Today is the second day of the Sinhala new year. Seems like a good day to blog.
On New Year's Day, Avrudu I was invited to the home of one of our teachers for breakfast. They live just down the street in a house I have admired many times both for its tidiness and lovely garden and also because they feed and water all the stray cats. They were very gracious. I had missed the auspicious time to eat which was 0730, so they served me on my own. There was kiribati (milk rice) which is made for all special occasions, hath malu (7 vegetables) something I had not tried before but was very delicious: long beans, jack fruit seeds, cachous, pumpkin, eggplant, ash plantain, carrots. There was also lunnu miris which is a sambal made from tomato, maldive fish, lime, chili and salt. Lunnu is salt, so as you can imagine it is quite salty and spicy. Perfect with kiri bath. Then all the sweets most of which I don't like because they are too greasy.
This is not the actual table, but we did have all these items and more on the one I was at.
After breakfast, we went on a tour of the garden which is very beautiful. Very lovingly tended with a nice variety of trees; banana, coconut, sandalwood, kittul, many flowering plants, many plants with colorful leaves, a number of edible plants; gotukola, chilis, curry leaf. Altogether very pleasant.
One of the kittens I posted a video of last time was attacked by something and was so weak that he could not feed. The mother did come around trying to look after him, but he couldn't attach to get any food. We gave him some water and milk from mild powder at the temple and then I took him home. I did not have the ingredients to make kitten formula, so I gave him sugar water and rice water, wrapped him up in a dry towel and massaged his tummy after each feeding to get him to pee and poop. He was eating every 1.5 to 2 hours and even peed once. I slept most of the night with him on my chest and he seemed to be doing fine. I got up early and when I came back from going to the bathroom, he was dead. Poor little guy.
Here's the poor little fellow, all nestled in a small wok. He was no bigger than the palm of my hand.
It has been stinking hot these days. Some days are followed by a little rain, but all it does is make things muggy. It is always like this around new year. It makes the town like a big bowl of sweltering shoppers and endless streams of traffic. I went to Cafe M with the Tuesday crowd last Tuesday. It is located on Peradeniya Road which is one of the main shopping streets. The road was like a parking lot. The sidewalks, such as they are, were clogged with street vendors and shoppers. There were traffic police at every intersection trying to sort out the car traffic from the pedestrians. The whole time it was a continuous stream of cars and people.
We have a new addition to the neighbourhood. A tuktuk comes by at least twice a week selling fish. It is outfitted with a loudspeaker belting out the first few bars of House of the Rising Sun. Now that is my favourite song and it is so frustrating to hear the opening bars and then not get the rest.
After more than 2 years, the oven I was getting built got delivered. It is a piece of crap and not the oven that was shown to my friend Jez when he went out to nag them. I am so mad, I just want to put the guy's head in there and gas him.
This is how the gas goes into the pipes. Just an open space. According to Jez this is normal and that the air creates a vacuum and sucks the gas into the pipe. However, we don't know how or where to light the jets; this despite the fact we were told there were automatic ignitors installed, and what appears to be the vent that has to be opened for lighting has to opened by hand and is on the opposite side from the valves.
This is the inside which i a rusted out mess. The one Jez saw had a clean interior with a stainless steel wrack.
The outside is alright and it is the right dimensions, but there are no control dials and the valves are on the right hand side, so you have to turn the oven to control the gas input.
Needless to say, the piece of junk is going back asap after new year and either we get the right one or the money back. How these guys can make a living, I don't know.
This is the flower of a tin tang which is a giant passion fruit plant, taken on my friend Jayanthi's estate. The fruits are the size of grapefruits.
As always, closing with my lovely Patches.
Her new favourite place on the the window ledge in my bedroom.
In the spirit of fixing things rather than throwing them away, my shoe broke when I was in Kandy town at the bank. Happily, I had noticed a little man working on the sidewalk a couple of blocks away fixing shoes. I limped over to him. He not only reglued the sole, but he stitched it to the top as well so that it wouldn't come loose again. Wonderful job for only LKR.150. Will be using him again.
This month's hair tattoo; heartbeat
The Kawasakis had another Co-opoly party. Lots of fun, although our group was jinxed and one of us went bankrupt very quickly. Gave us all a chance to gab though, which was just as good as winning.
Was off to the dentist again for a cleaning and what turned out to be three fillings. Almost all the fillings are in the lower right quadrant, all on the same two teeth. I asked the dentist why, as I really am too old for cavities. She says the gum recession and the slight movement of the teeth allows food to bet trapped below the gum line and rot the teeth. Another piece of great news! As if I don't pamper my teeth enough.
My dentist was obviously pregnant, so I asked her when she was due. She said a week. To tell the truth, I was worried she would deliver while she was working on me. Thankfully not. She should have had her boy by now. Probably awaiting the astrologer's report on what letter to start the name with.
All the usual round of clubs' book and film. Enjoyable as always. Have also been spending more time than normal with my Japanese friend Tamami. She is due to go back to Japan permanently in about a month, so need to get in time with her. Also our mutual friend David Leask is dying from cancer. He is taking it very well saying he has had a good long life and is ready, but we are mostly worried about his wife Clare who is losing weight fast and is having to shoulder the burden of taking care of him, running the household and hosting his children who are all coming to say goodbye. Tamami and I are trying to get over to help her and/or just to keep her company.
My friend Weston is still with me. He is leaving on Thursday to go stay with some Burmese monks. Should be an interesting experience.
In the front garden
Went out to have lunch with my friends Arlene and Carl Kelaart at their lovely home "The Rockery". An absolutely fabulous setting overlooking the Victoria Dam reservoir, but a long and arduous journey by tuktuk to get there. My back was hooped for over a week. The fact that I had Veenitha with me holding a TV set against our knees didn't help. Veenitha lives in a village out that way and I had given her my 32" TV along with my DVD player for Sinhala New Year which is coming up next week. The plan was to drop me at Arlene's and then take Veenitha home with TV, etc. All went well, except for the back thing.
Very low water in the reservoir
The living room
Lovely gardens including a protected vegetable garden with the green netting in the background
Once we finally got to Arlene's road, it was another adventure. It is nothing more than a dirt track with portions of bed rock. In the end, I had to get down and walk as the tuktuk couldn't make it over the ruts with all the weight in the back. Even when he came back to get me after dropping Veenitha off, he made it to the foot of the drive, but I had to push the tuktuk over the bedrock to get us out. I can't imagine what they do when we are getting torrential rain. The price of living in paradise.
Arlene and Carl's lovely cat, Tiger-lily
The school continues to go well. I must admit I am getting a bit tired. We are taking a break next week for new year and then after that Lalindra is back. I can hardly wait. I don't want to work this much.
We have some new additions as the school:
A lovely cat that comes around from the house just below the temple has had kittens. She is little more than a kitten herself, but that is what comes of not having animals neutered. She is taking great care of her brood. They are hunkered down beside the filing cabinets in our large classroom.
She was hissing at me
2 of 4 healthy and happy kittens
We are getting just the right amount of rain and sunshine these days to really reap the bounty of fruits and vegetables. Limes are down to LKR.130/kilo from LKR.1300 at one point. There is soursop, custard apple, pineapple, watermelon, papaya, all kinds of bananas and all kinds of great vegetables.
My full crisper
We continue to fiddle with the bird baths since the monkeys got at the big cement one. We seem to have found the right combination at the back as we attracted our first common myna the other day. Nothing really common about it in my opinion.
Sitting on the food plank
From the internet. Lovely markings around the eyes and it has the most lovely song.
