October 25, 2024

October 23 would have been my Mother's 105th birthday.  It was also the 23rd was the 68th anniversary of the start of the Hungarian Revolution.   

I decided that I wasn't getting enough exercise, so I started walking around my neighbourhood.  I scoped out a route of about 1 km. to begin with.  The route takes me up or down a small lane which has been no problem for the 10 years I have been living here.  However, yesterday, I was bitten by a dog while walking up the lane.  

I had seen that same dog with a pack of 2 others on the road that follows the river earlier.  The 3 males were chasing an unfortunate female who looked like she had had one litter too many.  The pack was led by a black dog.  

Two very large black dogs live on the lane.  They are normally very well behaved and are walked by their owner without leashes.  Yesterday morning, the two big black dogs came charging out onto the lane barking and snarling.  There is obviously a break in the fence.  They were scary but they did not attack.  Then the black street dog arrived and the three of them went into a frenzy.  It was the street dog who bit me.  

I had a stick with me which I wielded belatedly scaring them off.  I was shocked, but not badly hurt.  I made it home and washed and treated the wounds.  They were not deep, but blood had been drawn which means rabies shots.  Another thing I can strike off my list of never wanting to do during this lifetime.

Risvi took me to Kandy General to get the shots.    Luckily, they have a supply of vaccine.  After COVID, when we went into an economic breakdown, no rabies vaccine was available.  

We went during visiting hours which means that the place is a zoo.  While we were walking to the rabies clinic weaving our way through the throng, a gurney came by with a sheet covered corpse on it.

The doctor at the rabies clinic saw me right away.  She wanted me have a tetanus shot as well as the rabies which I refused.  I have since done some research and will have the tetanus shot when I go on Sunday for the second of 4 rabies shots.  They also wanted to give me an anti-histamine just in case.  I refused that as well and was perfectly fine after the two rabies shots.

Doctors in Sri Lanka are drug pushers.  They over prescribe antibiotics to the point where most of them don't work any more.  They are also not used to dealing with anyone who asks questions and wants to know exactly what they are prescribing and why.  

After getting shot up, Risvi and I went to visit Renuka, my housekeeper who is in hospital for what has turned out to be what Risvi called a urinary stone which is actually a kidney stone.  I suspected as much when the symptoms were described to me.  She was in a ward with about 30 beds that you got to after walking through countless wards with a similar number of beds or more.  Apparently, each patient is limited to one visitor at a time, but it is not enforced and it seems that entire villages turn up to see patients.  

There are no corridors, or if there were, they are now full of beds, so gurneys and wheelchairs have to be manoeuvred between beds.  Despite these conditions, the medical care is good.  She got an x-ray and an ultra-sound in short order and today they are breaking down the stone with laser lithotripsy.  She may be back at work as soon as tomorrow.

In the meantime, Risvi has been filling in for her.  To be quite frank, he is better than she is at the work, but he doesn't want to do it full time.

No other news.

Here are some sunsets.

October 11, 2024

My landlady's daughter Yazmin phones up one day to say that she would like to come round for a chat.  I say OK and we set a date for a few days later.  I say I hope it is not too serious.  She says that it is serious.  Then I have visions of something really bad:  my landlady is dying, they are about to evict me, etc., etc.

On the appointed day, she arrives, albeit about 2 hours later than she says.  This is typical.  It seems that the problem is with the ownership of the house.  Property issues are rife in Sri Lanka.  There is a spotty land title system plus families divide property amongst themselves without any legal registration.  In this case, the conventional wisdom for years has been that Yazmin was given the upstairs where Tula lives and the three brothers owned the part I rent in equal proportion.  Furthermore, Tula had a life interest.

When Rohan was here, he and Yazmin decided that they needed to see the deed.  They asked Shiranti (the widow of the eldest son) who apparently has possession of the deed.  She kept dodging them so they finally asked Tula.  She directed them to a pile of papers where they did find a copy of the deed.  It turns out that the upstairs does indeed belong to Yazmin but that the downstairs is not divided in equal proportions.  The eldest son, now his widow, have a half interest and the other two brothers have 1/4 each and most importantly, Tula has no life interest.

Now, Tula is in no danger because Yazmin will never kick her Mother out, but the lease I have with Tula is technically not valid because she has no legal standing on the deed.  Yazmin was just warning me because they don't know what Shiranti might do.  They think she might want to sell.  I tried to explain that that was next to impossible for a number of reasons:

1. She owns 1/2 of 1/2 of a house.  She can't sell her portion unless the two brothers also agree.
2. It is unlikely that anyone will buy only the downstairs of a house.  They will want the entire thing.
3. Even though the lease with Tula is technically not valid, if I decided to challenge any breaking of the lease, I could get any number of witnesses to testify that it was entered into in good faith by both parties as everyone thought that Tula had a life interest.  Even if that argument didn't work, the matter would be tied up in the courts for at least a decade.

