Day 185

I've had a really exciting week so far and it's only Thursday.

Sunday morning started off really early. I was at the bus stop at 5:30 in the morning way before sunrise. We got on a rickety rusty bus that took us up the really windy roads to Kithulgala. Any longer and my stomach may have just given up.

Breakfast was at a tiny travelers pit stop after which a pick up truck from Ceylon Adventure Sports picked us up for the last leg of the trip. 

We walked over tiny pathways through the trees and bridges over streams to the site by the river. The ten of us geared up and got into 2 rafts. The water alternated between calm steady level areas to rocky steep rapids. It was great fun trying to battle the currents. I'm sure our efforts were very feeble and our guide took control of the raft most of the time. 

At one point we all got off the boat and climbed the rocks at the side of the rapids and plunged 12 feet into the white water. I wish I had jumped again. At another calm stretch, we jumped into the water and floated downstream with the current. 

The view was breathtaking. All around us the forested mountains loomed over the river, some peaks partially hidden in the clouds. The river meandered between them creating multiple vistas at ever turn. After we got back to base, we swam in the cold water for a while, sitting in the rocks with the rapids massaging our backs. The clouds gave way for light rain soon after. Mist covered the view with a hazy filter. Really wish I had a waterproof camera.

A hot shower, big lunch and the lazy afternoon afterward went by fast and soon we were on another rickety rusty overflowing bus on the way home in a thundershower. 

2 days later and I had another day trip. This time to the south of the island to the lovely Galle fort. I was meeting up with a friend from primary school in England. We had kept in touch all these years and had only met once in between about 10 years ago. She was in Sri Lanka for a few days on a Asia tour with two of her friends.

I took the really comfortable bus direct to Galle and met the ladies at the Pedlars Inn Cafe. The courtyard house converted into a cafe with it's yellow walls, antique mismatched furniture, blackboard menus and smooth jazz music was a perfect setting for the late morning catch-up.

We strolled the cobblestone streets and walked along the fort walls. The ocean was blue and so clear. We walked into the 19th century Gothic All Saints church. We walked in and out of the boutique stores with souvenirs and hand loom clothes and pottery and knickknacks. 

We had a huge traditional feast at Lucky Fort Restaurant with a large variety of curries with generous refills. More wandering around and shopping and catching up on so many years of news continued in the afternoon. We ended the day with gelato from the Pedlar's Inn.

With two splendid day trips this week, I can't really ask for more. But, two of my friends from Bangalore will be landing in a few hours and then we will be off for three days to Trincomallee on the East coast. 3 days of sun, sand and ocean. :)

Day 176

Had such a lovely weekend nestled between some busy work weeks. 

We set out early Saturday morning for Lakpahana Advenstist School, about an hour from Kandy. Midland driving is just as beautiful as driving along the coast. Mist blanketing over forested hills, clean crisp air that you can take deep breaths from and windy roads that put my stomach in unease. 

We were visiting the school as part of the AYF team to do a programme for the students there. The setting of the school was beautiful; nestled in between completely untouched mountains. The day was great- the morning service, activities in the afternoon and in the evening. It was hard to keep up with the enthusiasm of the children. 

We stayed over in Kandy with some friends. Loved their hospitality, their house, and the view too. Built on an extremely steep site, the entrance at the top and the rest of the house divided into many different levels going downwards with large windows at every landing with no limits to the Kandy scape.

The next day, we visited the Trinity chapel. Definitely one of the nicest structures in Sri Lanka so far. It's such a rare thing to find a church that is built with local architectural influences as apposed to the standard Gothic references that most churches in the early 20th century mimicked.

Completed in 1935, the church was constructed with 50 monolithic stone pillars sculpted by local Kandyan craftsmen that supported a steel trussed tiled roof. Loved how the breeze moved right through the space. A chapel like this really didn't need biblical sculptures or paintings to add to the sanctity. 

