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.