March 13, 2024

 Let's see if I can get caught up.

Mahjong has become a mainstay.  All four of us enjoy it so much.  We are getting more proficient, playing double limit games almost every week.  I don't know what I would do without it.

Breakfast at the Grand Kandyan also continues.  The group varies from 3 to 10.  Of course, the price has gone up as the government raised the VAT (Value Added Tax) on January 1, 2024.  More stupid moves to appease the IMF.  Instead of enforcing a progressive income tax system, they up the fixed taxes thereby effecting the poorest people the most.  They have paid lip service to the IMF by requiring everyone to have a TIN (Tax Identification Number), even foreigners who have been here for 136 days or more.  How ridiculous!  That is about 4.5 months.  Tourists can get extensions up to 6 months, while Sri Lankan born visitors can get up to a year.  Are those people going to pay income tax?

To add to the madness, they announced that they needed more staff to process all the new TIN applications.  So they hired a bunch of people at more expense to the government.  One step forward, 10 steps back.

My love affair with my dentist continues.  I feel like I live at his office.  He installed another bridge, put in the post for another implant and did an emergency extraction on 2 roots whose crown had broken off.  I thought he would have to do surgery to get the roots out, but he managed to pull them out without having to cut the gum.  Of course, I will have to have another implant put in the gap.  Never ending.

One thing out of the ordinary was a Christmas craft fair at L'Atelier.  My friend Lillian, who is a brilliant seamstress, made some lovely cushion covers of which I bought 2.  Only 1 was ready at the fair.  She managed to finish the second one only this week.  She is almost as bad a me with this blog.  There were also some nice preserves and packaged spices including bay leaf which is hard to find.

After the fair, it was off to the movie Napoleon.  Way too long and historically inaccurate.  The costumes and sets were fabulous though.  It inspired me to read a biography of Napoleon which I am still into.  It is quite a tome and will take some time to wade through.  

I did interrupt it to read Kohinoor:  The Story of the World's Most Infamous Diamond by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand.  I wanted to read it before going to hear Dalrymple at the literary festival.  More of that later.  Dalrymple's part was very well researched as usual.  Anand's part was less so and relied on only about 5 sources.  Will stick to Dalrymple's sole work from now on.

Dinner after the movie made it a full evening.

I had wanted to do some repainting and other things in the house, so I got an estimate which came to about LKR.400,000.  I decided to go ahead with it as I get my minimum RIF payment on December 1.  In exchange for the expenditure which I would cover, I asked my landlady for a 5 year lease renewal with no rent increase.  She agreed, so now I am covered until the end of December, 2029.

They repainted all the walls and ceilings with lime-wash, enamel painted all the wood work, revarnished the front door, the archways and my coffee table, removed the aquarium/terrarium on the veranda, took out the wooden railing on the veranda, took off all the windows including 2 of the big windows on the front of the house.  This was not intended, but the frames have been eaten by termites and the hinges basically fell out.  Removed the windows in my bathroom which I had replaced by a grill to keep the monkeys out.  They drilled through the kitchen wall so I could run the gas piping through the wall instead over the counter and through the window.  A bit of masonry and cement work.  I had my regular concrete man come and redo my front fish pond which was leaking.  They demolished the shelving unit in my office as it was riddled with termites which had destroyed so many of my books over the years.  The china cabinet in the dining room had proper wood planks installed instead of the useless particle board ones that were there before.  Another nesting place for ants and termites.  The exit door from my bathroom to the back porch had serious water damage so that part of the door was covered with brass sheeting.

The contractor, Ranga had said that the work would take 2 weeks.  Not that I believed him.  Absurd under any circumstances, let alone in Sri Lanka.  In the end it took from December 4, 2023 to January 12, 2024 to complete the work.  The original team of 3 people, father, his brother and his son, started out strong and soon flagged.  They were off allegedly with conjunctivitis for a week.  Such bull!  They likely had another job.  Then their work became so sloppy and they turned up so sporadically that I demanded they be replaced.  The contractor then sent 2 of his own employees.  The first bunch had been sub-contractors.  They were good, but slow.  Plus they had to redo quite a bit of what the first group had botched.  Then we had heavy rains and the house of one of guys was hit by a landslide.  They had to take a few days to clean up the mess at his place.  

