Lure of the Falcon by Sue Peters

Another book from Hyacinth’s collection of Mills n Boons which gave a good couple of hours reading on the weekend.

Seven for a Secret – Victoria Holt

This was such a fabulous book, I hardly wanted to put it down once I had started on it. It is the story of Frederica and how due to various events she comes to Harper’s Green to live with her aunt Sophie and thus enters into the lives of the rich and spoilt Tamarisk, St Aubyn, her brother Crispin, and the timid Rachel Grey.

Having read quite a number of her books, I found certain things a bit predictable, but nonetheless enthralling since the tale was woven with love, romance, murder, madness and intrigue. Great reading!

V.I.P.

This was the name of the book I picked up from the bookseller yesterday. I read it before I went to sleep… Yes, our tv is till out!

It was about this smooth young man called Ray who wanted to get ahead in whatever way possible after he tries climbing the corporate ladder the ‘right way’. How he sets about his climb, achieves what he wants (NOT the correct way this time) and then gets caught out was the gist of the story. Not bad reading for one day. I lent it to Gerard to have a look at before I give it back to the bookseller. Decided I don’t want to keep it after all.

Over the Waves

The Catamaran Club of Moratuwa had organized the dance and on Friday evening (11^th May 2007) I get a call inviting me along to the dance. Even though it was pretty short notice… I had a look at my ‘busy schedule of events’ of Friday and found that I was free! (what a surprise huh?). Anyway I was picked up a bit past ten and we made our way to Waters Edge. The band was already in full swing when we arrived. The customary entrance bag was a little bag holding a moisturizer from Natures’ Secrets and a few sample sachets of Comfort fabric softener. Then we noticed the photographer at the entrance as with all other dances and immediately posed for our pictures only to be told that we need to pay for the photograph! Rs.200/= for an unframed one and Rs.450/= for a framed picture…. Well that was a first! Anyways we took our picture and went in.

The ever critical me had loads of fodder.

1) The tables were arranged quite badly and the people had to squeeze past chairs to get to their seats

2) The buffet was served at the farther end of the hall … once again one had to wind oneself past chairs holding the plate practically over other peoples heads hoping that no one seated behind would suddenly push out their chair causuing you to tip the contents of your plate on the person seated in front

3) The dance floor was opening up in several places with cracks appearing to catch the ladies stiletto heels

4) There were absolutely NO PRIZES!!!!!! Apart from the entrance draw, raffle draw and a few table draws (bottles of beer). That was it!!! Nothing else. What a drastic difference from many dances I’ve been to.

On the good side … yes there was a good side too of course… the music was fabulous. Misty and Super Pink & Purple were the two bands and they played some great music. The only bad bit with the music was when the bandleader of Super Pink & Purple invited his niece (I think) Dilrukshi from the now defunct bad (I’m didn’t think much of their band anyway) gave a few nasal renditions which left many ears feeling sad. It got even worse when some guy and Dilruskhi TRIED (please note the emphasis on tried) to sing ‘Red Red Wine’. Oh me gosh!!!! That was horrible. Many people walked off the floor with pained expressions on their faces. HORRIBLE! Thank goodness someone had the consideration to notice the rapidly emptying floor and oust the two and continue with the original band music.

The food was really good. Waters Edge had done a great job with the menu. I enjoyed every morsel. Everything from the soup, salad, main course and desserts, they were all excellent.

Another fiasco was the raffle tickets. A book was Rs.500/= and held 5 tickets. When the usher came selling the tickets we inquired whether we could buy just one….NO! she said. We had to buy the whole book for Rs.500/= or nothing. Almost to contradict her it seemed that the announcer kept saying that we could buy a ticket! Perhaps the poor thing was deaf! Just then the other members of the table were buying books and I noticed that she gave them the counterfoils and removed the tickets and held them with her. I heard many a protest correcting her that they should hold the ticket which had the details of ALL four or five prizes offered for the raffle. Still, she insisted on giving them the counterfoils. I had a niggly little feeling that when she discovered that she had done the wrong thing, she didn’t put the tickets in the barrel, cos the draw only pulled out the counterfoils which held the name, address and telephone numbers of the winners!!!

Apart from all the niggly little things… I did enjoy the dance … like I said the music was good, the food was good and the company was good too.

A visit to the Dehiwela Zoo

It was Mothers’ Day yesterday and since mom loves animals, we thought we’ll make an occasion of it and the family, including Uncle George decided to visit the zoo. I can’t remember when I last went…. Hundreds of years ago it seemed!

