Keep Track of Julia: January 2019

Despite my best intentions, it has been 2 months since my last blog. Or as Catholics might say, "Bless me Father, for I have sinned. It has been 2 months since my last blog."

It was my 66th birthday on November 16. As it was a Friday and many of the guests were Muslim, the party was held on Saturday. The theme was Route 66.

The sign is a little rusted around the edges, just like me.

My poor attempt to replicate the sign

I downloaded music that is suitable for listening while driving down Route 66 and put together the menu from the restaurants that are along the route.

Mini sugar donuts. Although they were more medium than mini. Tasted fabulous though.

Jelly donuts

Mini veggie burgers. Again bigger than I expected.

2 kinds of egg salad sandwiches; with and without dill

Chiles rellenos. This was a stretch too far for my friend Husna who did the catering. Wrapped in pastry and filled with cheese (?) and corn and baked. The Sri Lankans loved them, but they were not anything like the real thing.

A brownie fudge cake for the birthday cake that was fabulous.

I also ordered a lemon meringue pie, but hogged it for myself as my birthday present.

Husna did a wonderful job with the catering despite the fact that none of this food is familiar to Sri Lankans.

40 people were in attendance, so I felt very blessed. My friend Judith, who is quite a poet, gave me a beautiful card made from recycled paper inclusive of a poem she had written for the occasion. She read out the poem at the party as well followed by a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday.

Thursday, November 22 was a particularly busy day. Firstly, I was the Chief Guest at the Gampola International School Kids Variety Entertainment day. The school is owned by my friend Jez's parents. He has recently joined the Board of Directors and was therefore influential in having them select me as their chief guest rather than some local politician.

First came a letter by snail mail, followed by this invitation also by snail mail. I kept waiting for an email. Stupid me.

On the day, Ravi and I set out for Gampola, a town about 25 kms. from Kandy. About 10 kms. outside Gampola, the brake cable went on the tuktuk. I was not too worried as despite the fact Jez told me to be there at 9:00am, I was working on the assumption that he meant Sri Lanka time which means show up anytime you like. Luckily, Ravi flagged down another tuktuk which took me the rest of the way arriving about 9:03am. Thank Allah, in this case, I was on time. There were a host of dignitaries, a marching band, a little girl with a bouquet of flowers along with Jez's parents all waiting for me. After an official greeting from the Drum Major who saluted me so crisply, I felt compelled to salute her back, and a number from the band, we wended our way up a long walk to the auditorium. At the entrance, all the school prefects were lined up for my inspection. I followed the Queen's example and shook hands with each of them and said, "Pleased to meet you" about 60 times. I really felt like royalty.

As an aside, I have been watching The Crown. What with the TV series and my brief experience of their job, I have to say I don't envy them and would not trade places for all their wealth.

The bouquet of flowers they presented me with. They were so hideous, I left them with Jez who tactfully told his parents I had forgotten them. It is the thought that counts.

The program

Welcome Dance by the youngest kids in the Lower Kindergarten

Gummy Bear Dance

Indian Traditional Dance

They even have henna painted on their hands. Everything was done beautifully, down to the last detail.

Hadakarai Dagakarai Dance. Not clear on what this was supposed to be, but the little ones did an amazing job.

Japanese Umbrella Dance

Udawadiya Male (not male as in male and female, but pronounced malé) Dance

Finally the males have shown up. They only do an entertainment day for kids up to Grade 5 as the parents object to boys and girls dancing together after that age. So stupid!

Recitation by Zeena Aithaf. God or Allah or whomever knows why such a young girl is covered up in a hijab.

Red Indian Dance. They are not aware of the fact that the term red Indian is no longer PC. I tried to explain this to Jez's father, but I don't think he understood what I was getting at.

Yallali Yallali Arabic Dance

Tamil Traditional Dance. These traditional dances involve a lot of hip swaying and such that is quite provocative, that I would have thought all the staid parents would have objected to. I guess not. No rhyme nor reason to such conservative thinking.

