First May 2011


Beautiful, still, sunny spring morning. It is very quiet. It’s Rani’s birthday. We sip coffee in bed as Rani opens her birthday cards and reads out the greetings. The telephone relays more greetings and good wishes. In the conservatory, the oleander is flowering. We have Mung bean Kiribath and black tea for breakfast and set…

Sri Lankan New Year In Leeds


A Sri Lankan New Year party was held in Leeds on Sunday. Over one hundred Sri Lankans and some of their British friends enjoyed traditional Sri Lankan festive fare, played ‘New Year Games’, sang and danced to Sri Lankan music late in to the night. This remarkable annual event was organised by a remarkable Sri…

Not Sour Grapes


Unwanted political meddling cost Sri Lanka the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup. Baffling team selection, atypical fielding lapses, strange bowling changes are some of the things that surprised viewers. The position of the captain and selectors has become untenable.

Jacqueson Grand Cru Avize 1995


On a warm, sunny spring day, I drank a bottle of old champagne with a dear friend. I have been feeling out of sorts for over a week and the Jacquesson Grand Cru Avize from the very good 1995 vintage was the perfect pick me up. It was one of several from a visit to…

Buying Champagne


I like to drink champagne mostly as an aperitif and some times with seafood and white fish. Chardonnay based wines from the Côtes des Blancs fit the bill very well. The big Champagne Houses in Reims and Epernay make excellent non-vintage blends and prestige cuvees using their vast and varied reserve wines. The good smaller…

Re-living Pamplona


Ever since I first read Ernest Hemingway‘s “Sun Also Rises” as a schoolboy, I have been fascinated by the July feria in Pamplona. I have been devoted to Hemingway and his writing since encountering the Nick Adam Stories.When I finally I got to Pamplona in 2005, it was only for a quick look and ‘running with…

Back to Reds


Back home in Yorkshire after ten weeks away in Sri Lanka eating mainly fish and drinking only beer and Black Label, I have been relishing the Reds – both meat and wine. Even wines I did not care for very much like Rockford’s Moppa Hills 1999 tasted pretty good. Pontet-Canet 2002 was sublime. A bottle…

“Jungle Beach” of Rumassala


Rumassala Hill near the southern Sri Lankan city of Galle is well known for exotic plant life and the Japanese Peace Pagoda. It also has a splendid, isolated beach the locals call the Jungle Beach. A foot path from the Peace Pagoda takes you down through dense vegetation to the small, sheltered sandy beach facing…

Street Art and Biriyani


Kala Pola, a street art market, is held on Green Path in Colombo every Sunday. The street is packed with stalls selling works of unknown or little known Sri Lankan artists. Some are remarkably good. Paintings cost between Rs.4000 and Rs.30,000. There is a little stall at the Kala Pola where two women make Kavum…