The plot of land in this cropped smartphone picture was cleared of vegetation and acoustically sounded last year, presumably as a precursor to another sky scraper being constructed like the Colombo City Centre on one side and the impressive Altair Tower on the other.
Today, Billy No Mates spent a lonely afternoon sitting outside on his plastic chair. Nothing arrived. Nothing left. The rain came. The rain went. Billy was there!
Sunday rounded off the half term week with some husband and wife time for Rennie and me; where else but a leisurely lunch at Barefoot Garden and some lovely live jazz. After yesterday’s classy win for England over the All Blacks, it seemed quite appropriate that (I am told by chance) the first number played was a laid back rendition of “Swing low, sweet chariot”!
Rennie chose a salad, and I the seared lamb on Ciabatta with salad and honey glaze; a change from my usual black pork curry and absolutely delicious. Plenty of natter that included a video call with Rennie’s Mum in Czech, a game of Bananagrams even though the children weren’t with us, a spot of reading, and once again nigh on four hours just drifted away. Míša and Emilka took their responsibilities properly, so perhaps we’ll do this again on occasion.
The day was overcast, but knowing the UV can still be strong we sat under cover by the bar as usual rather than out in the open. A good job as it turned out, because as happened last time, the heavens opened torrentially and with little more than a couple of spots as warning – though not until towards the end on this occasion.
On leaving the office on Friday evening, a colleague who trains and competes with Colombo Rowing Club told me about Saturday’s 50th Royal-Thomian Regatta. Steeped in history, this is a competition between Royal College (a selective entry boys’ school located in Colombo that started as a private school but in 1836 became the first government-run secondary school for boys in Sri Lanka), and St. Thomas’ College (a selective entry private boys’ school that counts four former Prime Ministers of Sri Lanka amongst its Old Boys).
With Rennie leaving to join an out door zumbathon elsewhere in the city, I took Míša and Emilka – by Tuk Tuk, of course!
What we found on arrival was a real sense of occasion, though a bit bewildering initially for the children in the sticky humidity; crowded by the waterline that we managed to make our way through to; crowded on the lawn; crowded at the bar; music pumping at full volume from powerful loudspeakers; spectators cheering their respective team’s anthem with sufficient intensity to make the ears ring as the finish line was reached; competitors giving their absolute everything in this most brutal of endurance sports – and all with true sportsmanship, and in the calm between races, plenty of properly spoken old school English. Just lovely.
A DJI Phantom drone was being flown to capture each race and I’d love to see the resultant video that is no doubt being produced; time to speak to my colleague, methinks!
The evening brought watching the England-NZ rugby world cup semi final and an epic win, so all in all it’s been a great day – though at 04:28am on the next day as I write this sentence, perhaps it’d be a good idea to get some sleep now! Good night!
Steve
Park Street Mews has been a frequent after-work and Friday-late-night haunt of mine since its opening in 2015, and now we live in Sri Lanka it’s lovely to be able to share its pleasures with my family.
A series of old warehouses that have been restored into a pedestrian street – though without the stables that would truly make it a mews – it is home to nice restaurants and bars, one of which is Café Français.
The French chef and his Sri Lankan kitchen team pride themselves on truly fresh cuisine with everything made using the highest quality ingredients, from scratch. Even the tasty ketchup is made thus – and the signature blend of this ketchup with his mayo is delicious with a nice steak or home made burger from imported Australian beef.
We popped in for Saturday brunch and left some time later fully replete!
Steve
My lovely surprise on arriving home late in the evening that Rennie and the children were enjoying the first day of their half term mini-break at the Avani Kalutara Resort. Scooby Doo sat there for the remainder of their trip!
