Blogs from Colombo, Western Province, Sri Lanka, Asia - page 15

At last my Opus is complete. I have always wanted to have something published, never thought I would have to self-publish and then not earn any money from my work but I have completed the workbooks for the school, Grade 7 and 8 now have workbooks to go with their text books. How good does that make me feel.... read more

I have been able to share my room from time to time with several uninvited guests here in tropical Sri Lanka, and some of these fellows haven’t made it through the entirety of their intended stay thanks to various weapons at my disposal. A regular visitor in many rooms here has the scurrying gait of a large beetle and the battle-hardened, aggressive appearance of a cockroach - a weird hybrid of both these creatures. On the one occasion that the ‘mother’ of all big bugger beetle-cockroaches found him/herself in my room, it came second in a hard-fought battle with my industrial-strength vermine-killing spray, acquired in the household poisons section of the local Keells supermarket. In this and subsequent incidents the carcass of the evil-looking insect always seems to end up on its back, and eventually attracts ... read more

But enough of this let me tell you about my little project. Well I have started to paint this room in the little people’s house, it is only about 7 foot square but when I took it on I didn’t realise just how big a job it would be!!!!!!!!!!!! I bought paint and brushes and 3 tubs of filler (the walls are in a terrible state) and I am going to get curtains and pillows for the children. I have also bought 3 beautiful appliquéd cushion covers which I am going to make into wall hangings to brighten the room. But enough of that let me update you with my progress so far. Day 1: Tuesday 16th January 2007 First day on the job and what a state the room was in, the walls had great ... read more

Usually, westerners visiting this part of the world suffer something nasty and gastric at some point or other during their stay, as they adjust to the food/climate/environment/jetlag etc, and having had the need to be in close proximity to a bathroom from time to time on past visits to Sri Lanka for several days, I prepared the title of this article after thinking it up well before I touched down in Colombo and figuring it was bound to be used to describe the reason for a sudden case of the runs. Although my bowel movements have been most satisfactory during my first five weeks here, I cannot let the opportunity to use this heading slip by, and so here it shall stay. DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE Sri Lanka remains a great place for English cricket teams ... read more

Having joined my good pal Harsha here in Colombo and assisted in the delivery of a junior cricket coaching camp over four mornings in the Christmas holidays, I was rewarded with gifts not only from the gracious Harsha himself to say ‘thanks’ for coaching, but also from the unlikely-named Alan de Silva, one of the young boys who took part in the camp and who had a great time smacking a few cricket balls in the sunshine. It was rather humbling to be the recipient of a gift from one of the children on the camp, due to the relative lack of funds of the families who send along their off-spring in the holidays, and I was incredibly grateful for both presents (a snazzy watch from Harsh - he knew I was in need of one ... read more