I took photos!

I listened to my little brother and used Picasa.

There are some photos here

https://picasaweb.google.com/102763061807650953542/May2012TripToSriLankaFirstCoupleOfDays

and the same ones with captions here

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Jg0Nx6kd8VgTwgxZjCFVVdMTjNZETYmyPJy0liipFm0?feat=directlink

I hope they work. Please let me know if they don't.

The two versions can be explained by my learning curve. I'm as new to Picasa as I am to the idea of taking pictures. I will start taking some outside my house as soon as I'm carrying my own camera. 

Help needed with photos!

My friend Harry takes pictures. He has a very cool camera and drools over lenses in the way others might drool over food, money or pretty girls. So it was a mistake to ask him for advice on whether I should bother getting a camera because the answer was inevitable. I listened to some very complicated advice and tried to get him to understand how bad I am taking photos. Cheeringly, he didn't believe this and was kind enough to lend me his most simple camera. He even gave me a tutorial before I left Dubai and made me prove I understood how to point and press a button. His last words were "take lots of photos". Now, I don't take photos; there are very few photos of me around and even fewer photos that I've taken but this place is gorgeous. I haven't even started thinking about photos outside my place yet and I find myself inspired to capture how lovely it is. As I can't write it I thought I'd try to take some pictures.

I now have a roll of photos. They document the last couple of days and fail spectacularly to show how incredibly scary it was last night in the pitch dark (Btw, I am prepared for tonight as I have two torches, lots of batteries (although I can't get the torches open to make sure they work) and two electric lanterns are charging. I'm thinking this will do whilst waiting for the electrician and finding good candles and candle holders).

I want to be able to look at them and I've uploaded them to iPhoto so I can do so. But I'd also like to share them and it seems that I'm an idiot as I can't get Flickr to work. Can anyone help? I've made a slideshow, given the photos captions and thought that I'd sorted it by emailing them to my address but that means I've lost all the captions. It's annoying. Any help gratefully received. 

Getting organised

I think I freaked out my "Sri Lanka" family on arrival by being much more focused on getting wifi up and running than on water or bed. But my life is possible dirty and tired, not without internet. Fabulously it's really strong. I spent a few hours last night listening to the radio and writing an enormous to-do list to share with the guys so things can get done when I'm away. I've also made a project plan insofar as I am now clear on what I can do over the next few days that makes it likely that, when I next come back, things will have moved on a lot. Notice I say "likely" as, although I'm doing all I can to make things work this is still very much a developing country and so there are often interesting reasons for set backs. This, despite the best efforts of  the family, including getting into the water tanks to clean them.

I've just been interrupted by the amazing massage lady, Shamali, turning up. She's a beautifully presented woman in her late 40s, unassuming and very warm. She was fantastic when I last stayed in Negombo (the time I bought here). And I loved the way I felt completely protected and safe in her hands.

I want to have her come every day when I'm in town and if friends come to stay and want to take advantage of a great massage for the tiniest fraction of the cost one is used to paying then great. We're negotiating a bulk price and conditions and she's also telling me what stuff I need to make the massage area work: things I hadn't considered but are now in place for when electrician and plumber turn up. These are like gold dust it seems. I've just found out that we should get the massage table made and how much that's likely to cost. This would have taken forever when I'm not here so we are making some progress! And I'll be getting a massage too so all is well.

Shamali is really lovely. She can't help me this time until Monday as she's going to visit a church. When waiting for the family to turn up she insisted on cleaning my porch only giving me a very slight disapproving look for not doing it as soon as I woke up like a civilised person. I don't think she has very high expectations of me.

I am not an avaricious person - repeat until true

I want this. I really, really want this. Please will someone buy it for me?
http://www.springwise.com/style_design/swedish-hotels-invisible-glass-tree-room-purchased/

Update

I have just spent 4 hours waiting for water to sort it itself out. We are now close to having a working system and I am very pleased as being filthy has stopped being fun. 

