May 27, 2018

Went out to friends in Rambukhana to watch the royal wedding.  Prior to, we went to a hotel in Pinawella near the elephant orphanage for lunch.

Elephants bathing in the river.  You can't see it, but there was a huge water spout spraying them and they were loving it.

Not wading too far into the river as it is very high from the rains and moving quite swiftly.  Elephants are smart.

The royal wedding was OK.  We had a lot of fun slagging all the outfits especially the hats.  Camilla looked liked she had killed a flock of flamingos.

In any event, it gave me a chance to connect with my friends Sally and Gerry a bit more.  That is the real purpose of these things.  They run a guest house quite deep in the Hantane Tea Estate.  Very progressive, which is a bit rare here.  Most people are right of Attila the Hun.  Unfortunately, they are going on a 6 month sabbatical soon.  Will miss them.

Last night was a gin tasting night sponsored by my friend Simon Lazenbatt and a guy called Paul Topping.  I have never been to a gin tasting before and have in fact not drunk gin in about 50 years having spent my early drinking days getting drunk on lemon gin.  I haven't even been able to stand the smell of it since then.

I did manage to smell and even drink a bit of all 7 gins that were on offer.  It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it.  I must say that gin has come a long way.  Still, the Sri Lankan was rut gut to me.  Sally said she quite liked the Rockland's gin which is the local and she knows a lot more about gin that I do, so I will defer to her opinion.

As always, the real attraction was the people.  Many of the "set", but some new ones as well.  Paul Topping is a Brit who calls himself The Whinging Pome.  He has written a book by the same name.  He has been to 150 countries, has a vineyard outside of Bangalore, has been married 4 times and fancies himself as a bit of a stand-up comic.  For the most part, he was entertaining though.

I also met Sri Lanka's former ambassador to the UN.  He left the post two and a half years ago.  Lovely, intelligent man.  Simon's passion is the Arboretum near Dambulla.  He brought along a young man that is also involved with the project who spoke passionately about the conservation effort they are trying to achieve there.  Very well spoken and articulate.

There was also a fellow Graham and his wife Simone, visiting from Colombo.  He is Scottish and she is South African.  He works for a large Hong Kong clothing manufacturer whose name I forget and meant nothing to me.  However, they make clothing for all the big lines like Tommy Helfiger, etc.  They were both very friendly, but the interesting thing was that the company is one of the very few in the world the grows their own cotton, combs it, makes it into thread, weaves the textile and then makes it into clothes.  Fully vertical as Graham put it.

The point is that Sri Lanka attracts the most interesting people and Kandy being small gives one an opportunity to meet many of them.  Altogether a good evening.