Keep Track of Julia: Happy New Year, January 1, 2025

Another year has come and gone and another one begins. Time goes by too quickly. Before I even realize it, it has been more than 2 months since I posted.

Mahjong continues. We have a new player, Viv Wright. She is just learning, but she is quick and will pick it up easily. It is good to have a spare player as you never know when one of us might pop off.

The Cinnamon Citadel Hotel which is very close to me has a Christmas cake mixing event each year. They put all the dough out on a long line of tables in their cabana beside the river. All the kitchen staff and servers come out and start mixing in the fruit and booze. They were doing this one year while I was still swimming there. They invited me to join them, but I wanted to swim. I was getting drunk on the alcohol fumes coming off the mixture.

This year, they decided to make an event of it and invited all their members to a high tea and cake mixing. I am no longer a member, but my friend Sylvia is, so she invited me along. It was a big deal. They had Kandyan dancers, a big bunch of speeches regarding some award they have won. The latter was preceded by the award being brought in by motor boat from the river. Then finally the cake mixing. Sylvia's Aunt Helena, visiting from Austria, got in there with a vengeance and come out with cake stuck up to her elbows and all over the front of her dress. After all that, we had high tea which ended up being dinner as it was so late.

Kandyan Dancers

Devika enjoying the spectacle

While we were being bored by all the speeches, there was a welcome distraction from some peacocks on the roof of the cabana.

While we are on the peacocks, I have seen them frequently on my morning walks. I am pleased to say that I have not missed a day since I started to walk in the mornings except the first day of the month. That is the day after I get my monthly pedicure so I can't put on closed shoes for 24 hours after. Today is one of those days. Here are the peacocks in various poses.

A real beauty with a huge tail. They can fly quite high despite the weight of that tail.

This one has no tail. I don't know if he is too young or if he has molted.

Here is another tailless one who decided to walk with me for a ways.

I have also seen mongoose cavorting. Apart from the exotic animals, I have come to know quite a few of my neighbours. There is also a small paddy field that belongs to one of the neighbours that I have been happy to see being cleared, planted and now growing.

My dental adventures continue with another implant having been put in. I will go this month or next to have to crown put on it.

Breakfasts continue. We had tried the Radisson breakfast buffet a couple of times but are now giving it a wide berth as they charge more than the Grand Kandyan (although we get a discount because we are members of Film Club) and now the quality of the food is deteriorating. Margarine instead of butter. Although they still label it as butter. This horrible strawberry flavoured melon jam which they make here instead of real strawberry jam. Not even the inclusion of espresso makes it worthwhile, so we are back at the Grand Kandyan.

Deanne had her annual birthday party which was pleasant as always. I also threw myself a birthday party this year. Only 15 of us, but it was nice. We had short eats made by my tuktuk man, Asoka and of course, cake.

The lady who makes the brownies I order made a coffee icing cake. It was excellent. Simon and Pauline brought the smaller chocolate cake.

Tiullia's granddaughter Maryam and her friend were visiting, so I invited them as well. They brought me a lovely arrangement the next day.

The pomegranates were lovely. I gave the mango to Renuka and Rizvi as I don't like them.

Unfortunately, Malcolm Wright who is a severe diabetic, got very drunk and fell down in the bathroom. His skinned his bald head badly and was bleeding all over the place. We got him through the shock and swabbed up most of the blood. There was a lot of it as diabetics bleed profusely. The bathroom looked like a slaughter house. His wife took him to emergency at the Kandy Hospital but left unseen after a few hours. He went to a private hospital the next day. They checked him over and said there were no after effects but a week later he was back in the same hospital in the ICU with some undiagnosed problem somehow related to the diabetes. Dizziness and disorientation were the main symptoms. Maybe that was already happening when he fell. He is OK now, but still a bit muddled.

I got my final rabies shot on November 23 just 2 days before 4 of went for a small break to Marissa on the south coast. I spent the Sunday before we left at my friend Yvonne's who recently lost her husband, George. The trip was fine although we did get some rain. Not nearly as much as the north and central parts of the island which got hit by a cyclone as it was proceeding north in the Bay of Bengal. Torrential rains and flooding. More rain in 3 days than the whole of the previous year according to Simon who has a rain gauge and keeps track.

We drove down in Yvonne's car with Jim Aitken's houseman, Dinesh doing the driving. Dinesh is a good driver and quite good company as well. However, he got a bit carried away on the expressway from Colombo to Galle and we got a speeding ticket. It was only LKR.3000 but the police at the toll booth took his license. We had to go to the post office to pay the fine and then get back to the toll booth within 40 minutes when the policeman who had the license was going off shift. Yvonne didn't seem to understand this, or chose not to and kept forcefully insisting that we go to our villa first. Finally, Jim and I had to get quite short with her.