I found some pictures online of elephants hauling the pillars up to the site- here

I wish I had my camera. I will have to visit again to take pictures. Posting some that Nen took. 

Day 170

This is quite shameful. I had decided to post many times, but kept putting it off.

Days and weeks have gone into an interesting cycle. 

Days when I get a bus immediately in the morning and manage to catch the evening bus too and it's empty and the driver is super fast. Other days when the morning bus comes half an hour late and drives so slow that the trees have grown an extra ring and days that I miss the bus in the evening too. 

Days when things are a bit relaxed at work and I get to catch up on new music and have time to read. Other days when there are busy crazy deadlines and hours of extra work late into the night (and early into the morning once too).

Days when we cook up a storm at home- desserts and juices and multiple course meals and other evenings when we feel so blah and drag ourselves into the kitchen half asleep.

Some days I have the energy to read, to catch up on my online courses and to be productive and many days I scroll up and down my Facebook news feed all evening. 

And yet in all routine and mundane weeks of hot sultry afternoons and rainy nights, I still love it here. There are still so many exciting things in the middle of blah days. Here are some I can remember from the past 3 weeks.

- This morning I saw a snake in my loooong wait at the bus stop. It slithered into the gutter just a few feet away. Happened too fast for my brain to tell me to be scared.  

- Two weeks ago did a measured drawing in an old building and in the middle of our snooping and scavenging through the massive house, we found some old black and white pictures. 

- We went for the production of 'Jesus Christ Superstar' Was so awesome. Such great singers and a pretty solid show.

- The weekend following that, we did a musical marathon that continued into the week. Watched Evita, Rent, Mama Mia, Fiddler on the Roof, Moulin Rouge, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Annie. Had my fill of singing. Was great!

- I always look forward to weekends. Now a days they are extra special because of the Christmas programme practices. Choir and the play and lots of music in general. 

:)

November is going to be a busy month. I have trips being planned and friends visiting and beaches to look forward to. Cannot wait. 

Day 150

I took a bit of a break from blogging.

After my Mum left things got a bit busy at work. Deadlines and such. My aunt was here for a week too and then in the middle of things, I knocked out 'update blog' from my schedule. 

Rewinding time a bit to when my Mum was here. We spent a day in Kandy. We visited the Temple of the Sacred Tooth and the rainy weather actually made it so much more beautiful. There was some sort of baby dedication day and hence were plenty of families with little babies at the temple. Was quite lovely.

All roads in Kandy lead up to the lake in the centre. We loved the scenic drive through town and around the lake. Apart from the temple, the other thing on our 'to-see' list was the British Garrison cemetery. People would probably consider us a bit morbid, but I have this thing for epitaphs (my Mum does to).

The cemetery tucked behind the temple complex and a little walk uphill had a little under 200 graves going back as far as 1817, dotted between Frangipani trees. Apart from the many depressing child graves many from the same family affected by various epidemics, there were some interesting ones too. One in particular was the grandson of the author of the hymn, 'Abide With Me'. The three of us after many failed attempts and tonnes of giggling sang the hymn at his grave. :) 

Here's another that caught my attention: He was the 7th and last recorded death of a European killed by a wild elephant.

We ended the day watching quite a grand display of Kandian dances at the cultural centre. We were treated to a variety of performances from graceful peacock moves to the contrasting energetic masked dances of the spirits along with drums and tamborines and balancing poles and the grand finale of fire breathing and hot coal walking. 

I really need to finish sorting through the pictures from this trip (as well as the rest of the South African trip ones. sigh)

Her trip was so short, but still really enjoyed 4 days with my Mum- talking, watching movies, cooking for her, shopping and showing her around Colombo.

Other highlights from the past 2 weeks:

1. We have an oven and a blender. The mothers visits came with many gifts of which the oven and blender were the most exciting. So far, we've already baked apple pie, cinnamon cookies, apple crumble and chocolate cake. Fun times ahead.

