Kandy!

Crikey, I don't half get side-tracked don't I!!!!! Anyway, back to Sri Lanka again! Next day we headed up to Kandy, which is situated in the centre of the country. Actually, and going off on a totally different tangent (yet again), I read "The Tea Planter's Wife" by Dinah Jefferies sometime ago, which is set in Ceylon (as it was then) and loved it. I've read a few of her books and love the way she manages to give you the feel of the place in her writing. I remember her describing travelling down to Kandy for supplies and so on and now, having seen the place for myself, I can see how evocative her writing is!

Our hotel for this night was the fairly majestic Queens Hotel. Well I say "fairly majestic" as it had obviously been pretty classy and, I suppose, fashionable, many years ago, but I have to admit it was a little "tired". Oh the main reception and dining room and so on were pretty nice, all beautiful wooden floors, but the rooms and the bathrooms definitely needed money spent on them and updating!

Queens Hotel, Kandy

Actually, my room had a kind of small corridor leading off it with a door to an adjoining room (I'm guessing) and then on to my bathroom, but I did find it somewhat "spooky" so whenever I feel like that I always wedge either a chair or my suitcase up against the adjoining door "just in case"! On our trip there was a group of three friends who travelled together once a year, having met up in India on a previous trip. They were about my age, I would guess, or maybe just a couple of years younger. Anyway, while they were friendly enough they pretty much kept to themselves and did their own thing, so I got quite a shock the next morning when one of the woman said she had had a man banging on her door during the night. Now these three could put the booze away and there was also much drinking and revelry coming from a wedding party at the same hotel, but she said it frightened the life out of her! I don't know if she called reception but I certainly would have and asked them to send someone up to make him go away! Then the next morning we were told to put our suitcases outside our rooms by 7.30 a.m. so that the porters could load them on to the bus. I was at the end of a long corridor in the penultimate room and there was a Buddhist monk just "prowling" around as I was putting my suitcase out. All the different nationalities were pretty much kept on separate floors and I'm 100% certain he wasn't staying in that corridor so I made an excuse to go back to my room "to check on something" and he was just coming out of the last room in my corridor where the door was unlocked! You know, the one with the adjoining door to my room! He wasn't staying in that room and he definitely gave me the creeps, what with the hotel having a bit of a feel like the hotel in "The Shining". Can't say I was unhappy to leave there!

A group of us decided to go out for dinner that evening and again the food was very good, after which we went to a display of Sri Lankan dancing (and drumming - which was pretty impressive). Both the men and the women wore beautiful costumes and as long as it doesn't go on forever I actually enjoy it very much!

Anyway, the whole point of that stopover was to visit the Temple of the Tooth (which, it is said, contains a shrine housing one of Buddha's teeth), and the temple was indeed really spectacular! Whenever you visit these temples you are expected to cover your arms and your legs (at least as far down as your knees - both men and women) AND your head must be uncovered and shoes are not allowed (although you could walk around in socks). Now at some of the other temples I saw people in shorts, which I thought was disrespectful, but nobody said anything to them. At this temple, however, there was no way anyone would have gotten in if they didn't meet the strict dress code. The men went in through one door and the women through another, and although I had on long trousers and a shawl to cover my arms, there was a lady security guard there who tugged my shawl high up to my neck and knotted it (the shawl not my neck)! Our guide, Prasana, told us that one time he had a Turkish lady on one of his trips and she insisted that she was going to keep her veil on - but there was no way she would get past the security at the temple like that! Oh she kicked up a big fuss but there was no doing. My thoughts are "if you are adamant that you are not removing your veil, why go visit a temple in the first place"? Doesn't make sense to me!

The temple, of course, was stunningly beautiful but very crowded and I was as hot as hell with my torniquet of a shawl! But it was definitely worth a visit, although I felt my pictures couldn't do it justice so had to use some google pictures to try to show how beautiful it was!

The lake at Kandy

 

The Temple of the Tooth

As I say, I don't feel that even the google pictures do it justice - but it really was just stunning and so worth the visit!

And I thought winter was over!!!

I had an appointment set up for today to get my winter tyres switched to summer tyres but when I woke up the electricity was off and I looked out my window to see this. Damn!

Actually that wasn't the half of it as it snowed most of the morning, so I would guess we got about eight inches in all, judging by the state of my car. The garage just laughed when I called them to cancel the appointment - obviously they were up to their eyeballs in snow too. Still, it didn't last too much longer as the electric came back on (and hence the heating), the sun came out and the roads are (finally) looking pretty decent again after the snow plough came round. Hopefully most of it will be gone by morning, although I understand getting to work was, once again, a laugh a minute for most people!

I think I'm in love ... well not really, but "yay" me anyway!

I had an appointment last week with my bank to organize the final pay-off of my mortgage at the end of this month. I had calculated I owed about 90,000 Swiss francs (that's just over $90,000) but "allowed" 95,000 in my calculations just in case. Well I was bang on and I'm so glad 'cos if I had messed up somehow and "forgotten" or "missed" an additional, massive amount I would have been totally screwed now that I've retired! Anyway, I'm all signed up and "it's all mine!!!!!!" as of 26 April. So that's a relief! As I was talking to her, though, I happened to mention the situation of my brother and how we had managed to sign him up for a funeral package just before he died so that everything was taken care of for his sons … and that's when she pulled out the relevant paperwork for me! Well actually it wasn't telepathy as she reminded me she had actually called me for something when I happened to be in Wales for the funeral so had put together the basic "package" and intended to bring it up at my appointment. Wise minds think alike I guess. Not that thinking about your own funeral is a barrel of laughs but I realized that I wanted to avoid my sons having all that to deal with "if and when". It doesn't cover a burial plot but I want to be cremated anyway, so she said I would have to sign up for spot in a "cremation pillar" if that's what I wanted!! Nah, I told her I wanted to be cremated in banana leaves (not possible apparently - although I think a raffia coffin is) and then my ashes scattered on the mountains behind my house. Apparently that's illegal but then there's not much they can do about a carrier bag with a hole in it is there! And since the mortgage insurance will now drop off my monthly payments the amount saved will now pay for my funeral package. Great fun! I just have to mention it to my boys now, but at least that's checked off my "to do" list! That should be an interesting conversation next time they come for dinner!

