NewsfromRuani

Anticipating Arugam Bay

2009-10-16T21:55:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the company outing to Arugam Bay. Everyone gathered around
to find out what time we are meeting, and horror of horrors the time
is getting closer and closer to midnight. As aptly put by Rams, how
much earlier do you want to leave, we are leaving at freaking 3 a.m.!!

Dinushka is missed, because she is the live wire who sets the place
alight with her enthusiasm. She is already in Arugambay.

Looking forward to it.

An Evening at the Capri Club

2009-08-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

Patrick and Vasanthi invited us over to the month end bash at the Capri Club. It was the first time I’d been there, and I found it most pleasant indeed. We had a quick drink first and then moved to the patio where music was being playing by Dalrene Suby and a band… There were lots of dance enthusiasts around and the dancing went on for a long long while. Dinner was good too.. a lovely evening of dancing, music, good food and excellent company!

Air Asia Free Tickets!!!

2009-07-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

I must have been nuts… I got the email several times from various friends of mine and finally thought I’ll give it a shot myself - after all who passes up on the chance to win a free air ticket? I added the names of my friends (many of whom had sent it to me in the first place  and sent it to airasiafreeticket@gmail.com and what happened? The email bounced… I’m left wondering whether the whole thing is a hoax …. There’s no such thing as a freebie is there?

My Blog

2009-07-20T22:29:00.000-07:00

Someone mentioned the other day that they find reading my blog interesting….. I’ve got a fan yay!!!!!!!!!

Hilton Colombo

2009-07-05T22:19:00.000-07:00

We decided to go to the Hilton for lunch on Mum’s birthday. As always I must say that the food was splendid as was the service. After a heavy and fully satisfying meal we even had a walk outside admiring the giant carp and beautiful swans and waterfall before wending our way home. Hilton always does come up trumps in my experience!!

Big Bite

2009-07-02T22:17:00.000-07:00

After the superlatives connected to the Restaurant ‘Big Bite’ I thought that on the 27th of June, we’d order a savan from them. They had very prompt service. I called 15 minutes before I went to collect the order, and when I went there, the food was all ready and packed waiting for me. There ended the good service!!!

The biriyani was so darned salty it had me almost forgetting my manners and wanting to spit it out immediately. The entire savan was left uneaten. When I went to return the savan to Big Bite I told the manager (I think) that the food had been very salty that in fact I gave him a very generous amount of the leftovers to verify my complaint. They apologized admitting that mistakes happened indeed, and that was the end of the Big Bite story. I and of course everyone who was unfortunate enough to sample the biriyani that day will NEVER be ordering from Big Bite again.

Wednesdays at the DBU

2009-07-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

Since several friends were going to be at the DBU on the 1st of this month, thought it may prove to be an interesting evening, especially since the band Kismet was playing. Despite the rain there was a large turnout, the music as always was very good, though they did play quite a bit of the older rather hackneyed numbers. Giggled all through the evening, Vasanthi is such fun ! All in all it was a really enjoyable evening.

To top up a really great day

2008-08-25T02:57:00.000-07:00

OK… My super Monday, just got even better. I had a lovely surprise call from my friend in Australia. The caller ID that showed up on my phone indicated what seemed to be a local number, so imagine my happiness to hear a dear voice from overseas....

A nice treat

2008-08-25T02:56:00.000-07:00

Sahan got through his CFA Exam level III and treated us to a buriyani lunch from the Holiday Inn, complete with wattalappam for dessert. The food was super!

We really missed Dinush who was stuck at home today with the flu though…..

Thanks Sahan and Congrats again!!

Something to REALLY Make My Day

2008-08-24T22:37:00.000-07:00

Wow!!!! Just had a call from my friend Ruvee, she gave me such great news, that I still can’t stop smiling like an absolute goof!! She sure has brightened up my Monday morning not to mention the entire week!!!

I wish that everyone of you who reads this blog gets some great news that will just light you up!

Take care

Wanna visit my home?

2008-08-19T04:39:00.000-07:00

Two more beauties

2008-08-19T04:35:00.000-07:00

He seemed to love being petted by everyone

2008-08-19T04:34:00.000-07:00

The camel with the fallen hump

2008-08-19T04:32:00.001-07:00

I do hope he's ok....

2008-08-19T04:31:00.000-07:00

I hope he's ok... cos he certainly did not seem so.

A grrrr rather than a purrrr

2008-08-19T04:25:00.000-07:00

One Hungry Bear

2008-08-19T04:23:00.001-07:00

Welcome to the Elephant Show

2008-08-19T04:09:00.000-07:00

The Aquarium

2008-08-19T03:53:00.000-07:00

Another Visit to the Dehiwela Zoo

2008-08-19T03:28:00.000-07:00

On Poya day, we found ourselves at a loose end and thought we'll do a quick trip to the zoo to see how our animal friends are doing..... here are a few pictures of our feathered friends.

A good book to lift one's spirits

2008-06-24T21:48:00.000-07:00

Hyacinth called over today feeling blue and wanted to browse through the Lake House bookshop and buy herself a good book to cheer herself up with. So we set off after lunch and were soon scanning the shelves of books. She went looking for romances, Tin Tin comics or some joke books, while I simply browsed around. They have quite a collection of local writers and their selection of cookery books is vast! Leafing through the glossy pages made me feel hungry all over again!

Lake House had run out of romances…. So Hyacinth just bought “Gone with the Wind”. The manager was really sweet and told us that the man selling books on the pavement near the Regal had some Mills & Boons if we didn't mind buying second hand books.

We stopped to have a look and sure enough… he had stacks of books. We bought 5 books. I started on a Historical Romance on the bus home in the evening.

Tusha's wedding plans

2008-05-27T02:03:00.001-07:00

Tushara is in the midst of planning her wedding. The entire event has now snowballed from the simple ceremony she envisioned at home, to a function in a hotel with all the fancy trimmings. And why not? It IS such a special day after all.

Today she came up with the idea that since both she and Ryan like chocolate cake, that’s the cake they want for their wedding. And this is amidst loads of protests from her traditionalist family. Her wedding invitation card has already been designed but she currently is hankering after a design with a lot of black colour in it.

Another bomb blasts on a train in Dehiwela

2008-05-27T02:02:00.001-07:00

Got another nasty shock yesterday when I got a news alert that a bomb had gone off in a train in Dehiwela. The bomb had been in a parcel and left on the hood rack of one of the carriages. Seven people died, one a pregnant lady, with over 70 people injured. The way our trains our packed I’m thankful that the death toll is only 7, though it is 7 people too many. I wonder if this terror will ever end… sigh!

Bomb in Fort near the check point

2008-05-27T02:01:00.000-07:00

Had a really nasty shock today. At around 12.00 noon there was this thundering resounding noise and our entire building shook. I was with bare feet, standing and doing some filing and I felt the floor reverberate and the sound of the bomb really scared me. We promptly did what we are NOT supposed to do. Rushed to the nearest windows and peered out to see what had happened.

A big black ball of smoke rose behind the Hilton area and we thought it was on the railway track. We saw the milling crowds, some of the injured being carried away. We later heard that a motorbike containing a bomb had rammed into a bus carrying policemen.

Rukshana kept telling us to move away from the windows. She behaved very sensibly I must say. She shouldered her handbag saying that she had no intention of ‘rustifying’ to get new identification etc and was even ready to quit the building at a moments notice.

Her presence of mind had saved her family in 2004 when the tsunami struck Sri Lanka on the 26^th of December. They had been at a seaside resort and noticed that the sea was receding further than normal and coming in closer than normal too. The first few waves had sent them promptly out of the hotel into the first trishaw and away from the seaside. They did not stop to collect luggage and handbags (though her mom had her handbag with her) etc., they had just left the hotel immediately.

Haggala Gardens

2008-04-28T14:54:00.001-07:00

Next stop was Haggala Gardens. Parking was a challenge…. Obviously the park was full!

The gardens were as beautiful as I remembered. We wondered along taking lots of pictures and posing (mainly because that gave us the excuse us to stop walking and hurting). We giggled about our soggy ordeal on Horton Plains and generally relived the entire thing again…. Giggling a lot this time !

We went to the rose garden, the hot houses and walked through a bit of the park while I coaxed Hyacinth and Anton to exhibit lovey dovey poses to be captured on camera for posterity.

Janani’s Pony Ride

2008-04-28T14:54:00.000-07:00

Janani had her pony ride just outside the garden gates. The pony minder was a nice guy who talked to her all the way through the ride because despite her clamour to have the ride, she became quite nervous when actually sitting atop of the pony!

Sita Eliya

2008-04-28T14:53:00.000-07:00

We then stopped at Sita Eliya and visited the temple where the Monkey General is supposed to have placed his foot. The temple is a very colourful and vibrant one located over a rushing stream which seemed pretty small after yesterday’s experiences!

Visiting the Bunnies

2008-04-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

We started off by visiting Boys Town and having a look at the rabbits. The boy there was really sweet and allowed us to pet the rabbits and even hold a couple of them. He seemed to know a lot about rabbits too and Janani and I spent a happy quarter of an hour visiting with the rabbits.

What shall we do today?

2008-04-28T14:51:00.000-07:00

We decided to visit Hakgala Gardens after our excitement yesterday. Hyacinth and I walked like two very fragile old ladies, grimacing with every sudden movement. Huh! Shows how fit the two of us are! Every muscle hurt! Every step hurt!

