September 18, 2023

 Time for an update.

My French classes have been intermittent as my student's grandmother dies and then someone in her husband's family did the same.  They had 40 days of mourning with prayers and huge meal donations for the grandmother.  Some kind of Muslim ritual.  

Swimming was also going along until I had an open sore on my back that wouldn't heal.  After 3 weeks I went to a dermatologist who determined that it was a basal cell carcinoma, as I had suspected.  She referred me to a surgeon who I saw within 5 minutes of leaving her.  He wanted to do the surgery that afternoon, but I did not want to go to the hospital he was proposing, so we had to delay to the next day.  He did the surgery under a local anesthetic at the Lakeside Seventh Day Adventist Hospital.  We could not do it in the afternoon after the dermatologist as it was a Saturday; the sabbath for Seventh Day Adventists and the hospital's OR was closed.

He did a handy job, cutting out a piece 30mm long and 18mm deep.  They did the biopsy in 3 days.  It was determined to be cancerous but he had fully excised it, so no further action was required.  I had to go back after 4 days for him to remove the one outer stitch.  He was more than 30 minutes late for which I called him out.  He didn't like that.  Doctors think they are gods.  In his pique, he did not take out the stitch and tried to scare me with the lab report.  Such an asshole, but a adequate surgeon.  My friend Lesley removed the stitch the next day.  She was a nurse practitioner.  She also confirmed my own belief that the whole business wasn't that serious.

Before stitch removal

I did manage to get a really bad cold from hanging out at the hospital which took me 2 weeks to recover from 

Then I had to order anew swimming gear as the problem was caused by sun damage.  Serves me right for having been a sun slave from almost the day I was born.  I now have a full body swim suite with UV protection, a du cloth to cover my head and forehead and SPF 60 waterproof sunblock for my hands, feet and face.  I will look a real treat with all that on including goggles and earphones, but I don't care so long as I can swim.

Breakfasts at the Grand Kandyan and mahjong also continue.  Nice distractions from the everyday routine.

I also went a movie at the cinema after almost 15 years.  There is a new dual theatre cinema in Kandy town so Simon, Pauline and I went off to see the latest and hopefully last Indiana Jones opus, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.  It was not bad, but Harrison Ford is getting a bit long in the tooth. The theatre was very comfortable and clean.  Only the sound was so loud that I had to put in my ear buds to keep from going deaf.  Popcorn was good too.  Dinner afterwards at the Royal Bar rounded off a nice evening.

I finally got a permanent bridge for my two front teeth.  Sajeewa did a great job as usual and I now have an even more charming smile.  More work to come before the end of the year.

Another group that I join intermittently called the Discussion Club met at a café in Kandy town.  I joined them after a long absence as I ran into one of the members at the dentist where he asked me to attend.  It was fine.  I took the opportunity to order a take away pizza from a wood burning pizza place up the street.  Great pizza.

It was Ralph's birthday on July 23 at the Kandy Sports Club.  The morning was taken up by decorating the hall and then the party in the afternoon.  I saw some friends that I had not seen in a while.

Film Club is ongoing and despite my best efforts, it seems that I am doomed to continue attending.

Ralph's son, David and his partner were visiting for 3 weeks, so I had them over for drinks with Lesley and Ralph before they left.  Nice couple.

Tula's bathroom upstairs was leaking and causing water damage to my bathroom below and pieces of the ceiling to drop off.  It finally got fixed and now I am getting estimates for painting the house and doing a few general maintenance things that have been left for too long.  I celebrated 9 years in this house on September 1, so it is time.

The Kandy Club has new caterers.  The old ones have been hired by the Kandy Sports Club so they can continue with their bad food and service there.  The new caterers at the Kandy Club are much better as a couple of hopper nights can attest.  The food is now hot, there is more selection, the cook has figured out to make a bull's eye hopper (that is a hopper with a sunny side up egg in the bottom) with all the white cooked and the yolk soft.  Happy days!

A perfect bull's eye hopper

Michael Moonesinghe, who makes scones, soups and other baked goods came up from Colombo with a delivery.  Deanne very kindly invited me out for lunch at the pickup location.  Ran into Malcolm and Viv Wright making for a bit of a gang.

Lesley and Ralph have had me over for Sunday lunch a couple of times as well as one poya day during the Perahera.

