May 8, 2014

Here is a lovely green moth sitting on my bedroom wall.  The wonders of nature.

So I went to see the house in Gampola.  It is about 60 to 70 years old at my guess.  It was built by a cabinet minister so it is on a grand scale.  Of course, it needs work.  The bathrooms and the kitchen have to be completely gutted and rebuilt, plus the whole place needs painting and cleaning.  They are looking at the figures to see if they are willing to spend the money to do it.  If so, I may be moving.  It has a porte-cochère.  I always wanted one of those.  No swimming pool though, although the yard is big enough to put one in.  One can always dream.

I am not holding my breath.  The way things go here, anything can fall through in a minute.

Big crisis at Sonali's night before last and yesterday morning.  Her new house man came back from his village later than promised and drunk.  What a panic.  By the time I got there yesterday morning following her urgent summons, a CID officer was there, Amal and his thug of a driver, me, and her regular house man Ramesh.  The policeman had sent him packing by the time I arrived.  She had an idea that she would keep him until Sunday as she has company this weekend, but I told her it is better to do the work yourself than to keep a drunk on your premises.  Finally, she took my advice and sacked him.  Too many servants!