I note here my first fairly heavy involvement with the new Sabaragamuwa University. The pictures are all of the campus, taken when I last visited it in December 2020. The first picture is of one of the guesthouses, where we stayed, and which later was reserved for me when I took up a full-time position there. Work at the new ...

I describe here another visit to Trincomalee, when Kithsiri waited for me in Dambulla, and then a long return journey back to Colombo in the course of which I climbed Yapahuwa and nearly fainted at the end of it, which Kithsiri has never let me forget. We were lucky to have the opportunity for, though the Resthouse was not functioning, ...

This deals with another trip to the East and then the worrying news that the doctors wanted my mother to have an operation straight away. The pictures are of the Methodist Schools in Kalmunai and the Tangerine and Weligama Bay Hotels. Another trip on my own to the East I stayed on that day while the Circuit Bungalow in the ...

This post covers the period of Kithsiri’s marriage, which proved a happy event for me too for his wife and family now look after me and the cottage I built later. The only picture is of the family, with our dogs, two years ago. A wedding and new work I was dropped at Derrick’s in Kandy on the Saturday and ...

After ten posts about travels in the first years of the decade, while I was at the British Council, I move again to 1996, and travels with Kithsiri. This post describes my move to a flat, when I felt constrained to leave Lakmahal. Having checked out the place I went abroad, and only occupied the place in May. The pictures ...

This describes another delightful trip, this time with Scott Richards, all the way to the East where I was still working on my furniture project, while also working out training programmes for teachers, initially through the Council but also through the CIDA projects the English Association conducted. But I also refer to the changing face of the Council, which I ...

This describes another of Neil Kemp’s expensive fads, which he tried to sell to me by saying that the staff would like staying at an expensive hotel. I don’t suppose he understood that there were enough people on our staff who could afford such places themselves, and were not overwhelmed by going to such a place with a host of ...

I stayed on a day in Negombo since Robert Scoble also joined us, but then there was the business of the funeral, after which it was back to work – including a political feeler from Gamini Dissanayake which I resisted, though I was flattered by what seemed admiration of, if not all my skills, my writing capacity. I then go ...

This describes the meandering tour through the country I took with John Harrison over the Christmas period, inclusive of Christmas itself with Ena at the Talgasmankada Bungalow in Yala, a repeat of a holiday we had spent there over Christmas 1987 though Ena’s daughter Kusum was not married then and John was not with us. But at the end of ...

But soon after that delightful trip with David, Gail went on the rampage, resenting resenting both David and me, our friendship and what was obviously our lack of regard for her capacity. Interestingly my great friend John Harrison, visiting Sri Lanka after well over a decade, was as critical about Neil as I was, and diagnosed straight away the chip ...

I describe here yet another holiday with David, where once again we stayed at two hotels in succession in the same town, this time Nuwara Eliya. I still recall our walks and our talks. I recall too fondly his conversation on our drive down, about the attractions of sarongs, and about our Olympic runner Sugath Thilakaratne, perhaps because he had ...

I continue here with the Nexus tour, whom I showed special sights to as well, which had been part of the tradition Rex Baker established and which is why our guests loved Sri Lanka so much. This time for once the Lionel Wendt had not been efficient so I had to deal myself with the government bureaucracy. I presume Neil ...

This post describes the exhibition the British Council put on for Ena de Silva, her return as it were to prominence for before this her wonderful creations were known only through intermediares such as Barefoot. Dominic Sansoni, a shrewd businessman, who had previously taken things only on consignment, realized how the wind was blowing, and bought up before the sale ...

This describes the first of the training journeys I undertook with Nirmali Hettiarachchi, with on this occasion Malathi Thalgodapitiya who worked on our English Association publications joining us. We went in a British Council car, driven by the jolly Rex de Lisle who much enjoyed our adventures. The pictures are of the Amparai CEB bungalow, and of Geoffrey Bawa at ...

Back to the British Council after ten posts about travelling with Kithsiri, which was well into the nineties. This goes back in time, to 1990, a period when the increasing oppressiveness of a different British Council precipitated more active travel out of Colombo, the hallmark of the nineties. After the visit of Chris Bigsby, who was an entertaining guest who ...

The next two journeys in 1996 were enormous fun, covering a great deal of ground including a night in Wasgamuwa with Ena and her friend from the British Virgin Islands, Paulina Du Pont Dean. The pictures are of the Tholangamuwa school, the Bandarawela Resthouse, and Wasgamuwa. Two long and varied trips On the last Tuesday in February I went with ...

The first journey I made out of Colombo in 1996 encompassed also a new venture, involvement in Vocational Training for the World University Service of Canada asked me to devise a supplementary English programme for students on courses it conducted. This was my first intimation of the need for English to enhance the employability of trainees, something that became a ...

I describe here a tour for an Australian friend when Kithsiri took us to two of the loveliest Resthouses in the country, and we did much driving through the glorious hills. There was much travel after that, but I was back for Christmas when we went to Aluwihare and I think Kithsiri stayed, and experienced Ena’s glorious Christmas fare for ...

I note here having to do without Kithsiri when I went East, for either he or Jerome was nervous, so I had to hire a van from Buttala. The pictures are a wonderful old one of Carmel Fatima and of its distinguished Principal Bro. Mathew, of the Amparai Resthouse and Agrabodhi College Kantale. The East without Kithsiri On Wednesday September ...

This post describes how I broke free of the incompetence of UGC drivers, with the blessing of the sensible chairman, and then used my own transport, more often than not Kithsiri. I describe then, on the first trip after that, a beautiful evening in Anamaduwa when it stayed light for ages since Chandrika had moved the clocks back, an hour ...