Then the contractor started moaning that he was losing money on the job because it was taking so long, inferring that the delay was my fault.  He didn't get very far with that argument so that in the end I spent just a little over LKR.300,000 instead of the original estimated LKR.400,000.

On December 10 we had the annual Film Club lunch.  Quite well attended with a less than satisfactory buffet lunch at the Radisson.  We had the usual raffle in which I won a sarong that I had made into a dress.

The decorating meant that I did nothing at home for Christmas.  We had our traditional Christmas morning breakfast at the Grand Kandyan and Lesley and Ralph had their annual Christmas day party.  It was really fun this year.  We had a few laughs.  Kumari and her husband also attended so I had an opportunity to meet him.

Ava kept us in stitches, passing around pictures of her and her 40 something lover and then complaining that she was in pain when they made love.  She is 79.  Just shows you can't be counted out until the very end.

Judith as court jester.

I went up to Flamboyant Villas on the 27th as Simon and Pauline were in Malta.  Just a quick up and down visit to pay the staff.  I had a good swim including a lovely back massage from the pelting rain.  Pushparani gave me a nice lunch so it was a nice break from the decorating mess.

Hopper nights at the Kandy Club also continue to mark my calendar on occasion.  At least when Simon and Pauline are in town over a Friday night.  The hoppers are good but they continue to forget to light the heaters under the chafing dishes full of curry.  Cold curry, yuk!

Michael Moonesinghe came up with some lovely baked goods from Colombo.  Took the opportunity to have lunch at Slightly Chilled with Deanne, Devika and Janie who was visiting from the UK.

Jim Aitkin's annual Robby Burns Dinner was held this year on January 31.  Usually it is on November 30, St. Andrew's Day, but it was not possible last year.  My contribution was To A Louse.  Jim wanted me to do the Immortal Memory, but I had been sick from an allergic reaction to all the turpentine in the oil paint and was not up to it.  The drive out to his place outside Gampola was horrific.  Driving rain and fog.  Viv Wright did a wonderful job of getting us there.  We got lost a couple of times.  Once a fallen tree blocked the road making Viv back out of narrow, soggy and windy roads.  Hats off to her.

Janie and her husband have a lovely guesthouse just outside Gampola.  Devika and I went over for the day.  I had a good swim although the chemicals in the pool were harsh and I had some chafing from my swimsuit.  Fred, Janie's husband laid on a wonderful Sri Lankan lunch.  A lovely day altogether.

The place is huge.  The front room could easily accommodate 100 for a party.  It was a derelict bungalow that they virtually rebuilt. 

The garden leading to the swimming pool

They also have a wedding hall that can easily take 300 to 400 guests.  There is a huge veranda on the front with this amazing view.

The house

The swimming pool.

Since I was doing so much decorating, I decided to have new lamp shades made as the old ones were a bit makeshift and looking tired after 10 years.  My blacksmith made the frames and I covered them.  I think they turned out rather well.

The frame

All finished

The Sri Lanka Literary Festival which has traditionally been held in Galle expanded its venues this year to include Colombo and Kandy.  One of my favourite authors, William Dalrymple was on the agenda, so I went off to hear him.  The event was held at the Hotel Suisse, an old colonial hotel which I had never set foot in.  It is a lovely old place, well kept and full of old world charm.  Dalrymple was very interesting.  The 45 minutes went by in a flash.  In fact, 45 minutes was way too short.

I had invited everyone who attended the talk back to my place for drinks.  We were 8 all together.  Afterwards, Simon, Pauline, Jim and I went out for dinner to the The Topaz.  Another hotel I had never been to.  The hotel is nothing special except this it is high on a hill with wonderful views.  The buffet dinner was quite good but not exceptional.  The only thing of note was the number of foreign tourists.  The dining room that must seat at least 100 people was full.  Looks like tourism is on the way back to Sri Lanka.

