vegetable and fruit market. I felt really proud of myself for having bought my vegetables without being ripped off. Mind you, Shanti had taken me there and introduced me and they seem very reluctant to cross her. They could have padded a little as I was the only foreigner in the place, but Jayakodi was hovering around so that helped as well. He is very protective of me and gives people a blast if he thinks they are taking advantage.
So now I am an official resident of Kandy. On the 27th I am heading down to Colombo to deal with my visa application on the 28th. The only day they are open over the Christmas/New Year period. That night I am scheduled to meet the people who own my dream home at Riverside Garden. They live in Colombo. They want to sign the rental agreement before the end of the year which suits me fine. On the 29th I finally have a hair appointment with Santi's daughter who owns a nice salon. Her boyfriend makes mahogany furniture for export, so we are meeting at the salon so he can give me an idea how much it would cost me to have my furniture made. It is all go from here.
Living here at Gunfire has given me a real insight into the aristocratic lifestyle. Talk about Upstairs/Downstairs. Here it is all over the stairs. The servants' politics is Byzantine. I get the below stairs from Shanti and the above stairs from Amal. Bottom line is don't have more than two servants and even that may be one too many. Here they have 5 full-time live in people and a crew of itinerant workers even down to a dog walker. No wonder it costs a fortune to run this place.
Once I am in the apartment, I will set up my computer and will be able to upload pictures. Until then....
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