Ruani's Diary

Welcome to the World Baby Ethan

2009-10-30T11:04:00.002+05:30

Tusha and her beautiful Baby Ethen

A Healthy Fruit Salad is Just A Walk Away

2009-10-30T10:55:00.001+05:30

Hy and I have discovered a place in which to have a healthy fruit salad.. made just a tad unhealthy with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream a healthy walk away from our respective offices. The only problem is that our ‘secret’ place seems to be no longer such a secret and getting a seat is becoming quite a feat!

Music

2009-07-28T10:53:00.001+05:30

After I’ve discovered my new best friend gadget that I can’t live without – my ipod, music has assumed an even more important role in my every day. I listen to it on the bus, and it’s a bore-saver especially during road closures for the parliament where the lives of the general public come to a literal standstill for 30 – 40 minutes to make way for the parliamentarians to get to parliament. Instead of chaffing against the discomfort of sitting in a tin oven of a bus, I can switch on my ipod and listen to my choice of music.

The other good part of it is that I have got quite a good selection of music which I have now started copying onto CD’s in order to preserve the songs I like best.

So life is very melodious these days and I’m happy.

Cozy Lunches with Friends

2009-07-27T10:55:00.001+05:30

I have been the happy participant of lunches with friends outside the office these past weeks and find them such a lovely way to catch up with old friends and keep in touch. I often notice that it is not always what you eat that just makes the day, but rather the company in which you eat it with. Though of course I must admit that good food just enhances the whole experience a whole lot more!

Once Upon a Time – Ekamath Eka Rataka

2009-07-13T10:58:00.001+05:30

I was wondering whether I had watched the same movie that all the rave reviewers seem to have seen or whether they had been screened something special. I wonder this because I didn’t see anything to rave about in the movie. The story line itself is of course from a short story but I felt way too much emphasis was placed on the character played by Sanath Goonetilleke. I felt that the movie was made mainly to portray his acting capabilities rather than share the limelight with the other members of the cast. I’m sure the audience would have been happier to see more emphasis on the girl and boy romance (or whatever) as opposed to watch the painstaking, long, laborious and I have to say this, boring life of Sanath and while I’m on the subject was there a necessity to show such a lot of fat, hairy, ugly leg of Sanath constantly. I think the audience would have liked to see Nirosha and the guy (whatever his name is) more.

Also I think basic logic would tell anyone if the girl believed the guy was dead and then left him in her bed until she went to a party and came back in the night and all that blah blah that the body would not have remained warm and supple and that if he was indeed not dead, there would have been some breath??

So all in all, in my opinion, the movie was a dead bore. They should have shown more of the other characters and less of the utterly long and boring bits played by Sanath. Oh I would agree that he is a good actor, but did he need to keep himself in the limelight all the time just because he directed the movie??

Thosai for Lunch

2009-07-07T10:57:00.001+05:30

Dinush, Rams, Shahim and I decided to have thosai for lunch today and had Jayaratne bring steaming hot thosais from Ambal’s Café down Bristol Street for us. Mmm they were perfectly delicious for such a cold day (or is it that our AC is on high as usual freezing all of us as usual?).

The Mystery of the Low Battery of a New Nokia Phone

2009-07-07T10:52:00.001+05:30

Hyacinth had dropped her phone somewhere and was forced to buy a new one, so she came along the WTC where Softlogic has a phone booth. She bought quite a cute little, rather inexpensive Nokia phone, but found that the battery was dying in no time at all. I was quite surprised because my experience of the Nokia brand has been user-friendly and good indeed.

On investigation what do you think the culprit was?? The constant news alerts from Dialog!!!!! She was getting all kinds of sms’s every 3 – 4 minutes which made the screen light up, thereby draining the battery. The nice salesgirl at the counter de-activated the alerts (or whatever) and apparently the phone is behaving quite reasonably now.

DBU Celebration of the End of the War

2009-07-02T10:50:00.001+05:30

The DBU had a celebration on the end of the war with the theme to foster one country one flag theme. Everyone came dressed to the theme in one of the national costumes where they proceeded to select the best Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and Burgher costumes. Kismet played fabulously. We had a table ordered just for the few of us and I kind of felt like a one of the happy little boats bobbing amidst long steamers of tables of 20 or 30 people on either side of us. Tea lights added to the mystique and ambiance and the best of the foods of the four communities was on the menu for dinner.

A lovely evening of superb company, food, music and ambiance. Lots of notable personalities graced the occasion including the beautiful Angela, the witty Indu, beauty queens of yore, Shirlene, Jennifer Ingleton and many others. What a lovely, lovely evening it turned out to be, with everyone dancing their cares away in perfect amity.

Men!!

2008-09-11T14:33:00.000+05:30

I was sitting in the bus last evening, placidly minding my own business, when I suddenly realized that someone was staring daggers at me. I was rather startled at the intensity of the stare and had a quick look at the guy doing so… he was a slim, dark, spiky haired, rather frightening looking individual, so I quickly looked away.

He walked towards me and my heart sank thinking that maybe he thought I had trod on his little toe, or murdered his dog or kidnapped his child or robbed his house and that he was going to enjoy killing me slowly… and then …………. he smiled! Yikes!! The man was hitting on me! If he expected me to smile back or even acknowledge him after scaring me half silly, he had another think coming didn’t he? Men!!!!!!

The Mummy

2008-08-25T11:37:00.003+05:30

This weekend I met up with Hyacinth and Janani to see the movie ‘The Mummy – Tomb of the Dragon Emperor’ at the Majestic Cinema. The cinema was packed; I got quite a shock when I got there at around 1.00 p.m. to see the queue winding down from the fourth floor almost to the ground floor! Luckily Hyacinth had got the tickets early.

We enjoyed the movie tremendously… the good company added to the pleasure.

Janani’s comments about mushy mooshy stuff during a couple of screen kisses kept us in hysterics!

A lovely present

2008-08-22T16:27:00.000+05:30

Just got a beautiful present…. I LOVE it. It’s a cookery book called ‘Spice It’ and has a whole load of delicious, seemingly easy to make recipes. Isn’t it the strangest thing that a little thing like a good book can give one so much pleasure? I can’t wait to try out a couple of the recipes on the weekend!

Isn't she gorgeous??

2008-08-19T17:16:00.002+05:30

Tusha's and Ryan's Engagement

2008-08-04T12:16:00.001+05:30

Tusha got engaged to Ryan on the 26^th of July 2008 at her residence in Dehiwela.

Rams has a great idea!

2008-07-11T14:14:00.001+05:30

Rams came up with the fabulous idea of having masala thosai for lunch at a place she knew… so Friday afternoon found six of us making our way to Ambaal’s for an Indian lunch. Luckily for us it was a cool afternoon with no sun, so the walk was a pleasant one despite three of us girls teetering in our high heels!

The place was small, packed with office workers, most probably from Commercial Bank located right across from the café, and the food smelt absolutely delicious…. We had a nice meal of masala thosai, wadai and parata. The thosais were served so hot it burnt our fingers to touch them…. Enjoyed every morsel!! Super idea Rams! Unanimously decided to visit the again at least once in two weeks.

Uncle George does it again!

2008-06-02T12:12:00.001+05:30

Well for the second time around Uncle George has done a Mr Bean.

On Saturday he goes into the bathroom to have his usual evening bath and comes out carrying a bucket holding his newly washed sarong and vest. As he passed me I got a lovely smell but didn’t think too much of it…. after all the man had just had a shower.

He went out onto the porch, spied the towel horse sitting there, and removed a dress that was on it, threw it onto the floor and proceeds to carefully lay out his sarong and vest.

Meanwhile Sunethra goes into the bathroom to have a wash and what does she see? An expensive new glycerin soap that we sparingly use only on our faces is down to tiny sliver. The idiot has used the entire cake of face soap to wash his blooming sarong… There was a cake of Palmolive soap available in the shower area if he absolutely had to use a bathing soap on his sarong, but no…. I guess he HAD to use the soft face soap left on the wash stand.

I could have killed him!!!

The earlier similar incident was when he insisted that he would clean an old bit of furniture for us.

After work when we got home, there sat the old chair… gleaming. Uncle George alias Mr Bean proudly showed it to us and after our glowing praise, asked us “what do you think made it gleam like that?’ Soap powder? Detergent? Dish-wash? We queried. No…. He says proudly “I used that big green bottle that is in the bathroom”. Oh NO!!!! That was the new bottle of shampoo I had got recently from abroad and he had used nearly half of it to clean that old chair!!!!!

A cooking spree!

2008-05-27T14:37:00.001+05:30

Got into a mood on Sunday and went on a cooking ‘spree’. I made mashed potato, roast beef and tomato for lunch along with a side portion of macaroni and cheese. Felt that was not enough cooking for the day and made a love cake as well. Quite a ‘full’ Sunday it turned out to be!

American Idol 2008

2008-05-27T14:30:00.001+05:30

What a show it was this year!!! David Archuleta was my favourite right from the start, so I was quite disappointed when David Cook won. I’m not too much of a fan of his type of Music …. Cook’s I mean. Absolutely loved little David’s crooning. I thought he had the total package… super voice, lovely music, sweet personality and cute too. Sayesha was also one of my favourites … what a melodious voice!

Strictly Come Dancing 2007

2008-05-27T14:29:00.001+05:30

Borrowed the collection of videos from a friend and kind of binged on the long Wesak weekend watching the entire lot.

Loved every minute and was happy with the winner Aleysha and her partner Cutler cos’ she is the one we picked right from the start. I really like Bruce the presenter and his partner Tess. They are both so very sweet and full of smart repartee and humour.... no malice whatsoever either.

No news from me for ages?

2008-04-02T15:29:00.000+05:30

Jay had sent me an email today reminding me that I have not updated my blogs in a long, long while. I logged on and had a look …….and Yes I have not written anything for absolutely ages. I’ve no excuses this year since I am no longer on the SLAAPS Committee. So thanks Jay, I’ve made a note to myself to write something at least every now and then.

A nice day with a horrid meal at the Intercontinental Hotel

2007-09-21T17:03:00.000+05:30

Today was such a nice day. For starters I managed to get quite a bit of work done, and then around 10.00 in the morning Jehan called inviting me out to lunch. We met at the Galadari but decided to go to the Intercon instead since from past experience the Cafe Emerald the food has been pretty good.

It was lovely to see Jehan again. He had lost of bit of weight and quite proud of it too. He’d brought me presents from Kenya….. I can hardly wait to go home and open them up. I snuck a peek and there’s a gorgeous package of perfume though! The rest will HAVE to wait till later.

I must say I was deeply disappointed in the menu that was on for today’s lunch at the Emmerald Café. The spread was minimal, a couple of cheap salads, veges that I don’t normally eat ……there were no cold cuts, the soup was pumpkin and another of noodle… not as good as it looked unfortunately. EVERYTHING tasted so darned bland…. How disappointing! The meal for me was redeemed by the mashed potatoe and the cuttlefish.

The deserts on the other hand were as good as usual. There was a decent array of sweets including the hated bread pudding.

It was nice because we met up after such a long time, but the meal didn’t add anything at all to the occasion, though I suppose it DID give us something to grumble about. I certainly won’t be going back there anytime soon.

The Daily News Cookery Book

2007-09-17T15:56:00.000+05:30

The Ceylon Daily News Cookery Book was a book I’ve seen and heard about from the time I was a child. All the great cooks I knew (all my aunts were absolutely fabulous cooks) seemed to have a copy of it. I, for some unknown reason, attributed their cooking skills to the recipes in the book. So at the beginning of this year I thought I too should get hold of this marvelous book. When Jehan wanted to know what I wanted for my birthday, I promptly remembered the book and asked him to get it for me.

Having gotten hold of it, I eagerly scanned its pages for ‘makable’ recipes. Imagine my disappointment when quite a few of the instructions seemed to be vague or missing or left instructions to experience or imagination I guess. I tried the ‘Chocolate Cookies’ and what I got was a horrible looking mess which I fed to the dogs… seriously.

