Voluptuous ROYSTON’S REPORT Number 233 Sunday 7 December 2014 Voluptuous architecture, superb wines and an essential guide for hotel staff feature this week. Voluptuous interior Ever curious, rootling around the streets behind the Old Dutch Hospital complex in Colombo recently, I saw an open doorway to an old building and, not knowing what it was, walked in. That’s how I ...
Cliff Richard, The Truth ROYSTON REPORTS, Number 230 Sunday 16 November 2014. Welcome to this week’s report on garden carpentry, rival gardens and the lowdown on Cliff Richard. Winning writer I had the great pleasure of meeting the winner of the 2014 Templeberg Fellowship for an Australian writer at Templeberg Villa on the outskirts of Galle last week. She is ...
Knuckles trekking ROYSTON REPORTS, Number 276 Sunday 11 October 2015. Welcome to my latest report from Sri Lanka with food, wine, fashion and trekking topics. Milk Turtle Milk turtle, that’s what a villager called this tortoise crossing my lawn one evening recently. “Because it has a soft shell.” He picked it up and offered to cook it, an offer I ...
Save Una Beach ROYSTON REPORTS Number 246 Sunday 15 March 2015 Welcome to this week’s report with some serious issues. Kikili House What, wondered the bubbly Henri Tatham, to do as an encore after managing Galle’s lavishly exotic hotels, the Sun House and the Dutch House, so successfully for a decade? Get married and start her own business was the ...
Cycling to Sri Lanka ROYSTON REPORTS, Number 220 Tropical Topics, Sunday 7 September 2014. Welcome to this week’s topics: a dish and some bikes. English lesson “Ayurveda” has become such a buzz word among tourists in Sri Lanka, who believe that this local wellness therapy could help them detoxify after over-indulgent lifestyles, that the word is used as a mantra. ...
Mapping the weather. ROYSTON REPORTS Tropical Topics, Number 219, 30 August 2014. Greetings to readers new and old with this week’s topics touching on ancient weather and sybaritic revelations. Chutney From gherkins last week to chutney this week. I had some chutney that inspired raptures of appreciation recently at a bar, in the middle of an abandoned paddy field, that ...
Information ROYSTON REPORTS, Number 232 Sunday 30 November 2014. Greetings from Sri Lanka as the holiday season approaches, with information on gin and whales. Information Thanks to an unexpected invitation from Martin Straus, MD of the British Food & Beverage Training Centre of Colombo, I was privileged to sit in at a Gin Cocktail training session given by Mr Straus ...
Queen Victoria ROYSTON REPORTS, Number 273 Sunday 20 September 2015 Welcome to today’s newsletter with focus on food, yet again, and the story of Colombo’s majestic statue. Cowpeas My latest forage in the supermarket yielded an attractively labelled jar containing “Baked Cowpea Beans.” I picked it up thoughtfully and read the label: “Blackeyed Peas in Natural BBQ Tomato Sauce.” I ...
Bottled cobra ROYSTON REPORTS Number 231 Sunday 23 November 2014. Lots of parties as Sri Lanka heats up for Christmas, and news of my new book for a stocking filler. Sri Lanka’s Best Seaside Resort Last week I featured Asia’s longest (25m), and Sri Lanka’s first, glass fronted lap pool at the cutely named Calamander Unawatuna Beach Resort. In the ...
Ceylonology ROYSTON REPORTS, Number 289 Tropical Topics, Sunday 17 January 2016. Greetings to readers throughout the world to more news of Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon. Breadfruit One of my fond memories of Dominica, my home from 1966 to 1979, is eating breadfruit roasted whole over a log fire on the bank of the Layou River. We tore the ...
An engaging and breathtaking holiday in Greece takes many forms. And an underwater adventure is one of them. The Greek seas hide some of the most gorgeous spots for scuba diving and snorkelling. With over 230 inhabited islands, vast coastline, and stunning beaches, every slip into the water gives you an opportunity to enjoy a huge variety of wrecks, caverns, ...
From December to March this traditional summer getaway turns into a ski destination offering 18 ski centres and 190 km of runs for all abilities. Though these are located in quaint, traditional villages, the après ski scene is vibrant with a nightlife that is surprisingly busy. GREVENA – Double ski experience Grevena has two ski resorts, Vassilitsa, located 42 km ...
Poetry is everywhere. It’s in the air we breathe, it’s in the rustling of the trees, it’s in streets of a city, and it’s in every corner of the universe; every place known and unknown to man. We are all poets. Some of us may not be through words, but through our actions and thoughts. So here are 50 ...
Tea caddy quest ROYSTON REPORTS, Number 266 Sunday 2 August 2015. Greetings to this week’s newsletter at the start of Sri Lanka’s hot August: a general election and the annual Kandy Perahera (pageant) this month. The East’s newest hotel I spent my second night in Sri Lanka 36 years ago by the beach at Uppuveli, 5km north of Trincomalee, so ...
ROYSTON REPORTS, Number 283 Sunday 29 November 2015. Greetings to readers around the world to this week’s quirky newsletter. Plumpkin We first noticed the tiny plant sending out shoots behind the outside shower about two weeks ago. Kumara suggested it might be a cucumber since I have freshly prepared cucumber juice every morning and he reckoned seeds could have fallen ...
On a platter ROYSTON REPORTS, Number 290 TROPICAL TOPICS, Sunday 24 January 2016. Here’s this week’s report on fun in the sun in Sri Lanka. Fishing Season This is the season for net fishing in the Indian Ocean opposite where I live on the west coast. The process is the same as it has been for centuries. Fishermen row two ...
Skin Tax ROYSTON REPORTS Number 278 Sunday 25 October 2015. Greetings from sunny Sri Lanka where the rains are ceasing on the West Coast and Sri Lankans are looking forward to welcoming tourists as the season begins. Wandering troubadour When a few friends gathered on my veranda last Saturday, we were lucky enough to spot this wandering musician walking along ...
Hair today… ROYSTON REPORTS, Number 277 Sunday 18 October 2015. A warm hello to readers around the world and welcome to this week’s newsletter on aspects of life in Sri Lanka. Ancient Customs There is a new museum in Colombo that few people know about which is dedicated to items seized by the customs service. Although the modern customs service ...
“Barf” bags ROYSTON REPORTS, Number 270 Sunday 30 August 2015. Greetings to readers around the world to this week’s glimpse of life in Sri Lanka, including a look at a curious collectable. Motor show There was a four-day motor show held in Colombo last week. I went there with web wizard, Andrew, out of curiosity and was delighted to discover ...
Changing Colombo ROYSTON REPORTS, Number 264 Sunday 19 July, 2015. Greetings to readers old and new to this week’s newsletter of Sri Lankan titbits. Seminar latest Buy with care! The property seminar for British nationals under the auspices of the British High Commission (BHC) conducted by BHC Honorary Legal Advisors, Julius & Creasy, will be held at the Jetwing Lighthouse ...
