December 18, 2015

Have had some lovely experiences lately.

Firstly, my sewing machine gave up the ghost.  Well only the feed dogs.  I never even knew there was such a thing as feed dogs, so there was something new to learn.  These are the little tracks that move below the foot to feed the fabric ahead as you sew.  I opened up the machine myself with no luck.  So I started asking around about where I could get the machine fixed.  My friend Clare, who is a sewer and has lived here a long time, told me about an old man named Charles who is apparently the sewing machine whisperer.  She thought he might be dead as she had not seen him in 4 years and he was very old then.  I called the number she gave me and lo and behold, Charles is still alive.  He came over and got the machine with his nephew.  They both speak very good English, were prompt and polite.  I didn't hear anything for 3 days and then Charles shows up at my door saying the machine is fixed.  He delivered it with his nephew again and had me test it.  It works like a top.  He did inform me that the light bulb had broken.  He removed it and showed me how to install the new one.  As we came to the end of talking, he bowed his head and asked me if he could take his leave.  Such a charming old fashioned man. 

Secondly, it turns out that Charles's nephew will take on the occasional tuktuk hire.  This is great news as I have not had a backup for Sam.  Ravi speaks excellent English, lives close by, and will work at night.  The latter is something almost unheard of.

Thirdly, I have discovered pumpkin greens.   They are delicious.  I made an African recipe that uses peanut butter.  What's not to like.

Fourthly, we have harvested some of the spinach that is growing in the yard.

Here is Veenitha with our own spinach and a huge pile of kan kong in the background awaiting processing.

 Fifthly, I planted a few grass seeds, one of which has germinated. 

Our Canadian tomato

Sixthly, Judith threw a fabulous champagne brunch for her birthday at Ozo.  I broke my vegetarian vow to partake of the smoked salmon and the crab.  Really great.

Seventhly,  I have been suffering with my left knee for some time now.  It has even been keeping me up at night.  The other day we had our club luncheon where I asked my friend Marlise who is a retired nurse who still does acupuncture about it.  She proceeded to dig into my knee to the point where she bruised me.  I was almost screaming in pain in the middle of the restaurant, but she managed to unlock my knee cap.  No more pain.  Such a relief.

Apart from that, the rain continues unabated forcing all manner of snails and frogs into the house.

Here is a very large snail oozing its way across the leaves of my bird of paradise plants.

 Lastly, the other day at art group, Deanne's houseboy Indika presented us all with mugs with our names on them for Christmas.

Here are Deanne and Indika with the beautifully wrapped presents.

This is always how my name gets spelled here.  Judith's ended up as Julith.  A very sweet thought though.

Will be busy every day from the 24th through the 28th.  Such a wonderful life.

Merry Christmas to all!

November 30, 2015

Busy, busy, busy!  It has been full tilt boogey here.  I sometimes wonder how I found time to work.  Retirement is a full time occupation.  The biggest luxury is that I only do what I really want to and I do most things on my timetable, not someone else's.

I finally went with my friend Ava to the relatively new hotel Ozo for breakfast brunch.  Ozo hotels are operated around Asia by a Thai company.  Apart from the fact that the location is a bit of an eye sore, the hotel is very good.  How they got permission to build right above the lake across from the Temple of the Tooth, I will never know.  It is a big white box that dominates the slope on that side of the lake.  Inside, however, it is tastefully done.  The service is great, and the breakfast buffet is fabulous; wonderful fresh baked croissant, breads and pastries, cheeses, tons of fruit, real muesli, an egg and waffle station, Sri Lankan and Indian breakfast, English breakfast too with baked beans which I find disgusting but is popular with everyone else.  All for LKR.1000, about C$9.50.  It also includes espresso/cappuccino/americano coffee at no extra cost made with a great machine that grinds the beans as it is making the coffee.

Of course, Ava is there every other day.  Yesterday was her birthday, so on Saturday, we had a surprise breakfast for her.  She was truly surprised and the 6 of us had such a good time, we stayed for over 4 hours.

