December 21, 2014

Did all the final marketing for the party yesterday in the pissing rain.  I am starting to quack.  Then came home and finished the cooking.  Not very traditional fare, but hopefully it will be good:

hummus
tsatziki
baba ganoush
quacamole
olive tapanade
pita
naan
crackers
all manner of Kandyan short eats (savoury pastries)
3 kinds of fruit cake
local chocolates (we'll see what they are like.  I bought a packet of 5 Ferrero Rochet for a treat for me)
wine
juice

Everything but the juice (although I will make some watermelon juice myself) and the baked goods are made from scratch at home.  A bit of work but worth it in the end.

Am expecting about 25 people which is quite respectable.  Hopefully the rain will hold off at least for the hours of the party so we can use the veranda.

I got the tree up and tried the lights only to find they do not work no matter what I do.  I guess you can expect to get only one season out of them.  As Sri Lankans always remind you, anything Chinese is junk, and everything here is made in China.  Good thing I checked them as I will have time today to get a new set of lights and get them up.

After all that, I finally took a shower to wash the dirt and sweat of Kandy town off me and was having my lunch around 1700 when Sonali called to say she was dropping over.  She was followed quickly by Lalindra who was at loose ends as his wife was off at the British Council Christmas party which was a pirate theme.  He dd not want to dress up.  I can't blame him.  Pirates are OK for Halloween, or any other time of the year really, but not for Christmas.  I think the director of the British Council, who came up with the idea, is 10 years old.

After some wine and an overall assessment of the sorry state of the Sri Lankan economy and politics, we ended up at the Grand Kandyan (new garish Chinese brothel type hotel) for dinner.  We had phoned ahead to the manager hoping to get sushi.  He gave us the usual blah blah about being able to give us sushi but it would take a long time.  I don't even think the sushi chef was there.  In the end, we ended up having Thai food in the Indian restaurant.  The decor was a mix of early airport restaurant with Greek bas relief pictures and discount restaurant furniture.  The music was bad 70s pop played on an old stereo set up on a table and chairs off to one side.  All in keeping with the general lack of taste in the decor of the whole place.  However, the food was magnificent.  Turns out they have a chef from Thailand who we dragged out of the kitchen to compliment him.  A sweet diminutive Thai fellow.

The flavours were subtle and not over done.  Just excellent from the soup right through to the banana fritters at the end.  After soup, green papaya salad, 3 main dishes and dessert, we paid Rs.1100, about C$10 for our meal.  Definitely an experience we will repeat even if we have to shut our eyes to get through the lobby to get to the restaurant.

We got them to give us a look at one of the rooms after dinner.  More of the same, except this room was done in the garish Arabic style.  If they had any more gold paint or gold accents, I would have thought I was in Fort Knox.  It would be frightening to wake up to all that glare in the morning.