The brothers have approached Shiranti with a view to buying her out.  She has asked for LKR.6M.  That is not unreasonable.  LKR.12M (C$55,000) for the downstairs and the annex is cheap.  Now they are trying to raise the money to pay her off.

At first, I was a bit shaken.  But after thinking about it, I feel quite secure.  However, it has spurred me to start looking for something else as I would likely want to move when Tula dies.  Plus, I don't want to negotiate the outside steps when I am 80.  

Risvi, my part-time houseman also acts as a house broker, so I have him on the lookout for a place that meets my needs at the right rent.  We have to find someone who doesn't care about the money and just wants someone who will look after their property.  I am hoping for a swimming pool as well, at last.  We will see.

Mahjong continues unabated as do breakfasts at the Grand Kandyan.  A new addition is a breakfast buffet at the Radisson (formerly OZO) where we have our film club.  When OZO first opened, we used to go for the breakfast buffet that was excellent and cheap.  After some time, the quality of the food started to deteriorate and price went up, so we stopped going.  Now that Radisson has taken over, they have gone back to a good selection, espresso is included and Film Club members get a 10% discount, making it the same price as the Grand Kandyan.  We went for breakfast one day and it was good.  Only problem was, the espresso was so good that I had 4 cups and was buzzed for 2 days.  We have decided to alternate between the two locations.

Ken Kawasaki celebrated his 78th birthday and as is his wont they had a darna for their religious students.  I attended but found myself increasingly sickened by the monks.  There is always the thing about whether or not the nuns can sit at the same table.  Then there is the sermonizing and the endless chanting.  I am so sick of these people who get such reverence and contribute nothing to society.  Anyway, I bit my tongue and got through it.  Visakha's birthday is on September 15.  They decided to do another darna on September 28.  I found an excuse not to attend that one as I don't think I can stomach another one.

The ritual of serving the clerics is another thing I can't stomach.  Do they have a piano tied to their legs that they can't serve themselves?

Visakha.  She has had a variety of ailments for the last year.  That day, she had a bad cold complicated by shingles.

The buffet table is always well stocked.  I made my spinach pie that Visakha really loves.

The "altar' with the gifts for the monks in the front.

Don't think that this dislike of clerics and the organized religions they represent is directed only at Buddhists.  I was sent to a Catholic boarding school when I was 6.  Even then, I was suspicious of the whole religious charade.  As I grow older, I see the ridiculous nature of the myths and rituals that surround all organized religions for the scams they are.  

As Visakha's birthday is on September 15, I went to help them make sandwiches for their monthly high tea donation to the Cancer Home.  September 15 was also my Father's birthday so it was a good way to remember him as well.  It also mitigated my not going to the darna on September 28.

I mentioned previously the problems I had after the sale of HSBC to RBC.  I thought that was all behind me, but alas no.  I was forced to liquidate my stock holdings as my investment account had been restricted due to my residing in Sri Lanka.  Don't ask me why.  When the price was right, I sold the shares and then made arrangements to have the money transferred into a RRIF on the banking side.  The is seemingly simple exercise required 3 more e-mails to the CEO and countless emails to my branch.  The transfer has finally been effected but I still have no answer about my withholding tax.  RBC sucks!

I think I mentioned that my front windows needed repair as they had been partially eaten away by termites.  Upon further examination, we discovered that the entire thing was compromised and needed to be replaced.  Yazmin had said that they would do it, but because of the dispute over the deed, they have stopped doing anything at all.  Finally, she said that if I wanted to front the money to do the work, I could take it off future rent payments.  So we began.

The rot.

It turned out there was a wire connecting the outside lights to the switch by the front door running along the rotted frame, so then it was time to call the electrician.

The louvers at the top were rotten as well.  That had to be replaced by a mesh so for 3 days, the security grill was hanging loose.  Luckily nothing happened.  Anyone could have walked right in.

The plug between the windows had to be removed as well.  Useless really, so no loss.

As they were removing the frame, the plaster on the outside fell off, so now it was time for a concrete man.  Luckily Risvi had an excellent guy who did all the concrete and plaster work.  He worked like a Westerner, staying until 1900 one night.  Very unlike most Sri Lankan workmen.

