A MARSH BECOMES A BIODIVERSITY CENTRE Kotte Marsh, situated just outside Colombo has always been a good spot for an evening walk watching waders and the odd nesting Paradise Flycatcher. At one time, there were plans to drain it and build a housing complex. There was an uproar from nature lovers. It is now being…
LUMPRICE Lump rice is a Dutch Burger delicacy popular in Sri Lanka (The Dutch ruled Sri Lanka from 1640 until 1796). The dish consists of rice cooked in meat stock and served with chicken curry, Frikkadels, Brinjal (Egg fruit)) paella, Chilli & Onion sambol, Prawn blachang, Ash Plantain fries and a full boiled egg fried in coconut oil –…
CRAB CURRY & PLANTAINS The local fishmonger has fresh sea crabs on Sundays. They make wonderful crab curry to be eaten with red Basmathi rice and washed down with Tanqueray and tonic. Fresh king coconut water is another great thirst quencher, isotonic and rich in potassium. Bananas here are called plantains. They are relatively small…
I flew to Sri Lanka in search of warmth and sunshine and for a break from the British winter. A new president was elected and the Pope arrived in Colombo to canonise the first Sri Lankan saint. Harrogate was covered in fresh snow the day I braved the M62 to Manchester. Traffic was horrid and…
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,100 times in 2014. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people. Click here…
My Top Three Christmas Presents Tickets to the Santana Concert at the O2 in June Tickets to the Birmingham Ashes Test Match in July Invitation to Lunch at York Arms Christmas Breakfast Renu and Nick cooked the late morning breakfast at Wray Crescent. We ate Nick’s home-baked granola with blue berries and yoghurt, smoked salmon…
This year we spent Christmas with the family in London. The drive from Harrogate was eventful with the alternator in the car failing 30 mts. in to the journey forcing us to return home to get a courtesy car from Stratstones – the BMW agents in town. Then manual BMW X1 was an unused to…
Buying A Guitar In Granada On Tuesday morning we went to Granada to buy a flamenco guitar. We took the scenic route from El Canuelo through the Zafarraya Pass to Granada and lost our way only thrice. Lisa de Granada Lisa was waiting for us on Paseo de Bomba. She is an American who has…
I took the early morning flight to Malaga. Nick and Renu met me at the airport. We drank coffee, added my name to the list of authorised drivers of the rented car and drove to Torre de Mar. At La Mata on the Autovia de Mediterraneo we turned right and headed towards Torre de Mar.…
My daughter wrote from El Canuelo, near Periana, in the hills above Malaga. “Just waking up from a lovely deep sleep and from my bed I can see the pinky orange of the morning horizon, stretching over the blue and sleepy valley. Not yet fully light at 8 o’ clock. No sound apart from a few birds…
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