I tried several more of the recipes in them….. and what I figured out is, that the book is either

a) HORRIBLE

b) Is meant for more experienced cooks (then why would they need this book pray tell?)

c) Leaves a lot to the imagination (what about those who lack imagination then?)

d) Written by people who don’t want you to actually succeed (???) doesn’t sound right does it?

e) I certainly can’t make any of those recipes (that sounds more like it – I thought)

Well, on my recent visit to see cousin Emma, who by the way is another great cook (and her husband is a well renowned chef to boot), we got talking about this particular book… and guess what???? She told me precisely the same thing..…. So maybe I was not too far wrong in my thinking then!

Ruani of Professionally Yours Magazine

2007-09-11T14:39:00.000+05:30

Something made me smile today. I was walking along the Cargills corridor when an older gentleman stopped me and said… ‘excuse me… but are you Ruani….. of the Professionally Yours Magazine? I have been reading the past few issues from Beryl and recognized you and thought I must say hello”. We chatted a minute and parted, but he quite made my day …. Ruani of the Professionally Yours Magazine! Wow!!!

St Anthony’s Feast

2007-06-19T17:16:00.000+05:30

Now it just seems to be part of our family tradition to go to St Anthony’s Kochchikade each 13^th of June and make an occasion out of it.

We were sorry that Uncle George had to go to Kandy for a funeral and missed it – I don’t think he’s ever joined us. So it was just us and as usual we met up for lunch and then made our way to the Church before the roads closed.

The Church was teeming with people. We made our way through to the pews and knelt to pray and then to sat back to absorb the powerful atmosphere that is so prevalent at St Anthony’s. My eyes roamed over the Alter and sanctuary beautifully decorated in white flowers and greenery while the rest of the church was brightened up with tinsel and streamers of red and gold. Thousands of people waited patiently in long, long queues to kiss the relics and statues while others made their way on their knees down the isle of the church making their petitions. I never cease to be moved by the simple faith of our people along with the utter desperation and even tears that could be seen on many a face. It makes me feel grateful for everything that God has given us.

After sitting there for as long as we desired, we made our way around the church, lit our candles, got our blessings from the Priest there, collected some holy water and squeezed out of the church.

The streets were lined with ammes with lots of sweetmeats which looked so tempting – Sunethra always wants to buy some, and I always manage to persuade her otherwise – those flies !!!

The roads take on a carnival atmosphere, and we walked through just looking at the people and things laid out. There were little clay playthings bringing back memories of my childhood, there were handbags, fruit, wadai, earrings and chains and soft toys a whole lot of everything spilled out on the pavements with voices competing with each other to sell their wares. I just love the hustle and bustle and the good natured revelry that takes place on those roads.

We had our look and even managed to get onto a bus before the roads closed for the evening procession which takes place so late in the evening that we had to give it a miss this time.

Golden Gleam 2007

2007-06-19T16:55:00.000+05:30

Wow!!! Lucky Me! I was invited to the dance of St Peter’s College. My favourite band, Misty was playing and the theme looked Hawaain. I fished out my black and gold dress to go with the theme Golden Gleam and off we went to the Colombo Hilton.

We were greeted at the entrance by girls dressed in keeping with the theme and the ladies were welcomed with a fragrant garland of araliya flowers. I thought that added a lovely touch. The hall was decorated with huge palm trees while on each table stood half a kurumba made into a candle which burned steadily throughout the night.

There was a HUGE crowd. The old boys of St Peters had turned up in full force in support of their college. One choice table was reserved for Priests from the college I presumed. How sweet and thoughtful.

The large floor was always filled with dancers and unlike the last dance at the Galadari, the floor didn’t open up. And the food was amazing. Hilton had a good spread to tempt the palates of anyone, whether their fancy was continental, Sri Lankan, vegetarian or whatever. I noticed that the prawn counter was kept continuously busy, as was the hopper stall. The breakfast buffet was good too.

I enjoyed the dance very much. Misty as always played excellently. The second band Cosmic Rays was not too bad, though they did seem to favour a lot of baila even after an exhausted bunch dancers staggered off the floor huffing and puffing after their exertions on the dance floor! Clifford Richards was the compere again as always (in my opinion) talking too much.

They had a fabulous array of prizes for both the entrance draw and the raffle ticket draw. And 10 bottles of liquor for table draws. The raffle tickets had to be bought by the book though… no buying a couple of tickets priced at 100/- each. One sweet gent next to me was rather high, and told the girls who came around with the ticket books, that the college was smart in getting beautiful girls to sell the tickets, but that he couldn’t spend a whole 1000/- cos he had never ever won a single thing in his entire life!

The entrance ticket draw had two air tickets while the raffle draw had four air tickets and guess what?? Dorian won a prize (8^th? I think) AND the fourth prize – an air ticket to Madras. Wasn’t he the happy lucky one!

My Experience with Abans

2007-06-19T16:18:00.000+05:30

Just over a month ago our TV decided to konk off on us right at the most ‘crucial time’ of American Idol and Survivor, two of our favourite programmes. Many a discussion took place as to whether to give it to our neighbourhood TV repairman or whether we should haul it off to Abans Repairs located all the way in Wellawatte.

We decided in favour of Abans.

On making inquiries I was pleasantly surprised when Abans suggested that I hand over my TV to the nearest Abans showroom in Rajagiriya and that they will send it on for repair. That seemed like a good omen. So on the 15^th of May, we toddled off with our TV and gave it to Rajagiriya. A few days later when I called them, they airily told me they had already delivered it to their repair shop.

Wow! What excellent service I thought… and gave it a couple more days and called the repair shop directly. They asked me for a job number – job number??? I thought blankly – I don’t recall any job number. A panic stricken call to Rajagiriya reveled that the TV MAY not after all gone to the repair center yet.

Of course! I THOUGHT it was too good to be true. Anyway the next day I got the job number and was told the repair would take two weeks.

After my former experience and poor Chandana’s recent experience with them, I resolved to give them a call every single day to see how things are ‘progressing’.

Well, it’s been more than a month already and I’ve spoken probably to everyone who works there. They efficiently take down the job number, call me by name and then say that the repair is not done yet and that they will call me back….. Only one guy ever called back to tell me it would be done on Saturday….. a couple of Saturdays ago… but we are still TV’less.

American Idol was won by Jordon Sparks who we were routing for anyway, and we’ve no idea what happened to Survivor… and still we don’t have our TV back…. Boo hoo.

Just yesterday I tried calling a Director from Abans and was very rudely and successfully barred by his dragon of a secretary.

I did however manage to get through to a manager yesterday, who asked me to call today that he will let me know what the situation is. I’ve been unsuccessful in getting through to him – maybe he’s out? I’ve even gotten hold of his mobile number….. still no response. Why am I not surprised???

Unfortunately, most of our household appliances have been bought from Abans…. What a pity - to my way of thinking… their service stinks!!!!

A Petal Pink Bedroom

2007-06-06T17:08:00.000+05:30

The last weekend was a long one since Thursday was Poya. So Sue and I decided to take the Friday off too and paint our bedroom. It was coming to a point where the room was so messy that there was just a pathway from the door to the beds and that’s it.….. if a stranger ventured in and fainted through sheer shock, the person would never be heard of again cos he/she would be buried under a deluge of possessions!

Anyway, we knew we’d need the four days (I exaggerate not).

§ One day to clear the room and mess up the rest of the house with our things,

§ Another day to actually get the room painted. We used our genius in this area and roped in Uncle George to help (well…. Ummm.. I mean to actually do the painting). There was no fear of losing him under anything now since the room was cleared.

§ Finally the last two days to put the stuff back.

At the start, things went better than expected. We cleared the room in record time and by 3.00 p.m. on day one Uncle George was on the ladder painting the ceiling a pure white. Then we hit the snag… ever since we shifted into this place, we’ve always wanted to paint our room a girly pink. The original colour many hundreds of years ago was blue and despite many tries with pinky sounding names they turned out to be white. The last try was Rose White – and yes of course, it was white!

This time we bravely bought Petal Pink. Yes, you probably guessed right! It was very nearly white too! Many long discussions were held whether to sally forth and buy a violent pink (with Uncle George grumbling vociferously about the wasting of time) and finally decided it would be too long a process and batted ….. I mean… painted on.

The room looked marvelous when it was done, especially after the floor was polished too! I almost felt sad to put the things back.

The next two days proved a lot of hard work putting all the things back (hopefully not where we found them).

Was it worth all the effort? Oh yessssss… a definite YES!!!

Looking Ahead

2007-05-24T13:48:00.000+05:30

Today’s message from the Daily Bread was on looking ahead - with the footnote

“It’s better to look ahead and prepare,

than to look back and despair”

Good words indeed.

The Master Fiddler – Janet Dailey

2007-05-17T15:22:00.002+05:30

The second of Hyacinth’s books – this was a tad better than the other one cos it involved a stunning blond who was a spoiled brat, used to getting her own way by using her beauty and charm. She runs away from home to prove her independence and proceeds to crash into Choya Barnett's car and meet his motherless little son, who like all other males falls in love with her. She then loses all her money and is forced to accept help from Choya who seems to be the only one immune to her charm.

Bluegrass King - Janet Dailey

2007-05-17T15:22:00.001+05:30

Hyacinth lent me two Mills n Boons and this was one of them that I read in one sitting. It was about a tomboy Dani (Danielle) who was happiest amongst horses and is then thrust into the model world by her father’s wish that she becomes more ladylike and with the help of the usual ‘bad guy’ Marshall who gets her into modeling. Of course she falls in love with Barrett King the kingpin and much sought-after bachelor of the county ........ and so on to the usual syrupy ending.

The Kiss Blowing Lothario

2007-05-15T15:54:00.000+05:30

Just last week the strangest thing happened…. There was I, minding my own business hopping off the 175 in Borella and hopping onto the 190 and anxiously scanning the seats in the hope of locating one vacant one for my little ole self, when what do I see?.... this guy blowing kisses at me!!!!! I couldn’t believe my eyes! I looked blankly at him for a full minute until it hit my befuddled sleepy brain…. YUP he WAS blowing kisses to me. I made sure it was to me by looking wildly around to see if there was anyone else in the vicinity of the blown kisses. Nope.. Nary a soul but adorable me.

I wondered what I had done to inspire such ardor from someone I had never laid eyes on before in my entire life. I would have remembered him if I had …. He WAS kinda good looking too. I chanced another quick peek….. yup… there he goes again.. another handful of blown kisses and this time he batted his eyes at me too (that was the giddy limit – I thought ladies were the ones famous for fluttering eyelashes).

Humph I thought… and firmly turned my back on him until a seat in front of him got vacant. Of course I hastily took the weight off my feet and drifted into dreamland. A couple of minutes later I was rudely awakened by a tapping on my shoulder (none too gentle either). I looked around into lover boys eyes.

‘Ara parcele oyageda’? (Is that parcel yours?) he asks pointing to one on the luggage rack above us.

‘Naa’ I replied and turned away.
Another hard tap. Ouch.. that hurt!
‘Kaageda danna neda’? (Don’t know whose it is no?)
“Dannnaaa” I murmured turning away again.
Another prod on my poor aching shoulder … puhleeeeze.. doesn’t this man know how hard he is prodding me?

“We have to be careful these days no… people are leaving bombs and all.. don’t know whose it is ne?” he queried.

Luckily I was spared an answer when the man next to me growled that it was his, and snatched it off the overhead rack.

I sighed with relief and lapsed into my contemplation of nothing in particular. When Lake House loomed into sight, I quickly hopped off the bus without a backward glance and took two steps forward only to find I now had a shadow! What’s your name?? I was mute with astonishment at his persistence in the face of no interest.

“Aaaay what’s your name aney?”

Can you give me your telephone number?

Huh? Aaaai,??? aney???? (What the heck?)