Back to Highlands

2008-04-28T14:50:00.000-07:00

All too soon it was time to find our way back to our vehicle and what a loooooooong walk that proved to be. We had another view from a ‘mini world’s end? And then wound our way back till we found ourselves on the open grasslands leading to the entrance of Horton Plains. We had walked 9 kilometers first in the broiling hot sun and then in the pouring rain. Our teeth were chattering and our wobbly legs were refusing to carry us any further. It had taken us six hours to do the trek.

We went to the little kade near the car park and had some hot coffee (which was horrid!!!) Janani had a change of clothes and we bundled back into the vehicle, turned on the heater and drove back to Highlands to hot dinner, hot baths and bed!

World’s End

2008-04-28T14:49:00.002-07:00

World’s end was absolutely stunning!!! For me it was well worth the walk. We were all happy with our own little Worlds End experience. Janani and Hyacinth wanted to see the drop cloaked in white cloud, while Anton and I wanted the mists to part and to actually see the world spread out below us.

When we reached the place it was covered in mist… that kept Hy and Janani happy. We sat awhile to catch our breath and have a few newspaper smothered peanuts and some water and the mists melted away leaving a breathtaking view below us. I was ecstatic!

Unofficial Opening of a Bridge on Horton Plains

2008-04-28T14:49:00.001-07:00

At the time though we didn’t appreciate it… we ‘opened’ a new bridge that had been erected across a broad water way through which we would probably have had to wade in thigh high water. The problem was that the bridge was almost at shoulder height but didn’t have any steps leading up onto it. Resourceful as usual Anton had found a plank which he placed against the side of the bridge and held it in place while each of us ran up the gangplank using his shoulders to keep our balance. He hoisted himself up by taking a swinging leap up, hooking his legs onto the edge of the bridge and then hauling himself up. On the other side of the bridge we sat down and then jumped down into the mire. Phew! What an adventure…… certainly beats the corporate outbound training thingies.

Leopards!! In Sri Lanka??? On Horton Plains????? Nah!

2008-04-28T14:49:00.000-07:00

When we came to the forest area though I think Hyacinth rather lost her nerve. Her husband had walked on out of sight and Janani and I were lagging behind chatting away even stopping now and again to admire our surroundings. She had noticed that we had not passed another single soul and that we were now surrounded on either side by thick forest. The sky was overcast and everything looked dark and gloomy the jungle seemed to encroach onto the tiny path making us four humans feel so unsafe. Wanting us to hurry through the forest she used the word ‘leopard’ to Janani and that was the end of the cool control. Janani’s eyes opened wide, her mouth opened even wider and she burst into loud and vociferous tears. Her mom had to practically drag her long stumbling over the rocky uneven forest path. Janani ceased to look for firm footing and instead of skipping lightly became a heavy burden to be dragged along howling at the top of her lungs. Her fond daddy heard her and came back, picked her up in his arms. But the rocky uneven road which was a swirling gushing rapid was too much for him. Down he fell to his knees and she fell on top of him. Meanwhile Hyacinth and I had our arms wrapped tight around each others’ waists while we felt our way through the water.

A Soggy Adventure on Hortain Plains

2008-04-28T14:47:00.000-07:00

The far-thinking mom Hyacinth had brought a raincoat for Janani. She was unceremoniously bundled into it while the rest of us decided to brave the ice cold rain and continue our walk to World’s End. Actually there was no choice about continuing, we had to go forward on a downhill track to World’s End (the smarter choice… which we being the smart folk we are ,took), or climb relentlessly uphill back the way we came (which was a no no).

So we pushed onwards in the pouring rain Hyacinth and I trying to share one umbrella to keep our handbags dry, our ID’s, phones and cameras being the most important things to safeguard. Finally I covered my camera and phone in Janani’s raincoat cover, gave my handbag and umbrella to Hyacinth and we kept walking. Hyacinth’s handbag was a huge ‘pan malla’ kind of thing and soaked up lots of rain like a sponge and probably weighted a ton! Poor Hyacinth looked like a desperado with our two handbags slung crosswise across her chest, carrying the umbrella and practically staggering along. She did have a large smile on her face though J Janani meanwhile happily splashed into all the puddles she could find.

We laughed at our original efforts to keep our shoes dry because pretty soon the stony little pathway turned into a gushing river with a strong enough current to unsettle us. Protecting our shoes was the least of our thoughts while we struggled knee high in water. The water was muddy too and we soon couldn’t see the pathway, just a rushing gurgling sucking rush of water which could have easily swept Janani (and all of us too) off our feet. Soon it became a battle to hang on to the rocks and grasses on the pathside and carefully ‘feel’ our way through the ‘rapids’. Anton and Janani both fell along the way and so did Hyacinth. Luckily no bones were broken. When crossing a stream with just a branch to use as a stepping stone, Hyacinth preferred to sit on the muddy stream bank and try to wade across… the stream was too deep though and she was compelled to climb on the branch and get across to the other side.

We felt that we had been battling through the rapids for hours and were cold and shivery and tired and hungry! We sat on some rocks and delved into our bags for our biscuits and guess what????? They were not in polythene packs anymore! They were in soggy newspaper.. yucks!! How unappetizing! None of us wanted them. We did eat some of the nuts though, peeling way the soggy newspaper off them. I can’t imagine that we actually did that when I think back!

Janani was such a good little sport. She was quite happy with the lovely world (albeit rather wet world) around her, singing her Barbie songs despite the cold and the long walk. She quite enjoyed herself and even the rocky pathway became an adventure where she had to find the best path and the places that didn’t seem to be too deep and to maintain her footing. She happily skipped from stone to stone her tiny little hand clasped in mine. The couple of times she lost her footing didn’t make her cry as I feared it would. She just held on and looked carefully for the next safe secure rock on which to place her foot.

We walked through more mountains, and through forest land. Through open prairies through which gushed little steams and where little lakes were now swollen with rain water. We walked through rocky terrain where the path was still rocky and hewn into pink streaky rock and then finally we came to World’s End!

Baker’s Falls

2008-04-28T14:46:00.000-07:00

Anton, being a veteran guide decided that it would be best if we made our way down to Bakers Falls first and then proceeded to World’s end, so that the walk would be downhill all the way. We met several people on their way back… UPHILL!! Most of them were almost crawling and looked so totally exhausted!

The sun was shining very brightly indeed when we set off and after a while we removed our jerseys and tied them around our waists. Fortunately I had taken my umbrella with me……. unfortunately, Hyacinth didn’t bring hers along, so we tried to shade ourselves from the burning hot sun as best we could and trudged along singing songs while we went, stopping occasionally to look around the beautiful hills, surrounded by mist, breath in the crisp cool mountain air and munch on lemon puffs, chocolate and jumbo peanuts.

Anton found our pace way too slow for him, so he marched along ahead of us, fortunately carrying the heavy water bottles with him. He would find a convenient rock to rest on until we caught up with him singing all kinds of pel kavi and hymns for us to join in. All in all, we made a very merry bunch indeed.

After about an hour of trekking, Janani gave a shout of alarm and pointed behind us….on turning around, we saw the mist swirling down off the mountain tops threatening to smother us in its white coldness.

Promptly we donned our jerseys again and kept walking until we came to the steep descent to Baker’s Fall. Luckily trees have been grown at hands reach down to the water fall. The descent is very steep indeed and we were all panting heavily by the time we reached the ramp leading to the observation point near the water fall. I got a picture of Hyacinth nearly hurtling downward, managing to maintain her balance by clutching at nearby tree trunks.

The water fall was in full volume and looked absolutely stunning!!!!

I just managed to get two photographs near the waterfall when the swirling mist broke into huge drops of rain which became a steady downpour in 2 minutes flat!

A Scenic Drive to Horton Plains

2008-04-28T14:29:00.000-07:00

We had decided to visit Horton Plains on our first day in Nuwara Eliya, so taking our breakfast of delicious chicken curry, seeni-sambol and bread we started our drive past a beautiful lake. We stopped to take a few pictures and were soon making friends with two dogs.. or at least Anton and I were making friends with the two dogs, while Hyacinth and Janani yelled at us to make them go away. We then drove on to a forest lodge overlooking the lake where we sat and had our breakfast. All the leftovers were handfed to the two dogs who followed the vehicle to the forest lodge.

The drive to the plains is an absolutely long and beautiful one… the road (admittedly in rather a bad state of repair) winds past the Ambewella Farm and up on to the plains round hairpin bends. The steep inclines left us gasping at the sheer beauty of the place, and a little bit of fear too in case Anton lost control of the vehicle and sent us down the precipice!

We reached the plains and found a lot of environmental protection laws in place. We were not permitted to carry any plastic with us on the trek to see the World’s End and Bakers Fall. They were so strict that they made us break open our packs of biscuits and peanuts and other snacks. They gave us newspaper in which to wrap our snacks up in and they thoroughly checked each bag we carried to make sure that no plastic bags or packing was carried in. Unfortunately they seemed to permit plastic bottles, and to my dismay I saw some plastic bottles dropped along the way on the plains.

Nuwara Eliya here we come!

2008-04-28T14:28:00.000-07:00

On the long weekend in April (11^th to the 14^th), Hyacinth invited me to join her family on a trip to Nuwara Eliya. Of course I was more than happy to!

So we set off happily on Friday morning looking forward to our long weekend trip to the hill country. Janani kept bouncing up and down excitedly in her seat thrilled to bits with everything she saw. We giggled and laughed all the way to Nuwara Eliya.

We stopped on the way to visit an old elephant with probably the longest tusks in Sri Lanka. I was rather sad because the poor elephant looked gaunt, underfed, ill and unhappy.

