A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

(Jump to Sunday the 5th.) I woke up at a normal time so perhaps I'm on the right schedule now. Auntie made a batch of string hoppers for breakfast. They are puffy, little rice-flour cakes which are eaten with curry or onions. Making them involves quite an elaborate procedure as the dough is pressed through a hand-held device with hundreds of little holes. The dough forms tiny strands. Several resulting layers are placed on 4 or 5 inch pads and then the whole batch is steamed. Sring hoppers can be eaten for any meal or as a snack but they require lots of effort to create.

Another event this morning was the burning of 30 odd, mouldy videotapes. Back in Middle East days of the 1980's Jay had brought home many movies on tape. Unfortunately, his area is very humid. We took a look and all the tapes had developed lots of mould. There was really nothing to do except get rid of them. Of course, the future holds VCD and DVD as the medium of choice, so it seemed suitable to set the collection alight. It was the end of an era.

In the afternoon, we pulled a huge teak log up onto a wooden structure for cutting into lumber. Hired guys carefully turn the log into boards with an enormous 2-man saw. It is cheaper to hire someone to work for days than to buy the finished product. Here I noted one cultural difference: It was a lot of work and I thought, "Gosh, we need a tractor." On the other hand, Jay encountering the same situation, said, "I think this job requires an elephant."

Labels: Sri Lanka 2004

After a full night's sleep, I feel more in tune with the reality of being here. They do say that, as a general rule, it takes one day to adjust for each time zone. I hope that is not really the case as it means I won't be fully acclimated for nearly two weeks!

As it's morning, I am sitting with a mug of milk tea. There's a door by the kitchen that looks to the side of the lot with all the vegetation and trees. I hear 'Tamil' birds, miner birds and a neighbour's rooster. The miner birds are by far the most melodic.

Evening has come. We went to Minuwangoda today for shopping. Downtown is about a kilometer and a half away. Three of us (Jay, younger sister, and I) travelled in a 3-wheel tuk-tuk which hare made in India by Bajaj. We phoned so one stopped at driveway gate and took us to do errands. We picked up groceries as well as some alcohol and beer. A 625 ml bottle of Lion Pilsner costs the equivalent of just 50 cents. Imagine that!

Labels: Sri Lanka 2004

We touched down in Sri Lanka at five minutes after midnight. Yet after doing bank work and more than a peek in duty-free, we didn't leave in an airport taxi until 1:30 am. Jay's house is so close that we got there in just a half hour. (One pays for the ticket for an airport taxi from a booth inside the airport. The taxi driver would have probably hoped for a cross-island trip where he could have earned more substantial cash.)

In the early hours of the morning the roads were empty, the air was humid and heavy, and the foliage clearly tropical. I love the feeling of really venturing to some place different and wham; here it was! It might have been nice to fly in during daylight as it's amazingly green and beautiful from the sky.

At the house (WGS84: N07`10.757 E079`56.212), we greeted the family and went right to bed. After getting up at 9:00 am I was pretty 'out of it' because of the 12 hour time difference. My watch was easily changed but not my body's clock. I napped from 1:30 to 5:00 and now will head to bed at about 9:00 pm. I guess, this will have to be considered a transition day.

Labels: Sri Lanka 2004

Although we left YVR (Vancouver) at the scheduled time last Monday, the distance and dateline means that this is the first entry. We had no Tuesday. Last night (local time) we arrived in Singapore. The airline efficiently and effectively shuttled us to a free room for the night. At around 9:00 am we were up and walked around Arab Street first as The Golden Landmark is right there. We also walked over to Little India and had a lunch in a Sri Lankan restaurant. We had to get to shuttle back to the airport at approximately 7:00 pm to get on our flight. This was a very nice way of ensuring we'll not arrive in Colombo totally exhausted. The flight will get in after midnight but at least it's only 3.5 hours from here!

Labels: flying, Singapore, world

This blog was active for exactly one year from September 1, 2003. You may venture to the vault area to search any of those 500+ entries.



Blogging to Continue upon Return

At the moment, we're away on a two-month vacation in Sri Lanka and Singapore. We could, undoubtedly, find Internet access in major cities; however, we plan on spending lots of time travelling around the countryside, into the mountains, and at the seaside. Therefore, I will not even try to keep this area up-to-date while we're away. Due to my now-entrenched blogging habit, I will attempt something that I have never managed to do in the past; namely, keep a daily journal in a notebook!

I purchased an extra SmartMedia card for my digital camera too. So, when we return in November 2004, I will not only resume my regular blogging but will fill in the missing text and photos for these months.



Special Notice: Most media files for the BlogPlayer, as well as access to many high-resolution photos of my eJournal and images, will not be available during this special closure. We're sorry for any inconvenience.

Labels: camera

The taxi gets here at 9:45 am. The plane doesn't take off til 2:00 pm. See ya in November!

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The 1st Annual Readership Awards

This is not the time nor the place where readers nominate award-winning entries which have appeared here over the past year. Rather, it's a space where I congratulate my most loyal readers. Gosh, I wish there were cash prizes!

Top awards go to:

Patty

Sujay

Ed

Shinji

Don (when at home)

Joel (for PocketPC AvantGo version).

Honourable mention:

Sally

Bret

Tim.

Labels: Joel

I don't feel much like writing a big entry today. The bags have been packed for a while and we don't leave until tomorrow morning. So, I'll just add an old scanned photo. It's been thirteen years since my most recent visit to Sri Lanka and this photo is probably from a trip or two prior to that.



We recently got hold of a good road map of the island. During the upcoming two months, there will be enough time to do some major exploration. Hopefully, the peace will hold so that trips to the north and east are feasible. The country is a wee bit smaller than Ireland. There's a varied geography with the highest elevation at 8,290 ft. and, of course, tropical beaches at sea-level. If you're interested in learning more about the environment, just click for some data found at the Lonely Planet World Guide.