November 26, 2020

Here we are in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Thankfully, we have not been locked down again in Kandy despite some cases cropping up here and there.  A huge cluster started in the Free Trade Zone outside of Colombo at the Brandix clothing factory spreading to a fish market in the same area.  15,000 cases are attributed to these two clusters alone.  The cause was the import of 64 workers from India who were not quarantined as the owner of the factory is friends with the President of the country.  Typical!  A large part of the Western Province ended up in another lockdown which has now been lifted.  We have dodged the bullet so far and some friends have even been able to return after 2 weeks in quarantine and 2 more in self-isolation.  For me, life goes on pretty much as usual, but with prudence and caution.

The situation precluded me from having a big birthday party or going away for my 68th birthday.  However, we were able to have a small gathering of 12 at Simpson's Forest hotel.  I celebrated by swimming 30 lengths of the pool, feeling very righteous and less hung over after the effort.  (Too much cognac the day before.). A lovely day altogether.

Three ladies in a pool.  From left to right:  Me after my 30 lengths, Ava, and Lesley who helped me organize the event.

Lunch with friends going around the table from left to right:  Viv, Simon, Gerry, Bill, Ava, Me, Malcolm

Blowing out the candles.  Lesley organized all this without my knowing.

Cutting the birthday cake that Lesley surprised me with.

The cake.

The assembled crowd.

Ava, Viv, Simon, Bill, Gerry

Ralph, Pauline, Lesley

The birthday celebration was a highlight in an otherwise sad couple of months as I lost two of my dearest friends.  My dear friend Evelyn Comtois (Bilodeau nee Michaud) died on October 12, Thanksgiving Day just short of her 98th birthday.  She was almost exactly 30 years older than me to the day.  My birthday is November 16 and hers was November 21.  I first met Evelyn when I was 21 years old.  We both served on the National Executive Board of the Manpower and Immigration Union.  She was a very intelligent and engaging woman and I was a smart aleck.  We got into quite a discussion about Quebec separatism.  She basically told me I didn't know what I was talking about and that I should come visit her in Montreal to see how things really were.  Much to her surprise, I took her up on the offer just a few months later.  We have been friends ever since.  In fact, she and her husband Roger became like another set of parents.

We had maintained close contact over the years, talking frequently on the phone, visiting each other in Montreal or Victoria and always making a point of visiting an art gallery or museum when we were together.  After having lost contact with her over a year ago, I tried desperately to find what had happened.  I was worried that she had passed away as had Roger about 5 years back.  I tried everything, even calling the residence where I knew they had lived on Ile des Seour in Montreal.  No joy.  Finally, I received an email from her younger son Claude who found my email address on her computer informing me that she had died.  

She and Roger both have left big holes in my life.  Evelyn always said that I was the daughter she never had, falling in age between her two sons, Bernard, the elder and Claude.  I miss her.

My other close friend from that same era, June Cassey nee Papas died on November 4 at the age of 93 after a battle with Alzheimer's.  I met June and her husband Joe when I moved to Ottawa in 1977.  She worked for the Canadian Labour Congress and Joe was a liquor rep and an alderman on the Ottawa City Council.  I met June when the staff of the union I was working for decided to unionize.  She was president of the OPEIU local which we ultimately joined.  I went on to serve as Vice-President under June and we became very close friends.  She and Joe lived with June's Mother (Mama) in a 150 year old house in Centre Town at 200 Cartier Street that used to be a bank.  

Many a good time was had in that house and at the their cottage on the Gatineaus at St. Pierre de Wakefield.  June's birthday parties, celebrated in June (when else) and their Christmas dinners were legendary.  She was known as the Cat Lady of Centre Town as she took in any stray cat that crossed her patio.  She instilled her love of cats in me and I have never looked back.  She also passed on her unswerving fight for social justice.  She too will be missed.

June just before she died.

June as I knew her.

The second surge of the pandemic has put paid to our book club that we managed to resuscitate for one meeting.  However, we have managed to continue with our film club which carries on apace.