We couldn't think of a place to go for dinner one night, so we ordered from an Indian restaurant that had been recommended by a number of people; Dindigul Thalappakatti.  It is a franchise operation originating in Tamil Nadu.  The South Indian food may be good, but the extensive North Indian stuff was rubbish.

The Kandy Perahera was on from August 17 to 31 which means that Kandy city is dry for 10 days.  Instead of going out for dinner, a few of us ordered from Pizza Hut and chowed down at my place where booze was also to be had.  A very pleasant surprise with Pizza Hut.  Apart from a lot of strange Sri Lankan inspired pizzas, they have some of the classics which we ordered.  They were very good.  An experience to be repeated.

After a long time wanting to do it, I finally had my eyebrows tattooed.  I am getting tired of dying my eyebrows.  Really a combination of micro-blading and tattooing.  It took a long time and was painful as my hairdresser forgot the desensitizing cream.  Finally, it scabbed up and healed, leaving nothing much to show for it.  I am sure that Sunderi will want to touch it up.  I think I will pass, get my money back and use an eyebrow pencil.

After a bit of toing and froing with the Canadian High Commission, I finally got my new passport.  Initially, I could not contact anyone to talk to as when you call, you get the usual phone tree only to find out that the Consular Section only takes calls between 1300 and 1600, Monday to Thursday.  I left two voice messages without a response.  Finally, I called around 1545 and got a human being who sounded like a Canadian as opposed to a local hire.  She had obviously not checked her emails as she sounded completed surprised when I said I had left two messages.

Then it was a struggle to determine that I could actually send the application by courier.  That required an exchange of 4 emails.  Finally, I sent the application down to Colombo by speed post courier, registered.  The security fools at the high commission rejected it.  That occasioned another string of phone calls.  Again I couldn't get anyone as the high commission is closed not only on all Sri Lankan holidays (Sri Lankan having more public holidays than any other place barring Nepal and Burma who lead the pack) but all the Canadian ones as well.  Must be hard to get anything done with all that time off.

This time the mailbox of the Consular Section was full, so you could not leave any messages.  I finally badgered the poor receptionist into giving me the mobile number of someone in the Consular Section.  This is after demanding to speak to a Canadian diplomat.  Apparently you cannot do that without an email request.  Your tax dollars at work!

The woman I got was a local hire, but proved to very helpful.  They should fire everyone else except Suhanya Vijeratnam.  She made the necessary arrangements.  This time the application was accepted.  They tell you that it will take 20 working days to issue the new passport.  Suhanya notified me after 4 days that the thing was ready for pickup.  Happily, my French student was in Colombo and went to pick it up.  Turns out that she knows Suhanya from her own experience of applying for a PR visa to Canada.  

When I went to the local sub-post office to send my passport application to Colombo, I encountered the lone clerk updating her date stamp.  She was using something out of the 19th century, with movable type for the stamp.

I just had to have a picture

On the animal front, we now have a family of mongoose coming up to the house quite regularly.  I found Chewy sitting with an adult mongoose on the bottom stoop.  They were quite happy together.  Then one of the adults was walking around the front garden with two little ones.  They did not run away when I came to see them.  Just went around the side of the house and down to the lower garden where they have their burrow.

These are not mine.  Mine only have two young.  But you get the idea.

Surprisingly, a rat snake was also spotted.  Very unusual considering the resident mongoose.  (Terry don't look)

Again not the one in our yard, but the most common. Garandiya in Sinhala.

The most exciting was the arrival of a peacock.  There are a couple of peacocks and some peahens living across the paddy field.  You can hear them as they are very noisy birds, but I have never seen one up close.  Here he is:

Kumari was throwing rice to him which he was really enjoying.

Both Chewy and Buddy were very curious but kept their distance as he is about 3 or 4 times bigger than they are.

No peahens around, so he did not unfurl his tail.

At first we were very quiet approaching him but then we started talking normally.  He wasn't bothered in the least.

There was a bit of a kerfuffle going on late one night outside my dressing room window.  When I went to investigate, I found Chewy trying to grab a Red-backed Woodpecker.  They are quite common here and fairly large growing to between 26 to 29 cm.  I locked Chewy up and then helped the stunned bird go on his way.

Really quite lovely

 Lastly, I had a longhorn beetle wandering around my bedroom ceiling one night.

