Day 13

Got to go on my first site visit today. Six hours in total in the car, but a beautiful drive up the coast to the Puttalam lagoon, especially driving with water on both sides. It was quite hot and sticky. I'd have much rather been there with my sunblock, swimsuit and camera than on a site visit. 

I really should have taken my camera. The sand was so fine that my feet sank in till my ankles as I walked. But I got to try out a Leica M9 with a wide angle lens. What a fab camera. Don't have those pictures with me, so I'll have to stick with my photoshoped phone camera picture to upload here- you can see the line of ocean far in the distance.

Also got to try out a Sri Lankan dessert today- Watalappan. It was like a Sri Lankan take on caramel custard. A steamed pudding made with jaggery, cardamon, cinnamon and nutmeg. It was nice, despite cardamon and nutmeg being my least favourite spices. Was too shy to take a phone picture in front of everyone at the table.

Day 11

My second weekend in Sri Lanka was spent in the beautiful hilly town of Nuwara Eliya. I missed having the Canon 450D around, but the G5 was not as bad as I thought. The camera battery didn't last as long as I hoped and I realised that many of the pictures were over exposed and some out of focus. It will take some getting used to.

Anyway- the blog post is up on Fudge Together since it is a feature post- Read HERE.

Day 10 was mostly spent at home washing muddy clothes and reading my camera instruction book. In the evening, we courageously drove into town to see the lights of Vesak. It felt like the entire Sri Lankan population had come into Colombo. But the lights and lanterns on Beira Lake was really beautiful. The reflections in the water, the hanging lamps and the competing lanters all created quite a colourful setting. That blog post will be up soon.

Today, I cooked with another new vegetable- Thai Eggplant. Apart from the appearance, it was only a bit firmer than the usual brinjal and hence took a little longer to cook. Tasted quite similar too.

Day 7

The last three days have been pretty good. 

I've been enjoying my desk at office even more. I braved the buses here and realised they weren't half as bad as the Bangalore buses. The route I go, is out of the city, so the buses are pretty much empty. The buses are smaller here, and yet still have difficulty turning around the bends of the narrow roads. At some of the turns, the conductor gets out and has to stop the traffic to let the bus do it's big maneuver. 

Here's the road (more like a path) that I walk down to get to work. So quaint. And I only realised on day 2 that there is a tree growing through my office.

Movies come out quite a bit later than everywhere else. We went to watch a movie that wasn't even showing in Bangalore anymore when I left. The cinema we went to was quite primitive too. The hall wouldn't have seated more than 100 and the air conditioning was competing with the Arctic. I sort of missed the Vicco adverts from Inox, though. Enjoyed the movie nonetheless.

I've been diving headfirst into work and yet my timings are hard to believe. Which architect works 9-5!?! The stars used to be out when I left office in Bangalore. But the work is great fun. Had my first client meeting today and then got to attend a really good seminar this evening. Got to see the large Colombo architecture community (which probably included some of the architects who I sent my portfolio to and didn't hire me! hehe)

Anyway, so I've only been here a week and have a trip planned for this weekend. We leave tomorrow morning for Nuwara Eliya. It's Sri Lanka's hill station. The pictures online resemble the tea estates in Munnar. 

Write up on that (and better pictures) coming soon as well as my experiences of Vesak- the Buddhist lantern festival. 

Day 4

I woke up to a complete downpour and felt quite lucky that my new boss was picking me up for work. Working out bus routes in the rain would not have been fun.

The office is located right out of the city in the middle of nowhere and is part of a beautiful stone and exposed concrete house. I sit at the corner desk and have the nicest view. The rain, the jungle outside the window and some smooth jazz playing created quite a tranquil setting. It was almost too nice to be working in (note: almost). Oh, Andrea Bocelli was featured in today's playlist at work- I 100% approve of my boss's music choices!  :)

Despite being such a small office, there are many big projects to work on. It was only my first day at work and have already been loaded with things to do. I'm quite excited. And the shelves and shelves of books only adds to my excitement. 

Last night, went grocery shopping and was quite interested in the variety of strange vegetables here. Potatoes and cauliflowers are expensive, so I'm going to be experimenting with new veggies this year. Bought some snake gourd to cook with dhal. First time cooking with snake gourd and it came out quite ok.

The picture was taken from my phone. I didn't bring the 450D with me and I'm not going to carry the other camera everyday everywhere. 

Day 2

My first Sabbath this year in Colombo was quite nice. I visited Bethel church last year and was lucky to visit on their 90th anniversary celebrations.

The congregation was a lot smaller today than it was on that day. The service was nice and finished much earlier than Cunningham church in Bangalore. I didn't even start feeling hungry during the sermon like I usually do. The many greetings I got changed from 'How long are you visiting for?' to 'Oh, we'll be seeing a lot more of you.' 

The city centre is quite lovely. Again, I have to mention the lack of garbage. I could walk barefoot if I had to! Another thing that I was pleasantly surprisingly to see was the use of a zebra crossing. People actually use the crossing and traffic actually stopped and let people cross! 

The evening brought with it lots of introductions, new Sri Lankan food and hours of entertainment. (I should correct that to evening, night and the following morning actually). The rule was 'no sleeping'. I paid the consequence with three painted toenails. Luckily I woke before the toothpaste attack.

Here's a picture of the church from last year. Love the lights.

Day 1

Welcome to my new blog.

I've been planning to start a new blog completely dedicated to my year in Sri Lanka and the name only came to me this morning. I don't want to clutter my other blog with ramblings about the weather, my job and the food, so will post all that here on 'Hello Humidity.'

After a month of job hunting, I was offered a job on the island of Sri Lanka. Despite only being a 1 1/2 hour plane ride away and in the same time zone as India, it'll still going be one crazy year ahead away from home.

I stepped off the plane to 27 degrees and 80% humidity (at 10pm!), but was especially appreciative of the orderly traffic and garbage-less roads on the way home. 

Day 1 -at home in my new room. Internet makes it even easier to feel close to Bangalore. I forgot to pack my toothbrush. It was the last thing I used before I left home, and it didn't make it to my suitcase. Hooray for finger brushing!

I ate some Sri Lankan brinjal pickle with my lunch today. Indian Priya pickle you have no competition. 

^ view from my bedroom.