Water, bed

Yesterday morning I woke up at 6 and, as usual, checked my emails. There was a lovely one from an Irish guy I met in Istanbul airport the other day and he asked if I was planning my next trip to Sri Lanka. I looked at my diary and realised I had a few free days so I got onto Emirates and arranged a flight for 0245

I packed and carried on with my day as normal. This was a mistake as my normal last Tuesday of the month involves going to the Capital Club and drinking too much. For this reason I slept like a baby on the plane (frightening the steward as I learned this morning by snarling at him when he woke me for food)  and now have a headache. A bad one.

I arrived at 915 Sri Lanka time and was picked up by my Sri Lankan family. We dropped things off at the house and realised that although, thank God, the internet works, there is no bed and no running water. Hmmm. I rather need both. Now. 

So the last few hours have been spent getting organised. And eating Brayen's mum's delicious lunch of fish curry, beetroot symbol (?) and apple and cucumber salad. Now I have the cabana set up with a mattress and a mosquito net. Actually, let's be honest. Brayen's mum and brother have done that. Brayen's dad has all the necessary for making the water work and is about to start fixing it when he's finished putting a lock on the door.  

As it turns out, not having water or a bed doesn't really feel stressful when you're surrounded by beauty and have good people who can make things happen. I'm very lucky. 

The light!

I am not good at taking photos. And I rarely remember to do so. But Sri Lanka is so beautiful that sometimes even I want to try to capture it. At dusk on the first night I spent in the property the air seemed to go pink - I've never seen anything like it. But, then, it's pretty much always fabulous as this photo I took by mistake shows. 

Getting around (further afield)

We're about 8 kilometres from the airport here. That's one of the reasons I bought - I wanted to know that I could get on a plane in Dubai and 5 hours later be somewhere completely different - not in an airport. I love Dubai but I also need greenery and peace. Within one hour of being here I feel like I've been on holidays for a few days. And that's now i.e. before I've painted and improved!

But, at some stage, one might feel the need to explore a bit further afield and Sri Lanka certainly has a lot to offer. From the beautiful fort city of Galle in the south to amazing Kandy in the centre there are interesting people to meet, beautiful sights to see and, of course, elephants! Getting anywhere used to involve either road or rail travel.

Road, as has been covered elsewhere in this blog, can be dangerous and certainly takes lots longer than it should because of the state of the road surface. There is a new highway from Colombo to Galle however and, although I haven't been on it yet, I'm told it's much faster and safer.

Rail is fine. It's not expensive but it also doesn't always run on time. The trains, even the express ones, also stop a lot.

The answer, I think, is sea taxi i.e a sea plane. The same price as a road taxi but lots faster and a great way to see how beautiful the country is. 

The Bo tree in the garden can't stay

I've just received a lovely email from Brayen who will manage the property for me. In it he has some great ideas for the bedroom without walls and an opinion on the fengshui of the living room. For now, however, the most important thing he had to say concerned a Bo tree that lives in the garden.

It seems that if this tree is allowed to get big the Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka have the right to turn the land on which it stands into a temple. Clearly any monk worth his salt would love to have a temple on my property so bye bye Bo tree it is. Shame. 

The internet

OMG. The internet here works. It really, really works. It's as good as my place in Dubai. Whatever package the old owner had, I'm getting that one. I have realized that I need good internet to be happy. Good internet means I can work from here when listening to birds and watching the lagoon change colour. Amazing. I love the 21st century.

Getting around

Getting around is easy. You just need a good tuk tuk driver. Finding a good tuk tuk driver is harder. Depending on your definition of good. I'd like one who knows where he's going or, if not, can find out. Someone who has petrol in the engine, a mobile phone with credit and who knows the time would be good too. If, on top of that, they speak a few words of English, smile at me, don't proposition me and don't try overcharge me by more than 10% I  may be in love.

Shiny, the previous owner, has already introduced me to 3 tuk tuk drivers who seem to fit the bill and I'm very happy about that.

The alternative is to drive or cycle. I don't drive in Dubai because there is no need for another bad driver there. That is even more true of Sri Lanka which has traffic worse than almost anywhere I've heard of and certainly as bad as China! Nonetheless I will be finding out decent, safe places from where to hire bicycles, motor bikes/scooters, helmets and cars so that my guests who are bound to be braver than me can do so.

Cash is king

Sri Lanka is all about the cash. I had to pay for the property in cash. If you'd like to see what that looks like click here and here.