Today is my 64th birthday. Just one more year before OAS. Yahoo!
Just to fill in the blanks from the last month and a half. Firstly, this month's hair tattoo.
The rains have finally come and broken the drought. Just in time as we were suffering from water and power cuts. The monsoon also means that vegetable and fruit prices are coming down.
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| Butternut squash, limes, tomatos, woodapple, pineapple, papaya, pollos (immature jackfruit), breadfruit |
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| Salad greens and kang kong |
Before the rains started, I was still swimming every day. Now it is too rainy with lightning and thunder, plus the water is too cold. Here are Sonali and I in Claire Hemachandra's pool. Had a lovely afternoon and evening chatting and drinking wine.
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| The dogs can't decide if they want to come in |
I have been working with a friend to set up an English language training school. We have set up the curriculum, found a place to do the classes and are in the process of hiring teachers. The location is literally 5 minutes walk from my house at a Buddhist temple just above my place. We think it will take off in a big way. Will keep us busy and make us a little money as well.
The other day I got up on my 55 year old desk chair that I did all my homework on to fix the curtain in my dressing room. The old thing broke under me and I got badly bruised on my left side. A couple of days later, my back went into spasm as well. Thankfully, I have found a masseuse who has been coming every 2 weeks. She did a lot to relieve it and Veenitha has been rubbing extra strength Tiger Balm on it so that things are back to normal now.
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| The smallest of the bruises on my left boob. |
The chair broke very cleanly so that I was able to get my carpenter to come and repair it. He did a good job, but gave me a stern warning to only sit in the chair, not climb up on it.
As usual, this time of year sees the beginning of the party season. We started with a lovely party at Deanne's place, followed by a musical evening at the Assistant Indian High Commissioner's place to celebrate Diwali. I even managed to wrap myself in a sari for the latter.
On November 10th there was a birthday party at the new food court at the Kandy City Centre. On November 12, I had my birthday party celebrating my birthday and that of my friend Clare Leask. This year's theme was Sweet 16s as we are both born on the 16th. 53 people in attendance. Thankfully, the rain held off and it turned out to be one of my best parties ever.
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| Judith Smith, Sally Martin (another Scorpio born November 10), and me trying out some of the great food made by my friend Shanthi. |
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| Tania de Silva |
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| Ayesha Wijeratne and her niece who is about to go off to Qatar to work for Qatar Air |
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| Judith Smith, Sally Martin, Yvonne Cooper and Pauline Morley |
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| Claire Hemachandra, me (I am now officially on a diet), and Phillppa Mediwake |
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| The bow is honor of the Sweet 16s theme. |
Despite having said no presents, I made out like a bandit on the present front, including a lovely bouquet of flowers from Ayesha and Ravana Wijeratne.
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| Veenitha keeping the flowers fresh. |
Listening to the rain beat down on the new tin roof on my verandah. When it pours, the roof roars to such an extent that you can't carry on a conversation. I don't really mind though and usually the really severe downpours are very short lived. Most of the leaking has stopped, but there is still seepage. Some more small repairs and I should be waterproof.