Steve
Thank you for your kindness from my recent trip back to the UK, Dad! Aruna says “Hi” and was delighted to partake in your generosity on Saturday evening! I normally take single malt straight, but have now discovered that Laphroaig on the rocks is very nicely suited to a warm Sri Lankan evening. Add the good company of a friendship that goes back to Shanghai in 2005 and that has been nurtured with Aruna and his wife Shameera visiting our home in the UK as well as me theirs in Shanghai and then Tokyo, countless other business trip destinations, and even by unplanned scheduling in Singapore Changi Airport (we were en route to NZ with Aruna on his way back to Tokyo from a family trip to Sri Lanka), and the time just melted away.
Steve
The Sinhalese term ‘Perahera’ means a procession or parade, with the Esala Perahera in Kandy being one of the oldest and most spectacular of all Buddhist festivals in Sri Lanka. It features dancers, jugglers, drummers and other musicians, fire-breathers, fire “twirlers” and lavishly decorated elephants and together with associated religious events lasts for ten days in all. Rennie and I were fortunate to witness it in 2011 and the main procession lasted for several hours on the night we were there.
Last night, the sound of firecrackers reverberating off buildings in our city street took our attention, and on going out to the balcony we witnessed a small perahera making its way to the local temple. No elephants, but plenty of fire “twirlers” and loud drumming as the procession slowly made its way down the main street and then up a side road. With the children watching too, we gained another experience – and another contrast with life in an English countryside village.
Steve
Whilst working in Boston I was privileged to indulge in some “extra-curricular” activity; namely to again wear an access-all-areas wristband and photograph the entertainment at an annual dinner. I will admit that when he was booked during 2018 my reaction was “Lewis Who?”, but having since seen him come to mainstream success I now realise that booking Lewis Capaldi was somewhat of a coup! He came straight from NY and a live TV broadcast, and performed a great set; fabulous music and entertaining, too. Dancing until late was to the accompaniment of The Function Band; another group of talented musicians and entertainers.
I arrived back home in Sri Lanka as scheduled at around 4am last Friday and took the day as holiday before enjoying afternoon tea as the precursor to a children’s birthdays weekend of pure relaxation and enjoyment; I leave Rennie to write a blog post about it but suffice to say that it was the embodiment of one of the things that we hoped to be able to do whilst living here.
Steve
This week sees me in Boston, having left home at the lovely time of 00:45hrs on Saturday morning and due to walk back through the front door at about 04:00hrs on Friday morning if flights are on time.
Aided by a strong tailwind for a good portion of its duration, the flight from Doha scheduled at 13:30 hours duration turned out to be not quite my longest, coming in at 12:30 hours vs 12:55 on one flight from Heathrow to Singapore. Each time I take an ultra long haul flight though it still amazes me that something so complex and requiring so much fuel to be uplifted at takeoff can even be contemplated, never mind with such reliability. This time I also thought about James Ketchell who a few weeks ago was conducting a reverse flight from Baffin Island to Greenland, Iceland, The Faroes and then Wick in Scotland; the longest open water legs of his successful circumnavigation of the globe in an open cockpit gyrocopter and rather more adventurous and less comfortable than me seated in the comfort of 9J!
Arrival at Boston was completed in clear blue skies and with an over flight of the city and airport before landing.
Sunday was spent out in this, my favourite US city, walking the Freedom Trail for the second time and learning more about American independence, and for the first time climbing all 294 steps at the Bunker Hill monument. On reaching the USS Constitution and being denied entry because I had no photo ID with me, the Irish were perfectly happy to give me and some colleagues an excellent guided tour of LÉ Samuel Beckett, a Samuel Beckett-class offshore patrol vessel of the Irish Naval Service visiting Boston. Given in the friendly way that is so typical of the Irish as a nation, it was also interesting both from what we learned of the vessel and its deployments, to the protocol of piping down the flags in the evening that defers to the USS Constitution as the senior vessel.
Moored alongside as a floating museum is the USS Cassin Young, a 2,050-ton Fletcher-Class destroyer of WW II that survived two Kamikaze attacks. Maintained to a high standard, it gave a good insight to life on such a vessel.
The evening brought a night cap on the 52nd floor of the Prudential Tower and a super view of the city.
Steve
