After months of planning we were off to the US for the family wedding of Don's nephew Ben. Chicago is the home of bride Sammi and groom Ben, and Sammi's parents too. We were excited because this would be the first gathering of Don's family in two-and-a-half years, as well as meeting Sammi for the first time. We elected to fly British Airways in order to fly together with Caroline from London. We met up at Heathrow airport and boarded the BA flight to Chicago. Considering the London to Chicago flight was 11 hours, we figured to spend a bit of time on the plane chatting with Caroline. As it turned out, Lesley and Caroline were often awake or asleep at opposite times. Ultimately there was a bit of mother and daughter time before landing. As ... read more

At 5:15 am Kumar our driver for the day came to collect us from the hotel to drive us to Mirissa where we were going to board our boat for our trip out to sea looking for whales. Even at this time of day market stalls were open and people were walking about going about their business. We drove and drove through the dark until after about an hour we reached Mirissa. The entrance to the port was a single track road and there were tourist buses trying to get into the port and of course there were drivers trying to leave the port at the same time! Eventually we got to a car park and then Kumar walked us down to the boat. At the boat we had to leave our name and nationality (scary). ... read more

Today we had a really lazy start. We were packing up as Don and I were going to Galle and Caroline was going back home to Manchester. Her flight was scheduled for the late evening. Jagath was paranoid about getting her to the airport early. For some reason best known only to the government, the airport was closed all during the day time (and this was the height of the tourist season) for alterations and only open overnight when all the flights and checkin activities were crowded together. We lazed around the hotel finishing the Boggle competition and chatting. Today was the only day we had any serious political conversation. I am pleased to say that we are all mature enough (at last) to appreciate the others' views. Caroline won the Boggle tournament. In fact her ... read more

Today we were happy to leave Castlereigh a day earlier than originally planned. We packed up and after a leisurely breakfast we set off to Colombo. En route Basil pointed out the largest bamboo trees which had been imported from Thailand. They are not so much tall as thick - very thick. The train journey on Sunday was very straight as trains don’t like bends and the line which had been laid by the British went through the mountain range. Not so the road which was very winding and full of S-bends and hairpin turns following river runs and mountain terrain. My knitting needles clacked faster and louder! The road was lined with tea plantations including the Carolina Tea Estates. So, being total tourists we stopped to take a photo of Caroline at the sign. Basil ... read more

Up, davended, last breakfast at Weir House and into the van ready to go to the train station where we were to catch the train to Hatton. We were booked into 3rd-class reserved seats. We drove to Paradeniya Junction to get onto the train which actually went to Kandy and then back via Paradeniya to Hatton. The train came and I literally fell into the train at the feet of the officious ticket collector. Rather than help this poor old lady he yelled "reserved only" and disappeared. Don helped me up and ushered me into our seats. I was not hurt physically, just my pride. Hating the use of public holes in the ground I had not had much coffee for breakfast, so I was not in the best of moods - caffeine withdrawal. The loos ... read more