putting my toe in the water

Today, I ventured out into Columbo with my hostess, albeit in the sheltered comfort of an air-conditioned chauffeur driven car!

 We went to the bank to change some of my travellers cheques which took an inordinately long time and required the attention of two different people and three helpers. I have noticed a good surplus of labour everywhere i go according to western standards. It took four people to sell me two greetings cards and three postcards in one shop. One to point to where I had to go, another to take the cards, one to operate the till and another to put them in a bag and hand them to me. There are door openers everywhere. This morning when I awoke I found at least five people doing the garden, including one man down on his haunches pulling out the brown bits of grass so the green could grow through! It seemed to me that this was a wonderful  example of servant priesthood but try saying that to the Cof E or the Vatican! Actually, its lovely to interact with people rather than the awful machines we have to deal with in the UK even if there are an awful lot of them
Afterwards we visited two shops which sold fabric wares, one of which was more touristy and therefore more expensive. However I resisted the urge to buy everything in sight and browsed carefully for future purchases. I did buy a table cloth to fit our very long dining table but resisted the marvellous sari  and sarong lengths in silk or brightly coloured woven cotton. We refreshed our selves in the cafe of the second shop in a courtyard which was decorated with all sorts of beautiful oriental artifacts and brightly coloured tablecloths with the unlikely strains of Adele  belting out on the sound system.

Then I was taken to the public art gallery which had no art exhibitions on today, thank-you, so I was dropped at the National Museum and left to myself for an hour or so. This was housed in a large white painted Victorian colonial building with huge, ancient trees and the obligatory statue of a  seated Buddha under a lovely tree in the surrounding gardens. ( Even the roundabouts have Buddhas on them here!)
Most of the artifacts were presented in rather  ancient  display cabinets but the information posters printed in Tamil, Singalese and English were plentiful. I learned about different kinds of Buddhist buildings , different hands positions in meditation. There were marvellous statues of Siva and Parvati which I loved more than the golden Buddhas and the bejewelled crown and throne of the last King of Kandy which the British seized (or stole, in other words) and then gave back later. But I think the most interesting exhibit in the museum was ME. That is what many of the children there decided, anyway. I had a constant stream of them coming up to look at this peculiar foreigner and to say "Hello" which was about all the English they could manage. I tried to converse with them by using words like "Football", "Arsenal" and "Manchester United" but to my astonishment they did not understand. I think, on reflection, I should have said "Googly" or "silly mid off" and that would have had greater impact on such a cricket crazy nation. My hostess said they were most probably children from out in the country on a school trip who would have no idea of English football teams. Anyway, I did not have to say much, just wander around looking foreign which was enough to cause much interest and some hilarity.

My hostess is worried abut me getting a curry tummy so she is serving me rather bland food. However, I cannot complain about the delicious bowls of papaya and banana we have had for breakfast or the lovely drinks of mango or papaya juice. Tomato and lettuce sandwiches with sugar in them are rather unusual but not unpleasant. Tonight, we are having spinach soup and moussaka  which I love but I am hoping I will be allowed to graduate on to more Sri Lankan style curries, eventually. The rice served is red rice which is very good. It has more fibre and flavour than traditional white Basmati. Tomorrow, is our host's birthday so we will have milk rice for breakfast which is traditionally served on auspicious and happy occasions.

 I am hoping to downlaod some of the first photos today so you can have some images as well as all my blurb. We'll see!