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.