We had a picnic lunch on the roadside. Anton put a mat on the grass for the three ladies while he sat on the baby chair. When we got up I found that I had parked my cream clad butt on vegetable matter making a nice brown patch to match my cream trouser yuck!!!!

We were to stay at the beautiful bungalow ‘Highlands’ lent to us by Dinush. What a welcome sight it was after a long drive from Colombo to chilly Nuwara Eliya! The house was a lovely old fashioned one with beautiful antique furniture and, we discovered to our pleasure the next morning, with a well tended garden in full bloom!

Nino Lindo eres tu Me Dios - (Lovely Baby You Are my God)

2007-12-29T13:02:00.000-08:00

This was the name of the carol service presented by the Choir of St Peter’s College on the 15^th of December 2007.

One of the last SLAAPS meetings that I would attend was held at the Galle Face Hotel on that day and after the meeting, Lorna coaxed Claudette, Iyne and me to join her for the carol service. Ravini was taking part. Iyne had brought along her new vehicle so we drove in comfort to St Peters and soon found ourselves good seats. The hall was beautifully decked in silver and blue and all the choristers of the schools taking part had on lovely outfits.

For me St Peters college was outstanding and so was holy Family Convent choirs. St Peter’s in my opinion, needs a bit more training.

It was a beautiful service though, with lovely, piercingly beautiful voices. The finale was an all choir effort at ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas; during which a few of the junior choristers appeared amongst the audience carrying little baskets lined with coloured paper and carrying gaily wrapped Christmas cake for the entire audience– what a lovely finale!

FIRE DRILL AT THE WTC

2007-09-21T03:18:00.000-07:00

At 3.00 p.m. the fire alarm went off and there was no panic! Uuh????? Yeah yeah.. it was just a fire drill and everyone was ‘oh so cool’ about it. I thought it may be a good idea to participate, and refresh my memory as to where outside the building the emergency stairs would lead us to.

The security personnel came to find out how many of us would be doing the drill. I buckled on my sandals and went bravely to the stairs. I think there about 300 steps down at the end of which my poor legs were actually trembling! Help!!

There were just two guys in the stairwell and we all walked down in quite a leisurely manner. I wonder how things will be when an entire building full of panic stricken people are running down those narrow steps pel mel!

Chandana's Wedding Pictures

2007-09-17T02:44:00.000-07:00

Chandana got married on the 16^th of August and just returned after 21 days leave.
I could’nt go unfortunately, because the wedding was held in Nuwara Eliya though of course I would have loved to. Here are some of their wedding pictures that he emailed to me.

The Book Fair Again!

2007-09-17T02:17:00.000-07:00

Yes, the bug had bitten, and bitten badly. Gone were the sensible thoughts of ‘but where would we KEEP all these new books??” We were impatient to go on another browsing and buying spree. This time, mummy joined us too.

So off the fair we went again. We got there around 3.00 p.m. and finished up at 9.00 p.m.!!! Of course this time around we managed to go through almost all the stalls.

Waaaay up on the third floor, undiscovered (I fondly hoped) until I got there was a personal collection of books …. Or perhaps I should say a treasury of books. True enough they were second hand and old! One could tell that the books been read many a time, many of them were lovingly covered in brown paper. What a super collection! I bought 18 books from the lady there and am now looking forward to a lovely read over the next month or so. I HAD kept to my decision not to buy any novels. I managed to get hold of some good cookery books to help me along with my venture into the world of cooking too.

Luckily there were ample stalls ensuring that there was food for the body as well as the mind and soul! There were stalls by Mt Lavinia Hotel, Keells, Elephant House, Pizza Hut, Coca Cola, Maggie and and loads of others, very reasonably priced all ensuring that no one went hungry. We had two lovely meals sitting on the ledges around the BMICH fanned by the breezes that played through the well manicured lawns and trees.

Sri Lanka IS full of book lovers judging from the crowds that thronged the halls.

We took a loaded trishaw home that evening, our feet aching but so very happy with our day spent among such a vast treasury of books.

Book Fair at the BMICH - 14thSeptember 2007

2007-09-17T02:16:00.001-07:00

Both Hyacinth and my sister Sunethra had been telling me several times that they wanted to go see the book fair. I, as a general rule try to avoid places where books are available in abundance because we have now run out of space to keep all our books at home and our newer acquisitions now reside in large cardboard boxes in the middle of the room! Yes… I know… sounds horrible doesn’t it…… especially when one has to dance around them just to get to and from the bed or wardrobe!

Anyway…… I must admit it didn’t take much persuasion to get me interested I’m afraid, and so I agreed to go. Hyacinth and I agreed to meet up at the closest bus point, Sunethra was to meet us at the BMICH itself, and Anton, Hyacinth’s husband was supposed to meet up with us at Borella along with their little girl Janani. Gerard, opted to join us too after hearing all our intricate meeting plans. The bus ride was hilarious and alive with our plans on what to buy (and what NOT to buy).

The place was CROWDED!!!!!!!!! Thank goodness Sunethra’s friend had advised us to start off at the smaller venue which housed the English books and therefore had a little less of a crowd. There were literally hundreds of stalls and we didn’t even manage to see half the stalls by 9.00p.m. Hyacinth was on a major hunt for kiddie books of which there were sooo many to choose from it was daunting! Gerard disappeared to find his particular brand of book while Sunethra and I went around like children in a sweet shop not knowing when not to give into temptation. Most of the places offered discounts…. ranging from a measly 5% off the marked price to a whopping 50%! Gunasena Bookshop was one such place and I managed to get some super books from there. Unfortunately it was nearly 9.00 p.m and we found the place and had to hurry out … but I was determined to visit again on Saturday. When we parted ways….. Gerard had not only ran out of money, he actually had to borrow from me, and then decided to leave looking pretty much like a weight lifter carrying such large bags of books.

Janani threw a temper tantrum when her mother was only able to get her Harry Potter series 1, 2, 3 and 5. She stamped her little feet, threw her water bottle creating puddles in the stall and sobbed heartrendingly when she found out they didn’t have No. 4! Only her mother hustling her outside and feeding her and then buying her an unbelievable number of paints and boxes of glitter appeased her!

We finally decided to call it a day ….. not that we had much choice cos the place was closing up! We located Anton who had been enjoying a dinner of noodles, ice-cream and a drink AND listening to an orchestra. He had driven in his truck, so we all bundled into the back of the truck and had a bumpy happy little ride home….. exhausted but oh so happy with our purchases.

Lure of the Falcon by Sue Peters

2007-05-24T01:27:00.002-07:00

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

2007-05-24T01:27:00.001-07:00

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.

2007-05-15T03:32:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-14T04:19:00.000-07:00

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

2007-05-14T03:10:00.000-07:00

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.

“Be Bold in Gold “

2007-04-26T03:29:00.000-07:00

That was the theme of the Secretaries Evening celebrating the International Administrative Professionals Week on the 25^th of April 2007 held at the Galle Face Hotel. The theme was Ruveena’s idea and soon everyone was enthusiasitcally caught up with the idea. Our invitations were on gold coloured conquorer board printed in black and enclosed in black envelopes.

The hall was decorated with black and gold helium filled balloons. The tables were covered with black table clothes while white roses with candles sat in the middle of each table along with the programme printed in gold and tied with black ribbon and a package of ten ferror roche chocolates all tied up in gold net. The chair covers were in black with gold sashes on them and the participants all came beautifully dressed in black and gold.

The evening started off with the launch of the SLAAPS website www.slaapsoneline.com! All the past presidents were requested to come forward where Ruveena had got a laptop with the projector and screen all set up, and everyone participated in opening the first pages of the website. There were 10 past presidents to launch the website and to cut the huge cake in celebration. Another milestone in the SLAAPS calendar…

It was a nice evening with DJ music (even the DJ was in black and gold). Every member was greeted at the door with a bag of goodies and a gold sash. What fun we had watching how innovative the ladies got with where they wanted to tie the sashes. They were used as Alice bands, tied turban style, big bows made and pinned on sarees, tied on wrists or ankles and thighs and around the throats.

There were the games Fly to your ASA Destination, and the Numbers Games, the Baila Competition and lots of little surprises and of course as always quite a bit of dancing. Even the huge thunder storm that raged outside didn’t deter the invitees who know that SLAAPS always puts on a good show… and I’m sure that everyone who came was very glad they did!

Spring Cleaning

2007-04-26T03:07:00.000-07:00

Got a bit of a break because of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year and Sunethra and I decided to make the break count. Casting a look around our house that generally resembles a disaster zone, we thought we’ll give the kitchen a good clean up, especially since of late we’ve heard the squeaks of baby mice around there.

So Friday morning saw us busily cleaning away. How ever many articles I may read on clutter control, organizing your home and such stuff, it never quite seems to apply to us. There are loads… and I mean loooaaads of things that have gotten collected in every nook and cranny which on examination can’t be thrown away because… they were weddings gifts my parents had got. Yeah they are cracked and chipped and tarnished and grubby… but well… they were wedding presents and have lived with us for so long that no one dares to get rid of them…. Immediately springs to mind crockery (mostly mismatched, cracked, some with their handles off and so on but supposed to be something like Johnsons??? or something, cutlery (BONE handled!!!!) and so on. They can’t be thrown away due to sentimental value (the person who gave it has since died and gone to Heaven), because my mom wants them (there is no logical purpose for them… but hey … she wants them) and things that we can’t throw away, we can’t do garage sales, we don’t know anyone else who would want them.