Then he tried to push his phone into my hand saying….

“Here you can put it into the phone with your own hands. I wanna call you. (Guess it didn’t matter if I didn’t want him to call me).

When I still refused the man was almost jumping up and down in desperation telling me that he wouldn’t ever see me again and can I please, please, PLEASE, give him my name and telephone number?

Since he was trotting alongside me I asked him where he worked. At the WTC he informed me!!! Yikes!!!! That’s where I work too. He then went on to add that he had to go to a meeting on Bristol Street and that he got off the bus at Lake House just to talk to me (Oooh lucky me…. I was supposed to be flattered I think).

I curtly informed him that if he too worked in the same building (nope I didn’t tell him which office I worked in despite his desperate pleas) we’d probably bump into each other again and sent him dejectedly off to his meeting.

Phew!! What an ardent encounter. He didn’t recognize a no if it came up and punched him in his handsome nose!!! It certainly made Sunethra and Tushara laugh though when I recounted the tale to them… so guess there was some upside after all!

Mitsou - Collettes Intimate Diary of a French Showgirl

2007-05-14T16:35:00.000+05:30

I read this book over the weekend. It was quite well written… quite a bit was in the form of a play and some of it in the form of letters, but it was quite sad and quite realistic too I guess. It was about the girl called Mitou who is pretty and warm and innocent and who has a gentleman friend who is called the ‘Respectable Man’ and who keeps her in style - if not in love.

Mitsou falls in love with an officer called Robert who is also smitten on their first meeting. Their love flourishes by mail but when they finally meet after their first initial fleeting meeting, he finds that he is no longer in love with the real woman, while she fatefully realizes it.

I was not happy with the ending cos there didn’t seem to be one!!! After all, the entire book was based on Mitsou and her fluffy friend, with her thoughts and love and emotions all recorded ever so carefully and then……. the whole thing is just left in the air. The final curtain raises on the lives of other showgirls, their acceptance of the lifestyle they lead, their fleeting romances and oft times single motherhood. Their dashing lovers leave them when they find them (the showgirls) lacking in finesse despite their beauty.

It was a book I bought from my little ole bookman and decided to let him have it back rather than keeping it. It’s not a book I would ever re-read that’s for sure.

Friends are like Angels

2007-04-27T15:36:00.000+05:30

Was having such a lousy, lousy today…. Everything seemed to go wrong. The first call I get in the morning is from the printer who says that

A) he hasn’t laminated my magazines cos’ he didn’t know he had to? (huh??) what was he doing with the sample he was given? Using it as a pillow??

B) he was having some problem (again) with meeting with deadlines (again and again). How I rue the day we picked him as our printer. A darned good lesson NOT to always pick the lowest quotation.

This was enough to really muck up my day cos’ I had to spend a lot of time on the phone negotiating with the horrid little man too…. Anyways… don’t wanna go through thinking about all of it again… the reason why I started writing this was cos everyone in office sensed my mood (NOT a difficult task given my woebegone face I guess).

Rukshana went down to the bank and when she returned plonked down a delicious looking éclair on my desk asking me to cheer up. Well that she certainly managed to cheer me up somewhat …. Not with the éclair so much as with the sweet thought of wanting to lift my spirits. That certainly made my day! Thanks Rukshana.

BONDS OF LOVE

2007-03-22T12:32:00.000+05:30

I still find it incredible how one person could love and feel so close to another experiencing all the highs and lows as much as the loved one. I remember experiencing it along with my mom and dad when Sunethra had to go to London for a long spell. I actually went with her just to make sure that she was ok, that she managed to take along with her all her books and clothes and warm clothes etc., and that her accommodation was safe, in a good neighbourhood and close to her university, that she had access to hot food and a million other little things only a person who loves and feels for another would feel.

Tonii confirmed this describing how she felt when her boyfriend took his first flight out yesterday. She had made this long list of things that she felt he should take along with him, cross checked that he had actually bought them and then felt horrible when she realized that she had missed a couple of things until pretty much the last minute – and felt even worse when he sweetly went to do her bidding in getting the things just the way she said.

She told me how she had sat down and ‘waited’ with him while he went with his brother to the airport, gone through the formalities of immigration, kept him company whilst he wandered around the airport, sat in the restaurant and talked with a friend, and then went into the boarding area. Obviously he felt pretty much the same cos' when their calls were interruped he quickly reconnected with her. When he boarded the flight, they were still on the phone almost until take-off to exchange a last ‘I Love You’.

She ruefully admitted that she barely slept a wink as she was agonizing over little nitty gritty details and aching for a word from him. She said she felt on top of the world when she heard his voice the next morning confirming that everything was fine. And all this, mind you - for a full grown man! Unbelievable!

I marvel at the bonds of love!!!

Breaking up??

2007-03-16T15:42:00.001+05:30

Is it the trend or is it that I seem to attract tales of unfaithfulness, heartbreak and stories of breakdown of relationships??

Here was I thinking a good friend of mine and her husband were still in the pink of love, when I hear the devastating news…………… they may break up / separate / file for divorce pretty soon. Oh dear!! Once again my Mills n Boon romances and Barbara Cartland fed expectations of true and everlasting love takes a severe beating. Will true love win over petty (hopefully) differences? Will the cynical world applaud yet another failed marriage? I HOPE NOT!

I mean ……. whenever I visit their place they are so wrapped up in one another, so loving and comfortable together, share the same wit and humour, she would experiment her culinary skills and he would be the willing guinea pig before inviting us to endanger our tender tummies (I’m kidding – she’s a marvelous cook), they share similar hobbies and interests and are such a perfect couple that I would look at them and think ‘that’s what I want and I ain’t settling for anything less’! And now….. what do I hear????? That things are not as perfect as they seem and he wants out!!! HELP! Does SHE know that the marriage is not going all that well?? What’s wrong? Can we help in any way??? Is there (gulp) another woman or (double gulp) another man?? (THAT, I hear is a common cause for marriage breakdown).

Their family and friends (which includes me – the one with her head in the clouds, the one who still believes in all the romantic mush I’ve been reading most of my life) are shocked!

A few of us have decided to offer up Masses and pray that the two of them would be able to work out their problems and that things would go back to the wonderful normalcy that we are used to.

I mean, give US a break here…… they do have to uphold OUR belief in love and marriage don’t they? How selfish can they be to split up when all of us depend on them to stay together?????

Infidelity

2007-03-14T15:40:00.000+05:30

Why is it that guys just can’t seem to remain faithful to one person? I hear that generally their raging hormones are supposed to rule their lives and that they probably don’t invest much emotion in their unfaithfulness at all except the satisfying of their immediate (and frequent??) needs. Still it is sooooo disappointing when you think about it. Here you would be thinking that you’ve met the love of your life and you start building your little castles (are there such things are little castles?) Anyway… I digress…. You would start building up those castles in the air imaging the two of you blissfully happy together forever and then comes the rude shock - your beloved has clay feet.

That, one would say admonishingly, is of course to be expected since not even we wonderful ladies are perfect (what a surprise!) and no matter how perfect or nearly so you think your ‘beloved’ is, neither is he. We all have faults and foibles and we are supposed to see them when we take off our rose-tinted glasses. We are supposed evaluate them, see if we are willing to live with them and the owner of the foibles (or not) and then go on with our lives either with or without the ‘foible-full’ owner.

As for little ole me, faithfulness is of paramount importance. I would understand the crushes on movie stars… I mean we all have them! I can understand the lingering admiring look at a passing cutie… or even anything female in a short skirt or hot pants, but what I would find very difficult to accept is the ability to switch off all reasoning (perhaps it has an auto-switch off ha ha) and fall for the first physical contact that comes their way.

Take Jay for instance… he has been attracted to his neighbor who has a boyfriend and a daughter who is in her 20’s for goodness sakes. He ruefully admits to the attraction though has never had the opportunity to do anything about it – Did I mention The Boyfriend?

Well it seems like recently the attractive neighbour has introduced her attractive friend to Jay. The ‘lady’ has saucily French kissed him when she was leaving! That for a first meeting is quite something by Sri Lankan standards (or perhaps by my old fashioned notions– I still place infinite value in handholding and loving looks and kisses which hold more love than lust in them).

The next we hear is that just in case he had not gotten the message, she had visited her friend again the next day, who had invited Jay again, and this time she had a little done more than just French kiss him and the poor little man is left wondering ???(I wonder!) what she wants…. Well hello… whaddya think a 40 something woman wants with a young man she just met and has French kissed??

Well… that’s that in my book of faithlessness. True enough he did tell his girlfriend about the lady, but why get into such a compromising situation the second time unless he wanted it?? He can’t expect his girlfriend to be oh so understanding and forget about it…. With men and their fantasies it will go even further the next time, and for sure it will NOT be a kiss and tell then.

Oh well…. It would make anyone lose faith in true love, romance, sweetness and faithfulness and love everlasting. According to some of my friends it still exists out there somewhere (yeah right, like the dinosaurs, I think sarcastically??). As for me…….. I will just continue waiting for the right one to come along (or not) and trust that I will know him when I see him.

More on the Prayer Meeting

2007-03-12T12:39:00.000+05:30

Remember that prayer meeting I talked about in my last post? Well, I just got a bit of news that shook me out of my complacent ‘know it all’ attitude.

Priyanthi called me saying that she just couldn’t keep this to herself. Seems like neither can I!!

During the prayer meeting, the pastor talked about two people who were having tummy problems. Two ladies went up to him to be prayed over. One was Priyanthi and other was a lady who was diagnosed with fibroids and was due for an emergency operation on Saturday. Anyways even I remember hearing some curious things the pastor was saying like ‘you now feel better, you have been cured…. (those words, the sceptic Ruani had heard before), you can check with your doctor, you are healed.. you don’t need to worry anymore. These he said with great confidence. Then he said ’if you were to go to the ladies room now you will see a difference.. you are well and so on. The bit about the washroom check gave me pause and made my ears prick up cos’ that is not the kind of thing you would expect a pastor to be saying to a lady in the midst of a mixed bunch of people. Anyways even in my ramblings I didn’t think to mention cos it IS rather personal isn’t it? Talking about about washroom checks? Anyway I thought no more about it … till now!

Priyanthi was just bursting with the news. The lady had been to her physician for a pre-op check and he had been puzzled saying ‘thibba widiyata nemai ne thiyenne lamayo!” He had wanted her to do further scans and what emerged was that there were no fibroids at all just one negligent cyst. I have heard of such things taking place… but never experienced it so close. I mean we all saw the lady (I can still see her in my mind’s eye, in a green top and pants seated opposite me) and heard that she had this operation to happen. She was shocked with joy and shared it with Priyanthi, who shared it with me who is sharing it with you!

Still, as Gerard told me when I shared the news with him is that we should always have an open mind, that miracles do happen and it is a normal occurrence. It’s just that we don’t’ hear about them and believe them. Miracles are part and parcel of our lives! I still get goose-bumps when I think about it! I LOVE that. God does miracles and they are not rare occurrences … they are everyday things. YES, I DO LOVE THAT!

Prayer Meetings

2007-03-06T15:02:00.000+05:30

Went to the Prayer Meeting today at the WTC. The Pastor and wife who came today had a very powerful message which despite of my aptitude for daydreaming at the wrong time, soon caught my imagination especially when he talked about the faith of the people of yore where even in the instance of the fiery furnace how strong was the faith of God’s people. So descriptive was he that I could see the four people walking about in the fire, with not a hair on their heads being harmed.

Then came the part where the Pastor called upon certain people and prayed for their particular need as moved by the Holy Spirit. I still can’t understand why I immediately freeze and put up a barrier with my mind going ‘this sounds so very fake’. The others seem to fervently believe in what is going on while I stand there like Doubting Thomas. Even Gerard was touched today with two messages addressing what he is going through in life right now. I kinda did an escape as soon as I decently could. Is it just me or are there others out there who do carry a message home from such a service, but feel so out of it when it comes to loud prayer and God granting visions to His chosen pastor?