With that behind us, we proceeded to our villa, Villa Green Space, which is actually in a village called

Kamburugamuwa which is between Matara and Marissa. We rented the whole place. It was excellent. Clean, well furnished, centrally located, beautiful garden. Would recommend it to anyone. The only thing they didn't have was a toaster. They had a panini maker which is sort of like a waffle iron that they thought was a toaster. We pointed this out to them and a toaster arrived the next day.

The dining area. We made our own breakfast, having the caretaker clean up after us.

The main sitting area.

The front veranda with Douglas enjoying it.

The garden

The first afternoon, it was raining, so we went only about a block and found a restaurant called Zephyr right on the beach. Very pleasant. However, I ordered a lime and soda for which they charged LKR.1320. An outrageous price. Despite that we went back for dinner as it was still raining. The dinner was good and reasonably priced. As was the espresso I had the next day when we had to interrupt our beach walk because of rain again. They seem to have lost their minds over the lime and soda.

By the afternoon, the rain had stopped, so we went touring.

The tourists from left to right: Douglas King, Jim Aitken, Yvonne Cooper and Me.

First stop was the Dondra Head lighthouse. This is supposed to be the most southerly point of the island. Having visited the most northerly point, I have now completed the set.

Dinesh pointing something out to Jim with the lighthouse in the background.

The rocks that the lighthouse warns of.

A fishing boat.

Dinesh on the rocks.

There was a woman selling some very nice sea shells at the entry gate. Dinesh negotiated with her and we got 2 lovely cowrie shells for LKR.400.

Then it was on to the Parewi Duwa Temple in Matara. It is located on a rock just across from the public market. You cross a causeway to get to it. You have to climb up to the degoba, which neither Yvonne nor I bothered to do.

In the evening, Yvonne, Jim and I went to The Dutchman's Street in Matara for dinner. Douglas stayed back and made himself a salad. We had scouted the place out in the afternoon and liked it. It is a funky collection of buildings with a courtyard, right on the beach. Tables are set up in some of the buildings, in the courtyard and close to the beach. We had a good meal and enjoyed the atmosphere.

The entrance

There are a lot of fish or sea poison trees (barringtonia asiatica) on the south coast. They grow in mangrove areas. Dutchman's Street had some particularly fine examples. This one was in bloom right beside our table.

Jim took this shot with his camera.

Seeds are used to get rid of intestinal worms and the heated leaves are used to treat stomachache and rheumatism. They propagate much like coconut by floating on the ocean tides. A seed pod can last for up to 15 years before it germinates.

Simon and Pauline have planted a couple at their place on the edge of the dry zone where they seem to do quite well. The seed pods are very decorative.

On the Wednesday, we went off to the Marissa Hills Hotel. It is located in a cinnamon plantation just above Marissa. It is beautiful. Two buildings, two swimming pools, spectacular views, good food, nice service. Definitely a place I would like to stay. We had a lovely lunch there and just hung out for a while.

There is also a museum, but they wanted too much money to see it. The rooms in the lower building are very nice and much cheaper than the upper building. The lower pool is better for swimming as it is longer. You still have access to all the amenities of the upper building and still save money. Want to go back there for a couple of days.

The back view

You can see the sea and my friends

An interesting metal sculpture done by a local artist in the living room. A very spacious and comfortable room

A seating area

The sitting area/library to the largest room

The upper pool. I did take my swimming gear, but I was too lazy to swim and the sun was too strong.

The bedroom of the large suite

The bathroom. Never stay in a place where you can't see a photo of the bathroom first. The bathroom tells all.

Flooded fields due to the cyclone. 15 people reported dead and 63,000 households displaced.

We then went to check out the waterfront action, ending up at the fishing harbour. They fish a lot of tuna from there.

Fishers unloading tuna.

Because of the cyclone that was passing, sea going vessels had been warned to stay in port. They all go out in the mornings, so they were all in for a day or two.

On our last day, the sun had broken through and it turned into a hot day. We left early so we could stop in Galle for breakfast. That brought on another argument about costs. Jim and I wanted to go to the Galle Fort Hotel which is the oldest hotel in Galle and is inside the fort, as the name implies. It has been refurbished and is lovely. The breakfast was more pricey than other places, but you are paying for the ambiance. Yvonne and Douglas were saying that it was too expensive and we should go somewhere else. Jim was getting agitated. Finally, I said that we were not tied at the hip and that if they wanted to go somewhere else, they should do so, while Jim and I stayed put. That stopped them and in the end they joined us. We had a lovely breakfast; worth every rupee.