Asha Asha Arabic Dance

Recitation by S. Dhanushan. That black thing in front of him is a flame thrower which let out a frightfully high and hot shot of flame. I was sitting right in front of it and thought I was going to have my eye brows singed. It did not add to the comfort level of the room either, as it was packed with people with no AC and no fans.

"Together We Are Family" English Dance. I guess it is considered English as the lyrics are in English.

Doom Hindi Dance. Only got a bit of this on video, but move over Hrithik Roshan and Ashwarya Rai. They did both versions.

Vibaage Vibaage Sinhala Dance

Thankfully, they gave us a break here as I had not had breakfast and was gasping for a cup of tea. They were kind enough to make me a special thermos of tea without milk or sugar along with vegetarian short eats. Jez knows how to take care of me.

Here they changed the program a bit. This is Jez's Mother, Feroza, the Deputy Principal introducing me.

They presented me with this momento which came with a stand. It is hugely heavy and serves as a great paper weight. The stand is perfect for holding my iPad.

Barbie Dance Chinese. They were carful not to leave out any important group including the Chinese who currently own Sri Lanka

Baby Shark. Don't know the connection except that there were pictures of sharks and other fish in the background.

Recitation by S. Midushan. By this time, the program was going right out the window.

Wakka Wakka Cheering Dance. Wonder what that crowd would make of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, originally called the CowBelles.

Pot Dance. I think there were some pots involved. For milking the cows, I think.

Galti Se Mistake Hindi Dance. Might be a mistake or not.

Recitation by Asha Munas dressed as a cowboy

Hawa Hawa in Spanish Dance. They seem to repeat the names of many dances twice.

Boom Diggy Hindi and English

Boom Boom English

Udarata Niliya Sinhala

The performance went on for a bit longer, but I was getting weary and so was Kaneeza's Mother who came despite the fact she has suffered a couple of strokes. We retired to Jez's place for a bit of a nap and lunch. This was a godsend as I was going on from Jez's to Jim Aitken's place close to Gampola for a film night. We watched the latest Marvel opus Black Panther which I though was quite good.

From there, I went to Judith Smith's house to spend the night. It was one hell of a long day made worse by the fact that I was so over stimulated, I couldn't sleep.

The early morning view from my bedroom at Judith's in Bowalawatte

The next day we were treated to lunch by Deanne at the new Japanese restaurant Nihonbashi. I had the sashimi and despite the fact that the salmon was farmed, it was excellent. A wonderful oasis in Kandy's restaurant desert.

I had a much welcome day of rest on Saturday. On Sunday, it was Discovery Club to see the new condominium Dynasty Residences, Land of Kings, built near where I live at Elephant Bath on the Mahawelli River. They very proudly told us that it is the highest building in Kandy standing at 19 stories. They also informed us that it is the last building of its kind to be built so close to the river at 30m. Apparently, the municipal council has now decreed that buildings have to be built 100m from the river. Neither point seemed a plus to me. During one hiatus in the 6 years it took to build the thing, the hole for the foundation filled up with water and collapsed in on itself. I predict that it will be another dam on the Mahawelli within a decade.

The current owner is a expat Sri Lankan living in Phoenix, Arizona. The tour was interesting. Some of the layouts are quite good, while others are ridiculous. All the suites have a wet and a dry kitchen. The dry kitchen being a half baked rendition of the North American fascination with the great room, brought on my our Arizona friend no doubt, but not quite. There is a galley kitchen with an island in front of it. This seems to serve no useful purpose as there is a proper cooking kitchen in the back, except to use up much needed space in the living room.

There is a nice pool and gym with plans for a restaurant and tuck shop. A bit like the old full service apartments they used to build in Europe. There are also 4 penthouses each with its own roof garden. A lovely feature were it not surrounded by a tiled walk billed as a running track. Only a fool would run on such a hard surface in the direct tropical sun.