Fishing Club Christmas Party - 10th December 2005

2005-12-12T12:39:00.000+06:00

The fishing club Christmas party was held at the DBU on Saturday the 10^th of December, and I think for perhaps the third time running I was invited to it. After a hectic day of running around getting ready for the SLAAPS Members’ Day the following day, plus a hair appointment at Salon Nayana in Bambalapitiya, where a person called Samantha proceeded to carefully ruin my hair, I was ready by evening, for once wearing a bad choice. The black strappy top I chose was a bit too glamorous for the occasion plus when I jived around the floor, I had to keep tugging at the top just in case it slipped out of place!!!!

They started off with items for the kiddies, they had musical chairs, and burst the balloon, pass the parcel and other little games for the kids. Somehow I couldn’t enjoy any of it, perhaps because Charmain also happened to mention that I should have worn something ‘more casual’ than the strappy top I was wearing with my black pants. Immediately I felt like an overdone Christmas tree, albeit in full black :(.

So a suggestion to see the upstairs of the DBU met with my first spark of enthusiasm for the evening. The lovely wooden stairway led up to the huge wooden floored, hall with a lovely wooden ceiling, where a bar stood in one corner, some pool tables in an alcove, and furnished with several groupings of comfortable chairs, even a dinning table with about six chairs (I think) around it. Little corner stools held tiny Christmas trees around the room while a recently bought stereo set provided background music. There was even a piano in the room, though pride of place was taken by a 10ft tall Christmas tree, beautifully decorated and lit up. That rather lit me up too for a little while.

Having admired it to my hearts content, we all trooped downstairs to literally ‘face the music’. There we sat, around the table, talking desultorily until I was saved by my phone ringing. Chandana! Thank goodness! It was so lovely to hear his voice. We chatted in our usual way about everything and everything, me giving him a very detailed description of exactly how bored I was and how sad I was to be missing the Miss World Contest that had gotten so much publicity in the recent past. I stayed on the phone for as long as I decently could, out on the lawn. I even called home, grumbled again, and then bravely went in again.

There was a little music for dancing provided by an atrocious singer and his band. Raffle tickets were sold, and Dorian bought me a set. He was lucky for the first time since I’ve met him I think. He won two gifts. One was a bottle of Scotch, and the other an intriguing looking parcel which we all took turns in guessing that it might hold some bottles of beer. Udesh and Chairmain also won a bottle of scotch I think and a bottle of Cinzano, while the other family at our table also won a bottle of wine. So it was quite a lucky table. Udesh’s son was also really sweet, romancing a little girl, and dancing absolutely stunningly. He will be a MAJOR heart-breaker given a couple of years!

The food was kinda ok though all the salads seemed to have gone off and the pinapple was bitter. There was of course my favourite chocolate mousse and some good caramel.

A bit more music and then it all wound up around 1.00 in the morning. People hung around talking a bit and then Udesh Chairman and their little son, who provided most of the entertainment for me for the evening, all dropped me home. Sadly enough I didn’t quite enjoy the event as much as I could have :(

SLAAPS Members’ Day on the 11th of December 2005

2005-12-12T12:30:00.000+06:00

As usual we met up at the Bambalapitiya Flats. There were two huge, air-conditioned luxury buses waiting to take all 68 of us to the Club Palm Gardens Hotel in Beruwela. For once (?) I was early and even had time to do a leisurely walk to Chariot and grab a snack and a nice hot cup of coffee before going back to the flats. What a nice time we had greeting all our old friends, most of whom we see just once or twice a year at events like these. There was ample space in the buses for everyone and once on our way, breakfast was served. An ample breakfast too I might add, a couple of sandwiches, a roll and a pattie. There wasn’t the usual inelegant rush for seconds… the one serving kept everyone happy.

Soon we were at the hotel, everyone in a flurry registering and collecting their entrance gifts. Entrance gifts were handy pen-knives – the project chairperson Hyacinth’s idea. There were also little handbag sized bottles of ponds moisturizer, some sachets of dove shampoo and latte tea.

The member of the year was selected and a well deserving Iyne Gunawardena was selected. She got a heap of gifts and a huge electric oven from the Association. There were flowers, wine, clothes, shoes, a silver dish and lots of other things. She got quite a good haul of goodies!

The game Fly to your destination (four corners – a game originally introduced to SLAPS by our fun loving Rajini and which has taken on many faces since then). The game is simple, effective for getting everyone on the floor, and also lets everyone dance and enjoy the music. Four destinations, London, Paris, New York and Sydney were placed in four corners around the dance floor and when the music stopped, everyone had to fly to one of the destinations. The destination picked out of a hat, is out of the game until finally, just one person remains. In fact everyone enjoys the music so much that they would dance on the fringes of the floor and when the music stops, would fly away from all the destinations!

Then one of Margi’s innovative ideas – insert the mouse! Practically everyone wanted to give it a try. Luckily Naomi was wearing a beautiful scarf around her neck which we borrowed as a blindfold. There was a picture of secretary at her computer with her hand poised over the table. The idea was to pinpoint the location or ‘insert the mouse’ into the appropriate place. Gosh what fun we had with the mouse running all over the place, on the wall, under the table, under the table on top of the monitor, over the keyboard, under her skirt (gulp!) on various parts of her face and anatomy.

We were given some free time to browse through the stalls or use the pool – though I must say no one made use of the pool, perhaps because the sun was blazingly hot. Most people seemed to prefer sitting in the air-conditioned lounge chatting and catching up with old friends, or indulging in shopping.

Gammani Mendis as always provided excellent music and soon had everyone on the floor. He always seems to gauge the mood of the crowd and during a slow time I even saw a couple of girls slow-dancing!

Lunch was then served and a very good one it was too. There was a really good spread of delicious food and desserts. Marie as usual hunted a few of the choice cherries to share with me :)

After lunch was the ever popular talent contest. There were people singing songs, Claudette danced her famous oriental dance and won the first prize for it. There were skits, songs, Hyacinth modeling an outfits from one of the stalls, Damayanthi making her debut in acting out a drunk, Sharon doing a make-up demo and best of all (in my opinion) something way out of the ordinary… a magic show!! Elrea dressed up and did some great magic tricks though unfortunately he had to cut it a bit short, cos time seemed to be flying on swift wings.

The mix and match game another perennial favourite, started by Margi had absolutely every single member participating calling out trying to find the other three people who would complete her picture and win the prize for four. This game is always a sure winner… everyone has such a marvelous time!

Finally came the baila competition where six people were picked. The judges had done a great job, cos the winners were all excellent! The baila music of course had almost everyone on the floor, the beat is so irresistible.

Margi as always wanted as many people as possible to carry some little gift home with them, so all the extra items left over from throughout the years’ projects had been packed up and placed in a box. Numbers according to registration were drawn from a box and the person drawn had the chance to pick one of the gifts. There were nearly 30 such gifts. I had coveted a necklace which I managed to draw… along with enough good natured ribbing for my enthusiasm in getting it!!

Then it was cake and tea and bye bye or rather the vote of thanks followed by the National Anthem.

We were back in Colombo by 7.00 p.m. ending another lovely Members’ Day outing.

Well done SLAAPS!

Poya tomorrow

2005-11-15T05:06:00.000+06:00

Poya day is coming up tomorrow. It promises to be yet another day to laze around with nothing much else to do but snuggle into bed with a good book, especially given that the Christmas weather has set in.

I just finished Dan Brown’s Digital Fortress. It was absolutely fantastic. He writes so well, you just can’t put the book down. The pictures he draws are vivid and exciting….. Pity I don’t have another book like that to read tomorrow.

Friends are like Angels

2005-11-15T04:29:00.000+06:00

Oh today has been a GREAT day. It feels wonderful to know that people care about you or are thinking of you and today many people made me feel so good.

First there were a couple of calls wishing me a good day, then, an old friend dropped by to see me. It had been absolutely ages since we saw each other and I was touched that he visited, bringing along with him with a piece of wedding cake from his sis-in-law’s wedding on Saturday. We had a lovely time chatting about old times and catching up on what’s been happening in our lives.

Then Tusha called to say that she had saved me some birthday cake from my little friend Mela’s birthday yesterday. So there it was again, another box of goodies for me. They were vastly welcomed, for Tusha does wonders with cakes and goodies.

Shirley had written a lovely newsy email of what has been happening with her recently.

Then another friend called to invite me to a dance on Saturday. Shall look forward to that provided of course that there are no serious problems after elections on the 17^th.

So all in all I had one lovely, lovely day.

Where does the time fly to?

2005-11-04T05:27:00.000+06:00

Where does the time fly to? It seems such a short while ago that we were celebrating the New Year 2005 and then suddenly, we are at the end of 2005. Looking back …… I feel as if time has flown and I have stood still….. can that be? Yet when I look around I see changes in the lives of people close to me. Some of the changes they are making in their lives will certainly affect mine, and somewhat selfishly I don’t want that to be so either. Certain good things in life should remain the same forever. There should be rule about it!!

Stamp Albums

2005-11-04T05:20:00.000+06:00

Dorian brought along one of his stamp albums to show me over lunch today. It was a beautiful leather bound (I think) large album which held the most beautiful stamps of England. The stamps came in sets backed by the legend of each stamp. There were stamps of the Queen Mother, Prince William’s 21^st Birthday, Princess Diana, Camilla and Charles. There were sets of double deckers, trains, animals, Christmas stamps issued for each year, flora, art and many more all grouped together. Absolutely beautiful!

All Soul's Day

2005-11-03T04:58:00.000+06:00

As is now a ‘tradition’ in our family, we all met up at the cemetery to ‘visit with’ our loved ones who have passed away– Aunty Beryl and Uncle Jewel. There was Aunt Joan, Dulcie, Aunt Lotus, Kumar, so many people. During the Mass we remembered the others whose graves we couldn’t visit, our Grandparents and Uncle Hillary in Nuwara Eliya and Aunty Hope in Mt Lavinia.

Ravi and his family clustered around Uncle Jewel’s grave placing flowers and candles not only at his graveside but on all the surrounding graves too – “Dadda’s friends” he said in his typical Ravi manner.

After Mass, with the rains still holding off, we wandered into the dusk to light candles at the gravesides. The cemetery looked peaceful and beautiful with candles casting loving glows upon the graves. Sunethra and Dad both had loads of candles left over, so we lit a few candles at graves where no-one seemed to have visited. No flowers lay upon some graves, where the grass grew high, indicating neglect or the lack of anyone to care for them.

Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.

Golden Gleams Ball 2005

2005-10-25T03:16:00.000+06:00

That was the theme of the SLANZA Dance held on the 22^nd of October 2005. I was soo thrilled to be invited. We had a whole tableful of friends, and I was happy that Sushilla and I met up after a long while. She had permed her hair and looked gorgeous. I told her, she reminded me of a movie-star, though I couldn’t put my finger on which one. Well, several others had told her she looked like Diana Ross – I agree!

Ranjith picked me up first then we picked up Dorian and then Sushilla. Udesh and Chairmain, Pushpa and her husband, the little old doctor couple made up our table of ten. I love the little couple. She adores dancing and he goes along to please her. Such a lovely, lovely thing to see in a married couple….. and a couple that has been together for such a long time too.

The music was provided by Sohan & the Xperiments and Pearl. Both lovely bands. Sush first complained that they were playing too much slow music, but the songs were so wonderful! Dinner was a ‘sit-down’ and the food was wonderful… though perhaps the wines could have been a bit better.

