December 12, 2017

Trying to keep up with this so I don't forget what has been going on.

My landlady, Tula planted a cultivated Bird of Paradise plant some time ago in the garden in front of my kitchen window.  I thought it was dead, but lo and behold, it bloomed on the very day that her husband died.  Strange!

Here she is.  The wild ones are shaped the same but are all orange.

Trinity College held their annual carol service in Sunday night.  I had no idea this even went on, but now that I am friendly with the principal and his wife, I got an official invite.  It was lovely.  Mind you, there was a bit too much praying and Bible reading, but the choir was great and the sing alongs also.  A couple of the boys whose voices have not broken yet had such clear singing voices.  Just as you would imagine seraphim to sound.  They also had an Old Chorister singing with them who had a very rich baritone voice.  I imagined him sounding like and archangel.  All in all a wonderful experience that I will repeat next year.  The added bonus was that the chapel was packed.  Something very rare in Kandy.  Although, between the funeral and the carol service, I have had enough of religious mumbo jumbo for a while now.

The choir.  The round thing on the right is a Saisethe, a symbol of the Kandyan kings.  Glad to see a bit of Sri Lanka seeping into this High Anglican place.

Side mural

Other side mural

The chapel is open sided in the tradition of ancient Buddhist temples.  The line of flame is hundreds of tiny oil pots.  Lots of candles inside as well.  A beautiful setting.

As usual, finishing with my Boyos.

Brotherly love

December 9. 2017

Attended my third funeral since coming to Sri Lanka.  My 91 year old landlord passed away after having a 3rd stroke.  Oddly enough, all three funerals have been Christian.  The last was Catholic and presided over by no less than the Bishop of Kandy.  Also oddly, it is almost 5 years to the day that I attended the funeral of my dear friend Nirmala, with whom I was meant to stay upon my arrival.

As is the Sri Lankan custom, regardless of your religion, the body was brought to the house and laid out in the living room.  Thankfully, that only went on for one day and one night.  A requiem mass was held at the Kandy cemetery.  I had forgotten how much bobbing up and down goes on at a Catholic mass.  The nice part was that the chapel was full not only of Catholics, but Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus.  Goes to show that we really can get along as humans if we want to.

RIP Hu Fernando.

December 4, 2017

High time that I updated everyone.

I saw in my 66th year with an ear infection and a great party.  Preparations started a week before with cleaning and food prep.  On the day itself, I selected a sample of blossoms in the yard and floated them in a bowl to greet guests at the front door.

Happily, I only had to do a bit of food prep as Husna Faizal, the teaching assistant at the school, and a wonderful cook took on the catering.  Here's what she made:

The highlight was a caramel drop cake that more than fed the crowd.

Falafel that went perfectly with my usual selection of dips:  hummus, babaganoush, tsatziki

Caramelized onion and mushroom puff pastry.  Enough left over to give to my Stitch 'n Bitch group the following Wednesday.

Spring rolls

Mini-pizzas

 Everything was pure veg and was gobbled up.

Because of the ear infection, that I tried to cure myself without success, I wasn't sure how I would survive the party, but in the end I managed and had a good time.   (In the end, I had to go to the ENT quack.  Turned out to be a fungal infection.  The weather has been so damp.  He suctioned the ear and gave me some anti-fungal drops and it cleared up after 2 days.  How stupid was I to suffer for 2 weeks!)

Party goers enjoying themselves:

Heather Keagan, a fellow Canadian from Cape Breton, here for 3 years teaching for the British Council.

Talking with my good Visakha Kawasaki.  She and her husband Ken are the best English teachers in the world.

Ran and Patricia, two new friends.  Ran is a native Kandyan who has returned from long stints in the US and the Middle East.  Patricia has been in Sri Lanka for almost 5 years with the British Council, but has only recently come to Kandy.

Fazmina and Sylvia both teachers at the Colombo International School.  Fasmina is also our drama coach at the School of English.  Sylvia is from Austria and has been living in Sri Lanka for a long time.

Deanne and Tania.  Deanne is a native Sri Lankan who lived in Scotland for 33 years and has come back after her husband's death.  Tania was born in Britain to a British mother and a Sri Lankan father but was brought up in Sweden.  She has come to Sri Lanka to settle and find her Sri Lankan roots.

Morag, Jill and Patricia.  Morag and Jill are new arrivals on 6 month contracts with the British Council.  We get a lot of itinerant works through here.

Patricia and Visakha have become fast friends.  Teachers of a feather.

Fazmina, Achala and Senani.  Achala and Senani both teach at the school.

My dear friend Judith with a perpetual wine glass in her hand.

Ran and Brenda.  Brenda and her husband Mike have been coming to Sri Lanka for years for 3 or 4 month stints.  Mike teaches in the Medical Faculty at Peradeniya University every year.

Lovely pic of Mike and Brenda Sedgwick.

Yvonne Cooper caught me in a terrifying moment.

Sanji, Judith and Ana.  Sanji and Ana are married and came to Sri Lanka from Majorca where they met.  Sanji comes from a village very close to Kandy.

Mike and Sally.  Sally was born in Ceylon and has come back to her birthplace to run a guest house.

Visakha and Ken Kawasaki from Flint, Michigan.  Such good friends.  Sylvia talking to Anouk, the daughter of Ravana and Ayesha.  Nice to have some young blood.

Philippa and Tania.  Philippa has been here for almost 25 years, married to a Sri Lankan.

Jill enjoying herself.

The youngest guests; Keeyan and Tehan.  First time they met and getting on like a house on fire.

Ravana, the CEO of Sinhaputra Finance and the Honorary French Consul in Kandy.  Sanjika, a native Sri Lankan who came back from Holland after many years with a Dutch husband and two lovely daughters.  Amal, my good friend who returned to Sri Lanka after 40 years in Australia and the Honorary British Consul in Kandy.

Simon Lazenblatt and Deanne.  Simon has lived all over the world and has retired to Sri Lanka

More young blood.  Luc and Kanishka.

My best friends; Jez and Amal

Pauline, Simon's wife and Jerry Martin married to Sally of Ceylonese birth.

Lighting the candles on the cake with Philippa's help

A little better pic than the scary one

Sanjika and Ana

Fazmina, Achala, Senani, Husna who made all the food and Ran

George Cooper who has retired to Sri Lanka with his wife Yvonne who is responsible for most of these pix.  Brenda, Ewen who has retired here after losing his lovely Sri Lankan wife.

So as you can see, there is a real cosmopolitan mix of people.  Always interesting.  A memorable 65th.

On to more mundane things; it was star fruit season in mid-October.  The monkeys got at my neighbor's tree, so I got a lot of fruit.

Now we are into the monsoon season and all the usual rain critters are abounding like black ants, snails, centipedes and millipedes.

A snail to rival the monsters on Ile des Pins in New Caledonia

A blog would not be complete without an update on my current crop of pets.  Not to forget my lovely Patches:

One of my last views of her alive.  She was dragging herself outside into the sun by her front legs.

Her loss is somewhat dulled by the antics of the Boyos and Tsweetie.

They both nap with me.

Or they do simulcleaning while work in my office.