2. The church picnic. We spent quite a nice Sunday at Hanwela with the church gang. How I've missed swimming.

3. Choir practices. I love that we get to start Christmas excitement early by researching Christmas music for the choir and the play. So much fun.

Speaking of music, I've decided to start a new post type on my other blog to feature new music that I come across. Here's the first one of the series: New Music 01

Day 132

The past week has been busy and the best kind of busy. My mum came to visit and I got to spend 4 days away from work with her. I've been looking forward to this for so long. She arrived Wednesday night and although my aunt sadly couldn't come, we all still had such a grand time.

Thursday morning was our perfect kind of morning. Slept in, had a big fry up for breakfast and watched Schindler's List while still in our PJ's. 

We headed over to Water's Edge for The Good Market. We had visited the market just the week before (read here) and knew my Mum would love it. As we hoped, the market was a lot more fun this time. There were loads more stalls, and because we were there early, the food stalls were plenty and the food was so fresh.

Skipping lunch gave us great appetites. We went straight to the food section. The tables covered with icing topped cakes, gooey brownies, fruity pies, perfectly decorated cupcakes and trays of cinnamon rolls and other delicious things. We liked the 'Butter Boutique' best. Desserts that don't skimp on butter are true desserts. :) We had a lovely smooth chocolate-y pie, sticky cinnamon roll and one very rich dense brownie.

I wish I could have taken more pictures, but the desserts were too distracting and my hands full anyway. We beat the heat with some passion fruit popsicles.

We stopped at The Bread Company. We didn't buy any of those lovely rolls, but we made use of the free samples. :P We picked up some bags of ground nutmeg and cinnamon from Saaraketha and got a slab of jaggery and some Kithul treacle for my Mum to take home.

We needed something savoury to balance out all that sugar. While there was a ten minute downpour, we took shelter in a very popular stall; the toasted sandwich stall- Panino. They hot crispy toasted stuffed sandwiches were in great demand. So much so, that things got crossed of the menu while I was ordering. The hot sandwiches with oozing cheese and fresh mushrooms and veggies were definitely worth waiting in long queues for. We ended the eating spree with some polos (baby jackfruit) cutlets along with garlic+chili chutney and mango+peanut chutney. Yummy. 

The other stalls weren't as exciting as the food section. Loads of clothes, crafts, paintings, shoes, etc etc. Plenty of colour and textures, especially in the Selyn stall.

The ambiance was vibrant. A live band complete with a double bass and a harp, a lone percussionist with a drum at the percussion instrument stall (I've always wanted to own a rain stick). Little kids covered in wet smudges of colourful paint and another gang of them walking around in single file with animal faces as part of the Ecokids walk, plenty of photographers trying to capture the spirit, and loads of interesting aromas which sadly no gadget can capture yet.

This has become one of my favourite things about Colombo. Was a great afternoon spent with the mother and cousins. 

Thankfully all the food was digested fast enough to make room for our Japanese dinner that night. 

Day 125

Happy Onam! (the Kerala harvest festival)

I am one quarter Malayali and I am quite proud to say that Onam is my favourite food festival. Sitting on the floor and eating almost 20 differnt things off a banana leaf.

This year I missed out in being in Bangalore and getting to be part of an Onam Sadya. Over the weekend and today, there were so many people posting pictures of the large spread of food. It was more than enough to bring about sudden cravings.

I went through many websites for recipes. It was so hard to chose a few that I could make. But finally narrowed it down and came up with quite a menu. Cooking was quite fun and my cousin- my food stylist and photographer for all meals in low light did a great job of making it look even better.

The blog I finally chose to follow- http://www.vazhayila.com/

Top Row (L-R): spiced banana chips, apalam, cabbage thoran
Middle Row (L-R): vazhakka kalan (green plantain curry), red rice, avial 
Bottom Row (L-R): More kuzhambu, sambhar, inji chutney (ginger and tamarind chutney)

Today is my Emily's 9th birthday. How I miss my drooling, hair shedding footstool. She's the sweetest dog ever.

