Keep Track of Julia: November 30, 2021 Marking 9+ Years

Life with the pandemic continues. We are settling into a new kind of normal as omicron emerges. Who knows what things will look like by Christmas. For the moment, life is pretty much as it was before COVID except for masks and vaccinations.

We continue to play mahjong although we seem to be down to 3 players on a regular basis. We are all on about the same level and are starting to get more sophisticated in our playing. I have started to work through all the hands systematically so that I get to know all of them. Don't win much, but it makes it interesting.

I went up to see Simon and Pauline for 3 days in early November. Unfortunately, the dream of a retirement community at Flamboyant Villas is gone for the moment. My friend Jez raised a number of very reasonable objections:

It's too far away from Kandy and him and his family. A point well taken as we drove up there. I forgot just how far it is.
The situation in the country is only getting worse. Therefore, it is not a good idea to create a cluster of ex-pats who have no reliable Sri Lankan as a buffer. Plus, Simon and Pauline may pull up stakes if things get really bad.

Lastly, I had detected that Simon was getting lukewarm on the idea anyway. Turned out I was right. Their house is slipping and is in real danger of collapsing if something is not done soon. They need to spend their available money on getting their house repaired, not repurposing one of the villas for me.

So it is back to Plan A, Gampola or Plan C which is another story. I will get to that later.

Even though the rains continued and I was not able to swim, we had a very nice 3 days. I learned about galette and have made one since. Wonderful addition to the cooking repertoire.

The almost 20 acre property at Flamboyant Villas is like a botanical park. They have planted so many interesting trees, bushes and flowering and edible plants. These attract all sorts of birds and other wild life.

Seeds growing on a Barringtonia or Fish Killer (Bauhinia racemosa) tree. They mostly grow on the coast, but this one is doing very well here on the edge of the dry zone.

The tree is the national tree of Hong Kong

The seed pod. I brought this one home as it is so decorative.

The flower

The Pride of Barbados doing beautifully in Sri Lanka

The flower up close

I think this is the flower of a Jerusalem date.

Here's Pauline with the tree

I think this is a coraltree

Flower of the coraltree

One of the star tortoise roaming the property. This one is almost tame. Her hame is Milly.

Milly's markings. She has nail polish on her to protect her from poachers.

Here's Milly devouring a hibiscus flower. She loves them.

Giant ginger. It really is giant, growing to over 15 feet tall.

So back to Plan C. An alternate plan is necessary as I fell down the outside steps just about a month ago. No real damage, although I got a black eye for the first time in my life. Just lucky as I could have easily broken something. Only got bruised and scraped. Thankfully, Vineetha was here and Sujatha came home after 3 weeks just as I was lying at the bottom of the stairs. I lay there for a bit and then felt well enough to get up. Unfortunately, on the way to my bed, I must have passed out because the next thing I knew, I was lying on my back in the hallway with Vineetha fussing over me and Sujatha holding my head.

I was coming down the stairs very carefully, holding on to the railing, but due to the black algae, my feet just slipped out from under me. Thankfully, there were only 3 steps left to go. I really have to get a place with no steps.

My black eye

One of the things I have been thinking about for some time is moving upstairs when Tula dies. Turns out that she will not be able to come home from her daughter's after her heart attack and Yazmin wants to fix the place up to rent it out. She asked me if I could oversee the reno. I indicated that I was interested in moving up there if she was prepared to fix it up to my standard. The place is a real dump at the moment. She said she was willing, so I am getting her some estimates for the work. I will get 2 estimates from each contractor; one to just make it liveable, and one that brings it up to Julia level. We will see what happens. It would be great if it happens, but I am not counting my chickens.

November is always birthday season here, starting on the 3rd. I celebrated my 69th in style again at Simpson's Forest Resort. A bit of an adventure this year as I drove up with Yvonne and George Cooper who stayed over the night before. George is one of the world's worst drivers. Matters were made worse by the GPS sending us on some hairbrained route half of which was impassable due to landslides. We finally made it after 1.5 hours when it should have taken 40 minutes at most. No swimming as it was too late and too rainy. We did have a lovely lunch and cake.

A beautiful cake made by Lesley's neighbour Kanthi. She makes the roses look like they are real. Best cakes in Sri Lanka. Next time I have to ask her to omit the food colouring.

The gang from left to right: Gerry (our mahjong teacher), Bill (Gerry's husband), me, George (the bad driver), Yvonne (George's wife), Lesley (my other mahjong partner), Ralph (Lesley's husband)

Getting ready to cut the cake.

Seemed like 69 was a good age to revive the hair tattoo. Well, really it was that my hairdresser felt like doing one. So here is her tribute to Halloween. She had never heard of a jack o' lantern, so it is a bit demented, especially the mouth.

Birthdays continued with Pauline's on the 22nd. We went out to dinner the night before to a new boutique hotel called Ru Boutique. A beautifully renovated old bungalow right on Kandy lake beside the Hotel Suisse. The food was not spectacular although acceptable, but the setting was lovely. Very good service as well.

Film Club took place as usual, so we are getting back into the old routine.

The month has finished with two more birthdays that we celebrated yesterday after mahjong with lunch at the Grand Kandyan.

Meanwhile, my former students from the Ceylon Electricity Board contacted me to ask if they could come over to have me present them with their certificates. Apparently the course is really helping them with their promotional opportunities.

Chaminda the IT man.

Gayani, the Accounting Supervisor

Upali the Engineering Assistant soon to be an Engineer

Kalyani, the Human Resource Officer and the organiser of everything.

Receiving the gift.

Checking out the gift of a necklace, bracelet and earrings.

Closing as always with my animals.

The latest addition is a bunch of tadpoles deposited by my singing frog. No sign of the frog anymore, but there are lots of young'uns.

Buddy is still sick. I had to get the vet out the morning of my birthday party to give him some shots. Those lasted for 2 weeks and now he is having difficulty eating again. He is so thin, only skin and bones. I am so worried about him. I am off today to get him some more antibiotics.

Baby disappeared for 2 months and showed up the other day for breakfast. Fat as ever. She has obviously found another home where they have kept her inside for some time.