Got a little side-tracked there!

Heck if I don't write about the rest of my Sri Lanka trip soon I will have forgotten most of it, and I don't want to do that as this here blog is my online "diary". So here we go. After leaving Ngombo we headed up to Nuwarawewa where the hotel was sooooo much better than the first night. In fact, I had three double beds in my room but Miserable Pete managed to do one better and have five in his room! I told him the party was at his place that night - and everyone laughed except for Miserable Pete - aka - "He Who Should Never Bother Travelling"!

Our hotel - The Lakeside Nuwarawewa!

A strange thing happened when we went down to dinner that evening though as while we were sitting there chatting a group of about 20 older Indian women in saris came over and sat down next to us and just started taking pictures of us at our table. No chatting, no "do you mind" - they just sat there, took their pictures and then got up and left. I tell you it was like being prize exhibits in the zoo - but everyone seemed to want to get their pictures taken with us. The little kids did this too - not that they wanted money or anything. They would just come over and mime "can we have our picture taken with you" and off they ran giggling. But they, at least, were sweet. Katie, one of our group who was employed by the tour operator to take pictures, had come along with her boyfriend, Luke. Luke was a rather handsome, well built and extremely sociable young man. Problem was, that evening Katie decided to have an early night and all of a sudden Luke was "swarmed" by a group of older (maybe 60-something) Indian women all wanting to have their picture taken with him! But he took it in good sport and was laughing about it. (The next morning when we got on the bus I told him that 20 Indian grandmas had been looking for him to say goodbye and he burst out laughing)!

What was interesting too was that our guide told us to watch the two other foreign groups at the buffet, saying that it was lucky we got there early but "just watch this". He said "group 1" would take their food and then stand at the buffet rather than sit down so that they could just keep "shovelling it in". And "group 2" would pile their plates so high that the food would be falling off their plates before they could get back to their tables! And he was right! Now I would have said, given his description, that he would have been talking about European groups because sometimes I am just so ashamed at how they behave at the buffet. But not a bit of it. These were two, different nationality, Asian tour groups and he was bang on! I suppose we all have our "foibles" but it was interesting to hear him describe the behaviours in groups of people who I would never have expected to behave like that. I noticed afterwards that the hotel staff would ask us if we wanted a meat dish and if we said yes they would put it on our table rather than put it out at the buffet, because if you didn't get there before these two groups you wouldn't get any! And sadly that held true throughout the trip! Oh well!

But moving seamlessly on, after breakfast we headed out to Mihintale which is where, it is believed, the monk Mahinda met King Devanampiyatissa, thus introducing Bhuddism to Sri Lanka. This involved climbing 1,840 steps! Yes, you read that right! 1,840!!!! which actually wouldn't have been so bad because there were flat areas in between. The killer, however, was the heat, and I was puce in the face by the time I arrived (barefoot) at the top! To add to my embarrassment, though, there was a group of (Cambodian, I think) tourists also visiting the shrine and I would guess their average age was 70! All dressed up in traditional dress, barefoot, and slogging up but not even breaking a sweat! Hats off to them, is all I can say!

Call me a pleb but I couldn't resist this picture of one monkey checking the other's butt for bugs!

After that it was on to Lake Hiriwaduna. We took a bullock cart for the short ride to the lake and then on to canoes over to the village where we were served local food in a hut with elephant wires around it! Fascinating. We ate with our hands so it was a bit strange to us but everyone got stuck in, except He Who Should Never Travel, aka Miserable Pete!

That's not my picture - I couldn't get a decent one because I was trying to stop "Miserable Pete"
from falling in! Sorry, I couldn't find where to attribute it!

Invasive Japanese "???" on Lake Hiriwadunna!

An interesting point our guide made was that the Sri Lankans had deliberately introduced this plant to the lake in order to prevent the Japanese from crossing the lake in the event of an invasion during WWII! They called it "Japanese …." - and I can't for the life of me remember what he called it - but it was introduced because it was so invasive that it would (hopefully) prevent the Japanese from crossing the lake. I don't think it was put to the test but we had problems getting ashore trying to navigate these plants!

