I can't believe that I haven't posted in over 2 months. The time has just flown by.
Things here were starting to return to some kind of new normal. We had our first Film Club since the virus outbreak with everyone following the health guidelines.
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| Social distancing at Film Club. The hotel gave us their entire restaurant space. |
We started having small gatherings at each other's homes. Mahjong resumed with me hosting every two weeks. I managed to get to the hairdresser to have my usual fur/claw treatment. I traveled to the neighboring district to see my friends George and Yvonne. Made it to the dentist to have my teeth cleaned.
Actually, the dentist was most impressive. He had on a hair net, mask, face shield, full surgical gown and gloves. His assistants had on masks, gowns and gloves. Patients were spaced out so that only 3 or 4 were in the waiting room at any given time.
All seemed fantastic until I saw one of the assistants go out with her gloves on only to return with a newly purchased receipt book. The next thing I knew, the same woman was handling the instruments. Needless to say, I put a stop to that at once. Always has to be some hitch in the system here.
Even went to the only large shopping mall in Kandy, Kandy City Centre (KCC) after over a year to see a friend off. Her Mother has pancreatic cancer in Sweden so she is returning for at least 2 years to take care of her foster sister. Very sad.
My friend Pauline stayed over for a night and her husband has been around for 2 sets of computer lessons. Plus, we went out one night for dinner not returning until after 11pm. The curfew imposed each day from 2300 to 0400 was completely forgotten by everyone and we didn't get even a whiff of police on our way home.
So, all in all, things have been relaxing. Fewer people are wearing masks, social distancing on the street has never been possible and the country is gearing up for a general election scheduled for August 5. Political rallies have been held with throngs of people with no masks, etc. So a few days ago, there was a major outbreak at a drug rehab centre. Now, everything is uncertain. We don't know if they will go ahead with the election, although I suspect they will do anything to have it go ahead. Schools which were reopened at the end of June have been closed again. We are coming up to the Kandy Perahera and rumours are that there will be curfew every day during the Perahera from 1400 onward. I am guessing that after the election, they may lockdown certain areas again.
I am going to get in another trip to my friends George and Yvonne and another Film Club is scheduled before everything goes haywire again.
Uncertain times!
Meanwhile, plants and animals continue on, oblivious to the human turmoil around them.
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| This is the seed pod of a local tree. I don't know the name of it. |
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| The seeds start out pink inside the pod and according to Vineetha, they turn into these hard red seeds. However, my research says that the red seeds come from another tree altogether. |
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| Nurturing the pods to open and drying vanilla pods for grinding and adding to coffee at the same time. |
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| The open pod. |
Avocado season has come and gone. We had a lot of fruit from our tree this year. I have also discovered that avocado makes a wonderful mayonnaise.
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From our tree.
Meanwhile rambutan, mangosteen, and durian season has just passed. I loathe durian. Not only the smell, but the texture and taste as well. It smells like corpse and tastes like slimy pineapple soaked in garlic. Turns out the the young man living in the annex loves durian. For a few days, I kept smelling durian and not knowing where it came from. Finally, I discovered a bag full of rind outside of his door. He got rid of it sharpish.
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| Lovely rambutan on the road back from Rambukhana. |
The angel trumpet stick we planted a few months ago has grown into a tree and has bloomed. Wonderful! Vineetha brought 6 more sticks from her house which we have planted all around the house. We also planted 3 bougainvillea on the bank in front of my place so in a few months I should see cascades of red, magenta and gold bougainvillea flourishing there.
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| Angel trumpet. |
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| Bowl of flowers greeting visitors at my front door. |
Insect life is flourishing as well.
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| Vineetha says this is a Praying Mantis. Lovely silvery scales. |
A lovely gold ladybug or as they call them here, ladybirds.
I have been busy in the kitchen as well. As it is breadfruit season...
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| Fusion cuisine: breadfruit pie from Jamaica with insalata caprese made with my friend Jez's young mozzarella. |
And as always, closing with all my animals:
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| Froggy Fufu who was living behind the mirror in my dressing room. Sadly, he is gone now. |
And, of course, the cats: (You can stop reading now Rod.)
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| Buddy and Aya sleeping on the loveseat. |
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| Buddy and Putha |
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| Everybody |
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| Buddy, Putha and Nangi. As you can see, this is Buddy's favourite spot when he is not snuggled up under my arm on the bed. |
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| Aya among the cushions |
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| If you can't get a cushion, use Putha instead. |
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| Heads tucked in wherever they can get them. |
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| Deykai stretched out on the patio. He is getting very comfortable. Some mornings I find him sleeping on the window bench or on one of the armchairs. The other cats don't bother with him much anymore. Just the occasional yowl and puffing up. However, he still sprays which is really annoying. I still can't get near enough to him to catch and get him snipped. |
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| Nangi and Aya perched on the windowsill in my bedroom. |
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| The usual evening snuggle while watching TV. |
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| Yin and Yang |