My good friend Debby's niece arrived in Kandy on March 1.  Brittany had been travelling for 4 months covering Thailand, Australia twice, and Sri Lanka.  She travelled around for a bit and then came to Kandy to visit me and to do some volunteer work.  I had never met her and had last seen her father, Danny, Debby's younger brother, when he was 18 or 19.  I had this image of a teenage daughter, but, of course, I was dead wrong.  She is 34 and very well travelled and accomplished.

This picture is not from this trip but an old one.  Sipping a Singapore Sling at the new, ugly Raffles.

The volunteer opportunity was at a school for mentally challenged boys.  Particularly suited to Brittany as her younger brother has Down Syndrome and she worked in the mental field for 15 years specializing in autism.  In typically Sri Lankan fashion, they got the dates of her arrival mixed up, did not consult their board about bringing her on and generally cocked things up so badly that after 2 days they asked her to leave because they did not have board approval.  She decided to spend her last days on the beach.  At 2200 on the night before she was to leave for the coast, they called saying they now had board approval and could she come back.  Idiots!

She joined Simon, Pauline and I for a film called The Ashes about Salvador Dalí, Federico Garcia Lorca and Luis Buñel covering their student days up to the time of Lorca's execution.  Quite interesting.  Then dinner at the Royal Bar to give Brittany a taste of Kandy night life such as it is.  She also joined us for breakfast one day.  Hopefully, she feels she had a good visit.  I certainly enjoyed meeting her as well as her company.

What seemed like interminable rains have stopped and we are now fully into the hot and dry season.  A second agave has flowered, so I had both plants removed and replaced with some blue agave.

The flowers

The old plants

The new plant in a newly painted pot.

It's time for the cat update.  They are all a year older and still in good shape except Buddy who looks like hell but seems to be healthy.

Chewy who is now 2 and Putha who is now 6 are the best of friends.  They play/fight together, sleep together and keep me company together.

Fluffy who isn't really mine but who hangs around quite a bit.  He is huge and an unfixed male of indeterminate age, although I think he is only 3 or 4 years old.  He is very friendly but is either marking his territory inside my house; although not as much as before, or literally scaring the crap out of the other cats.  The other night he was chasing Chewy.  She got so scared, she peed and pooped all over the place.

Chewing using my leg as a pillow.  Always close to Putha.

Buddy, who is now maybe 7 or much older, snuggled up with Putha.

Fluffy as I found him one morning.  Making himself at home.

I had new covers made for the window seat cushions.  Buddy and Putha found the bare cushions to be a good perch.

Putha, Buddy and Chewy.  Buddy cleans himself as any cat should, but for some reason his saliva won't dry, so he ends up just being slimey.

All four in a row.  From back to front:  Nangi who is now 6, Buddy sleeping on Putha, and Chewy.

Chewy loves to stretch out.  Has to touch Putha though.

Putha and Chewy covering her eyes.

Nangi who is quite a loner.

Chewy never far from her Mommy.

Putha sprawled out on his back with Buddy and Nangi snuggling close by.  It was cold and rainy, so they stuck close together.

Nangi doesn't mind Buddy.

Buddy and Chewy sunning on the front stoop.

November 13 to 16, 2023 Jaffna 2.0

I have been practicing blog avoidance for too long now.  It is starting to feel like such a chore.  However, here goes.

To celebrate my 71st birthday, I decided to go up to Jaffna to see my friends Gerry and Bill Jones who have been living up there for about 3 years.  They are planning to go back to Australia soon for at least a couple of years, so I thought I should go to see them before they left.

Judith and I were the original travellers with Kumi Bowkett as another possible.   In the end, we were joined not only by Kumi, but also her husband David, and George and Yvonne Cooper.

We took the train from Kurunegala, a city about 1 hour's drive from Kandy.  Judith's driver, Asoka took us in her car.  The train leaves at 0730 so we left at 0545 from Kandy.  We arrived at the Kurunegala train station stupidly early where we were to meet George and Yvonne.