The cost of the suites is also very high and of course, there is a monthly maintenance fee on top which will only increase. The cherry on top is that it is built almost directly across from Kandy's biggest landfill site that emits a big stink on a very regular basis. I should know as I also live right across from it. Beside it is the old site of the elephant baths where they really did bring elephants to bathe. There is a small canal dug from the river for the purpose. The elephants no longer come and the canal is now clogged with floating garbage. Not really features that work in favor of buying a unit starting at LKR.58,000,000 (C$425,000). A lot of money for around here. No wonder they have only sold 30% of the 93 units. And not even that since the owner has reserved 2 or 3 for himself.

All of this activity was followed on the Monday by Film Club, so by the end of 10 days of parties and other things, I was starting to feel even older than my 66 years. The continuation of my swimming program helped me to bounce back quickly, however, aided by the acquisition of a waterproof MP3 player kindly brought back by the Kawasakis from Bangkok but originally purchased in Japan and brought by a friend of theirs to Bangkok. Where there is a will, there is a way.

On Thursday, November 29 a return visit was made to Nihonbashi for coffee to celebrate Ava Billings' 70th birthday. There was a large turnout, so much so that we almost took over the entire restaurant.

Tuesday, December 4 saw the first of what will soon be 7 trips to the dentist. Ostensibly, I was going to have the crown fitted on my implant, but the first visit ended up with the repair of 2 chipped teeth. Soon after, I got a terrible ear ache which I was worried was being caused by swimming. The insertion of a couple of garlic cloves seemed to relieve it until while overnighting at my friends George and Yvonne's, I was up the entire night with a toothache. To make a long story short; after 3 rounds of antibiotics, popping painkillers like they were candy and 3 dental visits for a root canal, it transpires that a wisdom tooth had died and had become infected. I have never in my memory had such a toothache. Although I had 2 abscessed baby teeth on the trans-Atlantic voyage in 1957 which had to be ultimately extracted under general anaesthetic, ether in those days, which must have hurt like a bear, but I don't remember.

After the root canal extravaganza, it was back to expose the top of the implant for placement of the crown which will be fitted on January 22 if all goes well, and a cleaning. The cleaning is usually LKR.2500, but the dentist gave me a LKR.500 discount. Frequent drilling points, I suppose.

While still on a diet of painkillers, there was a wine and cheese evening at the Grand Kandyan Hotel (aka House of Ugly), with the cheese being provided by my friend Jez. He asked me to give him a hand, so we both went along, free of charge and served cheese while swilling wine all night.

Because we were doing the cheese, we got in for free. Good thing too as I would have been upset to pay even the LKR.1500 that was being charged to members of L'Alliance Française.

Three different kinds of exotic cheeses prepared by Jez just for the occasion.

Clearly the cheese was enjoyed by all.

You can't get Jez off his cell phone and FaceBook

Cheesehounds

Mikael from L'Alliance introducing me

Me introducing the cheese. One of the very rare occasions that I can actually speak French.

The next day when I was a bit hung over, I have to admit, we had the first planning meeting for an Oxfam Hunger Banquet. The idea is from the Kawasakis who hosted the first event with a sumptuous spread for high tea. We are doing it through Oxfam US as the UK CEO resigned under a cloud of allegations that Oxfam UK workers had used underage prostitutes in Haiti and, of course pulling down an egregious salary. The actual banquet will probably take place sometime in the latter half of 2019.

After Book Club on Monday, December 10, I set off to my friends George and Yvonne's who live in Kadigamuwa, a village about 33km. northwest of Kandy. Apart from the start of the really bad toothache, ear ache, swollen lymph glands that made me look like I had the mumps, we had a great time.

They live in a beautiful old wallawa that they have restored surrounded by a lovely garden. The elevated white thing is a koi pond.

The property overlooks a large paddy field which you have drive across on a very narrow road. Scary at night especially.

A tiny corner of the garden

Yvonne with one of her orchids of which she gave me 3 rooted stems. Let's hope they grow.

They have many lovely plants and features in the garden and Yvonne is very generous with cuttings. In addition to the 3 orchid plants, she gave me some succulents similar to hen and chick, some water lettuce, some underwater plants for a fish bowl along with some fish. When they came to stay with a few days later, they brought a giant cement bowl and stand for the fish and water plants.

