22.-23. November 2019

Another relaxing weekend and feeling like on holiday. We started the weekend on Friday as I collected the kids from school and a taxi took us to Hotel Mount Lavinia, on the outskirts of Colombo, which is an old Colonial hotel.  It is getting a little shabby in places, but has a lovely charm and we had memories of when stayed there when on holiday in August 2011.  I normally don’t like going back to the same places, but I wanted the kids to see it again and  to our surprise, they remembered a lot of details. Steve was there already as he didn’t want to miss the start of an evening Masquerade party on the beach to celebrate 22^nd Anniversary of the company he works for, so went over during the afternoon and worked from our bedroom until the last minute possible.

A party? On the beach? For over 1000 people? In the sand? With my high heels? Food on the beach for so many people? Live music? Performances? Even a stage on the beach? I had no picture in my mind what it would look like, but it was amazing. Torrential rain at the start spoilt it a little bit (and caused traffic chaos that led to delayed arrivals for the majority and a delayed start), but we did manage to have a walk on the beach seeing tens of crabs and listening to the crashing of the waves.  The food was delicious and all kinds of dishes! We had sand in everything though and I was sweeping it up at home on our return.

As mentioned above, we wisely booked a family room at the hotel rather than returning home afterwards, which meant kids could go to bed whenever they wanted (they had had enough by 22.00 as getting up every school day at 06:00 is a killer) and it allowed Steve to party with his colleagues till 03:00!

On Saturday after a good night sleep, a delicious breakfast and maths exam revision, we spent 5 hours by the pool relaxing; heaven. It looked different this time round with 13 year-old kids able to swim in the deep end of 3m and not the diddy pool we were using 8 years ago.

It felt like being on holiday again and for a short time I forgot the fast life we live and simply relaxed on a sun lounger in my long sleeved rash vest as the sun is so fierce during the day. Before we left, the kids managed to enjoy jumping over the waves at the entrance to the sea – they could do that all day long!

We came back home in a torrential downpour, exactly the same as we experienced on Friday on the way there and in fact, we are experiencing it pretty much every day at the same time (6ish).

It felt like we were there for more than 1 night as we all managed to relax. Another memory to treasure.

Rennie