Mummo & Heikki

Anu's mum and Heikki arrived last night - as CHOGM has the city centre all locked up we've brought them straight to Mt. Lavinia's beach hut.

Legends of the tuk tuk: #7

Breakfast visual echo

The view from the balcony at 6 a.m. yesterday morning. Odd how the cloud line seems to mimic the skyline.

Legends of the tuk tuk: #6

Legends of the tuk tuk: #5b

Normally, the legend reads that Che WANT YOU TO REBEL but the tuk tuk I was just behind had a new and slightly ominous twist:
CHE GUEVARA WANT TO MEET WITH YOU

Legends of the tuk tuk #5: Che vs Bob

Maybe one in ten tuk tuks features either one or the other of these icons:

I can't say that I feel too rebellious taking a rebel music ride to the kindergarten or a revolutionary tuk tuk trip to the supermarket, but I try.

Mirissa

Last weekend we went to the whale watching capital, Mirissa, for a couple of days. (But, before you ask, didn't go on a whale watching trip as the season only starts from next month.) It is a nice, quiet and clean beach compared to Unawatuna, and the beachside less built up. Our hotel was located on a windy little spit, with a small coconut grove garden that afforded views of the crescent bays either side. The hotel was rather basic but did feature a wonderful sculpture of a monk bearing the ginger Christ child sat upon an open Bible, all sealed within a plastic bag like a goldfish at a fair.

Legends of the tuk tuk: No. 4

Cash Deposit 70

From the balcony

White-throated kingfisher

... and foxheads stalk this land.

6 days later

... the sun is setting.

The joys of football

Three days bed rest, two weeks before I play sport again, three to six months before the swelling has gone down and a lifetime of having a weak ankle. That was fourty-five minutes well spent. 

ABBA

They look different to how I remember ...

The Buddhist TV

To my mind the most striking and remarkable thing about Colombo is its trees. While generally the town is short on the things that make it friendly towards humans, like pavements (which only exist alongside the main roads) and parks, there is always an abundance of wonderful trees.

Anyhow, one tree of note is found on R G Senanayake Mawatha, aka Gregory's Street (and as you can see why it has a certain homely feel to me - it is a broad, fairly quiet street with a pavement, it is lined with trees and even has red pillar boxes).

A little further down the road you come to The Buddhist TV, the home of the national Buddhist television channel and you can see here how they have cunningly disguised their broadcasting mast to look (a little) like a tree.

Where the streets have new names

The street names in Colombo have all been nationalised and the old colonial names shed. While I think this is a good thing it has not really been done in a very practical way.

Done well, Torrington Place - whose name celebrated Lord Governer Torrington (aka George Byng, the 7th Viscount Torrington) who was infamous for his cruelty in suppressing the 1848 peasant revolt - is now named Independence Avenue, which can only be a good thing.

But to give you some other examples, what was Albert Road is now Sri Dharmakeertiyarama Road and Church Road is now Sir Mohamed Macan Markar Mawatha. Now, while I am more than happy to wave goodbye to Albert and the Church, and while that last name is a wonderful bit of alliteration, it is just not practical to say when you are giving directions.

And being very aware that this could sound like a classic bit of British post-colonial colonial resentment ... I can say that this attitude is confirmed by a number of the taxi drivers of Colombo I have encountered who continue to use the old colonial names and often don't even know the 'new' street name (they have mostly been renamed since independence in 1948).

Father, Mother, Comrade Chief

(AKA Spiderman = American Power)

You Are Best

Colombo Swimming Club

The club is comically loomed over by this gigantic building that emits bat-like sonic cheeps as hammer guns are used in the concrete.

And of course, Arthur has always been here before. This cheesily titled plaque was put in a corner, by his favourite table (you can see him sitting in it in the framed picture, with the plaque installed behind him). There is no table there now however; just a service counter.