After that it was on to the World Heritage Site of the Dambulla Caves. I didn't try to get photos inside the caves because they just wouldn't have come out but they were impressive! Sorry, I don't always seem able to attribute these photos - I found them on google!

Our guide told us that they think that when the sleeping buddha has his feet one on top of the other it was because he was dead, but if his feet were slightly misaligned it would be because he was sleeping!  Like I say, fascinating stuff!

Another useless bit of information was that it was so hot and we had to take our shoes off before entering the site (and cover our arms and knees of course). Well I had left my socks in the bus like most of the others and so I was trekking barefoot to these caves and it almost burned the soles of your feet off! Okay, they had placed small amounts of fabric on the floor where possible so that people could try to hop from one bit to the next but where oh where was Dudley Moore's "manservant" in "10" when you needed him to carry you over hot sands!

Knackered!

I was planning to host our board game evening in (January or February - can't remember now) when I had to cancel because of having to dash home for my brother. They went ahead without me but I signed back up to host yesterday now that things have calmed down somewhat. Anyway, yesterday I was heading out to our little local market to pick up a few fresh fruit and veg for the game night when I decided to stop in at our local Mairie to ask for an "attestation de résidence" - an attestation to prove how long I have been living in France. One way or another I guess I will need this to prove that I have been registered as living in our little village for more than five years - since 1990 in fact - whether it be for my resident's permit and/or naturalisation request.

I asked the young woman to to put "Ms T., formerly Mrs B" on the attestation as I was married in 1990 when I got my first resident's permit so I needed it to be clear that Ms T and Mrs B were the same person. Luckily for me I knew the exact date of my arrival in France (17 April 1990) as it was more a "paper and post-it" set up then and she had no way of knowing when I arrived! I wonder how many others will be scuppered at that point! But she had the same problem as me when I go onto the French website regarding resident's permits because (a) I don't have a blue EU resident's permit (because I don't need one), (b) I'm not considered a first-time permit-holder (since I had one in 1990 - shortly thereafter I no longer needed one), and (c) I couldn't really apply as a "non-European" because I bloody well am a European - just shortly to be non-EU citizen. What a bloody mess! Anyway she said she will have my attestation ready for me when I stop in on Tuesday, but then she started reading off the list of requirements for a bog standard resident's permit:

- proof of adequate income - check
- proof of health insurance - check
- proof of having a place to live - check
- "proof of full integration into French society" - well at this point I happened to let slip that I was Présidente of the local sewing club - and she burst out laughing! But I think we can call that a "check".
- proof of French language skills - no problem there
- had I ever committed a crime - I had to come clean about my two speeding tickets in 30 years but again she burst out laughing!

I did admit that I did not know the words to the Marseillaise but she told me that like most French she didn't know the second verse either (I mean, who actually knows the second verse of God Save the Queen?)! So I guess we can call that a "check"!

Anyway at this point the lady who did my original paperwork when I first moved here walked out of the back office. She knew my ex and my kids and did the paperwork when I came in to register my second son in 1992. She was stunned to find out that my "baby" had gotten married last week! But aren't we all the same! I mean, you see your own kids getting older but don't realize that other people's kids are too! She and I always got along and she told me that there would be no problem getting any paperwork I needed once we all knew what we were dealing with with this Brexit debacle! Oh but she did comment that joking about looking for a French man for a marriage of convenience might not be the best thing to do in the local Mairie! Thankfully they all burst out laughing as I guess they get my sense of humour, but I told her one husband was more than enough thank you very much so there were no worries on that score!