Amazing how they preen their antennae.

Closing as always with my furry babies.

All four of them arrayed between my legs.

A Putha wrap for Buddy

Chewy has become so big

Chewy and Putha have become great friends.

Putha loves to sleep on his back.

July 5, 2023

No posts in a while as nothing out of the ordinary is really happening.

Mahjong continues apace.  As does Film Club, despite my best efforts to get out of it.  Judith keeps pulling me in as she really needs my help with the tech side and collecting the money.  So I guess that I am doomed to continue going even though I am thoroughly bored with it.  Breakfasts at the Grand Kandyan also continue.  We are now joined by some old friends, Marlise and Jayantha who fell off the radar for about 3 years.  Nice to see them again.  Dinners at the Lake Avenue also continue as does the occasional hopper night at the Kandy Club.

I had some friends over for lunch; 2 sets actually.  I owed people for meals and parties, so I finally organized myself and did lunch.  One with a Mexican theme:  guacamole, Chili Sans Carne, cornbread and a rhubarb and rose apple (jumbu) galette for desert (not Mexican, but I like it) with real whipping cream.  We have been having real trouble getting cream here.  Butter is sometimes scarce as well.  The second was an Italian theme:  zucchini/eggplant lasagna, Caesar salad and the same galette for desert.  Now I can relax for a few months.

The other big event was watching the coronation of King Charles.  I am not a royalist, but I love the pomp and circumstance.  However, by the end, I was a bit sickened by the huge expenditure when the money could have been spent on something that is really necessary.  Two good things did come out of the event:  he is no longer Defender of the Faith.  That role has fallen to the Archbishop of Canterbury where it belongs.  He also included some reference to the protection of the environment in his oath.  The world changes very slowly.

The event was marked by a potluck party at George and Yvonne Cooper's.  A short pre-lunch dip in their pool is always a nice feature.  The only down side was that I got a lift out to George and Yvonne's with Douglas who missed the turning to my place on the way home in the dark and abandoned me at a location some distance from home in the dark.  Not a good idea for a white woman to be standing alone on a Sri Lankan street at night.  Thankfully my tuktuk man was there in less than 15 minutes.  It was also Vesak Poya which is a festival of light celebrating the birth and death of the Buddha.  The temple across the road from where Douglas dropped me off was lit up like a Christmas tree which afforded some protection.

From left to right:  Douglas (my tennis partner), Liz, Pauline, George (mein host), me, Gerry and Bill (who came down for Jaffna)

I really wanted to try the breakfast at Lake Avenue so on the Sunday after the coronation, a group of us went.  The choices were good, although they had no idea about the timing for the dishes.  The eggs started coming out before the fruit, etc.  They also did not how to do eggs easy-over.  So I went into the kitchen and showed them.

In the end, the breakfast was good but not worth the LKR.3500 each we paid.  They also have eggs benedict on the menu and eggs royale which replaces the meat with smoked salmon as an all day breakfast.  Not having tried the eggs royale at breakfast, I had them the next time we went for dinner.  Really good.  They may not know eggs over easy but they know how to poach them.

I am back on the dental treadmill.  My two front teeth have been replaced with a bridge.  I am still waiting for the permanent one as my dentist is currently on a trip to Europe.  Then there will be another extraction and another bridge there and finally a sinus lift and implant closer to the end of the year.  Oh joy!

One of the Thirsty Club members threw a party on a Thirsty Club day to repay everyone for their invites throughout the year.  It was at a local hotel.  The place was hard to find and when we finally got there, it turned into a big booze up for Nico, the host, and his drinking buddies.  No food other than meaty finger food had appeared by 1430.  I thought I was going to faint.  Finally, I got some oily fried rice that did not really agree with me.  Will give it a miss if he does it again next year.

After a few false starts, Simon, Pauline and I finally made it out to a dairy farm about 45 minutes east of Kandy called Tamarind Garden Farms.  They have a dozen cows and a couple of goats.  They make cream, butter and cheese.  Nice products.  We have now set up to order monthly from them with delivery to my house.  Looking forward to enjoying scones with clotted cream and excellent chèvre.

This is as close to the cows as I got as I had totally unsuitable shoes on to go trekking around a farm.