Sush wore her new purple long gown. This was a first, I’ve always seen her in short little dresses. Dorian was effusive in his appreciation! But really, she did look lovely. I wore my new gold and black dress – to go with the theme J

Unfortunately no one at our table won any of the draws ….. sigh! But still we had a lovely, lovely evening. The dance was over by 4.00 a.m. and I was home before 5. What I liked about it was that we had gone to a dance… and they gave us ample time to do just that …. Dance. Loads of competitions and speeches didn’t interrupt the smooth flow of music…… and there was plenty of good music for dancing. The baila competition was held in double quick time, leaving everyone quite pleased, including the participants. There were lots of known faces there. Faizal Bonzo was the compere. Angela was there, as was Prince Ratnam and Kevin Nugera. The Burgher Association Dance was on the same day too……. Pity we had to choose! But still it was an absolutely lovely evening and I enjoyed every single minute of it J

Home Makers Haven

2005-10-04T03:30:00.000+06:00

That was the theme for the Housewives Association Coffee Morning held on the 26^th of August 2005. Ruveena, Margi and I decided to go and have a look to see if we could pick up a few pointers from them.

There were quite a large number of stalls. Loads of time was given for shopping. This had a good and bad aspect to it. On the one hand, those who wanted to shop, did so to their hearts content, and I’m sure it warmed the cockles of the hearts of the stall holders as well! On the other hand however, those who had a leisurely browse through and finished, found themselves feeling quite bored.

Sensations, was a dance troupe with a difference. It was the first time I had seen them perform…. They were absolutely sensational alright.

Kevin and his partner performed three dance spots. Kevin was great but his partner lacks that sparkle so essential for a performer I felt.

There was a jewellery fashion show with top models showing off jewellery from a popular gold store.

There were a couple of skits by certain regions or sections of the HWA. Those I’m afraid I found rather boring and childish.

Keerthi Pasqual and his soothing voice wooed the audience for a good while. And then they had a few prizes on the raffles and entrance and that was the end of the show.

The coffee morning was held at the Continental Hotel and the hotel served the most delicious coffee, though the mistake of getting the people to go to the garnet room to collect it was horrid. There was a rush and stampede with everyone rushing to get at their food and drink which was served at lunch time! That is definitely NOT something that aught to be done at our coffee morning.

2005-09-27T15:56:00.002+06:00

View of the towers

2005-09-27T15:56:00.001+06:00

Beautiful orange coloured orchids

2005-09-27T15:56:00.000+06:00

The dragon fruit (looks more like a fish than a dragon though)

2005-09-27T15:55:00.002+06:00

Toll gate coming up!

2005-09-27T15:55:00.001+06:00

The opened dragon fruit

2005-09-27T15:55:00.000+06:00

Cultural Dance

2005-09-27T15:54:00.001+06:00

View of the National Library

2005-09-27T15:54:00.000+06:00

Music

2005-09-27T15:53:00.000+06:00

Colourful cultural dance

Strange Meetings

2005-09-27T03:31:00.000+06:00

On Saturday, the strangest thing happened. There was I feeling a bit blue and on my way to a SLAAPS meeting when the bus stopped at the halt after Ambagaha junction. Amongst the rush of people getting in, I noticed a lady who looked a bit like my Aunt Lotus, get in. I started to offer her my seat and then noticed another girl doing the same. The lady declined (very strange…. most people would plop into the seat without any appreciation or thanks). A couple of minutes later she got a seat. We both looked at each other several times and smiled and coincidentally both happened to get off at the same place – town hall. Since she was behind me, I gave her a bit of a helping hand off the bus. She held onto my hand.

We then got talking and exchanged telephone numbers when she suggested we keep in touch. Having parted I suddenly realized that there was a bounce to my step and that my heart felt so much lighter for the smile and touch of another person reaching out to me in genuine friendship.

The Splash 2005 – Otters Dance on 24th of September

2005-09-27T03:26:00.000+06:00

The dance was held at the Colombo Plaza and I was invited! The driveway to the hotel was beautifully lit up in fairy lights and at the entrance of the ballroom stood a photographer who invited every couple or group who entered to pose for a picture.

Wine and hors d’qeuvres were served in the lobby before everyone was requested to make their way to their tables. There were sweet little bags in black with the theme of an otter couple in the Titanic pose in silver, as entrance gifts for the ladies. The gents received telephone indexes and souvenirs in the same theme colours, while the backdrop to the stage was a giant replica of the otter couple.

The bands Gypsies and Pearl were playing that evening. Both are wonderful bands. They also had Corrine and Ronnie Leitch perform guest spots. I like Corrine, she has a dynamism all her own and I envy her pert figure. I felt though that she should have done a few English numbers, cos she did some baila and left. Ronnie Leitch followed suite … all baila and some of his usual slightly off-colour jokes and comments which have long ceased to be funny. I feel he is best suited for stage shows where he has the crowd in fits of laughter. Faizal Bonzo was a co-compere. There was the usual scotch and wine at the tables. For the first time I tasted the cinzano limetto …. I liked it!

Dinner though was soooooo disappointing! They served it at around 12.00 and had such a small choice. There was rice and noodles and a vege lasagna and a few accompaniments No meat or cheese salads, no soup, no breads, no cold cuts. Hmmm guess the organizers picked the cheapest menu! Still I had expected better food from the Colombo Plaza. There was bread pudding….. yes I kid you not….. bread pudding, a trifle of sorts and slices of nice chocolate cake and choc/vanilla/strawberry ice-cream with fruit for dessert. Quite disappointing. For me the highlight of dinner time was the availability of the photographs. What lovely souvenirs they were. It was the first time I had been to a dance where such personal souvenirs were given.

They selected a Splash Queen and they had a baila competition which tired out both the competitors and the spectators, so loooong drawn out it was. I’m so glad that SLAAPS has done away with selecting of a queen. It makes the ‘also-ran’s feel quite bad. One of the selected ladies was at our table, and all of us were cheering her on. Very pretty she looked dressed in a lovely white Kandyan saree – striking was the word for it…. She was the only one in white. Anyway, I think her evening was rather spoilt. Of course the girls they did select were absolutely beautiful and deserved to win. But I felt a bit sorry for the girl at our table who determinedly tried too hard not to look disappointed!

I remember being to one dance where the selection was such gross favoritism that it had the audience screaming in protest. The presentation went on and I’m sure the poor winner felt small. I remember that one of the ‘contestants’ happened to be a model and a beautiful one at that. She was overlooked despite the cheering by the crowdand she WAS by far the prettiest. We felt they may give her at least a runner up place…. But no! The winner was a tall, rather hunched, dark homely looking girl won the prize, perhaps by virtue of being one of the organiser’s daughter!!! The first prize was a ticket to a destination in Europe and mutterings were that they wished to keep the winner within their group***!!??

The problem with this dance is that they just did NOT want to stop! The raffle draw was at 5.30 in the morning. So we danced on till morning. Sun was streaming out when we left the hotel, after Udesh insisted on having two whole helpings of kiribath served for breakfast. It was nearly 7.00 when I got home!

Spoons

2005-09-24T03:23:00.000+06:00

On Thursday, we decided to make use of the voucher I had won at the Hilton Secretaries bash. The voucher was from the Spoons valued at Rs.5,000/=. I usually have a horrible feeling when using vouchers of any nature after my bad experience at Le Palace. Anyway, having booked a table for two earlier on, Sunethra and I walked in at about 1.30 both ravenously hungry.

We were led to a table and a waiter introduced himself as our waiter for the day, helped us select a four course meal and discretely merged into the background.

The food was excellent, beautifully arranged and obtrusively served. It was my first visit to Spoons and an enjoyable one it turned out to be…. one I would certainly like to repeat.

Once again Hilton comes up trumps.

2005-09-22T03:23:00.000+06:00

The stunning view from the Communication Tower

2005-09-22T03:00:00.000+06:00

Spinner-Genting Highlands (We actually went on this!!!)

Sri Lankan Airlines - for those deserving travellers!

2005-09-21T15:11:00.000+06:00

The flight back from Malaysia was HORRIBLE. Too bad Sri Lankan Airlines for treating your clients as if they are a nuisance. My first grumble was that you could not summon the stewardesses. I tried the ‘stewardess’ button, but nothing worked. Then one gentleman a ahead of me called out ‘madam madam’ several times to be quite pointed ignored by the ‘hostess’. Desperately he stood up and beckoned her. This she could not ignore but came with raised eyebrows and a supercilious look on her face. Goodness, what has the hospitality trade come to? I don’t know what the gentleman needed, but he seemed to need it pretty desperately. I don’t think he should be judged by his nationality or dress. Too bad Sri Lankan Airlines too bad!

I also noticed a lady who wanted some water for her child. She kept pressing the ‘crew’ button, to no avail; she then started waving the feeding cup around hoping to gain attention. No such luck. Finally her husband stood up purposefully with the cup in his hand. Then and only then were they attended to. I think perhaps the white colour of his skin may have helped at that point, cos had it been an Asian I presume the gent would have had to find the water himself!

Requests for a drink of water and an extra bun met with cold indifference. Oh I was politely told they would be right back but they never were. Was it that they were understaffed???? Well, that certainly is not MY fault.

This is not the first time that I have experienced discrimination because I am a Sri Lankan flying Sri Lankan Airlines back to Colombo. For some reason the outgoing crew is always much much nicer and more ‘genuine’. I’m afraid I feel that the service of ‘Sri Lankan Airlines leaves rather a lot to be desired.

Farewell Malaysia... Hope to see you again!

2005-09-21T15:06:00.000+06:00

Got up late. Lazed around, bathed and got ready to get back home. Kumudu had ordered a cab which was to pick us up at 10.00. We took some pictures and then all too soon it was time to leave. Packed ourselves and our luggage into the limo and were soon on way to the airport on our way home.

Another tip for those doing duty free shopping at the Malaysian Airport. Do NOT buy your stuff from the so called duty free shops before you cross the barrier guarded by security personnel. Those are ‘regular’ shops.

There was this place called the ‘Choc Stop’ where we had a bit of a bad experience. We bought some chocolate because we wanted to finish off all our coins and little notes. So we put all our change together and then added a $50 note to cover the price of it all. The ‘lady’ at the counter gave me $2 dollars change and went back to her books dismissively. Fortunately I handed the money to sister who was doing the transaction and she realized we had not got the balance from the $50 (which was $40!!!!). Cunning huh? Giving the change to the person not involved in the transaction. All the other party would see is that balance is being tendered. When my sister queried about the balance from the $50, the ‘lady’ took the money from the register and gave it to her with no apology. Later looking at the bill we found that she had not indicated on the bill that we had given her a $50 so that the only balance recorded officially was the $2. Future travelers beware; I get the impression that this is a regular scam, so experienced was the person at the counter and also the damning evidence of the bill not showing that a $50 had been tendered. Where do you reckon the balance goes (since it is not registered in their cash register)?? The people behind the counter know their customers are leaving the country and can easily be taken for a bit of a ride, if they are not vigilant.

So a word of advice to those wanting to buy duty free from KL; wait until you cross the barrier guarded by the security people and then you are in ‘duty free’ territory. How I wish someone had told me that earlier!!

Did some more shopping in the ‘proper’ duty free shops where they accept credit cards with no percentages taken for using your credit card. Took an aero train ride to our departure lounge and boarded our flight to get back home.

Day Eight we spent in Genting Highlands

2005-09-21T15:02:00.000+06:00

Today was the day we had scheduled to go to Genting Highlands. We found a better way of doing it rather than through the normal tour booking through hotels. You need to get to KL Sentral, look for the Genting Highlands counter and then book from there. It costs only 25RM which includes the coach ride to Genting Highlands, the cable car ride, and the rides to the outdoor theme park. I thought that was about the most fabulous offer I had seen in KL.

Kumudu came along with us to KL Sentral and saw us onto the coach. We had a lovely long ride though the countryside to the Genting Highlands, to the cable car place, and then a long long cable car ride which by far outshone the ride to Santosa in Singapore. What a fantastic panorama spread below us while far above I could see this range of mountains whose tops were lost in the clouds. What a thrill to find out that was where were were going! Up into the clouds. Fantastic! I enjoyed the ride up.