Two more days for my Mum to arrive. So excited.

Oh, today my Covent Garden blog post was featured on The Open Window Exchange. Extra excitement.

Day 124

Another weekend comes and goes.

Today we tried out a new venue for our morning jog. We went to the lake side, where we visited the Good Market last week.

It was really beautiful in the morning. The paths alongside the lake, lovely gardens with rabbits and a funny 'tail-wagging' goose and a cafe overlooking the water. Oh!, and sailboats too; two bright blue little sailboats.

I will take pictures the next time we go there. The sun was horribly harsh. I guess all the reflection made it worse. Struggled to cross the 6km mark and I think I did more walking than jogging.

I found a couple of pictures from a Sunday jog 2 weeks ago where there was a vintage car rally. I gladly took frequent breaks mid-jog to watch them show off up and down the roads. 

In the evening we went for the Colombo Book Fair. The scale was pretty impressive. Tonnes of stalls of various publishers and quite a variety of books. We browsed a lot. Unfortunately, they were more expensive than books in India, so didn't buy any. We did, however, get a poster of coral reef fish varieties of Sri Lanka. Can't wait to do some snorkeling/diving so that we are able to identify what we see.

Day 121

Every Thursday from 12-8 pm the marquees of The Good Market fill up with exciting stalls. 

We had heard about this a while ago but always assumed that it would be too late once we got home. So glad that we decided to check it out this week. 

The market is at the edge of a lake and the lights and glowing canvas tops cast reflections on the water. The whole setting created a hazy blur through the light drizzle as we drove up. 

Despite nearing closing time, we were still able to enjoy the number of exciting stalls ranging from healthy desserts (quite an oxymoron! I personally prefer full-fat desserts), handmade jewelry, spices, art, organic vegetables, hot food and some other stalls too which were packing up when we came.

The whole setting was faintly reminiscent of Bangalore's Sunday Soul Sante, but a less-glam, smaller scaled and more homely version. 

One of my favorite things about food markets like this is the people. All the stall owners were extra friendly and chatty. We got to sample some of the food too (another reason I love these places); healthy kurakkan brownies, cinnamon tea (perfect for the weather) and some tangy tamarind pulp. 

The hand made jewelry stalls, aromas of coffee, crepes and egg hoppers wafting through the space, live portrait pencil drawing and the music by a banjo player created quite an exciting evening. 

After buying some cauliflower and potato tartlets, apple and cinnamon cake and some spicy banana chips we walked around the aquarium. I would much rather see fish in the ocean than in a tank, but it was a nice addition to the market entertainment. 

Looking forward to more Thursday evenings spent here. 

Day 116

Last week was dessert week. 

The first one was Cheryl's apple and cinnamon with amaretto and oatmeal crumble topped with whipped cream. It was so good. Such a contrast of flavours and textures. I ate it for breakfast. It was pretty much like eating fruit and cereal but on a completely different level :)

The second was my version of a lemon pie with a chocolate base. It was a lot of fun in the kitchen that night. A couple of crazy mishaps that sent us in a panic wave. But at the end of it we had two perfect desserts quite different from each other.

I was pretty proud of it and even posted a blog post. I had to take the desserts outside to photograph. Natural light is so beautiful to photograph in.

Read here- Lime and Chocolate Pie

This Sabbath was really nice too. It was the Adventist Youth Forum which was basically a get together of the youth from the other local churches to spend the day worshiping together. Really enjoyed the day especially the singing. I've missed singing with the praise team in Cunningham church, so it was extra special being able to sing again.

My mum and aunt will be visiting soon. I'm so excited. Counting down the days. :D

Day 113

The other day I got to Kelaniya Temple (where I change buses on the way to work) a bit earlier than usual, I walked through the temple complex. 

One day, I will take my camera along and properly check it out. The best time to visit temples is in the evening, when all the lanterns and candles are lit.