Anyway, back to the plot. We had our latest board game evening at my place yesterday. There were only nine of us this time but it was still great, and I think we might be getting into the hang of not cooking too much food for one evening! We seem to be getting it down to a fine art! On a side note, today is my next door neighbour's birthday and she was spilling her heart out to me a bit yesterday, so I had everybody sign a card I had for her (and took her peppermint brownies round today as a birthday present). She was almost crying when she opened the card as she told me that her husband hadn't even acknowledged her for the last seven years! Go figure! She just breaks my heart! Anyway, back to our evening. The first game we played was "Time's Up", which I can't say I particularly enjoyed as it was "way too French" for me for the most part. What I mean is, it was a French game so obviously most of the questions were French orientated. For example, do any of you know how you would get someone to say "Natoo" - or even who "Natoo" is! No, I didn't think so. Or which famous French actor played in "Un gendarme à St. Tropez"? Still, it wasn't too bad as being the hostess I was bobbing up and down and clearing plates and making sure everyone had enough to eat and drink. But, afterwards we started another game (around 11.30 pm I think) but I can't for the life of me think of the name. This was much more "egalitarian" in that it wasn't French orientated. Trouble was, it was the kind of game you couldn't just abandon when the witching hour arrived! We had to play it out to the end! Which turned out to be around 1.30 - 2 a.m.! Which in turn meant I got to bed around 3 a.m. after clearing up! I did mention though that it would be kinda nice to play a few card games next time - Bellote, Tarot for instance and the others agreed. Oh and the subject of the farmer asking me out came up (I wonder how they found out) so I was the butt of quite a few jokes and guffaws of laughter! You see, he is well known for being somewhat of an ass but I felt obliged to defend him for having been an absolute gent and good company when I was with him. Ha, they won't laugh so loud and so long when I am the mistress of all I survey if I take him up on his offer of a date (extremely unlikely but they don't know that)! Anyway, just a few pictures and I hope to post more about Sri Lanka tomorrow!

Playing Big Mouth!

I am so spoilt!

Things are beginning to calm down a bit now and hopefully I'll start getting into some kind of retirement routine. I had all kinds of plans for what I would do each week as I had a vague feeling I might be "bored" without the discipline of going to work - but not a bit of it! In fact, I have had to rein in my ideas a little because I now realize I don't want to have every day "scheduled". So far I have my sewing club on a Monday night, Tuesday afternoon yoga and on Wednesday I go in to work to use the gym, meet up afterwards with friends for a drink quite often, and do any "Geneva" shopping I need to do. I was going to join a Thursday hiking group too but as time has gone on I realize that I want to keep a few days clear to do my own thing so, for the time being at least, I think I'll leave it at that!

I also decided that I was going to get in touch with all the people I had always been meaning to keep in touch with but didn't get round to it very often because work got in the way. So I have been contacting a few old friends and arranging to meet up, if possible. Oh that and catching up on all my doctor's check-ups and other necessary evils. I suppose getting the paperwork together for my French residency/naturalization request will be the next thing. Anyway, I have an appointment at the bank on Tuesday to arrange the final pay-off of my mortgage and am meeting up with a very old friend on Wednesday night for dinner. When I say "very old friend", I mean we actually met on the first day we arrived in Geneva in May 1980. Our employer had flown us both out from England and put us up in the same hotel for the first week, so when I realized she would be working at the same place as me we got chatting and the rest, as they say, is history! She didn't stay with my employer too long as she moved on to the World Health Organization but we have stayed in touch sporadically over the years.

Then last week I got in touch with a colleague who retired one month before me. She lives about 500 metres from where my ex husband used to live in fact so she isn't too far from me. Anyway, we agreed to meet up for tea and a chinwag in her local town, and very pleasant it was too.

Viuz-en-Sallaz

Like me she is loving retirement, has loads of interests and agrees that there never seem to be enough hours in the day! I know everyone says that in retirement but it certainly seems true for us. Before I met up with her I managed to fit in an hour's walk through La Bénite and fill up my bottles with spring water. On the way back my neighbour (the farmer's sister) invited me for an apéritif later, so that's where I ended up after my trip to Viuz. I guess Isabelle had heard through the grapevine (my other neighbour, I imagine!) about her brother asking me out, and she and her partner got a real laugh out of that! In fact Rémy kept getting a fit of the giggles! I told her that her brother had been a real gentleman and was actually quite good company - it's just that I'm not looking for anyone. She didn't dispute that he "can actually act like a real human being when he has to" but said it's just a shame that he has always been such a jerk to the sisters! I believe her actually as he does have a bad reputation but I had to at least let her know that he was a gent with me. It's weird when you think of it, though, that she and her sisters have never seen the inside of the house he renovated and I have! It's also weird that his wife was dead and buried before any of them found out! A strange family dynamic (but not necessarily all that unusual round here where families often live so close to each other), but we all had a good laugh at the idea that, as she put it, "we could have ended up being sisters-in-law"! Nah, that's not going to happen!