Having landed on terra firma, we set out to explore the rides open to us and what a large number there was. We started off on the spinner which swung us up at roof level. I closed my eyes (in sheer terror of course) and then imagined I was flying! Lovely. That ride finished all to fast. Got off on wobbly legs and wobbled over to the double Decker delight which was a carousal. Sat on an unenthusiastic camel that wouldn’t move. Then went inside to see what rides we were missing! I don’t think we missed too much.

We went on the Mine Train which thundered its way echoing through the tunnels before bursting back onto the platform where adventurous souls awaited their turn.

We took a ride in the mini train which took us around the park and then got onto an antique car which took us the same way. We then did what was for me the most difficult of all , the corkscrew rollercoaster which once we were captive strapped in, took us all over the place including upside down with all of us screaming wanting to be let off (at least I wanted to be let off!).

After that I wanted to sit in a teacup for a soothing ride. I think the guy who was manning it liked the look of us and gave us an extra long ride! May have looked in need of soothing after our scary topsy turvy ride!

We used the peddle boats and had a wonderful time peddling across the little lake. I wanted to go on the motorized ones, but there was always such a crowd to get in that I was discouraged. We went up in the flying jumbo, the mata hari, and ‘experienced’ the space adventure which was supposed to give you the feeling of what happens when you get into a rocket or space craft! Not in the least impressive. Then we had a look at the space shot. I was NOT getting on that one! It was a tall tall post around which 12 people were strapped in and then lifted right to the top (I don’t know how tall it was, but I couldn’t see the top, it was lost in the clouds), and sent plummeting down to earth. I would have died of sheer shock had I got onto that one. No way… absolutely no way!

Walked around the shopping mall after that and went back to kumudu ‘s for a dinner of thosai hot off the griddle accompanied by a delicious chicken curry. Then off to pack for taking off home tomorrow.

Day Seven in Malaysia

2005-09-21T14:44:00.000+06:00

We had asked the hotel concierge to book the Batu Caves tour yesterday, so having got up well in time, we were ready and waiting when our guide came to pick us up on time! We had muuuuuch better crowd on the tour this time. Both parties were picked up from the same hotel. There was a family from Zimbabwe and a mother and daughter duo from California. What fun we had. We visited the chocolate factory (the chocs are rather mattish and gummy……. not very nice) the leather factory, a batik factory, we saw the ‘famous’ rubber tapping demonstration. What a laugh that was!

Let me tell you WHY I find the rubber tapping demo a laugh. The vehicle is stopped by the side of a little ‘garden?’ which has all of about 2-3 rubber trees (I kid you not!). The tour guide then takes out a knife and carves a line in the already mangled tree trunk to show a thin trickle or seeping of ‘rubber’ milk and that’s it! Yup…. That’s it… the famous rubber tapping demo!

Anyway, finally we got to see the batu caves, which was the main reason why we took the tour in the first place. There were 220 steps to reach the lime stone caves. Various statues of Hindu deities dwell there, with Hanuman guarding the exit. There were loads of monkeys running around the caves unafraid of humans who were invading their space. The thing is the place is so very commercialized, you don’t get too much of a chance to appreciate the natural beauty of the limestone caves. On the way back we stopped at another batik factory where the family from Zimbabwe bought a lot of stuff and then it was back to the hotel.

We had arranged with Kumudu to go to her place that afternoon, but we needed to have our lunch, which we did at the Magu Shopping Mall just across the street. The food was clean and the atmosphere great, though it was a bit pricier than the normal places we had frequented. We managed to get a couple of pairs of shoes for dad and then back to the hotel we went. We were advised against leaving to Kumudu’s area, as there would be heavy traffic, so we walked around ‘our’ area a bit more and then took a taxi to Kumudu’s place. Being in the traffic was so frustrating, especially since the taxi meter keeps ticking away regardless of whether you are moving or not. We ended up paying one and a half times the price Kumudu had mentioned.

Casa Vista was a beautiful set of condo’s and Kumudu had made her home beautiful and cozy with samples of her art framed tastefully. After a warm welcome and a look at KL lit up below us, we had dinner and went off to sleep. She had made chapattis for us as a change from the usual Malaysian meals. Kumudu always was a good cook! There was chocolate mousse for dessert too.

Day Six in Malaysia

2005-09-21T14:24:00.001+06:00

We spent a long long time looking for Su’s watch. We practically turned over ecerything in the room. Finally it turned up in her dressing gown pocket!! We left the hotel at around 10.30 a.m. after the usual breakfast. We walked to the win towers, but the tickets were over. People thronged the building and its environs. We took a few pictures and then decided to visit the Communication Tower. We paid 15RM each for the visit and were escorted every step of the way until we reached the observation deck. A fantastic view lay spread at our feet. Panoramic! Guess it would have been better in the evening though if we could have managed to catch a sunset and then the Malaysia put out her night lights. There is a free shuttle bus from the foot of the hill that leads to the tower. Thank goodness for that. A trudge in the hot blistering sun would NOT have been welcome. The air conditioned coach with a courteous driver certainly was welcome.

From there we went to Jamed Majeek in Little India and shopped. We tried a dish called Nasi Goren Kampung at one of the large shopping malls in Little India just across Petaling Street. Walked back to our hotel, first stopping at Giants were I discovered they had the Arnotte’s mint chocolate biscuits. I love the stuff.

Oh and the most horrid thing happened at Giants Mall. There was this man who persistently followed us around. Every time we turned a corner there he was, eyes practically on stalks. We walked in and around the supermarket, and just couldn’t shake the fellow off. Finally I walked up to one of a coffee shop and asked to be directed to the Mall security personnel. Once the security guy was pointed out to me, I purposefully walked towards him…… I was certainly going to complain. I remembered our guide from one of the tours commenting on the harsh punishments for rape. I hoped that harassment of this sort would be discouraged too. I’m probably right. I didn’t have to actually complain to the security, just the sight of me walking up to the guy sent our stalker racing out of the Mall, all across the street ignoring the blaring of horns of the cars racing past. Phew!

19th July 2005 – Day 5 in KL

2005-09-21T14:16:00.000+06:00

Got up late despite of wake up call at 6.45 a.m. Rushed through breakfast and ended up being picked up only at 9.00 a.m. Grrrr. The tours or at least Tour 51 is NOT one I would recommend. We were picked up at the hotel by car and then taken to the Information Centre. Then we had this long wait and the tour that was supposed to start at 9.00 a.m. only took off at 10.00 am. That too, after much fuss and indecision about which bus the various people had to be loaded onto. Since there were about 7 of us for the Malaka tour, they put us into a gray van. After sitting around a while, another man came, off loaded us and put us into this ramshackle old van. What an inauspicious start off. Finally we got onto the real ‘tour’ it was about a two hour drive to Malaka with the guide doing very little ‘guiding’! Almost everyone was soon bored enough to fall asleep.

There was a couple from Australia, a lady secretary also from Australia and a very amorous couple from Saudi Arabia. As an aside I may add that I thought us Asians are conservative where our affections or rather demonstration of our affections are concerned, especially in public and I had heard that the Arabian countries are much more so. Maybe things are changing, for certainly I saw no such conservativeness where these two were concerned. Surprising too since the lady was all covered up in black with only her eyes showing through the veil. The veil of course came askew very soon in the excess of their demonstrations!!!! Raised eyebrows by yours truly!!

Then the guide woke up to say we were entering Malaka. Of course all of us perked up in spite of the weather. Our guide was optimistic that the rain would blow away, but sadly enough his prediction did not hold true. It only cleared up when we left Malaka – or perhaps we left the rain in Malaka for the sunnier climes of KL.

I don’t know whether it was the rain, or whether all tours to Malaka are a bit of a wash out – but for seeing another city – it was rather a waste of a day.

Anyway, we were shown a picturesque Portuguese village, a fishing village, a beach or rather, mud flats which passed as a beach. A curious thing was that most of the houses, especially the older ones, were built on stilts. The guide’s explanation was that it was a precaution against snakes and also to make the houses ‘portable’. What a sweet idea. You dislike you neighbourhood or want a change of scenery, you just pack up your house and literally move house!!!

We were shown a Muslim cemetery, where the tombstones over men were pointed and those over women were flat. Then there was the Chinese Cemetery which is built so that on certain days, the relations come and spend the entire day with their dead loved ones.

We also saw St Peter’s Church both the old and new and the place where his body was kept. The old church is in ruins and it was quite a dicey deal climbing up the stairway in the pouring rain balancing ourselves and our umbrellas.

We were given 45 minutes to visit the old church. Just below the church was a museum which I would have loved to have visited. Our guide never told us about it. As usual Sunethra and I wandered over (rather too late though) and discovered that the intriguingly shaped building was a palace/museum. The entrance fee was only 2RM. I’m sure the stupid guide could have let us go in out of the rain. Everyone would have appreciated that! My friend Kumudu told me that the museum was quite worth a visit. Of course this she mentioned after we came back, since she thought it would be included in the tour!

Anyway, after that we were taken to a lovely Chinese restaurant for a typical Chinese lunch. It was a lovely lunch indeed with water-melon for dessert and green tea to wash it all down with.

To finish off the tour, we were taken to the Jonkers walk in China Town and given half an hour or so to explore the rustic streets and mysterious Chinese shops. There was also a beautiful Chinese Buddhist temple to see.

After that we all piled back into the van and were driven back to the hotel. As far as tours go, it was rather disappointing cos’ we didn’t get to see much, perhaps partially due to the rain. Perhaps another tour operator may do better?

We had a brief rest and then visited the Sogo supermarket to do some shopping. We bought dinner at a hawker street place. It was a nice dinner of Spicy rice and chicken and soup (I can’t remember what it was called though) the owner was sweet! He went through a great deal of trouble doing a demo to show us what would go into the meal. We had him pack it for us to take back to the hotel to eat in comfort. We finished it off with peanut ice-cream from our forays into the supermarket. Today was a nice day cos we were not too tired out. We watched a bit of TV (the TV channels in the hotel need to be looked into – there’s quite a bit of snowing and only one or two channels show programs in English) and then went off to the land of nod.

Moonlight and Roses - 18th August 2005

2005-08-21T15:31:00.000+06:00

That was the theme of the DBU get-together on Thursday the 18^th of August. The grand old hall was decorated with silver and blue balloons, while over the bandstand a dozen long stemmed roses hung suspended from the ceiling. Each table had a long centre-piece of silver cloth on which petals of red roses were strewn with a blue saucer holding a blue candle dusted with silver was shaded by a glass chimney. There were nearly 70 people present, all ready and waiting to have a rollicking time. The band Lazer was playing and they opened the evening with the tune ‘Moonlight and Roses’. They played a lot of romantic music and the dance floor was always crowded.

The caterers, Perera and Sons, had produced a wonderful menu for dinner which included seafood salad, lasagna and roast pork!!! For dessert there was my favourite chocolate mousse. I certainly enjoyed my dinner.

Then there was a game where a blue balloon was tied onto the wrist of each lady on the dance floor. Their task was to burst the balloon of the other ladies while preserving their own. No gent was allowed to ‘help’. Soon just two couples circled the floor each carefully preserving their balloon but not making any move to ‘attack’. Finally one person, yours truly, oh so gracefully allowed one of the organizers to burst the balloon and let the other couple win, otherwise we could have gone on all night! Am I not wonderful now??

The game for the gents was soo much more fun to watch. A dozen gentlemen were asked to get onto the floor, and a banana, dangling on the end of a twine was wrapped around their waists with the banana dangling a couple of inches off the floor. Placed on the floor, in front of each person, was a box of matches. Their task was to swing the banana and move the matchbox along the floor to the finishing line. Oh what fun we had with that! It was HILARIOUS!!! What moves!!! I must say all the gents on the floor were really great sports!

There was more music for dancing, waltzes, jives, cha-cha’s and baila and the ‘Moonlight and Roses’ ended by 1.30 p.m. with the band packing up to leave. What a lovely evening!