So we packed a picnic lunch of egg & tomato and cheese & tomato sandwiches, some sprite, chocolate cake, chocolates and other fruits and nibbles and set off to the zoo. I was quite impressed with the large number of people visiting the zoo. I was also impressed that Sri Lanka has finally taken a leaf out of the book of other countries and charged different entrance fees for locals and foreigners.

We walked around noting with sadness the run down state of the zoo. A lot of the cages were empty… did the animals die?? I had a nagging feeling that they probably starved to death! All the carnivorous animals seemed a rather mangy little bunch. The numbers have dwindled and current ‘residents’ seem very unhappy. The cage area for the leopards and lions seemed small to me, but worst of all was that they all seemed ravenously hungry. I got the feeing they are fed only once a day and perhaps some of them are occasionally forgotten tooL. We saw the deer, giraffe and other vegetarians being fed, though one or two seemed quarantined inside their quarters and were not fed along with the others. My heart bled for one who was watching the others eating and crying piteously the whole while. Made me want to vault over the fence and feed him.

The normally majestic lions though still with their good looks were half starved, lethargic looking fellows… Their ribs showed!!! We saw them at feeding time and were surprised to see that they just got large bones… no meat… is that why they are looking rather malnourished?? Some of them seemed uninterested in the bones letting the crows feast on the bones instead. The veg animals looked alright, and so did the fish and birds and the horrid reptiles, but the poor carnivores looked a very hungry bunch. I do hope the officials at the zoo will take better care of the animals.

The monkeys seemed a happy gang though. We saw families with their baby monkeys playing and generally lazing around looking quite content with their lot.

We saw the many hued birds, the horrid serpents (they are NOT a particular favourite of mine), we walked through the bird aviary where the birds are given free flight (upto a limit though). It’s a lovely little walk through with a wooden bridge and quaint fences etc, we wondered through the dim fish aquarium and we stared in awe at the beautiful coloured fish, some of them had the most unbelievable colours and shapes. There were fish with frills, with spikes and the most vivid colours imaginable, like neon blue and buttercup yellow and fascinating colour mixes too, then there were almost see-through glass fish. Truly fascinating indeed. How wonderful nature is!

The zoo authorities have made several places for families to sit down and have their mid-day meals. There were little huts with taps and garbage bins located very conveniently right throughout the zoo and the toilet facilities too seemed clean and well maintained. There were a large number of places where one could buy water, iced drinks, ice-cream, milk and snacks. There was a nice looking restaurant and a several places where one could buy lunches of rice-packs.

Around lunch time we found a vacant hut and settled down to our picnic lunch. Thank goodness we had sandwiches as opposed to buying lunch packs which seemed freely available. Sandwiches were a clean, easy to eat, less messy way of having lunch. It would have been quite a feat sitting balancing a rice packs on ones lap.

The feeding time for the seal drew a very large crowed at 4.00 p.m. (again one wonders whether the poor fellow is just fed only once a day). Everyone seemed to enjoy the show and the children seemed to be the happiest. We however got there at 4.00 p.m. only to find the little place so crowded that we couldn’t see a thing.

We decided to go over to the elephant arena to avoid the same thing happening. Finding a grass covered arena we sat down and had some chocolate cake while waiting. At 4.20 I noticed that apart from a few amorous couples who seemed to have grown roots there, there didn’t seem to be anyone else to watch the elephant show. On inquiring from the snack bar across the way I found out that there was a new area. So we made hasty tracks there and found a much larger arena rapidly filling up. Finding a good spot we settled down and were soon enjoying a marvelous show put on by the elephants. Almost by accident we had stumbled across an entrance giving us access to the seats which the elephants faced when they performed. The performance was AMAZING!!! It was really wonderful! I did feel a bit sad that the elephants were prodded by the mahouts with spear like objects though.

Dad and Mom reminisced about the times when they came many years ago, the shows they had back then, including one with a chimp. According to them there were many more animals then, and the zoo and the inhabitants was better maintained. However, now there are much more facilities available for the visitors including wheelchair access/ramps and the arenas etc are better. Somehow I think I would rather the animals be better off and happy first.

Soon after the show we made tracks home tired with all the walking but happy with the lovely day. We were so thankful that the rains held off too despite the dire rumblings and ominous darkening in the morning.