Then today I finally got to use the retirement gift my former colleagues gave me. I hadn't had time previously, what with all that was going on in my life, but today at last I was able to write to them and thank them properly! They had given me a Smartbox - for those that haven't heard of them, it is kind of a gift voucher where you get to chose from a wide range of "experiences" available from service providers who sign up for it. More often than not it's facials, massages, and so on, so I decided to use it for a one hour massage at a spa in Geneva that I had never visited before. And oh how lovely it was! Turns out I got the entrance to the spa included, a lovely, relaxing massage, another free entrance to be used at a later date - and a free drink and cookie! What's not to love!

After the massage I decided to take advantage of the sauna (not my cup of tea really - way too hot), then the hammam (I'm starting to like that) and a room where you sit and enjoy various natural scents which are supposed to be very relaxing (not sure what they call it - I called it the "smelly room")! After that it was in to the jacuzzi which was completely empty but to be honest I wasn't too impressed! I sat there for about 10 minutes thinking "well this isn't much cop" until a man got in and pushed the "start" button!!!! What a dillon! I hadn't realized there was an "on/off" button! There's an expression in French which basically translates as "I forgot to take the straw out of my clogs" - or "take no notice of country bumpkin over there" - talk about looking like a bloody idiot! After that, it was into the main baths, which weren't very full given that it was a Friday afternoon, on for a free coffee and cookie (!!!!) and back home in rush hour traffic which, for once, wasn't too bad at all! So gosh what a successful day that turned out to be! Now my skin feels soft as a baby's bottom and I'm all weak and wobbly (or "wobblier" more like). So yep, I think I can get to like this retirement lark!

Anyway, back to Sri Lanka!

Well not really - just in my imagination - but I did want to write up a little about my Sri Lanka trip before my memory became "fuzzy"! I think I've mentioned before that what tends to suit me vacation-wise is to take a warm weather holiday sometime in the winter - to break up the cold weather a little - and then a European vacation around September/October time - a kind of last hurrah before the bad weather kicks in. It's beautiful here in the summer and we don't get huge numbers of tourists to be honest - unlike in the winter - so this set-up seems to work for me (for the time being, at least). One of the drawbacks of going away in the winter, of course, is that there is always the slight risk that bad weather might cause one of my flights to be delayed or cancelled but so far, touch wood, I have always been lucky! Anyway, with that in mind I made the decision to make my own travel arrangements (flying from Switzerland rather than back to England and out again) and choosing to arrive the day before the rest of my group and spend a night recuperating from the flight in Colombo. Well that was the plan anyway. So again, with a view to avoiding any possible flight delays, I chose to make the trip from Geneva to Zurich by train rather than plane, just in case. It turned out to be a rather nice three-hour train journey through Switzerland, although it did bring home to me that I think "our" part of Switzerland (western Switzerland) is prettier than the northern/eastern parts, although they are still lovely of course!

Anyway, I arrived well in advance of my flight - only to get a text message from the airline to say that my flight would be delayed by 90 minutes due to the late arrival of the incoming aircraft!!! Bloody hell, I was so hoping that it was only going to be a 90 minute delay and not end up being cancelled! I was there six hours early anyway so the thought of spending another two hours just hanging around didn't exactly fill me with joy! But at least I had a good book so having checked in (always a positive sign when the let you check in!) I bellied up to the bar to get something to eat and nurse a glass of wine as long as I could before I got dirty looks! Not that they should be giving me dirty looks anyway (they didn't!) given the prices but … you know the guilty feeling. All in all it wasn't too bad given the wine, the book and a rather lovely young Irish lad I ended up chatting to when I paid for his apple juice!! No, no, it wasn't like that. He was about 13 I would guess and had wanted to order an apple juice when the waiter explained that while they would accept his 50 euros they would have to give him his change back in Swiss francs! Well he didn't want the Swissies because he (his family) had no use for them, so I told the waiter I would pay for it - which set us up for a lovely chat in which we sorted out Brexit and figured out who was going to win the rugby 6 Nations (we were both wrong - he said Ireland and I said England. Turns out it was Wales)! Mom and dad came over afterwards and thanked me for paying for his drink and we had a nice chat, but what a lovely young lad he was - so charming and sweetly confident! It certainly helped pass the time!