So there we find old teapots … yup many of them, and stacks of saucers (where are the cups to them??) soup plates and bottles of various shapes sizes and hues. Among all of this we find jam jars, ice-cream and other plastic containers, sili sili bags, brown paper bags, cardboard……….. gosh the list is endless and we ended up with huge garbage bags filled to the brim and taking up quite a bit of space themselves.

My mom was getting quite jittery when I lay my calculating eyes on two huge monstrosities that squat in the kitchen. One is this large waist sized cupboard which holds the stores (yeah we found bottles of jam, sauces, honey, wine (I didn’t mind finding those) and packs of food like noodles and jelly and flour and cake ingredients well past their expiry dates – yuck! Its an absolute eye-sore (I’m still talking about the cupboard here) because its large and hulking and despite holding lots of stuff also has a large number of mouse-sized holes in them which allows the rats easy access to the cavernous interior. No one really clears it often other than opening it to get at stuff in the front of the cupboard.

That…. decided Sunethra and I… must go! We even decided that it could be donated to the nearby bakery for their fires. Though how to set about it ??? and how to persuade my mom to part with this treasure that can hold all the above stuff ??? and worse yet…. Where to put all the ‘stuff’ if we get rid of the holdall??

The other bit of furniture that I feel needs to ‘go’ is an olden days ‘whatnot’ made of some good wood I’m sure, but one drawer is missing, the handle off the other drawer is gone while the bottom of the little cupboard thing also dips down to the floor. Well.. it probably looked great many, many, years ago. Perhaps its some type of antique… but who on earth will got through the trouble of cleaning and polishing it up? I would give away in a flash ………. but it belongs to my dad sigh!

Even the fridge got a good clearing out. What a load of stuff we discovered in there too…. Kinda like a treasure hunt…. Chocolate, marzipan, jars of cherries, sweets, …. Loads of stuff.

Might try doing a similar spring clean to our room the next time around !

Fern Green Paint

2007-04-26T02:52:00.000-07:00

Since we had’nt given the hall a paint this Christmas, we decided to do so at least for Easter. So on Easter Eve, Sunethra and Uncle George (I was more or less stuck with the SLAAPS Magazine) with a bit of my help, hauled out the furniture from the hall and gave the hall a coat of paint in a lovely minty green. I must say the hall looked really nice on Easter Sunday. Even the effort we made to remove all the books from the book cupboard and the writing desk before moving them away from the walls, and then putting them all back again was worth it.

A Shining Example from a Buddhist Monk

2007-04-11T04:07:00.000-07:00

Have you been on a bus and had to give up your seat to a healthy young Buddhist priest? Sometimes one who has not even shaved his head? Well, I have. More times than I care to count. I do so gladly…. especially since the seat in front is reserved for the Buddhist clergy. Sometimes though, I must shamefully admit, I do so rather resentfully, given that our 175 bus route is about the worst, most crowded route in the world. You long for a seat and you finally get it, and then ……… quicker than a flash of yellow …….. you are deprived of your coveted seat. Even when you immediately rise to your feet and give up your seat it would be taken without the least acknowledgement of thanks.

Many is the time that I’ve seen an old archchi tremblingly getting up from her seat in the front to make way for a strapping Buddhist priest who would arrogantly and most times impatiently wait for her to move so that he can claim his rightful seat. I also seen heavily pregnant ladies and mothers with babies and little children willingly giving up their seats. Anyway…….. the reason why I started writing this was because about two weeks ago, I had the great fortune to come across a Buddhist priest who restored my faith in their kind (or at least some of them).

It happened once again in our crowded 175 bus. I was seated in the front seat along with a mother and her child. And in Rajagiriya in gets a Priest. Of course immediately the mom and I both got to our feet to give him his seat. When he saw us, he said "na, na ohoma inna", and forcefully motioned us sit down again and proceeded to take a seat on the opposite side that a gentleman offered. That was sooooooo nice!!! It quite made my day! Here was one priest who practiced ‘karunawa’ and ‘maityriya. My hats off to him and others of his ilk! Of course

I WAS feeling rather uncomfortable sitting in his place while he sat in the ‘common mortal’s’ seat. But he smiled and made a ‘stay’ motion with his hands several times when I tried to move. His shining example of humility made him (in my eyes) a GREAT man of his vocation. Yessssss I’m glad of that fleeting meeting!!!

Strike a Chord of DISCORD!!

2007-03-23T02:26:00.000-07:00

This was a much publicized event in the newspapers and Priyanthi called and said that she had tickets. Gypsies, Noeline Honter, Mariazelle Goonetilleke, Luke Henricus, Natasha and a host of other well known names were up on the boards. When I heard that the Gypsies were going to be playing OF COURSE I wanted tickets.

Our start off boded ill if one believes in such things. Just as we were getting off near the college premises it POURED buckets of rain…. Yup, no gentle shower …. but a full flood of rain. The Heavens opened up and emptied a deluge of waters (in protest perhaps?). Maybe that should have warned us what this ‘gospel music session’ was going to be like. Anyway we scurried into the college premises getting soaked with the added help of motorists going to the same venue racing past drenching us with sheets of muddy water. The entrance of the auditorium was bustling with people trying to get in …. and help!! Did I see right ??? Trying to get out??? BEFORE the concert?? Yikes!

Anyways, the ‘organizers’ seemed a totally disorganized bunch to start off with. So it was no wonder that the paying guests seemed bewildered and stood like a sodden flock of sheep at the entrance hindering all and sundry.

A lady took our four tickets, painstakingly separated them, and proceeded to gently and excruciatingly slowly tear off a portion of each individual ticket while people surged past us threatening to unbalance our precarious perch midway up the steps to the auditorium.

We then walked inside just in time to be confronted by a highly painted buxom lady in tight black pants and a black sleeveless top who rudely informed us that they were barricading the balcony entry which was inside the auditorium and ordered us back out into the pouring rain to another entrance. Ah huh!! NOW we know why people were going out! If I had not paid good money for my tickets I would not have stopped until I reached home! Such was the goodwill and ‘bonhomie’ that prevailed in the chaos.

Anyways we found our way upto the balcony and settled down. Ten minutes later we see a stream of people climbing up to the balcony from INSIDE the auditorium. Humph?? The silly painted cow was busily doing nothing strutting along with a paper carrier bag slung on her forearm. I wonder who had a brainwave and decided to treat people like human beings instead of a barely tolerated form lowlife.

The concert scheduled for 7.00p.m. in a typical Sri Lankan way started a good 20 – 25 minutes late. The curtain rose. The backdrop looked good. The band looked good. The four lady singers who stood revealed by the rising curtain certainly looked good - Noeline and Natasha amongst them…. And then they opened their mouths to ‘sing’ HORRENDOUS!!!! The acoustics were horrible. They sounded like cats being strangled. Awful gurgling sounds erupted at deafening volume with no clear vocals distinguishable. We couldn’t tell what song they sang for goodness sakes!!!

What a pity! Superb singers like Mariazelle Goonetilleke and others of her ilk though still standing out from the rest, were not as good as usual. We couldn’t enjoy the music. The Gypsies came and did their thing in their imitable style and had the crowd clapping with enthusiasm. They are so talented. Unfortunately they left the stage after just two brief hymns ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ and ‘Why Me Lord’.

The ‘Revelations’ were also fabulous because they got the band to stop playing……. or rather …… making a dreadful cacophony …. and they harmonized. They practically brought the house down!

Still the organizers didn’t seem to get it … or chose not to ….. or perhaps (on a kindlier note from me) couldn’t do anything about it…. The sound system I mean. Methinks they could have adjusted it or toned down the sound a bit. But Nope. No such luck! Shenelle, Druvi, Pooba and Cosmic Rays were some of the others who sang along.

Of course we had fun too because the whole thing was being videoed and projected onto two large screens on either side of the stage. And every time a singer came onstage, there was this thin cameraman who would practically stand on the singer’s toes ….. (no I’m not kidding ……. he would hold the camera about four inches away from the singers face). He would twist himself into the most weird contortions to capture the singer’s side profile, pimples, wrinkles and best of all he would sink to the ground and get a ‘bottom up view’. I don’t think he was an overly talented camera person (though he WAS very amusing) because what was projected onto the screens from his camera didn’t flatter most people, especially those who had ample figures!

Natasha proceeded to sing two songs. She looked absolutely gorgeous …. but really… can she sing? Or was it the dreadful acoustics to be blamed again?

The final straw for us came when onto the stage walked Billy and his team Izra. They proceeded to make a mockery of music in my opinion. They pranced around the stage like mad drug addicts screaming into the mikes. A chubby girl in tight jeans and slippers yup.. slippers….. kept doing this obscene movement with her legs which was kinda off-putting, though perhaps guys enjoyed that.

Then one of the guys pulled off the band that held Bobby’s long hair together and he (Bobby I mean) proceeded to run amok on the stage making obscene hip movements while the other guy on electric guitar gyrated wildly in unison. They shook their hair all over the place (mostly onto the amusing (and now enraptured cameraman’s camera) gyrating madly. They forgot their audience. They forgot where they were. I think they only remembered the camera and the limelight.

They were loud, obscene, out of control, badly dressed and they made to my ears what sounded like devil music. I was obviously not the only one with that opinion because from our birds eye view on the balcony we saw a lot of people getting up and making their way out of the hall. The worst was that they played on and on and on and on.

When Luke Henricus who came on after them finished his stipulated (I think) two songs and we saw Bobby arming himself with a guitar AGAIN, we decided to give our throbbing heads a break and leave!

