February 7, 2020

All my best efforts to keep up with my blog have been thwarted the last 4 days by the Ceylon Electricity Board as we have had power cuts for 4 days now.  It turns out they are replacing cable bundles and conductors to upgrade the system, so we can't complain too much.

In lieu of a birthday party this year, I threw a New Year's Eve party.  We celebrated 2 New Years as some old fogies wanted to get home to bed early.  The first new year was at 2130 our time which was midnight in Perth, Australia and the second was at midnight our time.  Only 6 of us made it to midnight.  Well 8 really as Vineetha and Poomani insisted on starting up until I went to bed around 0100 on January 1.  That was 8 out of 35.  Goes to show that people are getting older.

The event was catered by my friend Husna who did the usual wonderful job.  Her company is called Cravings for anyone from Kandy who is reading this.  She not only made a bunch of wonderful food but she and her husband also came to the party and even brought a gift. Much beyond the call of duty.

Cheese and manioc croquettes 

Mini falafel pita sandwiches

Mushroom and vegetables Chinese mini spring rolls

Pizza pinwheels

Spinach and cottage cheese vol au vent

Caramelized onion pastry

Fudgy brownies

Mini apple and cinnamon fritters

Mini passion fruit pavlovas

Added were my signature tzatziki and hummus.  We made lots of noise at both midnights with noise makers that I have kept for 30 years.

The first thing on the entertainment agenda in the new year was the establishment of a mahjong club. I have been for two sessions.  We are just learning with Gerry Jones as our very enthusiastic teacher.  It is lots of fun and looks like it will be here to stay.

Gerry (standing) is the most enthusiastic and great teacher.

Judith has just mahjomged

I have been trying to get my act together to prepare wills for both Canada and Sri Lanka.  I have the Canadian one almost ready with help from a web site.  I was going to draft the Sri Lankan will myself and then have it reviewed by a lawyer here.  However, I had to have a pension declaration notarized so I went to my friend Yoshitha's uncle who is a retired criminal lawyer.  While there, I asked his advice on the Sri Lankan will.  He advised not to do one as it is a real hassle to have a will probated here.  He gave me some good advice on how to get my wishes implemented here without an actual will.  Thank you Mr. Mapalagama.  He always refused to take any money as well.

There was a bit of a reprieve from parties until January 12 when Yvonne and George Cooper had a lovely luncheon party to inaugurate their new pool.  I had one open bottle and one unopened bottle of sparkling wine from new year so we christened the pool in fine style.

Three lovely frogs have taken up residence in the pool.  These are the two bigger ones.  They swam happily with us.

Sitting in the cabana at poolside.

On an unhappier note,  a shadow was detected in George's lung when they went for their now compulsory immigration medical.  The medical, which is nothing more than a money grab and a pain in the ass proved to be useful in this case.  Yvonne came to stay with me for what turned out to be a week while George had a biopsy done at Kandy General.  They had to enter his lung to do the biopsy and, of course, there were complications.  They had to put a drainage tube into his lung so he ended up in hospital for 6 days.  Add to that, the biopsy showed the tumor is malignant so now they are spending time in Colombo at the National Cancer Hospital getting a treatment plan set up and implemented.  We are all praying for the best result.  The only good news is that they think that it has not matastasised.

Yvonne also gave me some water lettuce for my water bowls.  It has really taken off.

Something for the fish to hide under.

Another round of dental appointments have seen the installation of my first bridge.  As usual Dr. Kandagedara did a great job.  I can chew on the left side of my mouth again.

The ever active owner of L'Atelier organized a quiz night.  Of course, these quiz nights are a very popular thing in Britain at the local pubs.  I was part of a team consisting of Judith, Tania and Douglas.  One of the teams was from Dharmaraja College which has been together for a long time.  Much to our surprise, we tied the ringers for first place and only lost out on the tie breaker question.  How long is the River Nile in kilometers?  Judith insisted she knew so we took her word and replied kms. 3500.  How wrong we were.  The correct answer is kms. 6650.  It truly is the longest river in the world.  Win or lose, we had a great time especially arguing with the judges about the answers.

My friends Azlam and Sabah (he is my landlady's grandson).  They named their team Waiting as their other two partners never showed up.

Jerry Smith and Sally Martin who set the quiz, tallying up the scores.  They put in a lot of effort and put up with a lot of flack as well.

The winning team fro Dharmaraja College who beat us in the tie-breaker.  Ringers!

A traditional rice and curry supper was served.

I awoke one morning about 2 weeks ago on Sunday from a horrible dream.  I was being attacked by snakes; multi-headed ones, red and purple ones.  I kept yelling for Vineetha to come to help me.  We were chopping off their heads when the phone rang.  Vineetha was supposed to come on that Sunday even though she usually takes that day off.  She was calling in tears to say she would not coming as her elder daughter had died.  Perhaps the dream was a portent of bad news.

I couldn't get anything out of her as to the cause as she was sobbing.  Turns out she died of a massive heart attack at only 40.  She left behind 3 children the youngest of whom is only 9.

Of course, I expected Vineetha to be  off for at least a week.  In her typically loyal fashion, she was back at work on the Sunday after it happened.  It was only when she was not here that I realized how much I rely on her.  Poomani's younger sister helped for 3 days, but it was not the same.  Very sad.

I finally saw the Indian fly catcher.  The male is pure white with a long wispy tail that floats in the air as he flies.  My neighbors also go some chickens and a rooster.  Thankfully the rooster does not crow at sunrise, or at least not that I can hear.  At first his crow was really weak.  He sounded more like a crow than a rooster.  Maybe he was too young, because now his crow is full throated and lovely.  However, if he starts waking me up, he will end up as chicken soup.

One of the chickens flew into the yard the other day.  The cats were perplexed.  There were white feathers all over the place.  Maryam, my landlady's granddaughter who is staying with her at the moment finally caught her and put her back over the fence.

It has been a froggy time of year.  The night air is full of their croaks and I am finding them all around the house.

Froggy on my dressing room mirror.

Large moths have also been showing up and taking up residence.

The kettle plug is a funny place to set up camp.

The bats have been coming in as well.  They usually find their way out quickly but the other day I had one circling my bedroom, dressing room and bathroom for over half an hour before he found his way out.

The mother in law tongue that I planted in the terrarium on my veranda almost 2 years ago has flowered.  This is the first time I have seen a flower on this plant.

On the food front, we loaded up on fruits and vegetables as we usually do at the beginning of the month.  Prices are high at the moment.  I am not sure why.  Maybe not enough rain.  It is either flood or drought around here.

The little green things in the bowl are called nelli fruit or Indian gooseberry.  It is said to be good for health and is used in Ayurvedic medicine.  Apart from that we have:  watermelon, papaya, local oranges (the large green things), passion fruit, the largest pineapple we ever got, limes, butternut squash, leeks, carrots, wing beans, green beans, Japanese eggplant, beets, okra, capsicum, cabbage, shallots, Bombay onions, garlic, ginger, king coconut, tomatoes, kang kong, abalone mushrooms.  A true cornucopia.

Vineetha preparing the kang kong for pizza topping.

 I have been trying things that I have not made in a long time.  Jambalaya with the okra and a veg moussaka with the eggplant.

Moussaka fresh out of the oven.

My lovely cats continue to give me much joy although Putha has a tapeworm and has started to fight with the neighboring cats and Ayya has a cold.  Off to get tapeworm medicine tomorrow and Ayya is slowly recovering.  Putha and Nangi celebrated their 2nd birthdays on February 1.

Three amigos.

Nangi using Buddy as a pillow.

Four of them all snuggled between my legs.