After everything was signed I asked her if she could tell me how much interest I had saved by paying off my 17 year mortgage in seven years and she said she couldn't do it just like that. So when I got home I took my original loan amortization paperwork and worked out that I saved roughly €32,000!!! I know it's complicated switching from euros and Swiss francs but that's the way it is over here. Wow, €32,000 (that's almost $36,000)! I tell ya, it was so worth it knuckling down and throwing as much as possible at that mortgage. Well, in all honesty, if I hadn't done that I wouldn't be retired now (or any time soon I suspect). So yay me!

On the not so "yay me" side, I just received my mobile phone bill covering the period I was in Sri Lanka! Bloody hell. €120!!!! It's usually about €30, and since I crossed the border every day for work I knew to keep mobile roaming turned off, but 5-6 times when I was in Sri Lanka I switched it on briefly to check my messages! Well lesson learned I guess!!! And another horror story … I was in the newsagent's on Saturday buying stamps and I told the man next to me to go ahead as I was rummaging about in my purse. So he asked for one of those little "roller thingies" to roll his own cigarettes "because they were cheaper that way". Out of curiosity I asked the lady how much a carton of 200 was and she said €86!!!!! Bloody hell, I used to buy my ex's cigarettes every week in a vain bid to stop him going into town to buy them (after which he always ended up legless in the bar opposite the newsagents - yeah, that really worked well!), but crikey! €86!!! And to be honest my ex would get through two cartons a week because he would light them up and leave them burn in the ash tray after only taking a couple of drags!!! I'm so glad I'm not paying for them any more. He did tell me around this time last year that he had quit smoking three months earlier. Good for him as I'm sure it can't be easy. But I did point out how glad I was not to be living with him at that time - or any time since actually!!! I don't know if he has remained "quit" as I don't have any contact with him by choice, but since my next door neighbour was taken seriously ill in January (hospitalized with pneumonia) and she has had to quit I can see how hard it is on her. But she no longer has that rasping cough and sounds so much better! I'm so glad I never started though!

On a totally different subject (Brexit - yay Brexit) I had dinner with my old friend last Wednesday and it was good to have a catch up after so long. She is British and lives in France like me. She has her paperwork pretty squared away to get her resident's permit for France to be followed by her request for naturalization. I'm gonna wait until this whole debacle is sorted (if it ever is), so she's ahead of the game at least. It was important to her anyway because she gets a small UK pension which her daughter is using while she is studying in the UK and there is some talk that UK pensions of British expats might no longer be index-linked! Great fun, screwed over again, after not having a vote to begin with. Anyway, she was telling me that her son has just been offered a job in Switzerland. For which he needs what they call a "frontalier permit". For which he needs proof that he is legally resident in France. For which he now needs to apply for a resident's permit. And for which the local French administrative offices are no longer giving appointments for us to hand in our paperwork! Like I saw on a sign in Wales - "bollocks to Brexit"! I'll drink to that!

And finally, I had my appointment with another tax guy today after getting the shock of my life when the last "expert" told me that I would have to pay €29,000 tax on my €132,000 lump sum when I was expecting to pay just over €9,000! I went back and forward with him until a colleague in a similar situation took it up with the local tax authorities, who basically told her my "expert" didn't know his a$$ from a hole in the ground. So I got an appointment with this other guy today. When I showed him what expert no. 1 had given me he burst out laughing and said you had to be careful as there were a lot of "charlatans" out there (I know, that probably sounds better in French than English!). But he confirmed what the tax people had told my colleague and now I will be paying the €9,000 figure and not his €29,000 figure! Wow! Just wow! I'm so relieved. As I told my new "I'm in love with you" tax guy, I just want everything to be in order as I can't afford for the tax people to come back in a couple of years time saying I owe them €20,000 (plus a fine probably). So a good day all round. And "yay me" like I said!

Then on Thursday ...

… we set off again en route to visit Sigiriya Rock, also known as Lion Rock because of the two enormous lion paws carved into the rock. It was here that you could see the ruins of the fifth century "Sky Fortress", which was built in just seven years years as a fortified palace for King Kassapa - who became king by assassinating his father and deposing his brother. I guess there's a "black sheep" in every family then isn't there! Said brother managed to take back his "kingdom" 18 years later though - so it all got a bit complicated for me to follow! But it was a beautiful site, although a hard climb in horrendously hot weather meant we had to start off pretty early to beat the crowds and the heat!

Sigiriya Rock

After lunch we headed out to a game park to go elephant spotting. It wasn't difficult, actually, because there turned out to be quite a few elephants for us to "spot". The Canadian lady traveller made a valid point though in that she felt that there were just too many jeeps allowed into the park at the same time. We counted 25-30 jeeps in one spot and while none of the jeeps deliberately got close to the elephants, as the elephants wandered on their way sometimes we felt that we really were just too close to them. I can't say we felt in any danger - more that we were crowding them out. Still, I was very glad to have seen them - they are so impressive, even if they are not as big as African elephants!

After that we headed on to our next hotel - which again turned out to be a pretty nice place. It was quite late by the time we got there so it really was a case of get washed up, eat and go to bed because we were on the road again to Kandy the next day!

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!