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Published: April 21st 2009
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Journal 8 Sunday 19th April - Tuesday 21st
Cleaning up the old house!
We awoke and wandered into town for a quick breakfast after which Nicky and the boys returned to paint some pictures to brighten up the place, and then get on with some cleaning, while I headed off for the first of several trips into town for cleaning supplies. We decided to cut our losses on some things to improve how we feel about here and so I went in search of plastic sheeting to cover any surfaces we were using, some bright cheerful crockery of our own, big plastic buckets, bowls and mops, tupperwares, a variety of scourers and cloths and a selection of vittels. Between my various trips Nicky at her most Susanish performed miracles of cleansing, so we had various spaces we felt more comfortable in, especially our bedroom.
Just to add more interest the ex Bishop arrived back to the house and to his rooms -which he had not lived in for 8 months - typical that he had chosen now to return. Sharing the house created a whole different dynamic. He wasa very pleasant chap, but we had to be more
careful about what we do - especially as the sensation of the cold post shower had meant we had previously been slow to dress afterwards. In fact use of the bathroom was totally different. We still had a separate one, but it opened into the communal areas.
We slept better in the house, with it now feeling more homely and woke to a familiar (ish) breakfast of cereals although I had to make up the milk from powder - still not as bad as it sounds. We set off with a strong sense of purpose determined to achieve: we went to the Bishops house only to discover he was not there but had gone to Colombo but would be back this afternoon; we went to the school and spoke to the principal, but school does not start for another week; we went to get money out but had no cash card with us; we went to get a local SIM card but had no passport with us to prove our identities. We sang “Busy doing nothing working the whole day through, trying to find lots of things not to do…” all the way home. Jake was sure it must
Our fruit stall
Where my firendly fruit man picks our stuff, even refusing to sell some things when he says they are not good enough for us! be from a Mary Poppins type film, but none of us knew which although it does sound like it might be. Answers in a comment please if anyone can help!
After going home for refreshments and cleaning (endless - the floors had been polished black - which leaves stain on feet and hands, knees and clothes if you are children) I returned to town. My list was long and took me to fruit mongers, a hardware store for rope, kitchen suppliers, veg monger, and eventually the supermarket. Here I ran out of money and so had to walk home - with about 20kg of shopping (water for 4, juice, pineapples and watermelons are not the lightest!) I wandered slowly in the heat trying not to think of the fact that a taxi would be about 70p and I had plenty of money, just not on me!
As I wandered past the faded glory of the Art Deco Imperial Theatre the words of some of my year 11s echoed in my ears “Are you Mad?” their standard response to questions especially requests to work. Further on I passed the far less salubrious Jupiter showing (to over 18s only) Bikini
Bamboo Scaffolding
On the fading splendour of the Art Deco Imperial Theatre Island. We have read about these films which apparently share the plot of a busty central character taking vengeance for previous injustices with expensive scenes such as explosions cut in poorly from other films. I trekked on in the heat. You really do not want to know how sweaty I was by the time I returned.
I have read that Sri Lanka contains 6% of the worlds biodiversity which is pretty staggering and yet utterly credible. We have easily ticked off exotic versions the 5 groups of vertebrates. Mammals are represented by monkey, mongoose and chipmunk. Reptiles show lizards from the ubiquitous little pink ones to the giant dinosaur evocative monitors as well as the turtles. Amphibians take the form of frogs and we have seen so many alien fish and birds that I do not know where to start. There are myriad invertebrates especially insects: all sorts of ants, curious caterpillars and beautiful butterflies, flies, dragonflies and the nefarious and much cursed mosquito which seem determined to transform our skins into volumes of irritating Braille.
Among the many things we had brought that have been worth their weight in gold are: the boys DSs, funny how they miss hardship when their heads are in them; state of the art waterproof expedition bags that have been invaluable in keeping out rain in tropical storms, sand on the beach and insects in our house; the little netbook and portable hard drive for photos and recording as we go along. Strangely the i-pod had been underused so far - it was permanently so noisy and strange potential hazards all around have meant we have wanted to be alert and not to have headphones in. Trains and buses are FAR too noisy to consider using them.
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Mary Y
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Annette
Deodorants are on bogoff at Boots the chemist if you need reinforcements Annette is longing to come over and assist you....as is Yvonne...I will continue to monitor the allotment for yousince you sound as if you may well be on a potato diet on your return. So good to read of your doings and we all hope that it will get easier for you all.... 1/8 of a muffin and all that. Lots of love from us all