The early arrival was good in that I wanted to make arrangements for help for David to get on the train.  He is over 80 now and is quite unsteady on his feet using a cane for support.

I headed for the Station Master's office as soon we entered the station.  There were a couple of guys loafing around.  When I asked for the Station Master, there was a general scramble.  They disappeared into a back room.  After a minute or so, one of them emerged to cross the office to another back room coming out carry a white uniform.  More rummaging in the first back room and a rumpled, recently dressed Station Master staggered out.  I explained what we needed to which he responded positively.  I then jokingly asked him if he had just gotten up.  He was caught off guard by the question and sheepishly responded no.  An obvious lie.

Judith and I had been to Jaffna in November, 2019, taking the same route.  Kurunegala is a major city with an important train station.  At that time, the women's washroom was almost ankle deep in water.  This time, it was not flooded but was in such a state that the pee ran right back into your bladder rather than come out.  It is shameful that Sri Lanka Railways pays such little attention to maintaining such an important station.  It is really up to the Station Master, and as we know, he is asleep on the job.

George and Yvonne joined us after a while and immediately started complaining.  This streak of complaining continued right through the trip.  It annoyed me to the point where I finally said something.  Who wants their trip spoiled by people carping all the time?

Despite being a bit drowsy, the Station Master did organize someone to help us to board, and so we set off at about 0730.

The train trip up to Jaffna is lovely, passing through the dry zone into a lush paddy area.  We had packed breakfast/lunches, but there really was no need as food and beverage vendors come on and off the train at every stop.  

Gerry and Bill had organized a van which picked us up from the train station.  A quick booze stop (alcohol is much cheaper in Jaffna.  Probably smuggled in from India) and we were off to the hotel.  Gerry and Bill met us there and took us to a newish restaurant, the Vanni.  The food was good although the vegetarian selection was very limited.

Having never been to Point Pedro, that was high on the list.  We made it and points beyond.

Me (only my dress), Kumi, Judith, and David.  The most northerly point of Sri Lanka.

There is nothing much around here except fishing.

Lots of colourful fishing boats

Ever present street dogs.  This one is guarding the boat.

There seems to some debate about what is the most northerly point.  It used to be the lighthouse at Point Pedro, but now the military have erected a new signboard for a new location.  In any event, I have been to both, so I am safe.

Next stop was Manalkaadu Beach which according to Judith is the only true desert in Sri Lanka.  Not a desert at all, there are sand dunes and a large casuarina forest.

A Christian graveyard on the dunes.  A lot of the Tamils in the area are Christian.

Another dog showing an interest in a sadly dead leatherback turtle.

From here we went an Indian restaurant that had been recommended, the Village Hotel Northern Point.  It was OK, but no screaming hell.  Not nearly as good as the Vanni.  I had almost the exact same dish as the vegetarian selection continued to be scant.  However, the view was great.

As before, we stayed at the Jaffna Heritage Hotel in Nallur only a half block from the large kovil.  I did not realize how close we were to the kovil the last time.  Amazingly, we did not get any noise from the very loud ceremonies they hold a number of times a day.  The complex is so large that the noise is lost in among the buildings.

Since our last stay, they had had a number of drawings done on the dining room walls.  I was very impressed by them.  All done with felt pen.

I particularly like this one.

Judith in the flesh, not felt pen.

Another missed attraction on the last visit was the original fort at Fort Hammerhiel.  Originally built by the Portuguese in the 17th century, it was taken over by the Dutch and then the British.  All colonial powers used it as a prison and armoury.  Today it is part of Fort Hammerhiel naval base.  The base has a hotel as well rooms in the fort itself.

When we took off in the morning in search of palmyrah treacle and jaggery, it was pouring rain.  It had been cloudy the day before but no real rain.  Cloudy is a good thing in Jaffna as it can be stinking hot when the sun is out.  It was raining so hard that I said we should give Fort Hammerhiel a miss.  I was out voted and so we set out.

