April 21, 2019 Easter Sunday

Well here's a Happy Easter.  There have been 6 bombings this morning.  Two Catholic churches in the Colombo area, three of the biggest hotels in Colombo and a church in Batticoloa on the east coast.  While I am typing this, the death toll is at 137 with hundreds injured.  No idea who is responsible yet.  My heart goes out to the families of the dead and those injured.  What a violent world we live in.

Thankfully, nothing has been reported around Kandy.  It was just another day until friends phoned to tell me the news.  Then we had a power outage for about an hour and a half and I thought they may have bombed a power station, but happily not.

We have just lived through the hottest time of the year with the sun passing directly over us on its way to the Tropic of Cancer.  Thankfully, the drought has let up and we are getting some rain, often very heavy, every day.

This makes things really good for my garden.  I have redone my patio and have done some planting in the process.  Honeysuckle and agave given to me by friends.  Boatilly or Moses-in-the-cradle and passion fruit from other parts of the garden.  A great new place to read.  I also put in some edible plants called kurra kola (kola meaning green).  It is a dark green leaf that tastes a bit like spinach or kankong, but better.  It seems to have taken well and we should soon be eating it.

My new idyll 

Two lovely friends of mine who have been seeing each other for more than 6 years have announced that they are getting married in August.  They have been taking things very slowly as she is a Sri Lankan Muslim and he is an American Buddhist.  Their patience and persuasion have born fruit and finally Rushma's parents are on side.  To cement things, the Kawasaki's had a lunch for them with Rushma's parents to which I was privileged to be invited.

Starting at the head of the table going clockwise:  Ken Kawasaki, me, Rushma's father, Rushma (the bride to be), Rushma's mother, Mike (the groom to be), Tania, Visakha Kawasaki.  They pulled out all the stops.

We have found a new place for breakfast, the Grand Kandyan or as I like to call it, the House of Ugly.  The decor is early bordello on steroids.  However, the breakfast is fabulous and very affordable.  We are so impressed in fact, that we are moving our Book Club meetings there.

Art Group has also been revived as I no longer have Wednesday afternoon children's classes.  The first one back, we had a long time member attend who is moving back to England, Arlene Kelaart.  It was nice to have her with us for one last time.

My Game of Thrones gong for the front door has been completed and put up.  I love the look of it and it serves as a great door bell.

My landlady, Tula, had her 85th birthday.  She had a small dinner party that I was invited to.  She had asked me the day before, not telling me that it was her birthday.  They did not call me until 8pm by which time I had had dinner and said that I did not feel like going.  Then her granddaughter came down to tell me it was her birthday and really wanted me to be there, whereupon I leapt up, got dressed and joined them.  She was the most elegant person there.

Not bad at 85.  She does everything for herself without help.  She even supervises the gardener when he comes.  I have two maids and can hardly manage.

Another day of sandwich making at the Kawasakis for high tea at the cancer home.  It is always fun.  This time we were joined by Ewen.  A good time for a good cause.

April 13 and 14 were Sinhala and Tamil New Year.  This year it fell on a Saturday and Sunday, but we still had 10 days of no schools, no buses, no banks, etc.  A poya day on Friday added to the mix.  All those official holidays are augmented by a lot of unofficial ones.  Things will only get back to normal tomorrow, although today's bombings will undoubtedly shut down Colombo.

I was without any help for 3 days.  Veenitha came back on Tuesday only to get stranded on Wednesday without a bus from her village.  She has continued to do wonderful flower arrangements.  Here is a great idea I first saw at Hotel Ozo.  It is a large olive jar lined with a leaf and converted to a vase.

And always in closing, the cats:  Just got interrupted by a power outage.  What an Easter Sunday!

Sibling love

My brother is my pillow

Buddy hunting in the mango tree

4 out of 5 having breakfast.

A postscript written at 2225 on Sunday night.  207 dead now and 450 injured in the blasts including 27 foreigners dead.  Terrible!  We are under an island wide curfew which should be lifted in the morning.  This is the worst attack on Colombo ever.  Even when I lived here from 1987 to 1989 when 2 wars were being waged in both the north and the south, there was nothing of this magnitude outside of the war zones.  I hope they find the perpetrators and lock them in a dark hole somewhere for the rest of their days.

On a happier note, I have finished reading Michelle Obama's autobiography Becoming.  A moving book by a remarkable woman.