And I thought this was a gospel music concert. Seems like I was mistaken. Unbelievable!

Altogether, in my opinion, ‘Strike a Chord’ was badly organized, distasteful, put together mainly to collect money for the charity with no thought or planning going into what makes a good music show. It was an utter waste of our time and money.

Chocolates!!

2007-03-07T00:09:00.000-08:00

Someone was talking to me about chocolate just a few minutes ago and sent me into a moment of imagining all those delicious chocolates out there tempting me, especially now that the Lent Season is here. Luckily there were a few Ferrero Rocher chocolates lying around office to appease my longing, yet visions of Cadbury’s Turkish delight chocolate dance tantalizingly before my eyes. Sigh! Even the dinner mints and the chocolate coated hazelnuts my favorites, haunt me.

I must get another chocolate fix soon!!!

Baby Anthena Makes her Entrance to the World

2007-03-06T01:09:00.000-08:00

Jay’s brother and sister-in-law were blessed with a baby girl yesterday and of course there was all the heady excitement of a new baby coming into the world. Jay too was not unaffected regardless of his stoic ‘decision’?? not to have kids himself when he got married. Somehow I get the feeling he is gonna change his mind when he does. He was enthralled with the new baby commenting on the fact that the little face goes red when she cries and how happy his mom and the baby’s mom are. He was nervous, he declared, of holding the baby. He drew a picture of his mom and sis-in-law gazing enraptured at the baby lying in her little cot, and the Methinks he is gonna make one doting uncle!!

They have decided to name the little one Anthena which sounds a very exotic. I hope she will lead a charmed life as beautiful as her name.

Real Women Have Curves

2007-02-28T21:31:00.000-08:00

I was cleaning up my files on the computer and discovered quite a few of them that were intended to be blogs. So I decided to quickly add them in without further ado.

Real Women have Curves

That was the title of the movie we, i.e. my friends Tushara, Gillian and Chammi and I saw yesterday. It was about an 18 year old Spanish (?) ‘chubby’ girl living in USA facing cultural, economic and ‘body beautiful’ dilemmas.

It was nice and some parts of it were hilarious.

Her mother called her ‘fatty’ and was constantly finding fault with her. The ladies of the family were working in a factory which Ana calls the ‘sweat shop’. It is so hot inside because the sisters fear the using of fans would cause dust to settle on the dresses which they were turning out. At some point Ana snaps and takes off her blouse and then her jeans in spite of her mother’s horrified protests. She is defiantly joined by the rest of the ‘staff’ who then strip down to their underwear to compare sizes and cellulite.

St Anthony is hung upside down cos he has failed to produce a husband for the elder sister, while Baby Jesus is unceremoniously plucked out of St Anthony’s arms in the hope that being separated would grant the mothers wishes for a good husband for Ana.

Another hilarious part was where the mother fears that she is pregnant despite her age and the doctors prognosis - cos’ after all, a ‘woman knows these things’! She didn’t know too much about menopause tho! It was a really good movie holding quite a few giggles in it.

16^th March 2005 - yup that's right 2005!

Something’s Gotta Give

2006-05-31T01:59:00.000-07:00

Something’s Gotta Give
Starring Jack Nicholson, Diane Keaton and also Kanu Reeves.

Jay lent me the movie and I watched it at home along with mom and sis. Certain bits of it had us roaring with laughter though the portrayal of a very much older man with a lovely young woman did look rather iky. The story was about an old playboy Harry, his string of beautiful young girlfriends, an aversion to marriage and older women (or rather women his own age!).

During a romantic rendezvous with his latest girlfriend, Marin, he develops chest pains and winds up being nursed by Marin’s reluctant mother Erica, who is a playwright. The two older ones finally end up with each other, though the bit that I didn’t care too much for was that the young doctor who was attracted to Erica played by Keanu Reeves ends up getting hurt! But the ‘breaking up’ time when Erica howls from morn till dusk when Harry dumps her was classic. I also liked the bit where she has her revenge by writing the entire episode of her life into a play, down to the ‘dancing Henry’s with their bare bottoms and hospital wrappers.

Lord of the Rings

2005-11-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

Buddhika lent me the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and I took it home looking forward to an evening of enchantment. Imagine my utter disappointment when I loaded it onto the DVD player to find a stupid message about a regional error blah blah. Now I’ve got to run back to the dealers, Abans, to get it all sorted out before I can enjoy my movie sigh!

Chills n Thrills

2005-11-03T03:09:00.000-08:00

Oh lucky me! Waiting again in rather gloomy weather for the wonderfully woeful 175 bus when along comes my friend on her little bike. Fortunately since I was clad in pants, was able to hop on without the usual hiking up of teeny skirts :) Now the problem was that she had neglected to bring along an extra helmet. So we took all the byroads and little lanes in our quest to evade the eagle eye of any cops.

There was a sharp cold wind accompanying a heavy drizzle when we got home. A quick bath, a hot mug of cocoa and a quick hop into bed soon chased away the chills.

Teeny Skirts and Motorbikes

2005-11-02T03:13:00.000-08:00

Oh my…… there was I wearing this teeny little skirt when along comes my friend from the next office on her bike, offering me a lift home. Well, given that our bus route is THE most horrible one in entire Sri Lanka, I opted to accept her kind offer. Thank goodness she was wearing a shalwar. So I borrowed her shawl, draped it in the most ladylike manner across my knees, and soon we were off amidst the diesel fumes and dust on our way home! What a boon a motorbike is in heavy traffic. I was home in double quick time.

Rain Again

2005-09-21T14:30:00.000-07:00

Further snapshots I treasure of the rain was with my friends. Manel my best friend in school, Rosanna, Pamela and a few others would walk to the bus stop in the rain never bothering to open the umbrellas that some of us carried. We would sing along the way and Rosanna would even do an occasional wiggle of her bottom for emphasis of our songs. I don’t think we even noticed the strange looks we probably got from disapproving elders. All we knew was that we were with our friends, it was raining and we were enjoying our music, each others company and of course giggling away at the most inane things in the world. Everything was so hilarious; we would laugh till our tummies hurt.

Now come to think of it, the weather, the dust, the grime, the bus travel, the weirdoes in the buses, none of these seemed to be a bother. Everything was accepted as it was…… What a beautiful time of life adolescence is.

Hand-Picked Husband by Heather MacAllister

2005-09-21T02:53:00.000-07:00

Sunethra and I were walking past our old bookman’s pavement collection yesterday, and as usual stopped to browse. This book caught my eye and since I had a long bus ride ahead of me, I immediately pounced on it. It was a sweet old fashioned romance from the Mills & Boon Enchanted collection. I would recommend the book to anyone ….. Well any lady really, as I know most guys would probably gag and throw up rather than wade through ‘sweet romantic mush’.

Childhood Memories of Fun in the Rain

2005-09-21T02:24:00.000-07:00

I was speaking to one of my friends yesterday and it happened to be raining right about that time. That got us talking about rain and how mothers discourage their children from getting wet. Don’t go out in the rain… you will get sick, seemed to be a constant refrain, when all we wanted to do was to run out in the rain, jump in puddles and feel the rain on our faces.

I for one was very lucky. Looking back, my mom has been really cool. Not only did she allow us to bathe in the rain during a good shower, she actually joined us. The only caution was to wait for a bit until the rain washed the roof and the leaves of the trees clean before we went out.

Precious memories indeed are those where I remember my sis, my mom and I running outside splashing and laughing in the rain. The rain gushing down the gutters were ideal spots to get a freezing cold shower. Though the water was chilly we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Perhaps this was since we were in Colombo where catching a cold or pneumonia was relatively a distant possibility. After our rain bath, we would all have quick ‘proper’ baths, and then have hot mugs of something and all would be wonderful, warm and safe in our little worlds. I don’t think I ever realized or thanked my mom for understanding a child’s little pleasures in life.

SLAAPS Rendezvous 2005

2005-09-12T07:06:00.000-07:00

The SLAAPS Rendezvous Coffee morning was held on the 3^rd of September 2005 at the Galle Face Hotel from 9.00 a.m. The Chief Guest on the occasion was the Hon Mrs Shiranthi Rajapaksa. She looked lovely, as always, dressed in a beautiful yellow and mustard saree. She was welcomed at the entrance by the Committee and led into the hall to light the ‘human lamp’. The human lamp then got rid of their lamps and did a beautiful traditional dance keeping the audience enthralled with their supple sinuous movements.

Soon after that Indu Dharmasena and his team kept the audience in fits of laughter in a skit.

Krithies, a leading designer in salwars had a fashion show where their beautiful models displayed even more beautiful shalwars. The almost 100% female audience sighed with pleasure at the gorgeous costumes displayed. I think the 01% male audience probably sighed in pleasure as well J

There were more dances by the Miripanne dance troupe and also Kevin Nugera and his partner. Kevin does such a fantastic show, it’s a pity his partner was not as good as he was. The usual scenario during a Latin American dance spot is that every eye in on the girl. However, in this instance, most people would probably have been watching Kevin.

There was another fashion show by Hamedia’s done by Brian. His models wore a range of outfits from smart casual, western office attire and of course more shalwars. The office attire drew raucous comments and appreciation from the audience so short were the skirts, while one model seemed to have missed wearing a shirt or skinny inside a jacket. The audience roared its appreciation, not sparing the models blushes.