It turned out in the end that the incoming flight was delayed because it could not fly over Pakistani airspace given the current tensions between India and Pakistan! So while I was somewhat fed up of having to hang around even longer I guess it's always better to arrive late than never! The flight was a good one, almost 10 hours and I never slept a wink, although I have now learned to dress comfortably and take mini toiletries on the plane so I at least feel/smell better even if I do end up looking like Phylis Diller when I get off!

I did get to watch the movie "The Wife" on the plane though and I can see why Glen Close was nominated for the Oscar! She was brilliant (as was Jonathan Pryce). It wasn't a film that I would have chosen to go and see but it helped pass the time and, as I say, she was excellent!

I spent my first night in the beautiful Gateway Hotel in Colombo. It was pretty expensive but an excellent choice. Indeed the whole experience was excellent and the food in the Chinese restaurant was sublime! Whenever I'm going to be in a foreign country on my own I make sure to stay in a good hotel and it didn't disappoint!

The next day I got a taxi to our tour's first hotel in Ngombo to meet the rest of my group. To be honest this hotel was a real disappointment, pretty shabby and definitely very tired. But, the bed was clean and the water was hot so I knew I could put up with it until we moved on. Later that evening I met the rest of the group, who turned out to be really nice. Well, with one exception as it turns out, but then there's always one. There was an older Canadian couple who were just great. Instantly chatting with everyone and when we went out to eat that evening the husband would sit apart from his wife and chat away to everyone. She was the same. They were obviously seasoned travellers and such good company, so a good start!

The next morning we had a short trip around Ngombo fishing village before loading up and heading on to our next hotel.

My hotel room in Colombo

Ngombo port

Drying fish

On the way we stopped at a spot where the locals showed us how they climb up the palm trees to slash them and use the sap to produce arrack, which is distilled from toddy or palm syrup! Not that they used anything as boring as harnesses or hard hats (or even rope ladders!). Nope, straight up he went and in about five minutes he had whipped round and slashed all the trees!

Can you see him at the top of that tree - not a harness in sight!

En route we stopped at Wilpattu National Park where we switched to jeeps and set off in the hopes of spotting all kinds of wild life. The only disappointment was that we didn't see any leopards (there are about 20 in the park they think), although there was some discussion about whether one of our group had spotted one. Even with my binoculars I couldn't make it out but … who knows. We did see a good variety of other animals though, so the day wasn't wasted. Then after about four hours in the Park it was on to our next hotel in Nuwarawewa!

Temple on the way to Nuwarawewa

Water buffalo

Not a good picture - but a mother bear and her cub

When I saw this I ran back and got my bag out the jeep - "thieving monkeys" is pretty accurate
and I wasn't going to let that little bugger get away with my passport!

They did it!

We've had crap weather ever since I got back from Sri Lanka - yesterday was just awful and apparently tomorrow doesn't look much better. Buuuuuttt the heavens decided to cooperate today and it was glorious sunshine and "no coat" weather, just in time for the civil wedding. Yep, son number two is now officially hitched. It was very informal, with the Maire making it a nice, funny service and in about 15 minutes they were married! After that it was back to mom's house for a rather nice tartiflette (mom) and rather good cookies, shortbread and fruit salad (me and my friend). All in all a lovely, informal wedding. At least they are married before Brexit so that's a positive! Now we get to look forward to the big party in July.  Congratulations Jordan and Jen!

How to waste an entire morning!