Last Tuesday, November 24, I went with Judith and her friend Mary visiting from Britain to Hunas Falls.  Hunas is close to Matale with is about a 45 minute drive NNW of Kandy.  There is a lovely hotel there with a small 9 hole executive golf course.  Good luck to anyone trying to golf there.  The only level spots are the tee boxes and the tiny greens.  Everything else is a steep slope.  The area was a tea plantation previously, so the terrain is very hilly.  There is still some tea grown, although the plants are poorly tended and the factory is closed.  This was also a spice growing area which is mostly derelict now.  We drove through a large clove plantation where the trees are so big that it would be impossible to harvest the cloves.

We stopped at the hotel and had a coffee before walking around the water tank formed by a dam at the top of the falls.  Then we had a nice lunch and came back home.

The Falls.  There is a ticket booth at the bottom trying to charge money to get directly into the base of the falls.  I can't imagine they get many takers, as you get a great view from the parking lot.

Interesting bracket fungus

Asoka our driver.  He could be a movie star

Judith on the left, Mary on the right

Don't know what this plant is called, but it has these beautiful large flowers.  It lets off air roots like an orchid or a philodendron.

The water tank with the virgin jungle beyond.

Yesterday was Discovery Club.  We went to a small cottage candle making factory in Katugastota where we also had lunch.  The family was lovely.  The daughter gave an introductory speech in which she talked about how much she loved her family and how proud of them she was.  The candles were very good.  It is very difficult to buy good candles in Kandy, so I stocked up.

Unfortunately, I drank so much King Coconut and beer that I had to go to the bathroom.  Usually, this is not a problem as it is so hot that you sweat out the liquid.  Right now, however, it is quite cool, so lots of bathroom trips.  Although the bathroom and the whole house was very clean, they only had an Asian squatter.  So it was off with my trousers so that I could do a bucket bath after going.  Believe me, you can't be in a hurry to accomplish this. 

This week is full again, with fur/claw, art group, my friend Devaraj coming from Colombo, and 2 parties at the week.  It will be like this until after Christmas.  Oh that we should all have such problems!

November 16, 2015

Today is my 63rd birthday.  Funny to think that I am somehow related to such a big number.  I don't feel 63.  In fact, if you reverse the number to 36 that would be more descriptive of how I am feeling.

The verandah was repaired just in the nick of time for the big party on Saturday night.  Actually, I had moved all the dining room furniture out onto the verandah myself on Tuesday.  That took some doing as the table is huge and heavy.  But necessity is the mother of invention, and I managed to do everything but right the table after putting it on its side to get it through the first door.  My landlady came down to see what all the noise was about and got the man in the annex, who happened to be home for lunch, to come to help put the table back on its legs again.  Veenitha had done a great job cleaning everything up after the construction and now everything was in its place.  All this only to find that the roof still leaked.

I managed to move everything around so that it was sitting between the leaks and then got in touch with the contractor.  He came to have a look, but couldn't do much since his worker was on another job.  In the end, they showed up at 2000 on Friday and in the dark and the rain laid a tarp over most of the roof.  It hasn't stopped all the leaks, but it has stopped the biggest one, and the rest I can live with until they can be properly repaired after the rains.  After all, there isn't a roof in Sri Lanka that doesn't leak.

The house has a whole new lease on life now that the verandah can be properly used.

My breakfast area has not changed.  You can see the monkey cage beyond.  No more monkeys!

The new dining area.  Love that al fresco dining.

Still have a small space for my coffee and reading area.

The new living room.  So much more open.

The new foyer.  I love it and have put it to good use a few times already.

The Scorpio party on Saturday night went very well.  There were about 30 of us with 5 Scorpios in attendance.  The Scorpion Sting was quite a hit.  Very boozy with two full bottles of arrack.  Judith did up a lovely poem in honour of the occasion and gave each Scorpio a hand printed copy on a scroll to commemorate the occasion.

The last guests did not leave until 0100 but Indika had been here to help Veenitha, so everything was done by the time they left and we just went to bed.  Sunday was spent doing the last bit of clean up.

I even managed to haul in a few birthday presents along with quite a few bottles of wine. 

My iPad rang this morning at 0700 saying my friend Sue Burgess from Calgary was calling.  I called her right back to find that there was some kind of a glitch and she had not called at all.  It must have been the Universe saying we hadn't talked in a long time.  So we had a lovely catch up.

Thus another memorable birthday passes.

November 5, 2015

Well it is truly monsoon season both in Sri Lanka and in my life. Not only have I been sick with food poisoning since Saturday, but now the house is swarming with workmen repairing the verandah roof and replacing the toilet in the guest bathroom.