Faizal Bonzo as usual kept the audience going with his lively compering. The last on the show was Ronnie Leitch who disappointed me a bit by some off colour jokes. There was the usual baila which had the secretaries out of their seats and on the floor in minutes. Angela Seneviratna also added to the fun by dancing with the Thattaya.

I was so thrilled cos Udesh, his wife and his mom all won prizes in the raffle and entrance ticket draws. Udesh’s mom walked away with the first prize…. A return air ticket to Singapore!!! I was so thrilled for them, especially so, since all the winning tickets were bought from me!

My very first driving class!

2005-06-14T02:09:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, persuaded by my friend Kumari, I finally enrolled myself in a driving school….. and on Sunday I had my first lesson. Ekanayake was my instructor and a very kind man he was too. He patiently introduced me to the various ‘thingys’ I would need to use let me have a go at ‘driving’. Yup the vehicle actually moved with me at its ‘controls’!!!! What a thrill!

I quite often forgot that I needed to use the clutch when changing gears and most of the time forgot that my right foot was resting on the accelerator and not the brakes. Hopefully I’ll manage to get all of that sorted out. I’m quite pleased that I didn’t kill anyone or anything (yet). Seeing that I was on a large open ground with not even a lamp post to leap out at me, that’s not much to write home about, but still….. I’m pleased.

My next class is on Wednesday after work. Wonder whether I will remember anything by then.

The Feast of St Anthony on 13th of June

2005-06-14T01:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the feast of St Anthony. Our family, as usual, met up for lunch and then proceeded to the church by about 3.30 p.m. before the roads were closed to traffic to safeguard and make way for the thousands of people who make their way to the Kochchikade Church of St Anthony.

This annual feast draws crowds from all races and religions and from all walks of life. This is definitely a place where all differences are accepted. Everyone mingled within the church….. the poor, the rich the feeble and the healthy, young and old, all one in their love for this humble saint. The place was teeming with people and once the roads were closed all you could see, whichever way you looked, was a sea of heads waiting patiently for the procession to start at 5.30pm.

People were dressed up in all their finery. The Tamils were about the most colourful of all in their vibrantly coloured sarees edged in gold, wearing gold in their ears, noses around their throats and on their arms, exuding a sense of drama and excitement.

The pavements were full of vendors selling everything from food and drink to shoes, trinkets, pictures, little statuettes, hats and toys of all sorts. There were people giving out pictures of St Anthony, distributing buns, bread, food and drink all in the name of the Saint. An atmosphere of such celebration and good will prevailed that you felt you to could reach out and touch it.

We went into Church, said our prayers, lit some candles and then walked towards St Lucia’s Cathedral from where the statue of St Anthony, carried high upon a carriage of flowers starts its journey along a road lined by people and long, long strings of crackers.

In front of the carriage walked priests from various churches while the people flocked around the slowing moving vehicle throwing pori, flowers and garlands, many of them crying out their pleas to the Saint on his Feast Day in the absolute faith of receiving his blessings and protection.

Once the carriage arrives at the road leading to St Anthony’s church, naval offices in full regalia carry white thick ropes enclosing the carriage and the priests and slowly escort the statue through the throngs of people upto the church, where school bands, cultural dance troupes and religious dignitaries await. The carriage then joins this waiting procession to carry on with its journey along a designated path around the Kotahena area past thousands of people who wait to watch the colourful pageantry pass by.

Services provided by the Government Post Office located at the World Trade Centre, Colombo 1

2005-06-13T23:41:00.000-07:00

I just went to the post office on the ground floor of the World Trade Centre with Margi. It was 11.30 a.m. In case you wondering why I mention the time, do read on. Margi had 235 letters to be franked and posted off and she had driven all the way from Moratuwa to do this.

There was a lethargic looking lady who was at the counter. We were happy that apart from a couple of others, we were about the only customers in the post office at the time. When we told her we wanted our letters posted, she put them on a side and told us to come after 3.00 p.m. cos, it was a ‘busy time’ (the two other people at the registered post counter were already being served by the lady at that counter). She also came up with the gem that it was “lunch time” Help! Lunch at 11.30 a.m.!!! WONDERFUL isn’t it??? If we had come in at 10.00 a.m. it would have been tea time and after 3.00 p.m. the place would have been closed!

I looked around wildly looking for this huge impatient crowd behind me waiting to be served. Not seeing anyone there, I double checked with Margi, just in case I’m going blind in my old age. Nope… nary a soul (unless they were invisible). So I queried, very politely too, looking around very pointedly at the empty place, ‘busy time’? Lunch time? It’s 11.30 miss.

Margi meanwhile, equally pointedly looked towards the Post Master’s office. Now I don’t quite know whether he would have supported the lady or not, but seeing two very determined people in front of her, she surrendered and asked a peon whether he would do the franking for us, (forbid the thought of her actually soiling those hands by using the machine sitting right in front of her) The peon obliged…. …… it took all of about 3-4 minutes to do the job.

Thank goodness there are still a few people actually working in the government departments in return for the salary which they are paid!

DBU's Hats on Dance

2005-06-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, after quite a long time, I had an invitation out for the evening. Yes, my social life does seem to have dwindled! Anyway, I was looking forward to the evening tremendously especially since it was to be an evening with a difference. The DBU was having a ‘hats on dance evening’. I thought it sounded quite fun. So I had double the pleasure, one of anticipating the evening and then actually experiencing it. The Burghers do really know how to enjoy themselves, and I was so glad I was invited along.

Everyone came in hats of all shapes and sizes. My escort had on a cowboy hat and won the competition for the best hat in the gents category. He was an easy winner actually……. you don’t have too many kinds of hats for men. But for the ladies… oh my! The hats!

There were hats decorated with flowers, fruit, bows and ribbons and netting and everything in between. I’m sure the judges had a VERY hard time picking out a winner; So much so in fact that they picked three! The clear winner was this delicious pink concoction which the Queen of England would be proud to place on her head. The lady who wore it, carried it like a queen herself…..very impressive indeed. I later head that she is a frequent patron of the races in Nuwara Eliya (where fashion is at its peak during the season!). Lots of her friends had borrowed her beautiful hats for this occasion.

The music for dancing was also absolutely fantastic. They played loads of waltzes, Viennese waltzes, quick steps, jives and cha chas and rumbas and even a some of sambas and salsa’s. Lovely!

Apart from the dancing, they had a ‘Sexiest Leg Competition’. Yes. I did say leg (the one!). They got the grand dame who won the hat competition and another lady to do the judging of that one. All the gents came onto the floor, rolled up their right trouser leg and paraded around for the ladies. There were fat legs, skinny legs, hairy legs, legs in various shades and shoes. I really don’t know how they managed it, but the ladies picked a winner after quite a while of the gents waltzing away showing off their sexy ‘leg’. What fun we had with that competition!

All in all it was a lovely evening, with great company, good food, wine, music and dancing!

2005-05-29T23:28:00.000-07:00

More Flowers

2005-05-29T23:25:00.000-07:00

A riot of colour in Haggala Gardens

2005-05-27T23:11:00.000-07:00

The monkey and her little one

Roses

2005-05-27T23:00:00.001-07:00

Captured beauties

Haggala Gardens

2005-05-27T23:00:00.000-07:00

On Monday the 23^rd we decided to visit the Haggala Gardens. We planned on stopping off at Lake Gregory on the way back from the Gardens. Everyone else in Nuwara Eliya seemed to have had a similar idea. The road was a mass of traffic, while hundreds of vans and vehicles were parked along the roads. Just outside the garden gates were strings of little petti kade’s selling everything from water to food to soft-drinks to film-rolls and fruit and vegetables. Most of the stalls extended out onto the roads causing further chaos.

We stood in line and bought tickets – Rs.20/- for citizens and Rs.300/- for foreigners. I LOVE that… finally we get the idea! Every other country I’ve visited has similar differences in charges, and having forked out large amounts of money to see their sights, I think they should pay more to visit our beauty as well. After all, such lovely gardens do need tremendous upkeep.

The parks are beautifully laid out in a large acreage of land giving ample opportunity to stretch one’s legs (and them some!). We visited the rose gardens, the herbarium, the rock gardens, the hot houses or glass houses as they had called them, the seed collection (which disappointingly turned out to be some seeds in a glass case in a building which housed a canteen, with its garbage bins left in plain sight). We saw their little summer huts with their varied hued pointed roofs. We decided not to climb up the mountain side, having walked till our legs ached. They looked so great and majestic and for once untouched by buildings. Then my sister and daddy both went crazy at the plant sales outlet and loaded themselves up with plants!! Of course I too admit the plants are cheap there, but the thought of lugging them around gave me pause.

We sat down for a little ‘fruit’ break on a grassy slope beyond one of the summer huts and had the most unusual treat. We were soon surrounded by a group of monkeys probably attracted by the food. We were eating some Jambola and I gave some to a rather large patriarch of a monkey who had a broken leg. He was so tame, he took it from my fingers – gently too. I was lying down on the grass and he actually put his paws on my hips and leaned over to see what else I had to give. That gave me quite a scare!!! I had my camera and handbag lying just there and visions of the fellow running off with them gave me an unpleasant jolt. We took off from our interrupted break and found another large bunch of monkeys on the trees. There was even one with her baby. I managed to get a couple of pictures of her.

We also saw a pond in the shape of Sri Lanka, into which some morons had thrown plastic bags and bottles. Will our people never learn to leave beauty untouched??

Haggala Gardens is a BEAUTIFUL spot and a must see for anyone visiting Nuwara Eliya. The rose gardens alone are well worth the visit!