I haven't really gotten my head straight since getting back from Sri Lanka on Monday but I will post more about the trip when I get my thoughts together. Not that buying a Rubrik's cube helps with getting anything done! You see, when I go away I am always looking for small souvenir-type gifts to bring back for my kids and a few friends. Nothing "souveniry" in the sense of a decorative dust catcher, but usually something consumable or useful. This time I bought back wonderful spiced cashew nuts, which feature widely in Sri Lankan agricultural production, so they won't be gathering too much dust I imagine. I bought other things back too of course, but I am also always on the look-out for Christmas presents/stocking fillers! Just on the off chance! When I was in Costa Rica this time last year I bought back beautiful photo albums - they almost looked like they were made of papyrus - and Jen told me that she is going to put their wedding photos in it as she loves it so much!

Anyway, this time I picked up some beautiful silk scarves for the girls and a few other small items buuuut I spotted Rubik's cubes in a small toy shop in Galle and something clicked. Now I don't know that Mr. Rubik was Sri Lankan (probably not, don't you think), but I remember having one when they first became popular and learning how to do it. Can you believe they first came out in 1974!!! Crikey, I'm showing my age now. Of course, after a while the craze wore off and I forgot how to do it, although I'm pretty sure I still have it somewhere. So, me having a warped mind, I like to buy small Christmas gifts that are either silly or drive you slightly nuts! Last year I bought my kids Mad Libs and got the biggest grin out of my sons as they remembered all the stupid "stories" we put together when they were young. Of course all the nouns or verbs we provided were generally along the lines of "fart" or "onions", so the finished story usually ended up being pretty silly. Still, they both like that kind of thing! Anyway this year I am already thinking of Where's Waldo/Wally books (they have different names in different countries) as I know it is the kind of thing my boys get a laugh out of. I know, I know, but it's easier to buy for the girls - my sons get what momma here thinks will amuse them!

Anyway, to cut a long story short I bought three Rubik's cubes, two for my sons and one for me. But of course, as I mentioned, I had forgotten how to do it! So yesterday morning I spent almost four hours watching a Youtube video on how to put it back together! I completed it several times in time with the video and so far have memorized about two-thirds of the moves, so I'll be back at it tonight. But talk about a way to waste your morning! Thankfully I'm not quite this obsessive with most things! I had a drink with my friend last night and mentioned it to him and get this - he is completely impressed and wants me to teach him how to do it (hey buddy, you can get Youtube too), so I'm thinking I already have a good idea of what to get him for Christmas too!

Cartoon by The Internet Scaengers - PHSLwab.com

On a different note, while I was in Sri Lanka I could only occasionally check my emails or read my favourite blogs as the internet was often very iffy - hence the lack of comments on other people's blogs. But one day I got an email from FedEx about a parcel that they were trying to deliver and apparently I was to "click here"! I didn't of course because I frequently used to get these kinds of scam emails at work, but since the email apparently came from a work colleague who did, indeed, work in my employer's mailing room, I wrote to him and asked him if it was legit. Turns out it was, and in recognition of my long service my employer sent me a personally engraved plaque which is actually rather nice, plus a signed letter from the Director-General. Now I'm not usually one for the old "carriage clock and pen" kind of leaving token, but I have to admit this was rather nicely done!

And finally, Brexit! We were talking about that weren't we!!!! Well, as someone who is intimately caught up in the whole debacle by virtue of being a Brit living in France, I signed up for a link to the UK Government website which is trying to handle this whole bloody mess, and to be fair, they are ploughing out the information in what seems to be a very efficient way. Now as someone who has a slight inkling of just some of the problems that are heading the UK's way (my former employer dealt with international trade), I have to admit that even I had no idea how bloody involved and complicated this whole matter is. And to think people were asked to vote "do you want to stay in the EU or leave"? As simple as that! I took a screen shot of my inbox showing the emails I get on a daily basis just from this UK Government website, and I would say, in all honesty, I get three times this many emails per day on all the different issues they are having to deal with! Bloody hell, glad I'm not responsible for that!

A few more!