Now that I have you interested, here are the details.

On a Sunday about 2 1/2 weeks ago, I was reading peacefully on my verandah when I heard a big crash.  I started to investigate and ultimately found that the cistern for the toilet in the guest bathroom had fallen off the wall.  The cistern had been worrying me right from the day I moved in as it seemed to be attached with flimsy nails using bits of plastic to secure it instead of washers.  This had been pointed out to the plumber, but nothing was done.  The original work had been done by this totally incompetent boob that my landlords found.  Everything he touched turned to shit.  Later we found out that he did this deliberately so that he would be called back to do the repairs.  Who would be stupid enough to call back someone who had botched up the work in the first place?  Sri Lankan logic!

Turns out that the nails/screws were so flimsy that I could break them with my fingers and they were anchored into the wall with ancient wooden anchors that must date back 80 years to when the house was built that have half rotted.  It is a wonder that it took over a year for the thing to fall of the wall.

So we call out the new plumber who I tell to just get a plastic cistern.  He does not check anything like whether the commode is damaged or not and goes out and buys a plastic cistern.  He installs it.  I go to inspect the work and discover that he had installed a cistern for a ceiling flush toilet, not a wall flush one.  Plus, the pull is made of plastic and string so that one good pull and the whole thing will snap.  After a lot of trying, he gets it to flush and now the commode is gushing water.  It was also broken when the cistern fell.  We send him off to look for a new commode and a proper flusher for the cistern.  He waltzes off with LKR.10,000 of my landlady's money and doesn't even give her a receipt.  We have been trying to get him to come back ever since.

Meanwhile, I started searching for an S-trap toilet.  Apparently, there are two types of toilet sold in Sri Lanka; S-trap and P-trap.  The S-trap, which is what this bathroom has is the old fashioned type that attaches into the floor.  The P-trap is the newer kind that attached into the wall.  I finally found an outfit that could order an S-trap toilet at a cost of LKR.36,000 with a week's delay for delivery.  I almost fell over laughing.  C$360 for a crapper?

Then the verandah roof which leaks like a sieve started to look dire.  When we removed the wooden ceiling, it was obvious that years of water damage had eaten through the beam that was holding the roof up.  I had thought that it would hold out for a bit longer, but it started to drop paper thin pieces of wood and started to drop, so I knew something had to be done before it fell on my head.

I called some friends and go the names of two "reliable" contractors.  One of them actually showed up; albeit my friend Malcolm, came along with him, and actually produced a written quote.  His idea for the solution of the roof was questionable and very, very expensive, but he could fix the toilet for a reasonable price.  He came with his plumber at the appointed hour and supervised the install.  They did a great job and I now have a new guest bath toilet for only LKR.15,000.

The old commode.  Interesting if you are running a plumbing museum, but not easy to clean or to flush.

The lovely new toilet

In my new found art form of paper light fixtures, a new light to go with the new toilet.

One of neighbours just across the street who had been leasing his house out to a young French couple with whom I was friendly, has been doing a lot of work on the house in anticipation of his daughter and grandson's return from Dubai.  I have talked to him a number of times and we have become neighbour friendly.  He had been over to look at the verandah roof at my landlady's behest, so I went to ask him if he thought he could do anything with the problem without shelling out a fortune.  He came and had a look with his roofer within the hour and yesterday, they started the work.

Not the best timing as on Friday, my landlady gave me some radish tops which I put raw into a salad and by Saturday afternoon, I was wondering if I had dysentery again.  I was unable to eat anything for two days and slept for almost 48 hours straight.  In the meantime, both Sonali and my landlady were recommending and concocting all sorts of Ayurvedic  curatives.  My landlady was very kind.  She brewed me up some ginger tea and made me swallow a small teaspoon of whole fenugreek.  That did seem to settle my stomach somewhat.  Sonali had brought over something that looks like pieces of wood that she slight crushed and Tulia (landlady) brewed up with garlic and coriander seed.  I only managed to take a couple of sips as it tasted foul and the garlic was overwhelming.

