Yesterday morning, Míša and I went shopping and it really struck me how much he is growing in to a young man. In physical terms, the top of his head is now level with my eyes vs my chin seemingly only yesterday. It won’t be long before I am looking up to him.
He was happy to pose with two happy Tuk Tuk drivers who wanted a photo with him – as too the Lance Corporal of the Sri Lanka Civil Defence Force who saw what was going on and came over to ask for a photo too!
Steve
Rainfall in Sri Lanka originates from three primary sources; convection, frontal depression and monsoon, the latter arising from a combination of the sun\’s heat and the Earth\’s rotation creating a band of easterly winds at 30 degrees north and south latitude. Although these winds blow all year, they change direction with the seasons and this shift is what causes monsoons. In Colombo we would expect it to be pretty dry from the end of the monsoon season in September, but instead we have still had plenty of rain, often of epic proportions. With one exception, the past week has been better, with the rain both lighter and shorter in duration.
The exception was Wednesday when at 3pm – fully three hours before sunset – we were suddenly aware that outside had gone completely dark like a cloudy winter night. Pitch black. It was then that we realised that on the 20th floor of an office building, we were actually inside the cloud! We could just about make out vehicle headlight beams in the street below. When the cloud lifted ten minutes of so later, the street was a river and the adjacent cricket pitch a swimming pool. Goodness knows how much water fell in that short period of time.
Last Sunday, we had lovely hues across the inland part of the city just before the sun set – and a rainbow that I couldn\’t fully photograph as I couldn\’t see any further to the left. Look to the horizon though and you will see the rain rolling in!
Steve
Uber Eats is the prevalent takeaway delivery service in Colombo but I\’m fortunate not to need it. Working very late in the office last night on one of my scheduled late days each week, Rennie kindly walked through the rain to bring me piping hot dinner insulated in a thick beach towel to keep it that way. A lovely treat and a lovely dinner from a lovely wife.
Steve
Dust is omnipresent from the construction site that is Colombo, Rennie cleaning the polished stone floor of our home at least twice a day and all hard surfaces similarly; as quickly as she\’s finished, it is dusty again. Add gridlocked rush hour traffic pumping out particulates and nitrogen oxide that reacts with the intense sunlight to become ozone and ultrafine particles, and this 07:15am cityscape is unfortunately normal. For all the beauty out of the city, the polluted air within it is horrid at peak times.
With no mass transit network today beyond crowded buses sharing the same crowded streets as everything else, the Colombo Light Rail system cannot come soon enough. The first phase commenced construction on 3rd July this year funded by a $1.25 billion loan from Japan. Eventually it will be a network of seven lines covering a total distance of 75km (47 miles), the forecast completion date for which is variously 2023 and 2025 at a cost of $6 billion.
Steve
Our dear Czech friends Pawel and Marketa own and run Coffee and Bread on 27th; a delightful retreat in which to sample the most amazing sough dough bread and Czech cakes, all freshly baked with care from authentic imported ingredients. Fabulously aromatic coffee is on offer too – and even, for brunch amongst friends yesterday, a bottle of Italian red.
Na zdraví! How blessed we are.
Steve
Hand delivered by a colleague of mine visiting from the UK. A complete surprise to find after school and the source of much happiness! It was lovely to receive this WhatsApp picture from Rennie a few hours after delivery.
Steve
The Sri Lankan tourist board launched the tagline “So Sri Lanka” to capitalise on all that this lovely island has to offer; an inviting and accommodating approach where things are rarely too much trouble; a genuine warmth that goes beyond the agreeable climate; beautiful nature; fabulous holiday retreats; and so much more. As a long time friend of Sri Lanka, I can see why this is a great piece of phraseology.
Sri Lanka also has a charm in so often being “nearly there”, but not quite, despite great drive and ambition. Things can also be downright dangerous and not come within a country mile of the health and safety regulations we are accustomed to. The expat community has therefore taken to “So Sri Lanka” (or simply, a resigned “SSL”, usually followed by a smiley) to describe the moments when this happens.
I had two such moments today, triggered when our fibre internet connection failed for the umpteenth time in a couple of months, vs our British Telecom connection working for year after year at full performance with metronomic reliability; not only is the technical implementation of this tremendously fast connection “nearly there” but agonisingly not quite, but so it seems is the help desk!
When I receive my service, I know it will be attentive, sincere, with an apology, a smile and a resolved problem – but I also know there will be a next time!
SSL 🙂
Steve
Having found our intended dinner destination to be closed yesterday evening, we continued to One Galle Face, the brand new upmarket shopping, leisure and dining centre connected to the Shangri-La hotel. On opening a few days ago the queues were monumental, but on election day evening there was hardly anyone around.
We headed straight to the food court where Rennie had Turkish fayre, the children had fast food, and I ordered “The hottest mutton curry with garlic naan bread that you sell, please” from the Dindigul Thalappakatti Restaurant outlet. I love properly spicy food but Rennie shook her head as I hiccuped on the first swallow and had a sweaty brow 30 seconds later! I have to say though that despite being a genuine 11/10 on my spiciness scale, it was deliciously tasty and the fresh garlic naan bread the perfect accompaniment.
Afterwards, we mosied around all the floors getting the layout and seeing what’s there without hordes of other shoppers.
Steve
Gotabaya Rajapaksa has now been confirmed as the winner in the presidential race with 52.25% of the vote on a 83.7% turnout.
He commands passionate support amongst a large part of the Buddhist Sinhalese majority in Sri Lanka, and together with his brother Mahinda who was president at the time, is credited with bringing an end to the country\’s long civil war. This is a delicate subject though, dogged with claims of ruthlessness and human rights abuses that are denied but refuse to go away. Now, his supporters want him to restore stability following Easter Sunday\’s attrocities by Islamist militants.
His main rival, Sajith Premadasa, stood on a more inclusive vision for the country and is strongly supported by the Tamil and Muslim minorities here.
We therefore have to hope that despite completely different approaches, restoring stability is seen with the same openness on both sides of the political divide. This is at heart a lovely country .
Steve
As I write, it looks like the strongman and former wartime defence chief Gotabhaya Rajapaksa will win the Sri Lanka presidential election, his main opponent, Sajith Premadasa having conceded victory before the final votes are counted. Political pundits believe that when this has happened, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa will have won 52-54% of the vote, thus surpassing the required 50% without needing to consider second choices.
Whilst he is adored as a tough guy by many though, he is despised by others so we can but hope for level headed behaviour.
As yesterday, the streets of Colombo remain near-silent and devoid of all but occasional traffic so we\’ll see what the afternoon and tomorrow brings.
Steve
