Today is the first day of Averudu, the Sinhalese and Tamil New Year. Everything is quiet. That is until the firecrackers start up. Thankfully, there have not been too many around here. At least not yet. Chewy and Putha get very scared when they go off.
No mahjong today as Deanne and Judith don't have staff or transport. I also don't have Kumari, and Lesley is tending to a sick dog.
We celebrated Tula's (my landlady) 90th birthday on March 16. It was a big celebration with relatives coming from as far away as Australia and the US. Her granddaughter came with her husband and baby from Australia along with her sister and husband who also came from Australia. As a surprise, they set up a high tea party at the Grand Kandyan. They invited her old friends some of which she went to school with. She had a great time.
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| From left to right: Rohan; Tula's son who has been here from the US for 3 months now, a nephew from Colombo, another nephew who I call the Party Cousin from Colombo, Tula, Yazmin; Tula's daughter who lives in Kandy, and Shiranti; Tula's daughter-in-law who was married to the eldest son who died some years ago. The morning was spent making and eating kiri baht (milk rice) which is eaten on all special occasions. |
The cake was amazing. All covered in moss and mushrooms. Despite the hideous green icing, it was really quite tasty.
All the invited Whities with the birthday girl. From left to right: Ralph, Lesley, Tula and Me.
Tula's granddaughter, Maryam organized the event. As a party gifts they gave us plants which was a lovely idea.
Narrowleaf Angelon. They had some left over which Tula gave to me to plant in my patio garden.
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One of the only cultural events took place at L'Atelier with a jazz quartet from Colombo performing what they called The American Songbook. They were good as usual, even making the odd requests sound jazzy.
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Deanne had one of her lovely soirées to say good-bye to Brenda and Mike Sedgwick who come for a few months annually. Also had a hopper night at the Kandy Club.
On March 30, all HSBC Canada accounts were migrated to RBC which has bought HSBC Canada. It seemed that the transfer was going well, but as I unfortunately expected, they are not set up for non-resident customers.
First my debit card did not arrive by the appointed date. I called them and begged them to send out another card by courier. Two days later a card arrived by FedEx. I thought everything was alright only to discover when I tried to use the card at 3 different banks that it did not work. Upon contacting RBC I discovered that the card I received was the first issue which they cancelled when they ordered the second one. The second one was sent on March 19 and has still not arrived. So if it doesn't arrive by the end of the month, I am stuck here without funds. Thank God I have friends.
Then my investment account was transferred. I couldn't find any reference to it online so I contacted RBC again. They informed me that as Sri Lanka is considered a high risk country; don't ask me why, the only thing I could do with the account is transfer it to another brokerage. So now I am searching for a bank that will take it on. I am hopeful as I have an old account with CIBC who apparently will deal with Sri Lankan residents. What a balls up. RBC is a terrible bank.
I planted a red passion fruit vine almost 2 years ago. It is a slow grower, but finally it brought a flower.
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I managed to get this picture before the monkeys knocked it off.
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Closing as always with my furry babies.
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| Chewy covering her ear. |
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| Chewy and Putha flaked out on the patio |
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| Chewy adding to the TV experience |
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| The latest interloper who I have named Whitey. He actually hung around a lot when Chewy went into heat before she was fixed. He is a lovely, friendly cat and does not pee a lot despite being an unneutered male. |
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| Putha and Chewy always together. Gazing out my bedroom window. |
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| Whitey with a lot of wounds on his head and neck. Probably fighting with Fluffy, although I have not seen Fluffy for a while now. |