There were some painful exchanges with CIBC/Wood Gundy with whom I have some worthless stock.  I had been advised that the account had been closed and then within a week, I get a call from some green desk jockey in Toronto asking me to delist the stock.  Then it turned out that it could not be delisted unless I could show that the company is defunct.  That meant doing a corporate registry search which costs C$100.  Something I wasn't prepared to do when the stock is worth C$0.  Then they wanted me to deregister it or something like that.  That involved getting a lawyer from Lex Mundis to notarize the papers.  The only one in Sri Lanka is in Colombo.  Another thing I was not prepared to do.

In the end, I asked what would happen if I did nothing.  Mr. Newbie said he couldn't tell me as that would encourage me to do nothing.  So I told him that I would do nothing.  Two phone calls later, he finally got the message and I haven't heard from him since.

The only other piece of news is that I now have a French student.  She is a cousin of my friend Jez.  I met her when I first came to Sri Lanka and have had little contact with her since.  She rang up one day and asked if I would be willing to speak French with her every day.  We started with 1 hour and are up to 1.5 hours/day now.  It is great as it is helping me get my French back.  I had not spoken French in over 20 years.  It is amazing how quickly it comes back to you.  We are reading Antoine Saint- Exupéry's Le Petit Prince.  I still have my copy from when I was in high school.  It is so nostalgic to see my notations in the book from more than 50 years ago.

Amra (that is her name) is now married and is a charming young woman.  We have become friends and have started doing things together other than French.  She wants me to teach her how to swim which I will be happy to do if we can ever get to the swimming pool.  My swimming plans have been thwarted recently by either the hotel; guests using the pool, an algae infestation, and now the weather which is torrentially rainy with huge wind gusts.  

My friends the Kawasakis finally allowed me into their house.  They have not allowed anyone in since COVID.  Nice to finally see their faces and not just talk on the phone. 

We finally had a quasi-cultural event in Kandy.  The newly accredited Ambassador for Peru came down from Delhi to present his credentials to the President.  In conjunction with his visit, the Honorary Consul for Peru and the Honorary Consul for France. organized a photo exhibit, cocktail party and film festival in Kandy.  As I am friends with the French Consul, I got an invitation.

Having forwarded the invitation to various and sundry, in the end, Simon, Pauline, Amra, Farees (her husband) and I attended.  Overall, it was a bit lame with just a few photos of the Nazca lines as the exhibit.  The food, however, was great.

Left to right:  Amra, me, Mr. De Silva the Honorary Consul for Peru to Sri Lanka, Farees

Listening to the speeches which were mercifully short except the guy from the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Never give a Sri Lankan a microphone.

The buffet which was great.

Left to right:  Ravana, the Honorary Consul for France in Kandy, ?,  Farees and Amra

More great food

Amra and me.

Amra and Farees had given me a lift to the event.  We had decided not to stay for the first film which was showing right after the cocktail party, so they took me a new to me coffee shop called Java.  Good coffee and nice atmosphere.  We didn't eat, but the food looks good too.

Amra is part of the selfie generation.

It had been great hot and sunny weather until about a week ago.  The only critters of interest were a huge snail and a lovely frog.  Both seeking shelter from the sun.

The snails on Île des Pins in New Caledonia where they say they have the largest snails in the world, have nothing on these guys.

Closing as always with my furry babies.

Buddy and Putha have found each other.

Yin and Yin

Chewy loves to cuddle with Buddy

Putha has found the harbour seal pup puppet and has made it his bed.

More Putha and Buddy love

Putha loves to lie on his back.

April 20, 2023

Life just seems to roll along.  The country has received a bit of a bailout from the IMF, so the rupee has buoyed somewhat.  Bad news for me as my income has been cut by about LKR.20,000/month.  However, it seems to fluctuate quite a bit, so I just have to time when I exchange money.

Mahjong continues.  I was bored one day, so I invented a bunch of new games.  For those who are interested:

All are limit hands CELT.

Happy Birthday:  Player's birth year; chows of 4 tiles in each suite and a pair of honours.

Year of the Dragon:  Pick any year of the dragon, chows of 4 tiles in each suite and a pair of dragons

JFK:  chows of 4 tiles in each suite of 1963 and a pair of winds.

O Canada:  chows of 4 tiles in each suite of 1867 and a pair of honours.

Times 2 Chows:  2-4-6 in each suite, a mixed chow of 2-4-6 and a pair of 8s.

