I describe here a very happy day, when the lines were drawn for my cottage at Palankadewatte and also for the school building at Madola. The first picture is of Nirmali laying the foundation stone but sadly I cannot find pictures of the laying of the lines at Palankadewatte so I show instead a stage in the construction of the ...

This post ends with the wedding of Upali and Jothini at Dickwella, her home town, and my signing the register. They have been over the years the most helpful of my Sabaragamuwa students, in many fields. The pictures are of Upali and Jothini A wedding From Belihulouya I went to the Badulla and Mahiyangana GELTs and went to Derrick’s for ...

I have more here about work in Colombo, where I now spent more time, and at home with a computer installed there. But I note too here how I brought my different worlds together, taking Peter to Madola and to see Neville whom he got on very well with. I was also trying to do more for English formally, since ...

More here about Oluvil, but also an account of how I placed my brightest Sabaragamuwa student from the AUCs in a job where he fitted admirably though initially there were objections to his background and the fact that his father knew no English. The pictures are of him and another bright student, Sameem, separated by Gamini Weerakoon, then editor of ...

After ten posts about my first travels after joining a university again, I get back to travels with Kithsiri towards the end of the century. I look here at family matters, a bereavement and the discovery of a fascinating book that had belonged to a long dead great-uncle, and also refer here to developments at Madola, anticipating the discovery of ...

This post describes my taking up duties at the University of Sri Jayawardenepura after a long break abroad, to attend a Commonwealth Literature conference in Jamaica for which the Council had funded me, with travel afterwards in Cuba and Central America. But as I got back I had to deal with the problems endemic in the Sri Lankan university system, ...

I mention here my first visit to what became the site of the Buttala University College, where I had many happy stays, and which subsequently became a army training college so that, years after my first visit, I attended a couple of seminars there, amused to recognize so many of the old buildings first put up by President Premadasa this ...

This includes an account of one of my travel adventures, going in Ena’s pickup to deliver cupboards we had ordered from her for schools on the Australian library project, a long journey down from Aluvihare to Moneragala and Amparai, which I felt increasingly needed special attention on the lines of what the Tennessee Valley Authority had provided to stir America ...

It was intensive work from the moment I go back, including on the very next day a workshop at Penideniya which continued with the good work Lalith Athulathmudali had started. Then there was much to do about book production, and interviews, while I continued to work for the Associations through which I did so much. I also mention the Peace ...

This describes yet another workshop Nirmali and Paru and I conducted in very simple conditions, in blazing heat. This was in Amparai, with several teachers who had attended the previous one in Moneragala, and much appreciated our efforts to help them. And we stayed in the Amparai Resthouse, run by the father of a former student, who took good care ...

Apart from work, I describe here my 38th birthday party when I invited friends to celebrate what I called my early retirement. It was also a full moon day again, following the lunar cycle of 19 years, the second on May 16th since the day I was born. The pictures are of the Saranga Inn, the Amparai and Belihuloya Resthouses, ...

I mention here the book publications programme which the English Association developed though the British Council had withdrawn, and then describe a visit to Anuradhapura where the Director Mr Dorakumbura who had been Librarian at USJP proved most hospitable. But there was much more I was involved in, a literary talk at the Council, support for my aunt Ena, and ...

I look here at work at secondary level, based on the Australian project we were implementing, and then the formal opening of the AUC. But that was accompanied by the unfortunate sacking of the English coordinator we had selected, who had fallen foul of Somasundara the Belihuloya Director. But since he too suffered a tragedy on that day and left ...

This describes intensive work with the AUCs but also a schools programme I had started with funding from the Australians. And I note the first blow to the AUC programme when Rahangala lost its committed Director, who was replaced by someone who knew nothing of what Aluvihare had envisaged. The pictures are of the second of the four texts we ...

After ten posts about travels with Kithsiri in the late nineties, I start today a new series for I finished earlier this month with accounts of my travel and work while at the British Council. Some of what I write here, about what I did from May 1992 onward, explaining what I had done and what I embarked on, is ...

This post describes the commencement of my work at the South Eastern University, something I had almost forgotten, but which was a fascinating experience. Those were days in which many people were nervous about going to the Eastern Province, though I had no reason to think I was in any danger provided I did not travel at night in areas ...

I record here the start of classes at Malwatte, following on signing the agreement for the Madola project with the Sri Lanka Canada Development Fund, with jak trees being planted on the land to mark the occasion. And I note too taking Peter Rowe with me to Derrick’s and to Ena’s, a mark of how quickly we had become very ...

This looks critically at the great waste of money Marga indulged in for what should have been an illuminating exhibition and workshop. I was pleased however, having taken several students down, to have provided them with parcels of food, which was left over in abundance given the lack of organization and publicity. The pictures are of Alfie Moragoda as Commissioner ...

I describe here the settling in of the staff at Madola, but I also note the other projects I was working on, at Malwatte and for WUSC, and also involvement in other training ventures. And I note too my first meeting with someone who was to become one of my best friends, the new Australian High Commissioner, Peter Rowe. The ...

This post records the sad departure of the Starkloffs, and suggests the host of alternative occupations I engaged in when free of the responsibility of the Faculty at the university. Sadly I cannot find the picture I cherish of the lunch given by Dr Jayasundara, though I found one of him, and also one of Dr Samarakoon the other Senior ...