Tree of Life – Kandy

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

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

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!