I had a cracked cement bowl that is perfect for the succulents, allowing them drainage.

The fish bowl. You can't see the fish or the underwater plants. There are quite a few guppies and 2 goldfish. The mesh is to keep the birds and the cats out.

The plan is to put a large oval planter in front of the stand, but the place where Yvonne gets these things dirt cheap did not have one of the big ovals just at the moment.

Just so people do not forget that everywhere is a jungle in Sri Lanka no matter how manicured, this is what was lurking at the side of their house.

Giant Wood Spider also known as the Golden Orb Spider or Banana Spider. Its "silk" is almost as strong as Kevlar. The web itself is known to be several meters in size and is strong enough to trap small birds and large flying insects. However, trapped birds can end up destroying the web in their struggle to get out and are unintentional and unwanted targets. The spider does not feed upon these birds. The spider is known to leave insect wings within its large web as a visible warning to warn off birds.

Not so interesting on the top side, but much harder to see among the greenery. Wouldn't want to walk into the web unawares.

On Saturday, December 15, still under the influence of pain killers, I had 2 events to go to. One was a pre-Christmas drinks party and the other was the Homecoming for my landlady's grandson. In Sri Lanka, there are 3 events surrounding a wedding. The legal wedding that takes place at a registry office, the religious wedding/reception that is usually hosted by the bride's family for her family and friends and the Homecoming that is usually hosted by the groom's family for his family and friends. Aslam and Sabha had the wedding reception in Colombo as Sabha is from there and the Homecoming at the home of his parents in Kandy.

I had to wrap myself in a sari for the occasion. Never an easy task especially when you are high on paracetamol.

They Marikar family live in a large family compound on Peradeniya Road in Kandy, one of the busiest commercial roads in Kandy. The house is behind some commercial buildings, so you wouldn't even know it is there. This is the long panhandle driveway leading from the street. There were about 400 people for a sit down dinner. The couple is being led in by Kandyan drummers and dancers.

Aslam and Sabha

A much better picture posted by the groom on FB. He looks bored though.

Then on the Sunday, it was the Book/Film Club lunch. Thus ended another round of partying. I was really starting to get tired.

In between all this party going, I had to do some traditional Hungarian Christmas baking. These are things that my Mother used to make every Christmas, but that I have never attempted in my life before.

Bejgli are rolls made from ground walnuts and ground poppy seeds. My Mother would make these every Christmas, but this was my first ever attempt. I had ensured delivery of a sufficient supply of walnuts and poppy seeds from abroad earlier in the year, and happily apricot jam which is also needed was available here. My Mother would always complain that her pastry would burst, and true to form, so did mine. My Father and I would always reassure here that it still tasted good, and indeed, it did.

Pogàcsa is a biscuit made with pork fat and cracklings or cheese. Being a vegetarian, I opted for cheese with a little caraway seed sprinkled on top. Made me feel like a kid again.

Then it was time to get ready for my Tree Trimming party. This year I decided to invite all my English students and their families. The Wednesday before Christmas Eve, the children helped me to decorate the house. Veenitha and I put up the tree with the lights all ready for the guests to trim the tree.

All dolled up for the party. The Kawasakis had brought me back some beautiful Thai silk from Bangkok, so I had some great evening pants to wear.

The Kawasakis were the chief guests and gave the students a wonderful lesson in caroling. The children has written a play which they performed. A video and pictures were taken, but I have not received them yet. Stay tuned.

Unexpectedly, I got some Christmas presents in the mix including quite a few cards. One card along with the gifts that came with it were outstanding from my student Dulanya. Her mother Anjanna is one of the most beautiful and stylish women I know and her father is a handsome and gregarious man whose natural talents are well suited to the hotel industry in which he works. Apart from the well chosen gifts, Dulyana made a handmade Christmas card with the most touching note inside.

