It is hot and humid in Colombo but frangipani is in bloom. The crabs I got from the fabulous wholesale market yesterday was cooked for Sunday lunch and the red mullet will be baked for supper. Earlier in the week I attended an almsgiving and a street art festival and went to my first ever wine…
(Three Months In Sri Lanka – Week 7) Who Cares? The other day I had dinner with a well to do Colombo businessman at the Royal Colombo Golf Club. “I am a member of all the clubs in the City” he boasted as we sipped Rockland gin and tucked in to Black Pork. “Colombo has…
Kinross Club & Monkeys of Westbury I had an overdose of public holidays this week. Tuesday and Wednesday were public holidays and most took Monday off as well. After a sluggish Thursday and Friday, we were on to the weekend again. Tuesday was Thai Pongal – the Tamil Harvest Festival and Wednesday – Poya Full Moon Day. I…
Poison On A Plate The first week of 2014 started with a few headaches. The cook went off sick, the fishmonger went on holiday, the car broke down, drains next door got blocked and flooded my back garden and the heat became intense. The only silver lining was the first sight of a Glossy Ibis…
Mount Lavinia The gleaming white Victorian mansion stands on the hillside above the sea. It has stood there for over 200 years. Sir Thomas Maitland, the British Colonial Governor of Ceylon, as the island was called then, built the mansion in 1806 as his personal residence just outside Colombo. He fell in love with a…
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,400 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 40 trips to carry that many people. Click here to see the…
Christmas I spent Christmas on the beach. Negambo used to be a sleepy fishing village. Now, Beach Side is studded with tourist hotels, some good and many seedy. It is also the stronghold of Sri Lankan Drug Barons. I drove to The Beach Christmas morning with Renu and Nick who fled the London cold and arrived…
Full Moon Day Monday was Full Moon Day. It is a public holiday in Sri Lanka and a holy day for Sri Lankan Buddhists. Many spend the day in temples, clad in white, meditating and taking part in religious ceremonies. Alcohol is not sold and it is possible that fewer murders, rapes and other acts…
Fleeing Winter Yorkshire was cold, wet and miserable and the approaching winter looked threatening. I wanted to be in a warmer, exotic place where the sun would warm my tired bones. So, one freezing December morning I took a taxi to Manchester airport and flew to Sri Lanka. The Emirates Airbus 380 was a joy…
The thirty year civil war in Sri Lanka ended in May 2009. The most potent weapon of the LTTE or Tamil Tigers was the suicide bomber. Since the war ended it has been possible to visit the former LTTE controlled areas in the north of the country and the LTTE bases in the Wanni jungle…
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