2005-05-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

A rose from the rose garden in Haggala Gardens. Check out the backdrop

Memories and Tales spun by Aunty Barbara and Uncle Roy

2005-05-26T23:17:00.000-07:00

We visited them this weekend. They were so happy to see us. Their beautiful home with the huge lace covered windows welcomed the morning sun and gave us a stunning view of their beautiful garden and the mountain ranges beyond. I remembered their home from my childhood when we used to visit Aunty Barbara’s parents, Aunty Meriam and Uncle Sam (Mathau). They were famous for always hosting parties and we were invited to many of them when we were in Nuwara Eliya on school holiday. Aunty Barbara is so like them with an open heart and home. We spent a couple of hours with them while they reminisced the good times they had when they were young and when Nuwara Eliya was much lovelier and more exclusive than it was now.

Aunty Barbara told us how they used to dress up and go dancing and then walk back in their high-heeled shoes and party-wear escorted by their gallants who were just that….. Gallant and Chivalrous; and how every little occasion, birthday, christening, graduation, first Holy Communion, whatever, turned out to be a party. Guests needed no invitations and the hostesses just catered to the numbers which would inevitably turn up.

The New Mayor of Nuwara Eliya had a number of compliments from Uncle Roy, who said that after a long time a Mayor is actually doing something for the town. They were proud of the white picket like fences marching along the park into town girded by the antique-like lamp posts. I felt that the fence would have been better pained in green rather than white….

Uncle Roy has green thumbs and Aunty Barbara is rightly very proud of their lovely garden. They had generously made up a huge bag of plants for Sunethra to carry home with her when she professed an interest in plants. They had roses of all hues, huge pansies, arum lilies, honey suckle, daisies, huge bouquets of hydrangea and so much more. To cap it all, a little apple tree which held wee red perfect apples stood guard by their back door.

We were invited to dinner the following night and had a lovely evening gathered around the dining table in gales of laughter with tales of the antics that Uncle Roy and Daddy used to get upto when they were young. A note of sadness that tinged the evening is that Uncle Roy had been diagnosed with cancer in the sinuses and has had several operations. He has another check up pending which he has been putting off from January this year. Uncle Roy still cuts a dashing figure, but is so much more slimmer with pain carved into his handsome face. Aunty Barbara on the other hand is a lively, lovely, warm motherly person whose instinct seems to nurture and nourish everything and everyone who comes her way. Their mantle-piece over the fireplace held a jumble of pictures of their family and their home, like ours, is open to their dogs who rush in and out of the house, regardless of mud and dirt, being very much part of the family.

Uncle Roy’s brother, Uncle Brian came to dinner too and had their dog smallie in raptures of delight. He is apparently her (the dog’s) favourite person outside immediate family. After dinner, coffee and long-long chats, we walked back to Unique View in the still cool night. What a lovely place Nuwara Eliya is.

2005-05-26T23:03:00.000-07:00

A better View of the Lake Gregory

2005-05-26T23:02:00.000-07:00

Lake Gregory with a sea-plane taking off

Changes in the beautiful town of Nuwara Eliya

2005-05-26T22:09:00.000-07:00

View of the Post-Office

Daddy said the Post Office in Nuwara Eliya seems to be about the only land mark building untouched by so called development. The township was teeming with van loads of people, especially young men behaving more like hoodlums who had never seen a woman in their lives. The shops seemed straight off the streets of Pettah. There were shops for sarees, gold jewellery, electronic equipment and loads more, bringing the hustle and bustle of Colombo right into Nuwara Eliya, all spewing out loud music in their efforts to drown out everything else.

There is this huge bus stand slap-bang in the middle of town, with its own cacophony of noise with bus conductors and vendors calling out at the top of their lungs, not to mention the droning of bus engines and blaring of horns. The double storied building housing rows of little shops is the view you get from what once used to be entrance of the park.

In my opinion, most people go to Nuwara Eliya to experience Nuwara Eliya, its untouched charm, tea estates and its lovely climate. We seem to have made the mistake of creating another Colombo there. The beautiful charm is now replaced by spanking new buildings, several stories high to accommodate the huge influx of people who come in flocks, flood the city, ruin the serene calm with their raucous noise and leave the township to deal with tons of polythene, garbage and diesel fumes with very little resources to clean it up with.

Trees have been chopped down and everyone seems to be falling over themselves in their hurry to make money by putting up large ugly flats painted in garish colours which certainly do NOT merge into the beauty of the hill country. Huge hoardings deface the very mountain sides. Instead of awesome rolling hills the view is marred by buildings and boards.

I don’t know whether it was just this weekend, but the Nuwara Eliya was actually HOT. The ‘little England’ atmosphere was certainly gone along with most of its quaint charm.

Air-Conditioned Inter-city Buses

2005-05-25T22:47:00.000-07:00

We decided to escape the unbearable heat of Colombo and visit Nuwara Eliya during the long Wesak weekend. So Saturday afternoon saw my Dad, Sis and I at the Pettah inter-city bus stand in a queue waiting for the bus. The scorching sun made us even more impatient to leave, though we had a long, long wait for the bus. The first bus left overloaded. We were the first in line for the next bus which was a Rosa air conditioned bus, all rigged out in dark red velvet curtains and tinted glasses. Having found seats in the little bus, we settled down. The conductor waited until take off and casually called out that the air-conditioner was weak and that no one was to grumble on the way. He also wanted five people to be seated in each row (including the middle ‘jump-seat) which normally accommodates four! He fortunately asked those not comfortable with the situation to get off the bus. I’ll bet he was chagrined when we took him at his word and promptly got off the bus which was already suffocatingly hot with all the sealed windows and the ac off. I guess most people just want to get on the way and not waste valuable hours in queues and would put up with all the discomfort it entails.

We waited in the burning sun which spilled into the bus stand for another while. There was this gang of boys all going to Nuwara Eliya as well, they soon made friends with my dad and in the almost forgotten chivalry carried our bags on board the next bus.

This inter-city semi-luxury bus left Colombo at 2.15 p.m. and once out of city limits stopped at almost every bus halt picking up standing passengers until the bus was labouring at walking pace. People who were seated, were uncomfortably crunched up, with other passengers hanging over them, leaning into them, elbows knocking their heads every little while.

The driver spent quite a lot of his time on the mobile phone and driving at snails-pace, while the radio or cassette player belted out music at top volume. Protests didn’t even reach the driver, whose one ear was occupied with the phone and the other tuned into the radio. We finally reached our destination at 11.30 in the night! It took us 9.5 hours to get to Nuwara Eliya. Unbelievable!

This is our bus ‘service’. Our people by nature are so passive that they don’t even grumble; they just bear up. One person said that he was scared he may be asked to get off the bus if he so much as uttered a word. And I can well believe it too. Even if one person raised his voice in protest, it would be a lone voice with no support from all the other passengers who pretend they are mentally (retarded?) not present in the situation.

We were lucky once we got off the bus to feel the cool climes reach out and enfold us in its misty embrace soothing our travel weary souls. A trishaw quickly carried us to our destination on Unique View. We promptly had bathes…. and freezing cold water bathes at that, to wash away the grime of travel and tumbled into bed. What a journey!

Rain at last!

2005-05-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

It was such a sweet relief to finally welcome the rains after the hot, muggy days we sweltered through the last couple of months. I for one have no complaints whatsoever about it raining so hard that you can hardly see ahead of you for the sheer driving force of water bucketing down to drench and refresh the thirsty earth.

I love the way the earth smells after a good shower and the way the trees and foliage are washed clean and bright after months of being covered in a thick film of dust. I wouldn’t be surprised if children thought the leaves of trees were permanently brown rather than green these last few months….. I began to think so myself!

A couple of weeks ago, I was on my way home from class, on a bike with Chandana, and we got caught to such a ‘storm’ and the two of us got soaked right through. Poor Chandana’s ID had got washed right out and his wallet was soggy and beyond redemption. Fortunately we had the foresight to wrap our mobile phones in a polythene bag and they were safe. But in spite of the minor discomfort and of course the washed out ID and soggy wallet, I enjoyed that ride in the rain. Sheltering seemed useless with the gusting winds, and an umbrella was certainly no help!! Plus the rain did not seem to be in a hurry to cease either. So we decided to enjoy our impromptu bathe and wend our way home. There was a pagan kind of thrill in feeling the chill wind lashing through your hair and the chilled needles of water stinging your cheeks, while the wheels of the bike churned out a veritable fountain of water on either side of us as we ploughed our way through the swirling waters gushing on the roads.

We passed the Beira Lake and gazed fascinated at the misted view of the new pergola across the bridge where we could see people huddled together watching the trees bending with the force of the wind and usually calm waters of the lake whipped to waves of frenzy.

I was soon home, and after a quick shower, warmly wrapped up with a hot mug of cocoa in my hands….. everything was just right in my world!

Of chocolate fixes

2005-03-15T16:00:00.000-08:00

Marguerite, my friend, was in office a little while ago, and the two of us took a few moments to visit P&S and have a delicious éclair oozing with cream and smothered with dark chocolate washed down with iced coffee before heading back to our respective offices.

I get back to my seat and guess what???? Dinesh has felt that he needed a chocolate fix as well (probably after my rapturous description of some melted Cadbury’s Turkish delight chocolate) and bought éclairs for everyone in office. Oh heaven!!

Presents

2005-03-11T15:30:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago a friend of mine received a parcel and experienced one of my most favourite things. PRESENTS! Don’t we all love them? I just adore delving into gifts and unexpected gifts really do make one’s day. They may come done up in plain brown paper, newspaper (one of my friends did that to me once) swathed in tissue or gift-wrapped and tied up with lots of ribbon… but they all create that feeling of pleasurable expectancy and sheer joy.