The card

The inscription

Sri Lankans are not used to potluck parties where you mix instead of sitting to eat a meal. Consequently, it took them a bit of time to get used to the format and I also ended up with a huge amount of left over food despite the fact that I send both Veenitha and Poomani home with bulging bags. I even had enough to give Tula for her tea party on Christmas Day to which I was also invited. This after a Christmas Eve party heaving with food and Christmas Day breakfast at Hotel Ozo which is becoming a tradition. So I spent Christmas Eve with Buddhists, Christmas Day breakfast with Hindus, agnostics, atheists, and Christians(?) and Christmas Day tea/lunch with Muslims and one Catholic. I think Jesus would have approved.

On December 28, George and Yvonne came to stay with me for a couple of nights as the had given their house over for a home swap for points. They use this home swap system to go all over the world and stay in the most amazing places. We took the opportunity to poke around Kandy on the Saturday as they don't often get the chance. A bit of a mistake as Saturdays are very busy, but needs must. That night they treated me to dinner at the Citadel hotel.

Sunday, December 30 was yet another party at Mike and Brenda Sedgwick's. They come every year for 3 to 4 months and have been renting a fabulous house in Anawatte. It was a lovely party with a live band playing traditional raga type music and also some contemporary stuff. More food but no drink as I had overdone it a bit the previous night.

Thankfully, I had no invitation for the 31st. I would have declined in any event as I was completely tuckered out. In bed by 10, but was awoken by the fireworks and firecrackers that go off like an artillery barrage at midnight.

A bit of a reprieve until January 5 when the next installment of the Oxfam hunger banquet planning was held at the Kawasakis to yet more food.

Saddly, I had to attend my fourth funeral since my arrival in Sri Lanka on the 7th. A member of our Book Club, Areenie died suddenly after what appeared to be successful bypass surgery in Singapore. She was a lovely woman and had made a special point of bringing a book that she thought I would particularly enjoy to one of the last book clubs she attended. She was right. It is The Waiting Earth by Punyakante Wijeratne and has gone on my top 5 book list. I had been waiting for her to come to book club again so I could return it her, but alas she died before I could do so. So now I have a lovely memento of her.

I was introduced to two very interesting women via long distance by some old friends I first met when I came to Sri Lanka in 1987. The new friends were on a trip from their home in Oaxaca, Mexico. Margarita is Mexican and Julia is Colombian. We met twice while they were in Kandy. A most interesting pair. Margarita is a researcher and historian who left home at 16 and went to Cuba to help with the literacy campaign of 1961. Julia is a documentary film maker. While in Kandy, they stayed at a boutique hotel called the King's Pavilion on Galkanda Lane. I had never heard of the place before and was very impressed with the physical plant, the menu, the staff and the service. I would recommend it to anyone looking for an experience outside of the big hotel scene. You have be willing to pay though.

In typically Sri Lankan fashion, the paper announced the service as taking place at 4:00pm. I arrived just before 4 to see the smoke rising from the crematorium chimney. The funeral cortège had arrived early and damn the announcement in the paper, they just got on with it. Quite a few of us missed the whole thing.

Nothing other than the renewal of classes in the new year until the 14th, yesterday which was breakfast at Ozo, book club, running around Kandy town, lunch at the Olde Empire Cafe with my friends Sally and Jerry recently returned from a 6 mont trip, more running around Kandy town only to come home exhausted to find another ant attack in my clothing dresser.

Today is Thai Pongol, a Hindu festival, so I have been alone all day to catch up on things.

Classes are going along well. The children's class is full, in fact oversubscribed by one. I have had to hire a new assistant as the previous one got full time employment at the Montessori school where she has been teaching part time for ages. I got my friend Husna's younger sister Fazna to come. Her English is excellent and she has training as a Montessori teacher. Plus, I like the fact that she is a Muslim so that the children are exposed to other Sri Lankan communities than their own. The Friday night class has been cancelled and has been folded into the Wednesday adult class that now has 5 members. So I only have to teach on Wednesdays and Thursdays with more students, that is great.

We are moving into avocado, soursop, innale (a vegetable that looks like a water chestnut but tastes more like a potato. In fact, ale means potato in Sinhala).