By the third day, I ate some bread with Vegemite spread on it but by that night, I was back on the toilet.  It wasn't until about 1400 on the fourth day that my stomach and gut felt like they were rid of the poison, but of course, I was/am weak from lack of food and having been in bed so long and I suspect dehydrated as well.  But, no rest for the wicked and sicked!  The roofing work was starting yesterday morning.  The verandah had be cleared, the guest bathroom had to be cleaned and I had to go the a luncheon at my friend Lalindra's house as he is leaving to go back to Australia on Friday and this would be my last chance to see him before he leaves.

I managed to get through everything, even walking over to Lalindra's, but by 1600, I thought I was going to pass out.  Lalindra brought me home where I got horizontal very quickly.  After the roofers left, I headed for the verandah to close the door they had left open and turn off the lights they had left on.  Guess what?  The new beam is too low, and I can't get the verandah doors open.  This after the roofer spend at least 30 minutes in the morning measuring the height of the doors when they are open.  So today, in addition to finishing the real work, they have to fix the doors as well.  Good thing I have held back the final LKR.10,000 until the job is fully complete.

In the midst of all this, I had done some cooking for a Halloween party Sonali and I were going to have on Saturday night.  Including a pumpkin pie which I never got to eat as I was sick by Saturday night.  I sent it over to Sonali's for dinner on Monday which I also couldn't attend.  Apparently, it was delicious.

Patches has been very good throughout my ordeal, even cuddling up to me in bed so I would feel better.  Once she knew I was feeling a bit better, she was back to her old tricks, killing geckos, etc.

On her back playing with a gecko caught under the shawl rack.

Of course, yesterday she was very upset as furniture was moved, drilling and banging was going on.  I'm sure she thought I was leaving her, especially when I started going down the street to talk to my neighbour.  She followed me and started crossing the street to me just as a car was coming.  I almost had a heart attack.  I had to lead her back home.

So today, the saga continues.  They say they will be finished today, so Veenitha and I can clean tomorrow and Saturday as she is coming an extra day for the next 2 weeks.  Plus, I have a birthday party at Deanne's to attend.  As my friend Jeanne Shaver would say, "Such a first world problem!"

Only 9 days left before my big Scorpio party.

October 22, 2015

We are experiencing inter-monsoonal rains at the moment and they seem to be driving more and more critters indoors.  I have the usual frogs expertly detected by Patches.  The other day, a small bat flew in and ended up in my bedroom until it found its way out again.  Then there were these horrible big black flying cockroach things.  The only good cockroach, or anything like it, is a dead one so I swatted these out of the air with my Executioner and then whacked them with my flip flop.  There have been lovely green cicadas which died a natural death.  The ants cleaned one up for me and it is now proudly pinned as a specimen.  A lovely opalescent green beetle which kept turning turtle despite my best efforts to save it.  Snails and slugs of all descriptions.  I found a snail in my compost heap yesterday that has a shell almost as big as a conch.

The cicada

I continue to feed the birds and anything else that wanders into the garden and can get at the food. 

One of the crows that comes regularly for the papaya

Patches has discovered the computer and has been helping me to play solitaire.

We have just won a game

What should be our next move?

I have planted some arugula from seed, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere.  On the other hand, the Flame Lily (Gloriosa Superba) has naturalized in my front garden.  It is highly poisonous, but beautiful.

The other day, I had to go to the Old Trinity Sports Club to pick up some money for Jez that was owed for cheese.  Trinity is one of three prestigious old boy's schools modelled on the British public school system.  It was founded in 1872 and is the only one of its kind in Kandy.  The other two colleges are in Colombo and Mount Lavinia.  There is a very powerful old boys network.  In fact, graduation from one of these colleges virtually guarantees a boy a good job/career.  The old boys have a sports club that overlooks the cricket/football field.  As usual, the money was not ready for pick up at the time appointed, so they gave me and my driver a cup of tea and I enjoyed a half hour of cricket.

My kitchen and bathroom have been very dark because of the heavy rain clouds and I have been wracking my brains for a lighting system that would be cheap and would cast more light.  I finally found it.  Shades made from A4 paper.

The kitchen

The kitchen

My bathroom.  The big round things are baskets make from palm fronds that hide the hideous light fixture and plug point.

October 3, 2015

Busy week this week.  Did something every day except Monday.