More plaster work.

The bottom part of the frame was just dust.

More outside plaster falling off.

The concrete man at work.

The steel fabricator at work.  The entire frame was replaced with steel except the bottom which is now concrete.  The louvers have been replaced with mesh.

The finished product from the inside.  Way more light since the wooden louvers are gone.

From the outside.  I never closed the windows anyway, so now they are all gone.  

Only problem now is that because the agave had to be cut back in order to repair the outside wall and because they were trampled, the remaining leaves are directing the rain water through the open space.  We will have to trim them some more and repaint the wall.  Never ending.  

You can see the leaves acting a troughs to the inside.

A bit of a mess, but it can be dealt with.

When all was said and done, it cost me LKR.120,000 (C$550).  An expenditure I wan not counting on. It required 4 specialists:  the steel fabricator, the plasterer, the electrician, and the painter and clean up man.  Consequently I had to delay my next dental implant.  That has now been done however.  The post is in so I am just waiting for it to set and then the crown can be put on.

After installing my dental implant, my dentist prescribed some heavy duty pain killers, antibiotics, anti inflammtories, etc.  We stopped on a well equipped pharmacy on the way home.  The pharmacy was staffed by 2 teenage girls and a young woman.  The two girls took the note and started pulling boxes off shelves.  They brought the boxes over whereupon I asked them if they were qualified pharmacists.  Of course not.  Then I asked the young woman.  No again.  I said I wanted to see the pharmacist.  They went into the back and after 5 minutes they came out with a young man.  Again, I asked if he was a qualified pharmacist.  No!  Apparently, the pharmacist had gone into town which was at least 30 minutes away.  So there was an entire pharmacy stocked with god only knows what; opiates and other serious pain killers completely open and unsupervised.  What a country!  I took my chit and went to another place.  

I attended Film Club after a bit of an absence.  The only reason I went was because my friend Yvonne Cooper who recently lost her husband George wanted to dip her toe back into the social pool and needed support.  She stayed with me for 2 nights and we went to see the film and have lunch.  

My pedicurist recommended some unusual fruit to me, so I had my veggie guy get some for me.

In the foreground in the bowl are black velvet tamarind.  Beside the watermelon is gallugooda

The tamarind you make into a juice that quite nice but a real faff due to having the peel each tiny fruit.  The gallugooda is like rambutan or even cacao pulp inside.  There is very little pulp around the seed so again it was only good for juice.  You would need an awful lot more than I had to get anything of substance.

We also did a lot of vine stripping in the downstairs garden in the process of which I discovered scarlet ivy gourd growing.

The fruit

I asked the so called gardener if the fruit was edible and he said no.  When I looked it up on the web, it said that it was like a cucumber and could be eaten.  I made Risvi retrieve the vines that had been put in the compost to harvest the fruit.  Here it is.

I pickled it like a gherkin.  It tasted terrible.  Bitter.  Turns out it is used as a medicine.  Mostly the leaves that are said to help with diabetes and high blood pressure.  Mind you, everything in Sri Lanka is apparently good for those purposes.

We had notice that there was going to be a 65 hour water cut due to having to clean our the Polgolla dam that is used as a municipal water reservoir.  The Mahaweli River, the longest in Sri Lanka is damed in a number of places either for power or water.  Mahaweli means Big Sand and so the dams get filled up with sandy silt.  They have to be cleaned every couple of years.  We have a water tank, but just to be safe, we filled up pots and a large garbage can.  In the end, we didn't lose water at all.  The pressure dropped, but it kept coming.  Luckily, as areas around us did have their water cut.  We used all the spare water to water the garden.

We have had incredible sunsets of late along with some very heavy rain.  I have been trying to take photos of them with my crappy phone camera.  Here are a couple.  Unfortunately the camera does not do them justice, but you get the idea.  Sometimes the sky is so red that house is pink.

Closing as always with my cats.  Here are Chewy and Putha sleeping together in my lap.  They are great pals.  A couple of days ago, Chewy disappeared for the day.  I was frantic.  She finally breezed in around 0400 like nothing was wrong.  

August 7, 2024

You can see by the time span since my last post that nothing much has been happening.  Life goes on as usual, with a few exceptions.

For the first time ever, two rather large cobras appeared in the back garden.  Kumari alerted me to them.  She said that one of the mongoose came out and confronted one of the snakes.  He/she rose up and opened his/her hood.  The mongoose stood its ground and in the end, the snake backed down.  I saw them just in time to see them slither along the fence line over to the neighbour's side.  They, no doubt, came because my occasional neighbours had brought their chickens with them from Colombo.  I am sure that the snakes were after the eggs.  Quite beautiful markings.