18th July 2005 our fourth day in KL

2005-08-11T15:16:00.000+06:00

Kumudu woke us up in the morning with a telephone call and wanted us to go to the Information centre to plan out the rest of our tour. So after breakfast which had my favourite sandwiches again, we followed her advice and walked over to the information centre and collected a whole lot of information. We booked ourselves onto a tour to Malacca for the next day as well.

Then, after a bit of discussion we took the monorail to see the old railway station which is supposed to be a ‘must see’ with its minarets and arches and beautiful domes. I do agree. It IS a ‘must see’ for anyone who appreciates beautiful architecture (and who doesn’t?). It is lovely! No one would believe such a lot of loving detailed care has gone into a busy place such as a railway station.

Our next stop was the Mosque. It is stunningly beautiful and simple and clean. We walked around a bit but couldn’t go it because it was prayer time. Then following the advice of our Information Centre we went looking for the tram car stop beyond the mosque, only to find that is was not functioning. Now I’m not too certain whether it was a temporary thing cos’ Monday seems to be a day when everything goes dead in Malaysia, or whether the tram was permanently out. Anyway having taken the long way around we panted our way to the butterfly park. They wanted 15RM entrance fee and after a quick look at the other attractions of the area and having gotten some advice from a friendly cab driver, we decided to give it a skip. I must admit our previous experience of the butterfly park of Singapore was a huge put off for butterfly parks. Singapore was such a rip off. They had pinned dead butterflies in glass cases and called it the butterfly park!! Stunningly cunning. Of course the people here assured me it was not the case in Malaysia, but we decided to skip it anyway.

We continued on our way and found the Hibiscus Garden. Anyone even vaguely interested in flowers should definably visit the hibiscus garden. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Apart from its beauty, the entrance is free as well!!!

One of the very few grumbles I have of Malaysia is their despairingly bad directions. One would be better off without their sign boards. They are horrible!!!!! There should be a law against their sign boards! What a lot of walking we did following these darned sign boards, while had they been clearer, we wouldn’t have walked our legs off!

Anyway, I digress. Let me go back to the gardens now. The approach to the Orchid Garden is through the Hibiscus gardens. So even if you are only interested in the orchids, you need to go through the other or give both a miss. I for one thought it was really, really beautiful and well worth the visit. In the middle of the hibiscus garden is a building that for some reason reminded me of the tales of Caesars’ palace. A pink building covered in orange hibiscus (I kid you not – orange) which housed a stream of water running the length of the building with two ponds on either side with a few benches alongside to sit and relax on. Beautiful and so refreshingly cool!

The Orchid Gardens were stunning. I had never seen totally orange coloured orchids before. They grew in gay perfusion and made our visit well worth it. Sunethra went crazy over them. A friendly security guard went through great lengths to show us the only orchid, I think, which has a smell. We dutifully sniffed the orchid, which surprisingly didn’t look very attractive, but smelt delicious. We later noticed that there seems to be another entrance to the gardens close to the bird park. Anyone doing the Lake Garden Area should definitely ensure that the tram is running, have a very good map and have very good walking shoes!

We went looking for the Deer Park and came across the Lake Gardens. Oh it is so beautiful. There is actually a lake! (No that was not sarcasm – I find a lot of places are so inappropriately named, that it is quite a surprise to find that it is not so sometimes) Again the place seemed closed and all the peddle boats docked, but what a lovely, lovely place it was. This area reminded us of the English parks with lovely bridges and large areas of flowers growing in abundant profusion. We sat for a bit of a rest and to take in the beauty. A bunch of school boys were having fun chasing the ducks around the parkland and into the pond. The area seems very large and just the kind of place to spend an evening of relaxation. Too bad we didn’t have that much time to spend there.

And guess what we found near the park???? The tram!!! I was beginning to think that it was a figment of my imagination and that no tram existed. But there it was – PARKED! While my sister and I had to trudge our way around the area – PARKED! Totally unacceptable!

Anyway, we finally located the Deer Park which was next on our list of the Lake Garden Area. Once again entrance is free, and I am not surprised in the least! They should PAY those who bother going there! Ramshackle is the word that springs to mind. It is badly neglected and not worth the trouble we went through to locate it. There were a few spotted deer and this we saw from a high vantage point close to the Bird Park. It seems to be a favourite jogging track for the residents of the area, but certainly not an attraction in my view. I was a hot and tired after the long walk and was in no mood to manufacture any reason why anyone in their right minds (and we were not?!*$*#) should go there!

Our final short stop was the Planetarium. We didn’t want to go all the way in, mainly because it looked like another LONG walk to get there. But while passing the grounds we saw a duplicate Stonehenge! Of course I had to stop there then. We took a few pictures in the fading light, and saw a few more ‘duplicate’ star finding or star gazing places.

Somehow our walk brought us neatly back to the Mosque. So in we trudged to have a look at the inside. Once again we were given long blue robes and matching scarves to don. The cool marble floors felt heavenly to our bare feet. We wandered around enjoying the spacious serenity and coolness of the place and then decided to visit the ladies wash room before going back. How glad I was that I did that! It was the first time I had been in a washroom for Moslem ladies. There were rows of taps where one could wash one’s face hands and feet, there were shower cubicles and a separate area for the loos. It was very clean and quite …… well…… fascinating I guess!

We parted with our robes and bid farewell to the security people and found ourselves near Petaling Street. This was familiar ground, so we quickly found the monorail station to take the train back to our hotel to watch Desperate Wives on TV before dropping off to sleep after quite a hectic day.

Day Three in Malaysia - 17th July 2005

2005-08-11T05:12:00.000+06:00

We woke up again to the bustling sounds of the morning traffic of Malaysia. Breakfast turned out to be not too different from the previous morning. There were some switches made. There was rice instead of the noodles and vegetable puffs instead of the spring rolls and French roast instead of the sandwiches which I liked so much.

We had a consultation with our concierge at the hotel and on his advice went to Medan Tuanku station and took the monorail to Imbi looking for DVD players and an XD card for the camera. We went to one of the computer places, but inspite of it being 10.30 a.m., it was still closed. So we didn’t get to look around the place, which was called computer paradise or something like that. I think they start work after 11.00 a.m.!!!

Anyway, we walked around another plaza and paid 175Rm for a 258MB DX Card. Much later I realized that I had not even been given a receipt for the payment I had made! Clever me!!

I wanted to see the Bukit Binthang area. We gave it special attention cos’ most of the b&b places advertised on the net come from this area and it is supposed to be a very touristy kind of place. It did seem lovely though perhaps a little pricier that the other places we’d been to. We managed to get hold of a phone card for 15RM and called home.

The next stop we wanted to make was China Town. So we found another monorail station to take us there. It turned out to be lovely! We first visited a Chinese temple just outside the station, where an old Chinese man tried to persuade us to worship at his temple and demanding a ‘donation’ of 5$. There were some statues that looked the teeniest bit scary so we backed out of there in a bit of a hurry especially since the old man was very insistent that we WORSHIP there.

Right next to or rather just below the temple at road level is another large ancient looking building to honour the dead. It had a beautiful, intricately designed doorway that beckoned to us very enticingly. It was a huge, lovely red door with dragons painted on in gold. Very inviting! We went in, looked around and took some pictures.

We then found our way to the famous Petaling Street. Walked the entire length of it, and went into a Mall across the street for lunch in the Food Court. Our lunch turned out to be lovely too. It was called Nasi Pataya. Spicy rice covered with an omelette which is then decorated with sauce and accompanied by a soup. It was lovely! Of course it does take a bit of time to communicate one’s wants to those at the food courts. I would point to a picture and want to know what went into the dish before I ordered it. Imagine if I get a snake or something equally repulsive!!!!! Yucks!!! Lots of people seem to favour steamed rice and with a curry or two to taking the more ‘exotic ‘ dishes.

We walked about a bit more and popped into McDonalds for mixed vanilla and chocolate ice-cream. We were quite tired and wound our way back through Petaling Street to the taxi stand. The street comes alive in the night. The roadway which only had stalls on either side and a few folding tables in the middle in the afternoon was packed with people and little stalls stacked one against the other which had sprung up in a couple of hours. They sold everything from shoes to clothes and most of all to watches of every style and colour one could think of. The taxi guy wanted 25RM back to the hotel. which we had been warned would be waaaay too much. So we walked back to the monorail station, and went back to our hotel for just 2.20 RM per person! The monorail runs till at 11.00 p.m. in the night….. thank goodness for that!

Our First Full Day in KL - 16th July 2005

2005-08-11T04:05:00.000+06:00

I got up with this great feeling of excitement and expectancy. It was our first day in KL. Had a quick peek out at wonderful KL, showered and went down for breakfast around 7.30 or so. The breakfast was quite good. I was happy after the miserable experience we had at the Garden Hotel in Singapore! There was cereal, toast, some delicious sandwiches, spring rolls, noodles, rice with chicken curry, half-boiled eggs, some local soupy thing with rice and all the accompaniments (I never did try that out!) pineapple juice and tea and coffee to finish off. Very nice indeed!

After breakfast we found our way to the train station and went to Masjid Jamek which we later found out was actually walking distance away. Anyway, not knowing this, we took the monorail and went the one halt. Just outside the station was this busy bazaar full of street vendors. Leaving it behind we followed our map to find the Masjid Jamek Mosque. We were not sure whether we would be let inside seeing that we were two ladies and especially since yours truly was dressed in a sleeveless T-shirt. The security person turned out to be very sweet indeed. He led us over to a rack of long garments and scarves, had us don these and then gave us permission to walk around the mosque. The only thing that didn’t please me was his request for a 5RM ‘donation’! I saw two other European tourists having to dish out similar ‘donations’. Anyway, we had some fun taking pictures of the two of us in our very Moslem looking costumes.

We then found the SLT Ahd Samad Building which is some kind of a court house. Too bad it was the weekend, or else we may have been able to have a peek inside as well. The building itself is very beautiful. We walked along the entire stretch ending up near City Point which was a lovely lacey looking building. We crossed over and walked back past the Merdeke Square – Independence Square, where the tallest flag pole in Asia stands proud. We also visited the history museum in the same grounds. There was a club built in the English style, with a large lawn, bowers and graceful arches outside. What a lovely touristy area it was. There were large buses disgorging loads of eager tourists with their cameras. They were such a little time for taking photos before being shooed back to the buses; I was so glad we came on our own and could explore the place at our own pace and pleasure! The last in that area was a fountain in the shape of very large flowers. We took pictures there too.

We were soon quite hungry and thirsty after all this unaccustomed exercise in the hot burning sun. So we walked around until we came to the Magu Curry House. We were given a plateful of steamed rice with a range of curries to choose from. The curry which looked nice and spicy turned out to be like chutney… quite sweet and horried! Our over-eager waiter who was describing all the delicacies of his land even offered himself to take back with us!!!! His very kind offer was ……ahem…. regretfully……well… declined.

We then found our way back to the market place, tried out the sugar cane and rose water drinks and then after quite a bit of inquiring, found our way to the Indian Night market which only operates on Saturday nights. This I would recommend to anyone visiting KL. Don’t miss the night market in Little India. There is quite a price difference in the goods and there’s this wonderful ambience. What a pity it was our first night there, or else I would have bought a more things to take home with us.

Malaysians love their food. Everything smelt delicious. There were whole areas dedicated entirely to food of all types. We got some roast chicken for dinner and bought a swiss roll which looked heavenly and chocolaty. We tried out dried cherries and sweets and even had some bean curd and honey which looked like the Sri Lankan curd and honey…. Only it turned out to be a lukewarm, tasteless concoction….. Ugh. The ladies selling it were enthusiastic in its virtues of being good for the skin and so on. Well not for me!!! Thank you!