Tuesday, I went with my friends Liz and Tania in search of a shoemaker out in Pillimatalawa.  They had found him on a Discovery Club outing and had already had work done by him.  I had 3 pairs of shoes that the shoe repair place in town could not repair, so I was keen.  They had tried for over a month to contact him by phone with no luck, so we decided to take a chance and drive out there.  Eureka!  We found the place and he was there and still in business.  Of course, he had lost his phone and had a new number.  I left my 3 pairs of shoes which he will rebuild all for LKR.1300, about C$11.

After that we were off to Liz's place.  She runs a guest house in the hills beyond the University of Peradeniya.  It is quite a drive out there, but the view is worth it in the end.  She made us a lovely lunch of fettuccine alfredo, salad and home made carrot cake.  Haven't had carrot cake in I don't know how long.

The view.  It was quite cloudy and rained heavily before we left.

Liz on the left and Tania on the right.  When the rain started, the pool was dancing.  The dog is Max.

After lunch, Liz sent us home with her van and driver.  We dropped Tania off at the bottom of the Heerasagalla hill and proceeded to Gateway College where Elise, Liz's daughter goes to school.  That was in experience in itself.  Kandy streets are very narrow and windy.  At school times which are 0700 and between 1230 and 1400, no-one in their right minds goes out in a vehicle.  There are 60,000 school children in the heart of Kandy town alone and countless of thousands in the surrounding area.  There are almost no school buses, so every child is picked up by a minder in a tuktuk or a vehicle.  Some minders take the child on the bus, but very few.  Consequently the streets around schools are backed up for hours especially in the afternoon.  It took us an hour to get Elise and get me home.  I live a 5 minute drive from the school in normal circumstances and the trip from Liz's to my house would usually only take 30 minutes.  Crazy.

Wednesday, it was grocery shopping and fur/claw.  This time my hairdresser razor-ed coconut fronds on the back of my head.

Thursday it was shopping with Ava.  In the end, we met up with Marlise with whom we went to lunch and then to Lakeside Private Hospital to visit our friend Ewan.  It was hot as Hades, so we dispensed with the shopping quickly especially as we were walking.  I got the seed beads I was looking for, from which I am going to make earrings.  Lunch was at this newly renovated dosai place.  The masala dosai, sambar and chutney tasted very good and all for LKR.180.  In less than an hour, I knew why it has tasted so good.  It was laced with a huge amount of MSG.  I got a woolly tongue and was dying of thirst. 

We had stopped at Food City to get water and toilet paper for Ewan in the hospital.  You would think that for the amount he is paying to be in there, all this would be provided, but evidently not.  Both Marlise and I were wanting to drink all the water by this time, but we daren't because Ewan needed it.

On the way into Food City, I ran into Anuruddha my former neighbour in Sirimalwatte.  He told me that there had been a fire in the municipal car park behind Kandy City Centre and indeed the traffic was madness again.  We were parked right beside the access road to the car park and it was school time again plus the hospital is right on the lake side which means you have to go on the lake road which is terrible at the best of times.

We had a nice visit with Ewan despite the fact that Marlise and I kept ogling the water.

Then it was back to where Ava and I had started our shopping trip at Selyn so that Marlise could buy some of the bracelets we had purchased for LKR.160 each.  On the way, we stopped back in at Food City and instantly consumed a litre of water.  I was still feeling the effects of the MSG yesterday.  That was my first and last visit to the dosai place.

Bracelets.  Made out of beads and cord.  Lovely, but I discovered they are next to impossible to get on without help.

Yesterday, it was off to Sonali's for dinner to celebrate Rama's (her dog) 7th birthday.  We celebrated for Sita (the other dog) as well who will be 6 next month.  I saw some old friends from Gunfire that I have not seen in almost 3 years as well another acquaintance from the Cancer Hospital Fund Committee.  He is the chairman of the committee and is basically a loud mouth ex-planter type.  Apart from him, the evening was quite fun.

So it is rest and relaxation for the rest of the weekend.

September 28, 2015

Jayanthi and Anand came over the other day from Thalathuoya bringing some fruit that looks and tastes like sour cherries, although that is not what it is.  We made a pie from it which tastes great even though it is a little sloppy.

Jayanthi with the fruit.

Just like a clump of cherries.

Enough for a pie.  The long green things are some very sour juicy fruit.  They made a great addition to a smoothy.