Enjoying lunch

Better social distancing at this end of the table.  We are learning and have set up better social distancing protocols since.

Lunch on Sundays at Lesley and Ralph's has also become a weekly event and I have rejoined Discussion Club that takes place on Tuesdays and Fridays, although I usually only go on Tuesdays.  Mahjong is also continuing.  Lesley has joined us so now every second Saturday, Gerry and I play for 2.5 hours with the original group and another couple of hours with Lesley.  The group with Lesley is much more advanced and consequently much more fun.  We are going to start learning how to score this week.

I went on a bit of an adventure trying to find plant pots for my patio along with a tile or stone table top for my kitchen table.  After running from one end of Kandy to the other, both were acquired.

My patio has been refurbished with the excavation of the pond.  I have had a bit of a learning curve with the fish, not realizing that the gourami that I put in the pond are territorial and will kill almost everything in the pond including their mates.  

Nilanta putting in the flower boxes and re-cementing the pond.

The female gourami who, as you can see was pregnant.  Her mate built her a lovely next for her to lay her eggs and promptly killed her after she had done so.  I didn't know you were supposed to separate the male.

A bit erratic, but you can hear the pump and see some of the fish.  Only the bright blue guppy survives.

The first iteration of the completed pond.  The mesh, of course, is to keep the cats out.

The honeysuckle in bloom.  Smells divine.

Blue thunbergia climbing up the pillar and a lovely yellow lily growing in one of the pots I managed to get on my adventure.

The newly configured fish bowls and plants with the other adventure pot on the far left.  I has a black lily in it that should be spectacular when it blooms.

The current iteration of the pond.  Mr. Gourami was moved out into one of the bowls where he sadly met his end at the hands of a bird, I think.  So now we have guppies and one cleaner fish left along with some gigantic water hyacinths.  The cats don't bother the fish so the mesh is gone.  They drink the water, but that doesn't harm anything.

The new table top.

The last month saw a bit of a domestic crisis as my maid Vineetha got into a jealous snit over the Tuktuk driver.  She kept coming to work but was grumpy and hardly said a word to me.  I was on the verge of sacking her but decided that I would get my landlady to talk to her in Sinhala to find out what was wrong.  I had even talked to my friend Rushma who is a clinical psychologist in my desperation.  Finally, my landlady pointed out to her that she was in danger of losing of her job and she has reverted to her old self.

The other maid, Poomani has been missing in action for almost 2 months now, so she has been given the push and I am in the process of training Mary who worked as a cleaner for 22 years at the British Council.  Needless to say, her English is great, but only time will tell if she will work out.  I have set things up now so that I have both Vineetha and Mary on one day a week and full coverage the rest of the time including Sundays.  I am hoping for the best.

Apart from my birthday party, monthly outings to Simpson's Forest continue.  Always a nice day out.

A lovely little stream running behind the Simpson's Forest Hotel.

Periodic gatherings at each others homes also continue, giving us a bit of respite from the virus restrictions.

My friends the Kawasakis have a standing offering of high tea at the Cancer Home on the 15th of every month.  I go over to their place to donate the bread and make sandwiches.

This time was to gain merit for the parents of a Canadian friend of theirs named Bruce.

Cooking up the usual storm.  Veg moussaka, lasagna with banana blossom instead of ground beef, pumpkin soup, and the usual assortment of curries.

Lemon meringue pie.  A bit too sweet as the lemons here are not that sour.  Will use lime next time.

It has been raining pretty steadily with the early advent of the north east monsoon and tropical cyclone Nivar in the Bay of Bengal, so we are being visited by an array of rain bugs:  flying termites that come in their hundreds, huge black beetles that look like cockroaches on steroids, whip scorpions and occasionally a dragon or damsel fly, lady bugs and crickets.  The frogs are serenading me to sleep at night.  They love the pond.

A lovely cricket.

And as always, closing with my furry family.

Buddy and Aya using my bath mat to sleep on.  Aya lost one of his lower fangs.  Now he only has one lower fang and no other front teeth on his lower jaw.  Looks a bit funny.