On my birthday in January this year, one of my friends, who had just returned from abroad, walked in to my office with this huge grin and a gaily wrapped package. I hastily pulled off the wrapping paper and revealed a mysterious looking pouch. I touched it, shook it, felt it ……… yes I even sniffed it!!! ……. but just couldn’t guess what it was …. (not that it stopped me from making wild guesses anyway!) I do believe my friend found my reactions and suggestions vastly amusing. Anyway, finally, having exhausted a number of possibilities I opened up the little buttons on the pouch and there nestling within layers of tissue was the most exquisite strand of pearls with matching ear studs. As you may guess, that quite made my day and I walked on a pink cloud of happiness the entire day.

Yet another friend went out and got me this lovely t-shirt in my current favourite colour which was a perfect match for a pair of jeans I had recently bought. Hooraay.

And my friend Tushara knowing my yen for nail polish got me several shades of nail polish and a half dozen colours of lipstick as well, while my little friend Melina took upon herself the enormous project of making me a birthday card.

Dance Aid- in aid of the tsunami victims

2005-03-10T17:00:00.000-08:00

On the 26^th of February this year the Sri Lanka Girl Guides Association presented ‘Dance Aid’ in aid of the Tsunami Victims. Contrary to the misconception that there might not be a demand for tickets, my colleague Raomal was pleasantly surprised to find that he actually ran short of tickets.

Meanwhile, some of my friends who decided to see if they could get tickets at the gate were turned away disappointed. It show was a sellout!

I went along with my sister and a friend and we had a wonderful evening of entertainment. Sri Lanka does have loads of talent. We should certainly have more shows of this caliber. There were 20 dance items in all with a half hour break in between; with a mix of ballroom, Latin, eastern, street and techno dancing.

The ‘With my Feet’ troupe was absolutely WONDERFUL. The dance movements were fluid, confident, seemingly effortless and mesmerizing to say the least, while the costumes and the choreography were great. Antonio’s Dance Circle, El Latino and Dance World also participated, though With My Feet were the top of the charts for me. The hall resounded with the thunderous applause after each of their acts. Well done all around. Well done indeed!

“Service” at the Deli Market – World Trade Centre, Colombo 1

2005-03-09T15:00:00.000-08:00

I had a luncheon date with a friend of mine today and since I work at the World Trade Centre, the most logical place to go on a working day would be to the Deli.

Having walked in, I got a friendly wave from the chef at the roast chicken counter (my current favourite stop) and steered straight to his counter, only to be stopped short by friend who said that I always seem to be having the chicken. Sigh.

O.k. so I checked out the options and decided to go along with the Chinese food. Sadly it was quite horrid and tasted a bit off or at least the chicken that I chose seemed ‘off’ anyway. There were no trays available so we had to make several trips, one to leave the food on a table, the next to collect the cutlery and finally another to get the drinks.

Having left most of the food untouched we then made our way to the dessert bar. Hmmmm prices are rising but sadly the service seems to be dropping equally steeply. A grim unsmiling girl took our orders and even walked away leaving us mid-sentence. We muse whether she gets to take the left-over ice-creams home at the end of the day, so “generous”??? are the servings at Rs.55/= per scoop.

Another trip back to the cutlery and horror of horrors…. no dessert spoons!!! No not a single, not even a table spoon in sight! Dear oh dear. Requests to the girl gained no response…. I’m serious… she could have been stone deaf. But help, the ice-cream’s melting. We finally located a manager who rescued us before we raised the bowls to our lips to sip the now melted ices. Oh dear. Quite a melting experience that turned out to be!

Oh the ridiculous prices of cinema tickets!

2005-03-04T12:32:00.000-08:00

I was at the Savoy Cinema in Wellawatte recently and was surprised that they charge Rs.225/= per ticket for their mini cinema hall. The hall itself I felt was rather narrow and claustrophobic… plus to make me ‘love’ it more, I nearly tripped on the teeny little steps in the most unexpected places. Quaint??? I think NOT. Stangely enough, the prices for the adjoining larger hall were lower....... economies of scale?

But seriously, isn’t Rs.225/= a ridiculous price to pay? You may as well BUY the movie (a VCD) at about half the price of one ticket and watch it as many times as you wish, with as many people as you wish and even lend it out to your friends…. That’s value for money!!

OK I admit the luxury of watching it on a large screen (in this case not quite so large) is lost………. But then again, at Rs.225/= per head for my entire family…. I think I’d rather go rent or buy the movie and even have money left over to order pizza for us all!

Ira Madiyama

2005-03-03T22:22:00.000-08:00

One of the WORST films I have seen in a very long time. It was boring and dreary and as far as I could see had no story line at all. They showed three separate potential story lines emphasizing incidents which made the viewer feel might have significance but ended up having no significance whatsoever. Take for instance the zooming in of a dog who seemed to be following the little Muslim boy wherever he went. That was it. No story or connection there. They showed the lady looking for her husband and the long weary journey she made to no avail, making the viewer, at least this particular viewer, feel as exhausted with the whole thing as she did……. and last of all, the guy who was on an eternal bus ride looking for his sister… once again no story line, no hook up whatsoever, and soooooooo darned slow moving too.

Worse still, other than the leading actress there was not a single good looking woman and certainly no good looking men. Films such as these are shown abroad giving the impression that the average Sri Lankan is ugly (after all the best MUST be the film stars and just look at them), lives (oops wrong word) drags out a boring, poverty stricken, uncouth, uncultured, miserable and utterly sad existence. Don’t throw the awards this film received at me either…….. I sometime wonder at the mystery of it all!

Perhaps this is a movie for the arty crowd who look at some paint thrown at a canvass, or even a blank canvass for that matter and see …….. I really don’t know what, not being one of these ‘privileged’ beings.

Neither am I at all surprised that the Savoy Cinema had just a handful of people watching the show, many whom were couples who were not interested in the show anyway. In the ladies room after the show, I heard some comments of other viewers, and let me tell you they were not complimentary to say the least.

If the Sri Lankan film makers are complaining that the cinema-going crowd is steadily decreasing and blaming television stations for it, they would do well to look at what crap they shoot for the discerning movie-goers. OF COURSE television is miles better.

‘Mujhse Shaadi Karogi’

2005-02-22T01:44:00.000-08:00

I went to see a Hindi movie after absolutely ages. It was called ‘Mujhse Shaadi Karogi’ (no.... I don't have a clue what it means). The actors and actresses were all good looking, wearing lovely outfits, there was romance, lots of laughter, a hint of sadness, and a tinge of ‘how dare he, the scoundrel’ kind of feeling. I guess it was the usual kind the eternal triangle story. One girl with two guys vying for her favour, one always and I mean ALWAYS doing the wrong thing - generally hurting his future father-in-law pretty seriously (yes physically….. accidentally…) and the other the smooth, suave kind of guy… who turns out to be quite a surprise in the end.

My friend Sushilla and I had a marvelous time. We first met up for lunch at the Deli with loads of girl-talk and then took off to see the movie. Great company, good food and a good movie……. made up to a very good day indeed!

Words

2005-02-18T01:46:00.000-08:00

Words……… it keeps striking me over and over again how important words are. I’m one of those people who reacts fast without much thought to what I say, and I ALWAYS manage to say the wrong thing! Trust me… I always do …. I’ve hurt many of my friends (who thank goodness have remained friends with me) by saying the first thing that popped into my head. The worst thing being that sometimes, I don’t even mean the things I say. (I know … I know… why say it then!)

I’ve read the famous email going around about the little boy who hammered nails into a fence for all the mean things he said, and took them out when he said he was sorry but found that the wounds remained. That’s true.. (the part where the wounds remain I mean)..if only I can remember that when I have to!!!!

Today I was at the receiving end of something like that. I know there was no conscious thought to hurt, but hurt it did. I happened to ask my boss whether I could take the laptop home, he said I could……… but to check with the others first giving me the (accurate?? acute??? cute??) impression that I could have it only if no one else in office wanted it first. What do you think that made me feel like? Significantly insignificant… that’s what!

So here’s a little note to myself…. think (at least try to) before you speak. You could be hurting someone needlessly.

I was adopted yesterday

2005-01-27T20:45:00.000-08:00

On my way home from work yesterday, I saw this adorable little black puppy. She was happily following some person walking along the road, blissfully unaware of the traffic that could end her short little life. She suddenly noticed me, came over, got a little pat, and promptly curled up and went off to sleep with her tiny head resting trustfully on my foot. I was in a quandry. I certainly did not want to leave her there, and thoughts of my mother's displeasure and my dog Lassie's jealousy gave pause to my immediate impulse to take her home. Well...... it was just a 'paws' alright, cos having checked with a little 'petti-kade' nearby that nobody owned her. I picked her up and took her home. My sister was enthusiastic in her welcome, my mom, as expected, expressed her disapproval (and is continuing to do so in no uncertain terms). But right now she is safely (I hope) ensconced in our room with the door shut against Lassie who is probably waiting to munch up the new-comer as a mid-morning (or anytime) snack. There's this large bowl of milk left for her and I'm hoping that she wont somehow manage to drown herself in it!

2005-01-27T02:03:00.000-08:00

My Little Dusky

Wow!

2005-01-11T21:39:00.000-08:00

Wow!!!!! I just opened a blogspot and I'm thrilled to bits about it.