Times 3 Chows:  3-6-9 in each suite, a mixed chow of 3-6-9 and a pair of 9s.

Times 3 Pungs:  a pung in each suite of 3-6-9, a mixed chow of 3-6-9 and a pair of dragons.

Times 2 Pungs:  a pung in each suite of 2-4-6, a mixed chow of 2-4-6 and a pair of winds.

Met some new people through my friend Sylvia.  Her aunt is here helping out an orphanage.  She has hired my friend Devika to teach the kids English.  She (Helena) invited Devika and I over for lunch.  A lovely lunch was had with Sylvia, her husband and daughter, Helena, Devika and another woman whose name I can't remember.  Something strange that she had adopted when she was a Buddhist nun.  Now back to being a lay person from London and teaching English at Colombo International School where Sylvia has become head of the Modern Languages Department.

Film Club carries on.  I have been trying to extricate myself as I am bored with the whole thing, but Judith continues pulling me back in by paying for my lunch.  April will be my last one for the balance of the year as I now have the legitimate excuse of having to save every penny to have a load of dental work done.  I need at least one bridge, and possibly 1 if not 2 implants.  One of the implants will involve a sinus lift to build up the jaw bone.  Not a happy prospect and will cost about LKR.500,000.  That's about C$2,000.  Cheap when you consider the amount of work he has to do.

Breakfasts at the Grand Kandyan also continue, although less frequently as Devika and I are not as available and we don't want to go with Ava alone.  

I finally got railings installed at the front gate and along the side garden steps.  Places where I have taken a fall.  I also pressure washed the lower side garden yesterday so now between that and the railing, it is much safer.

I got my tennis racket and tennis togs.  Douglas and I have played twice.  Both times, it was very hot.  We have decided that we will try weekly at sunrise when there are no mosquitoes and it is a bit cooler.  He has been in Singapore, but when he gets back, we will resume.  When it is raining, we will go to his school and play badminton there.

There was a 5 day period of teaching English to my neighbour across the street.  She and her family have emigrated to the UK (everyone who can, is leaving the country).  She wanted to have conversations with someone in English, so we happily chatted away for 5 hours just before she left.

We stepped out of our normal pattern and went to the Grand Kandyan for lunch so that I could meet Devika's friend Janie from England.  An interesting woman, married to a Sri Lankan, they have a house cum guest house in Gampola.  They both worked for El Al and have now retired.  She is a bit eccentric and loads of fun.

Simon and Pauline have discovered a new hotel/restaurant called the Lake Avenue just down the street from the Kandy Club.  We went for dinner.  Fabulous!  Great decor, nice menu, good service.  What more could you ask for.  They have a good looking breakfast menu that I am dying to try.

It was Lesley's 77th birthday.  A nice party was held at the Royal Ball with all the usual suspects; Thirsty Club and the ex-pat crowd.

Lesley and Abi, the steward at the Royal Bar.  He has been there for ages and is a wonderful server.

Lesley almost killed herself retrieving some water plants from a drainage ditch.  They have now been installed in both the front and back ponds.  They are Genjer (Limnocharis flava), also known as yellow velvetleaf, sawah flower rush or sawah lettuce.  Turns out they are edible tasting like a combination of green beans and spinach.  I want to try it in lieu of spinach or mustard greens in palak or saag paneer.  It has taken in both ponds, but not enough yet to harvest.  

The leaves, stems and flower buds can be eaten.  When the flowers open, they are a lovely yellow.

The leaves look a bit like a hosta.

Tula got some maniok (cassava) stems that we planted a while ago.  They have taken off so soon, we will be harvesting cassava.

The umbrella looking plants in the front are the cassava.

On the cat front, I am now feeding either 8 or 10 cats.  My 4 and an assortment of visitors.

My baby Chewy who turned 1 on March 1.

Chewy is a very small cat, but feisty, intelligent and fearless.

This is Pinky, one of the visitors.  Very rare to have a female ginger.  She is heavily pregnant.  I was hoping she would litter in my house, but I have not seen her for 4 or 5 days now.  I suspect she has delivered.  I just hope she is in a safe place where she and the kittens are being looked after.

Also a small cat like Chewy, she is very pretty, friendly and young.  

A new combination; Putha and Buddy have taken to sleeping together.

It's too bright for daytime sleeping.