April 16, 2017

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.

Sleeping on her blanky like a good girl.

Such a sweet face.