Brothers snuggling.

Buddy and Nangi trying to fit on a tiny mat.

Buddy and Aya sunning themselves on a rare sunny morning.

My little furry family:  Putha, Nangi and their mother, Baby.

 

September 21, 2020

Looks like every 2 months is the best I can do these days.

Seems that life has been busier since the advent of COVID than before.  Maybe it is just because I am willing to do more things after almost 2 months of being virtually alone.

My friend Simon Lazenbatt and I have been getting together a few times in order for me to give him computing tutoring.  We have reviewed Facebook, a motion triggered 24 hour security camera, WhatsApp, downloading photos from phone to computer.  Luckily he also uses Apple, so I don't have to do any translation.  He either comes home for lunch and a session or we have also been to the Kandy Club for drinks and lunch.  

The Kandy Club was most opportune as we have lost our usual Film Club venue.  Hotel OZO where we have been going for 4 years has been converted into a quarantine hotel.  So we were cast adrift.  After a bit of searching, we have settled on the Kandy Club as our new venue.  As it is a private club with very limited rooms, it will never be lost to the pandemic.  We are thrilled as they can give us everything we need for LKR.100 less than we were paying before.  Plus the drinks are at liquor store prices rather than the usual hotel markup.  It is also one of the oldest clubs in Sri Lanka, established in 1877, so we are part of history.

 

My friends George and Yvonne Cooper have also hosted us a couple of times.  Their place is lovely.  We always have a great time, especially since they built their swimming pool.  One time we took out a picnic lunch as we felt that Yvonne had had enough.  George was diagnosed with lung cancer in February and they have been traveling up and down to Colombo for treatments every since.  He seems to be on the mend.  Chemo is finished having shrunk the tumor significantly.  Now they are facing a month of radiotherapy, Monday to Friday in Colombo.  George made it through the chemo with flying colors.  No hair loss or nausea.  Just a bit tired.  We all have our fingers crossed.

Mahjong Along continues unabated.  Every two weeks at my place and elsewhere in the intervening weeks.  Our teacher, Gerry Jones and her husband Bill hosted us for lunch at their place outside of Matale.  Nice house and nice time, but they really live in the back of beyond.  No wonder they come into Kandy at least once a week and stay over at the Kandy Club.

We have been able to resume our breakfast buffet at the Grand Kandyan which inspired us to reconstitute our book club.  We inaugurated the New Kandy Book Club on September 14.  The meetings have been moved from Mondays to Sundays and have been opened to anyone (read men).  We doubled our numbers at the first meeting.  Success!

Ken Kawasaki celebrated his 75th birthday with a Danna of high tea at the Cancer Home.  I supplied the bread and pitched in with sandwich making.  The exercise was repeated for a Danna given by Ewen Arnold in remembrance of the death of his wife Padma.

I have become a regular fixture at Sunday lunch at my friends' Ralph and Lesley.  Always good food, plenty of drink and great company.  Really makes Sundays much better.

Few trips to dentist as well after having broken a huge piece off one of my wisdom teeth.  Thankfully, I had had a root canal on that tooth so no pain.  It is happily crowned now.  My friends continue to flock to my dentist on my recommendation, so I get some great discounts.

Friends Ana (Spanish) and Sanji (Sri Lankan) who met and married in Majorca have built a new home on the Hantane tea estate just south of Kandy.  They hosted a lovely house warming lunch for a few of us.  Again, out in the back of beyond.  Could not get GPS as the internet was spotty and even phone coverage was difficult.  After being lost for a bit, we finally found it.

Going from front to back:  Sanji and Ana, our hosts, lady whose name I can never remember except that she is Lillian's ex-daughter-in-law, Deanne, Simon Lazenbatt, Claire Hemachandra who gave me a lift out there, me, Judith who is not visible except for her hair and Pauline Lazenbatt.