This is not one that was in my garden, but it has the same markings.

There was a rat snake wandering around the entrance to the annex as well.  Chewy thought its tail would make a good play thing.  My new housekeeper, Renuka, was freaking out.  You would think that Sri Lankans who have grown up with so many snakes around would be used to them by now.  I guess not.  More about Renuka later.

Mahjong goes on unabated, but sadly we have lost our teacher, Gerry to Brisbane.  She and her husband have gone back to Australia for at least 2 years.  There is some residency requirement for an Australian pension that they have to meet.  We will miss them.

Our last mahjong game with Gerry who is in the red and grey blouse.  Going around the table from Gerry:  Me looking like I am asleep, Lesley and Deanne.  Judith is missing.

David and Marleen joined us for cake.

We had a farewell lunch for them at the Kandy Sports Club.  Not everyone they wanted to say good-bye to could make it, but at least some came.

I had a now rare lunch with Ralph and Lesley on Sunday, April 28.  I go very seldom now, but that suits all of us.

My dental visits continue.  He finished an implant and another crown.  I only have one implant left to go unless something else goes haywire.

The horror show of having my HSBC accounts moved over to RBC has finally been resolved.  It only took over 50 calls to their customer service agents, a virtual meeting with my own branch and 5 letters to the CEO.  The only one who actually did anything was the CEO, or more accurately, his office.  It is unbelievable that it takes contacting the CEO of the company to get anything done.  I still have not been told why my investment account is restricted.  It has something to do with my residency in Sri Lanka.  Despite the fact that all transactions take place in Canada and the stock is Canadian.  What does my place of residence have anything to do with it?  When I put this question to one of the RBC Direct Invest Security people, he said it was above his pay grade.  I then wrote to the CEO again, pointing out that surely the decision was not above his pay grade.  No answer to that.  Wonderful transparency.  If you don't have to use RBC, DON'T!

Spent overnight at Janie's place outside Gampola.  She had a friend from UK with her, Verity.  The 4 of us had a great time; i.e., Janie, Devika, Verity, and Me.  We also made a visit to Degaldoruwa Cave Temple in Lewella and then came back for lunch at my place.

Breakfasts at the Grand Kandyan also continue about once a month.  The group has expanded to about 8 making for more varied conversation.

I even went to one Film Club.  It was a good film; The Last Vermeer.  I would recommend it.

Simon and Pauline went to the UK for a month, so I went up to Flamboyant for the day to pay the staff.  I had a nice swim and lunch and checked on the animals.

As I mentioned above, I have a new housekeeper.  Kumari had to quit because her husband needs someone at home because of his severe diabetes.  At least, that was the excuse.  He was certainly ill and was in hospital for a month while they adjusted his diet and got his blood sugar under control.  However, I think that Kumari did not want to live in any more.  She said she could continue on a daily basis but not as a live-in.

I put out the word that I needed someone and got quite a robust response.  In the end, I only interviewed 2 people and took the first one, Renuka.  She was recommended by Risvi.  He is someone I have know for about 10 years.  Initially as a tuktuk driver and then as an acquaintance.  She has had experience in Dubai and here.  She is also the right age at 42.  It turns out that she is Risvi's mistress.  They have been together for 16 years and lived together when they were both working in Dubai.

Renuka is in the middle with her twin 19 year old daughters.  She has another daughter who is married with a child and is working in Kuwait.

We had a bit of a rocky start.  She spent a week working on days only with Kumar.i She was deathly sick on the day she was to start working on her own, so we had adjust her days off for that week.  Then the daughter in Kuwait was hit by a car and panic set in for a day.  There have been a few other bumps with illness, breakage and problems with the daughters.  I was thinking of getting rid of her, but now after 7 weeks, she seems to be settling in.  

I quite like the arrangement with Risvi living here with her as he also does some work in the garden and does most of the cooking.  He is a good cook.  He is also buying a tuktuk, so that will be available in an emergency.  It is also good to have a man on the premises instead of only two old women and another younger one.

There has been a bad flu bug going around that I caught.  It went right into my chest and had me coughing for about a week.  I was in bed for 7 days, only getting up to go to the bathroom and have a shower.  I swallowed so much phlegm that I ended up vomiting it up.  Not pleasant.  I was able to get up and around after a week, but had very little energy.  It took a month to get back to full speed.