The swimming pool at the Galle Fort Hotel

The drive home was uneventful. The rain held off until we were almost at Yvonne's which is about 45 minutes outside of Kandy. By the time I was dropped at the Food City where my tuktuk was waiting, it was the deluge. That continued for another 2 days until the cyclone passed.

Jim had told me that if you join the British Council library, you can get a number of digital newspapers. I have been wanting to do the New York Times crossword for ages and lo and behold, the NYT was available. I went into the British Council in Kandy town to join up. The place was staffed by what looked like volunteer university students. The young woman at the desk informed me that the only way I could join was on-line, paying with a card or a bank transfer. I was incensed. Don't they realize that Sri Lanka is a developing country? Not everyone has a computer, a credit or bank card or does on-line banking. Then they told me I could do a direct bank deposit but not with the deposit machines but directly at a teller. That means lining up for god only knows how long. When I pointed out that this was a stupid policy, the young male "supervisor" told me that the policy had been brought in during COVID. When I pointed out that COVID was over, he just shrugged.

When I got home I was moaning about this to Rizvi who used to drive for the British Council and still knows a lot of people there. He said not only that, but they had laid off almost of their long term staff in order to hire cheaper part-timers. One of the layoffs is a good acquaintance. I couldn't believe it.

I wrote to the British Council in both Colombo and London. The London guys fobbed me off on the Kandy crew about the library issue. They have not to this day addressed the issue of the unjust layoffs. The library supervisor in Kandy did call me back and as is usual for a Sri Lankan began to address issues I had never raised. When I finally got her to focus, she said that the no-cash policy was London't and not their's, so there was nothing she could do about it.

Now part of the British Councils's mission is to promote good relations between the UK and the host country. Uh, uh! Despite the fact that their fees are grossly high, they have managed to get themselves into £50M of debt. This is in no small measure due to the fact that for years they have been paying hyper-inflated salaries to foreign teachers while either ignoring or exploiting local talent. They are just a thin veneer for British attempts to hold on to a long defunct empire, at best. At worst, it is imperialism cloaked in language training.

When I got home, the fun really began. The remote module on my TV died for the second time, the display on my computer also died and another of the plates on my kitchen fell down and chipped.

The TV got fixed fairly quickly. The plate I eventually saved by epoxying and painting over the chip. The computer was another story.

Chanaka, my computer repair man, came and got the computer and fixed the display. It worked for a day and died again. Long story short, it turned out the mother board had gone and it wasn't worth fixing. So now it was time to find a new-to-me computer. I had a 27" iMac, so that is what I went looking for. Chanaka said he had a client that was selling a 27" retina screen iMac so we set about meeting the guy and looking over the computer. The seller works in Dubai and was just visiting. We made an appointment for 1600 on the day. I, of course, showed up on time. No sign of the seller. 1615, 1630 and still no sign. Chanaka could not get hold of him on the phone. Finally, I left. In the end, he never showed up. A few days later, his wife showed up at Chanaka's saying he had to go back to Dubai and that now their nephew wanted the computer so they were giving it to him. Flakes!

So, I started searching on-line. I found what I wanted on a site called mymars.lk for a reasonable price. I ordered it and made contact with the vendor, making a bank deposit for the amount. Meanwhile, I did not have the ready cash and had to borrow money from friends to make the immediate purchase. The computer was to be delivered on the Monday. Again, to make a long story short, to this day, no computer and no refund.

I tried for a few days to deal with the situation myself. Surprisingly, the guy kept answering his phone and stringing me along with a whole bunch of lies.

The courier's vehicle broke down. I finally got the number of the courier out of him. My landlady spoke to the "courier" in Sinhala and in the end told him to deliver the machine by tuktuk. He said he would. Of course, that was a lie. In fact, there was no courier. It was just another guy answering another of the vendor's phone numbers.
The courier's vehicle had been in a car accident and the computer had been damaged. The vendor would deliver the machine personally the next Monday. More bullshit!
Then I started to demand a refund and threatening a police complaint. More crap. I then turned matters over to my houseman, Rizvi who started dealing with him. Rizvi was also fed a whole string of lies.

While all this was going on, Rizvi had a heart attack and had a stent put in. He was in ICU for a day. In hospital for 3 days and recovering for at least a week. He is OK now.