One of the best things we did during the last long while was to go on a day trip to Simpson's Forest Hotel.  It is located almost directly north of Kandy and Wattegama on a 50 acre clove estate.  Despite the weather being a bit cloudy and rainy later in the day, we had a wonderful time.  The setting is fantastic, the service brilliant, the food exceptional if you are a carnivore.  For LKR.2750 we got a welcome drink (non-alcoholic), use of the pool, changing facilities, access to the bungalow, and a sumptuous lunch (a bit thin on the vegetarian side, but that can be rectified next time).  It only cost us LKR.1500 to go up and down by taxi, shared among 3 of us, so really cheap.

A panorama from the pool.  I was all oohing and ahhing and wondering who was lucky enough to have lived here when this was just an estate.  Turns out it was my friend Sally Martin.  Her father was the superintendent so she grew up in this magical place.

The view of the canopy of a Flamboyant Tree from the pool.

The trunk of the same tree with Ava standing at a distance.

The very health Teak beside the Flamboyant.  Usually Teaks drop almost all their leaves.  Not this one.

A forest of clove trees.  They still harvest cloves and tea on this estate.

The view all the way north to Kandy some 15 km. away.  The large white building which is highlighted is about 1 km. from my house.

The gang:  from left to right:  Niko, Abi (the bar manager at the Royal Bar), Ralph, Pali (one of our tuktuk drivers), Lesley, and Ava

Odd man out, Gamini with a good view of the bungalow that Sally lived in.  It is now a snooker and function room facility.

A sea of African Tulip or Queen of the Forest blossoms.

As the mist was descending on the adjoining hills.  Really magical.

My house and garden are flourishing.  I renewed my lease for another 2 years beginning September 1 without a rise in rent.  I am very lucky.  In celebration, I decided to revamp my office.  Now when I sit at my desk I can see the terrarium and the mango tree outside.

The wall unit in my front room with a peak at the side of the fridge in the kitchen.

The pot rack and part of the kitchen counter.

A forest of Birds of Paradise outside my kitchen window.

Not technically my garden.  This is pomelo (jumbola) growing just across the street.

Harvest of tree spinach from my garden.

Calathea ornata in bloom.  Not even my landlady has ever seen them bloom before.

The pond on my patio that had been filled in many years ago due to a fear of dengue.  My landlady had it it cleared out for me.  When the unbelievable rain we have been experiencing due to a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal is done, it will be recemented along with some flower boxes and filled with fish and water plants.  Stay tuned.

The amount of rain we have been having has really produced some great fruit and vegetables.  We have had a bumper crop of rambutan and mangosteen and what seems like a never ending passion fruit season.

Monthly bounty:  King coconut, ambul (sour) bananas, watermelon, tomatoes, butternut squash, passion fruit, pineapple.

Mangosteen hiding under the passion fruit.

As are the limes.

Papaya hiding under the tomatoes.

Have been cooking up a storm as well.  Besides the usual curries; wing beans, palak paneer, eggplant, pollos (young Jak), etc., I have also been making some special things when the ingredients are available.  A shepherd's pie made with banana blossom, carrot cake because I have some walnuts.

All the sticks are to keep the cling wrap from ruining the icing.  I have since bought a cake carrier.

Jez made some sour cream and ricotta for me so I was able to make some special things:

Latkes with sour cream.

Sour cream biscuits

Lasagna made with some lovely yellow zucchini 

After a lot of searching, I finally managed to get my kitchen knives sharpened thanks to Ken Kawasaki. It turns out that it is not that difficult if you have the necessary stones.  I have found what I need on daraz.lk and will order soon.  Then I can do my own sharpening.

Closing as always with critters.

A tiny snail.  We have lots of them because of all the rain.

Aya and Nangi snuggled up together.

Everybody having breakfast.

Brotherly love.

Perfect ball of Nangi covering her eyes while Aya cleans himself and Putha sleeps behind him.

All of them between my legs.  A snuggle of cats.

Aya catching a few precious rays on the window ledge.

Putha's tail is so long that he can cover his head while he sleeps.

On the daybed after breakfast.

Buddy and Aya and keeping each other warm.