The pie.  It is supposed to be latticed, but I did not weave the strips, so half of them sunk.  Tastes great though.

Full supermoon last night.  The power went off about midnight.  I woke up around 0130 and couldn't get back to sleep, so I went outside to see the supermoon and maybe some of the eclipse.  The moon didn't look any different than it does on any full moon day and we were out of range for the eclipse.  None the less, the moon was very bright.  With all the lights off because of the power outage, it was like a spotlight in the sky.  There were a few clouds as well.  Just enough to create a lovely corona around the moon.  Beautiful!

The advent of the full moon seems to have enlivened the frogs.  I remove at least one a night.  Patches finds them.  Of course, she likes to make them jump and chase them.  Either that or they are taking a bath in her water dish.  I trap them and put them outside just for them to come back in again the next night.  Its a frog's life.

September 27, 2015

Today is poya day.  Too bad it falls on a Sunday.  No extra holiday.
Since today is poya, Discovery Club was held yesterday.  We went to the site of a new dagoba at Nelligalla past Murthalawa.  The views were spectacular.  So far only the dagoba and a few temporary buildings are built.  It appears that they are planning something huge with high walls that will block out the 360° view.  Totally stupid.  Plus, they had loudspeakers set up all around the perimeter of the site and on top of towers so that the chanting and sermon were blasting everywhere.  I don't know what kind of Buddhism this is, but it is warped for sure.

After we went for lunch, which had been laid on at a house nearby.  It turned out that the home owner had refused to host the lunch at the last minute, so we ended up at another house on the roof where a second story will be built.  We had to walk a little way across a paddy field and up a big hill, but we made it eventually.  Happily, there was a road, so Henk could drive the van with the beer in it right up to the place.  They had set up make shift tables and chairs.  Thankfully, it didn't rain, the meal was fine and we had a good time. 

September 25, 2015

WARNING!!!  Photos of cats and snakes to follow.  Not for pussy haters or snakeophobes.

Patches continues to entertain.  I finally uncorked the mice that Judith had brought from England.  She loves them and has already almost disembowelled two of them.

Mouse stalking in the jungle/dining room.

She has me a bit worried as well, as the other day she killed a baby cobra.  Of course, it was too small to do her any harm, but where there is one baby, there may be 10 or 20 and needless to say, the mama.  A bite from an adult cobra could kill her.

She thinks it is a toy.

September 14, 2015

The most amazing experience this morning.  My friends Pamela and Brett Sine were having a party at their house near Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island.  I called them on FaceTime when the party was on and had a chance to participate in it.  I was passed around on Pamela's iPad to everyone at the party and had a chance to chat with all of them.  I even saw a friend I have not seen in over 20 years.  Here I was sitting in my office in Kandy while they were on the deck on the Strait of Georgia and we were talking like I was right there.  This technology never ceases to amaze me.

I even got a look at all the lovely food and helped Pamela reheat the veg curry in her kitchen.  Gotta love it.

Meanwhile back here in Sri Lanka, went to lunch with 2 friends after book club at a place I had not been before, a hotel called the Tree of Life.  It is a lovely place set in the most beautiful garden.  We were the only ones at the pool side patio.  We had a great lunch of fish and chips and enjoyed a monsoon downpour under cover of the veranda roof.  By the time we finished eating, the weather cleared and we had a clear drive back to Kandy.

Then it was off to the dentist for me as I had broken one of my wisdom teeth last night.  I was in and out of the dentist in 15 minutes with the tooth filled with a soft bonding composite to be followed by a hard filling in a month.  LKR.2200, about C$21 is all it cost me.  Great dentistry here.

September 10, 2015

Have been reaping the bounty of my garden as well as the neighbour's recently.

This is a bouquet of bauhinia kockiana which is a creeper that grows everywhere on garden walls.  Veenitha picked this from a magnificent specimen down the street.

This is how it grows.  Fabulous orange and yellow flowers.

Veenitha holding an arrangement of croton flowers with a small cosmos bloom thrown in for good measure.  From our own garden.

This is the plant the flowers came from.

The last couple of days have made me an international tax expert.  Been fighting with the bank and CRA about the amount of withholding tax on RRIF payments under the Canada/Sri Lanka Tax Convention.  Ask me anything about the Convention or the Income Tax Conventions Interpretation Act.  I should hire myself out.