In the meantime, I had filed a police complaint on-line. The Kandy police started handling it. On Christmas Day, a group of us went for our usual breakfast where we were joined by friends Marlise and Jayantha. Jayantha is a retired DIG (Deputy Inspector General) of police. I told him the story and he put me in touch with a Superintendent. Rizvi and I went down to Kandy police station to meet the SP who spoke to the miscreant on the phone, telling him he had until 1500 to deposit the refund or they would have an arrest warrant issued. If I had been spoken to like that by a senior policeman, I would have been freaking out and paying up. Not our guy.

We also met with the Inspector who had been dealing with the on-line complaint. He also phoned the guy. The IP spoke, Rizvi and I also spoke to him. I just told him I was now at the police station asking them to issue an arrest warrant. Dead silence.

During all these negotiations, the vendor (Ravi) had sent us a copy of an electronic bank transfer receipt for the refund. I suspected at the time that it was a forgery. When we met with the SP, he also thought it was forged. He put it to Ravi, who incredibly admitted that it was forged. As a consequence, when we left the police station, we went to the main branch of the bank in Kandy and met with the manager there. He too confirmed that it was a forgery. I wanted to alert the bank to the fact that this guy is a bad actor and they should put a watch on his account. The manager said he would start internal procedures, whatever those are, to monitor the account.

Naturally, he did not issue the refund by the deadline, so the beat goes on.

I also put fraud alerts on Facebook and LinkedIn where Ravi has profiles. His full name is R. (Ravi) C. Wijesena. The website is mymars.lk. Beware!

Chanaka has been most kind during this ordeal, lending me a computer for the duration. I finally have a new-to-me iMac. Who knows if I will ever get my money back. Even if I don't, I am determined to ensure that Ravi can't continue to do this to other people. I am sure that there is no business. Just a well put together website to pull the suckers in.

I have started to teach French to my friend Amra again. We started doing it using Google Chat, but soon discovered that it is not the best for language training. There is too much lag and it is difficult to see the mouth movements needed for correct pronunciation. She has started to come to my house now and in fact, one lesson was dedicated to he helping me to make beigli (traditional Hungarian Christmas cake). I had never made it before. My Mother did it. It took us quite a few hours, but they turned out quite well and tasted great even though we did it all in French, leaving room for all sorts of gaffs.

Walnut on the left. Poppy seed on the right. The poppy seed and apricot jam needed had to come from the UK. (The photo is not my beigli.)

Amra invited me to dinner to celebrate her husband, Fareez's birthday. Very nice evening . Only fly in the ointment was that the other guests; a couple that Fareez works with, had 2 boys with them. The younger one was a real spoiled brat. I don't like kids at the best of times, and it took some time to sort him out. We did reach an understanding in the end.

Amra and Fareez

Birthday desserts

Then it was Christmas. It started with a Christmas dinner at the Kandy Club on the 22nd with Simon, Pauline, Deanne and Jim. Some great news to celebrate. Pauline who had been diagnosed with cancer almost 6 months ago and has been receiving chemotherapy, had a PET scan a few days before. The scan showed that the tumors were greatly reduced. Some have even disappeared. Really something to celebrate.

The Kandy Club really pulled out all the stops. In typical Sri Lankan fashion, they missed the mark by just a little. The place was decorated for a wedding with the inclusion of a Christmas tree. The food was great if you were a meat eater; a whole sucking pig, a huge whole fish, a turkey, beef in a wine sauce. Us vegetarians were relegated to salads, macaroni and mashed potatoes. Oh well, it was the socializing that counted.

On Christmas Eve, I went to Sylvia's for a nice evening of game playing, singing and eating. The beigli went over a treat. Sylvia said it reminded her of childhood.

Sylvia and her family

Sylvia and her Aunt Helena. A couple of crazies.

Christmas Day started with our now annual breakfast at the Grand Kandyan. The place was packed. Then Lesley and Ralph's annual Christmas Day party. Lesley swears that this is the last one. She didn't get to bed until 0300 despite the fact that her son Darren was here to help her. Lastly, dinner at my landlady Tiullia's. Also becoming an annual event.

Discussing politics with Azmi (Tiullia's son-in-law) a 20 year veteran Kandy Municipal Councillor

Before dinner. From left to right: Azlam, the grandson, Tiullia, Me, Azmi

The dinner catered by my friend Husna. Last year the lasagna was ice cold and horrible. This year, I heated it up in my oven and it was good. Yazmin, Tiullia's daughter, made the rolls. Nice. You can't get proper dinner rolls here.

Azlam trying to convince us that Buddhism is just Hinduism in other clothes. Maryam, his sister, and I strongly disagree.

Dessert. Christmas pudding and beigli

The rain abated for a brief period and then started with a vengeance. The north east monsoon that is supposed to be milder than the south west. It is still wreaking havoc.