It was worrisome because my good friend Marleen and her partner David arrived on July 14 from Canada for 2.5 weeks.  In the end, I was OK and they had a good time.  Risvi showed them all over Kandy, taking them to places even I haven't seen.  They came to Gerry and Bill's farewell lunch and also to breakfast at the Grand Kandyan, so they met some of my friends here.  Then we went up to Simon and Pauline's for 5 days.  They used Flamboyant Villas as a hub to do the Cultural Triangle of Dambulla, Anaradhapura and Pollanaruwa.  I stayed at Flamboyant just chilling out and swimming.  I got in 5 km. over the 5 days.

Deanne also invited us up to her place for drinks.  They were very taken with Deanne's house and Sri Lanka in general.  Marleen is talking about maybe retiring here after she has worked off her last 5 years.  

Marleen brought all sorts of goodies with her:  Belgian chocolate (She is Belgian.  She was my neighbour in Singapore, so we have been friends for a long time.  She and her family immigrated to Canada.  To Qualicum Beach, in fact, a few months before I left.  She still goes to Europe regularly as her Mother is in Brussels as is her eldest son Michaël and her daughter and new granddaughter are in Zurich), cheese including wonderful soft smelly cheese, pine nuts, kalamata olives, and Scotch tape.

Marleen and David having a wonderful breakfast at Flamboyant Villas

It was wonderful to have them here.  I have been missing my long time friendships.  I have been here almost 12 years now, but have not made the kind of close friendships I had made earlier in life.  Simon and Pauline come closest.

Unfortunately, Simon and Pauline had to leave for Colombo on the Wednesday.  She has been diagnosed with what seems to be cervical cancer.  They did a full body PET scan in Colombo and have found a lot of spots in her lungs.  They wanted to do a lung biopsy but then she came down with the same thing as I had, so the procedure has been delayed.  We are all hoping that the news will not be terminal.  The doctors say they are not sure what it is, as she is not displaying any symptoms.

The usual menagerie of animals were in full swing up at Flamboyant.  My favourite is the giant squirrel.

Cyrilina, the giant squirrel working on a piece of custard apple.  She lets me stroke her chin now without biting me.  She also likes to play with your hair and give you a head scratch of you put the crown of your head right up against her cage.  She really needs a larger cage.  I think it is too late now to release her back into the wild.  She has been in captivity since she was just a speck.

There has also been a bit of sad news in that George Cooper passed away on July 29.  He had been fighting cancer since just before COVID.  In the end, it is a relief for his wife Yvonne as she has been under constant stress since his diagnosis.  They did however have 4 mostly good years together after he was diagnosed, allowing them to travel and see friends and family.  Their son and granddaughter were here at the end giving Yvonne the much needed support she required.

RIP George

The garden is in full flower and green.  The wild amaryllis has bloomed and a variety of critters have been visiting.

Wild amaryllis

A handsome peacock on the fence.

He did not have the usual fantastic tail plumage.  Either he had molted or he was too young.

There have also been visitors inside the house.  Some welcome. Some not.

A painted toad.

A frog that scared Renuka.

This is a bit fuzzy, but here is a small spider encasing its prey in a web for eating later.

Termites eating the window frame on the large front window.  I am having to replace all the vertical posts and the louvers above the windows.  All the louvers are coming off and being replaced by mesh.  Lots of fresh air coming in while keeping the monkeys out.

I decided to try something different in the kitchen.  I have been a vegetarian for 41 years now, but still remember some meat dishes fondly.  One of those is Wiener Schnitzel.  Traditionally made with veal, I decided to try it with polos (young jak). We cut the polos in rounds and boiled them.  Then I breaded them and fried them in ghee.  It came out great.  I made some nokedli (Hungarian dumplings similar to spätzli), and a traditional Hungarian cucumber salad.  Brought back fond memories of childhood.

And finally closing with my pussters.

An interloper, Whitey.  At this angle he looks a lot like Ayya.  He has more white on him though.

Another interloper sitting on the corner of the bed.  Gucci, the neighbour's cat.  They come up from Colombo periodically to stay in Kandy and bring all their cats, chickens, etc. with them.  Gucci is mostly Persian and very friendly.  He makes himself right at home, but my cats don't like him so they run away or start yowling.

Putha and Nangi, brother and sister sleeping together.

Chewy and Putha always together.

Putha and Nangi

Putha loves to lay on his back.  He is out on the patio.  Feeling very secure to expose his belly like that.

Chewy among the tropical bleeding-heart vine.  She loves to sit on the frame that holds the plant.