The sweets of Malaysia were very attractive in a multitude of shapes and sizes. Most of them were made out of creamed rice and flour. We pounced on some chocolate looking sweets only to find that most of them tasted the same - rather bland, cool and with no particular taste. The chocolate ones we pounced on with glee – well, they didn’t taste of chocolate in the least! There were loads of fruit, mostly sold by the kilo. Some of the fruit I had never seen before. What fun we had exploring the new tastes and sights of KL.

We had been out the entire day and were feeling pretty tired by the time we reached the hotel. We dined on roast chicken and with great anticipation opened up our soft and fluffy swiss roll. That turned out to be quite a disappointment for a sweet tooth such as myself. They use very little sugar indeed! I must admit I didn’t like it very much though it looked so appealing. Oh poor me!

Malaysia - here we come!!

2005-08-08T17:12:00.000+06:00

We left Colombo at 7.10 a.m. on the 15^th of July 2005 on Flight No.UL 312. Mum and Dad came along with us to the airport to see us off. We landed in Kuala Lumpur at 10.45 a.m. (Colombo time) 12.45 noon KL time. They are two hours ahead of us. I must say the flight was a pleasant one with a friendly crew and decent food.

Having landed in the KL airport, we had to take the aero train to the baggage claim. That, I thought, was very impressive. Imagine having an airport large enough to have to take a train ride to get to the other end of it - Wow! Having cleared immigration quite easily we then proceeded to the taxi counter.

A note to other greenhorns such as ourselves who are too sure about how to set about this…. use the airport taxi counter located just within the premises. As you leave the main doors leading to the reception or waiting area, you find loads of touts for hotels and taxis and limos and so on. The people are dressed kinda officially and yell out quite imperiously making you feel that you have done something wrong and need to speak with them and clear it up… you will then find yourself pressured quite expertly into tours or whatever. We had this experience the first time we landed in Thailand, and learned never to respond to these commanding voices!

Anyway, we went over to the taxi counter where we booked a taxi to our hotel, the Grand Centrepoint Hotel. The taxi only cost us 67.40 RM. We then went out to the gate indicated and found another helpful individual out there to help us locate a taxi which took us to the hotel, if rather the long way around.

Grand Centrepoint Hotel, is not has grand as it sounds being a kind of budget hotel, but I was so glad to see it. My friend Kumudu had already booked us in for three nights, so in we went to register ourselves and then upto our room (No.503). What a lovely albeit noisy view we had. I could see the Sogo shopping complex straight ahead of us, and the Maju complex and University, then to my left, I could see the Communication Tower and the monorail line.

Practically as soon as we reached our room the phone rang. Kumudu had been worried cos’ we reached the hotel late. Anyway, she came along to see us to welcome us to KL and accompany us to the Sogo Shopping Mall from where she took a taxi home.

Sunethra and I wondered around, found a hawker street food stall and had our first Malaysian meal, Mee Goreng Mamak which cost all of 3.50 RM per plate. It turned out to be a mixture of noodles and various kinds of meat and fish and prawn. We walked around a bit more imbibing the atmosphere. We soon felt rather tired and went back to the hotel for a hot shower, hot tea and then to bed. Thus ended our first day in Kuala Lumpur.

2005-07-23T03:25:00.000+06:00

This we dared not try out

Tree of Life – Kandy

2005-06-23T04:41:00.000+06:00

Yesterday, being Poya, the chairperson of the next SLAAPS project, Anjalika, decided to visit the Tree of Life where we intend having our residential seminar on the 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd of July. Luckily for us, i.e. Margi and my wonderful tender self, she brought along her husband and son (as backup driver) in their pajero. The original plan had been to go down in an Intercity Bus and then use Trishaws for our running around. So that saved us a lot of hassle. Phew!

Acting as mom she had brought along toasties for breakfast, though we stopped at Pusellawa rest house for hot tea and sweets.

Our first stop was the Queens Hotel in Kandy. The hotel though a little shabby still maintains its old world charm. I liked the wooden polished floors, the huge windows tastefully curtained and the princess type wing backed chairs. The covers on the chairs were not in the best of repair, but the lines of the chairs are still beautiful with the huge table in the middle of the foyer holding an enormous urn of flowers. I like old hotels that are proud of their individuality and don’t rush out to give too much sumptuous plushness. It makes a refreshing change indeed.

The next stop was Salon Rosita to speak to the lady scheduled to do one of the lectures. Her salon proved to be a well equipped one, which made us wish we had more time to spend there!

Finally we made our way to the Tree of Life. At first glance it does not have a grand appearance. It is apparently and old estate bungalow converted into a hotel in a huge acreage of land including a tea plantation. Mr Paldano the General Manager met us and then gave us a tour of the hotel and its facilities.

The conference hall was large and well lit and immediately met with our approval. The tour of the rooms proved to be quite an experience indeed. Mr Paldano is quite the show man I think. He showed us several types of rooms and ended up with this magnificent suite where I immediately wanted to take up residence in!

Actually Margi and I had this steady stream of booking of rooms for every type, each one being better than the last we saw. They had several separate cottage type units too.

Anyone who wishes to book into the hotel, should definitely have a look at all their rooms before deciding. I presume there is an escalating price range, but explore you definitely should!

The views from most of the rooms is fabulous unless marred by the parking lot or entry way.

We also had a look at their Ayurvedic massage therapy rooms for which the hotel is famous. They had quaint little huts with massage beds and tubs for steeping in and finally, what looked like a coffin……. their steam treatment. That is defiantly one facility I intend to make use of!

We then sat down to lunch in the large dining hall. They had a good spread of Sri Lankan food and desserts. There was even karavila, del, mallung along with curried crab.

Finally, we reluctantly left the gracious hospitality of Mr Paldano of the Tree of Life to make our way back to Colombo, first stopping to buy fruit on the way. I’m sure all the participants of the seminar will love the hotel!

The Queen’s Ball on the 20th of June 2005

2005-06-22T01:59:00.000+06:00

The day was celebrated by the SLUK Sri Lanka UK Society at the TransAsia Hotel. There were over 300 guests who were first hosted to cocktails and then to a delicious several course dinner.

During the entire evening the band ‘Friends in Harmony’ played some beautiful music with Clifford Richards singing plus doing the compeering. Now I feel that Clifford Richards sings beautifully, but I don’t think he should be allowed anywhere near compeering. One thing I’ve noticed about him is that he talks waaaaay too much between songs and most times, the people on the floor wait a minute or so and then walk off while he goes on and on and on talking.

Then by the time the next song is played, those who have walked over to their tables, don’t want to bother winding their way past tables and people to the dance floor again. Too too bad of him. I would NOT recommend him as compere to any dance. People like Faizal Bongzo know how to keep the ball rolling, and also know when to let a good thing be without interruption. I noticed that during dinner they played some tunes that had the feet just itching to dance. Some people did so too, but instead of playing on, the music was brought to a halt and those who had danced with so much gusto went back to their seats rather deflated.

Still, altogether, it was a lovely lovely evening. Gifts were given to the ladies after dinner which was a very thoughtful gesture indeed…. The gifts, as well as the fact that it was given later in the evening, so that one was not compelled to walk about dangling an evening bag in one hand and a bag of goodies in the other.

Udesh and his wife Charmain both won gifts off the raffles. There were many gifts and Charmain won the home shredder while Udesh won the first prize …. an air ticket to London courtesy Kuwait Airways.

The evening finished off with a few beautiful waltzes at around 1.00 p.m.

What a lovely show SLUKS put on.

Hilton Bash

2005-06-20T05:01:00.000+06:00

On Saturday the 18^th of June, Hilton Colombo held its annual bash for secretaries. I was one of the lucky people invited to this fun filled day out.

We met up at 7.30 in the morning… yup, 7.30 a.m. at the Ill Ponte for breakfast. I was lucky that Kumari offered to pick me up at Rajagiriya, so we were well in time to be warmly welcomed at the entrance by the Manager Asoka and introduced to Chris and the Hilton team. We were then given ribbons of varied colours to put us into groups, duly name tagged and then led in to enjoy a lovely breakfast buffet. Many of the SLAAPS girls were there, so we were right at home.

After breakfast we were loaded into four large luxury coaches and driven to the Dolphin Hotel in Negombo, where we were welcomed with garlands of gokkola and araliya flowers and then led into to the lounge for a welcome drink.

Then on to our day rooms for a quick change to gear up for the games. The way to the rooms was ‘decorated’ with guys painted as gold statuettes posing all along the way. Of course all our girls had a wonderful time posing along with the statues who tried very hard not to smile!

After a quick change it was the games……And what games they had! They started off with the hotel entertainment crew doing a couple of dances for us including ‘Greased Lightening’ oh it was marvelous and had most of the girls trying hard to copy the sinuous moves made by the guys.

Then they played the Macarena for us all to try out. We must have looked a sight and a half with our arms waving about in every which way!

Next we had a treasure hunt. Little parcels of cookies had been hidden all around the hotel grounds. Soon all the girls were fanning out checking the loungers, the dustbins (??!!) the towels, the trees, the shrubs, the tall umbrellas and even ousting the guys behind the bar to rummage around the bottles and ice cubes! I think the only places not checked out would have been the tops of the coconut trees.

Wine, cocktails, beer, fruit juices, cold drinks and accharu was being circulated throughout the day for steady refreshment. They had a long red marquee under which were loungers with pillows and roll cushions thrown in for anyone to sprawl in and talk, there were shaded tables around the pool for those who wanted to sit there.

Next they had a ‘blanket race’. The four groups were given four blankets. They had to put two people into each blanket and race to the finish line. That was NOT as easy as it sounds with so many people carrying the blanket and running into each other.

There was then a beach volley ball game, tug-o-war, and pool games - dive for spoons and again a ball game. For those who didn’t want to get into the sunlit pool there was music for dancing.

There was an absolutely fabulous luncheon spread, (my favourites being a crab meat salad and the handmade chocolates!!).

The last event was a ‘beauty contest’ There were 15 contestants, who were then asked to introduce themselves, do five poses and a catwalk. They were of course tutored by the ‘famous’ Siriyalatha, with his blond curls, extravagant bosom and hairy legs showing them some ‘sexy’ poses which had everyone rolling around in fits of laughter.

The girls were reminded that most men are nagged at for leaving the toilet seats up in their homes, and also for not ‘aiming straight’. As penalty or trial if you may, they were each given a water filled coke bottle to be held between their legs and a beer mug placed a between their feet. Their mission was to release the mouth of the coke bottle and try to direct the ensuing stream into the beer mug without splashing the immediate environs.

That was absolutely hilarious. We spectators had so much fun with the concentrated looks on the girls faces. Priceless! The poses and cat walks had us giggling too. There were self-conscious poses, funny ones, haughty ones, confident ones and course some real beauties.

They finally picked a winner and two runners’ up, gave them bouquets of flowers, sashes while the winner was crowned. The ultimate triumph was the huge pastry crown placed oh so carefully on the winner’s head, while garlands of buns were gently placed around the necks of the runners up. One thing I really really liked was that though many of the girls from the Hilton were there, and very pretty they were too, they did not take part in the contest. As an aside I may add that they would have won all three spots hands down. But Hilton was the perfect host in every single way making each and every invitee feel special indeed.

We then had a draw where all the invitees names had been placed in a bowl and drawn out. There were LOADS of winners as there were so many prizes to win. There was also someone calling out for things which we had to find and be the first to take it up to the compeer, Gigi. She just seemed to draw inspiration out of thin air. A pink bra, she requested with the men waiting impatiently to see the person wearing one. Purple underwear, silver nail varnish, stiletto heels, black slippers, a scarf, blue jeans (oh there was a stampede for that one!) a glass (those seated nearby were generously splashed with water by those rushing past carrying water filled glasses), salt and pepper shakers, a gold sash, a silver sash, a chair (I got a prize for that as I was seated right there!) and so on.

Finally each and every invitee was given a huge gift from the Hilton (a business set) Yes, it was been a wonderful day indeed, finishing up with was a delicious spread for tea and then onto the buses to go back to Colombo.

Well done Hilton Colombo!