The rain continued to pelt down.  Our van driver took some terrible back road that was more pothole than road with parts almost washed out by the rain.

A fish farm en route to the fort.  You can see an excellent part of the road in the foreground.  This was the best stretch of about 6 feet.

After what seemed an eternity, we finally got there.  We trooped into the restaurant being the only customers.  The service was terrible unlike the last time we had been there.  I ordered a spicy omelet as Sri Lankans make a great omelet.  It was the weirdest thing full of cashew nuts and raisins.  Things were so slow coming that I had to go into the kitchen twice to hurry them along.  Then we had asked of separate bills.  I went to great pains to explain to the server what should go on which bill only to be presented with one bill at the end of it.

Not happening!  At the front desk where they prepared the bills, there were 4 guys standing around.  I explained we had asked for separate bills only to be greeted with the usual blank stares.  Finally, another guy came along who was the manager.  He told them to just void the original bill and make new ones.  The very thing I had been explaining for 5 minutes.  I saw the rest of the afternoon passing before me by the time those guys sorted things out, so I made them give me the invoice book and wrote out the bills myself.  Never going back there for a meal.

By the time the lunch saga had passed, the rain had abated.  The group decided we should take the motor boat out to the fort.  I was reluctant at first and then decided what the hell.  I was glad I went.

The fort from the main island.  Very foggy as the rain was still falling.  A dragon boat in the foreground.

You can see the wind was really blowing as well.

A painting of the fort in the restaurant.

Getting blown around on the boat ride out to the fort.

Approaching the fort.

Sailor's knots.

The lower courtyard.

Yvonne

The Indian Ocean from the ramparts

Stepping back

Budgies at the back on the second level.

The walls are mortared coral

The panorama

More coral

One of the 4 rooms.  Beautiful polished plank floors.

Always judge the quality of a room by the bathroom

One of the cells.  The staff stay in somewhat updated cells.  You can also stay in a cell for the night rather than a room.  Who would want to?

The staff quarters and the sun has come out.

More cells

Hot, hot in the sun.

The walls

The hotel from the fort.

One thing I did notice on this visit, especially driving to Fort Hammerhiel, was the number of girl's schools.  I did not see any boy's schools.  I am sure there are some, but many fewer than for girls.  That is no doubt because of the number of boys forcibly conscripted by the LTTE during the war.

On the last night, we went to the Fox Resort for dinner.  We had wanted to stay there but the rates were too expensive.  Even the Jaffna Heritage was too much and they did not have rooms for all the nights we wanted to stay.  At the last minute, Yvonne found a great rate at the Jaffna so we booked there. Whereupon, she and George complained about the place the whole time.  I was glad we were there instead of the Fox Resort.  The Jaffna Heritage is small and homey.  It also has a nice pool so I was able to get in 2 kms.  Many of guest are local business people as opposed to tourists.  The Fox Resort is nice, but a large impersonal hotel.

The original bungalow on the Fox site which is now the reception area with a few rooms was Prabakaran's headquarters during the civil war.  Parbakaran was the leader of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam).  

A few rooms open off this courtyard in the original bungalow.

He had a bunker dug under the bungalow which has now been converted into an art gallery and museum.  We were unable to see the museum as it was flooded due to the heavy rains, but we did get into the art gallery.  Some well known Sri Lankan artists are featured in the gallery.

Keyt as Picasso

Keyt as Gaugin

Portions of the original walls of the bunker have been preserved.

A slogan in Tamil

Gerry and Bill joined us for dinner which was just OK.  Again nothing exceptional.  

Next day back on the train and home.  The ride back was long as it is a local train.  The last time, the ride was very bumpy north of Anaradapura.  In fact, 2 days after our last return, the train came off the tracks on that particular stretch.  Since then, they have replaced all the track right up to Jaffna.  Smooth ride all the way.

Asoka was waiting for us in Kurunegala where we made a brief stop at Food City for a bathroom break.  No-one was willing to brave the bathroom in the railway station.  I did visit the loo on the train however.  A bit wet, but clean.