I continue here with more lively journeys in the first half of 1995, when I could indulge to the full my passion for new roads and old resthouses. The Ratnapura District had a number of delightful ones with broad verandahs and, in Ratnapura, a lovely balcony on the first floor, all ideal for evening drinks. The first four pictures are ...

There followed a hiatus as to trips with Kithsiri for the UGC wanted me to use their drivers and only after it became clear how inefficient that was was I allowed to get back to using a hired vehicle. The UGC mileage did not cover this but I subsidized this with project funds so I was not out of pocket. ...

I describe here travels on my AUC work with Nirmali Hettiarachchi, when we also took along for the ride Malathi Thalgodapitiya who had begun to work with us as her sister Mrinali had done. Kithsiri got on splendidly with these my Sri Lankan friends too, and much appreciated their great energy and commitment. And as noted he evinced this himself, ...

I describe here my first journey in 1995 with Kithsiri when we took along Ian Kramer, a good friend from Oxford who was visiting. Kithsiri got on very well with all my friends, and would fondly remember them afterwards, and their special characteristics. In Ian’s case one was to nurse a glass of gin all evening, while we drank more ...

I note here two lovely holidays in the midst of work, with Ena and Shanthi Wilson at the Udawalawe Park, and then with Robert Scoble at Negombo, reminiscent of the great times we had had there a decade earlier, though in less salubrious hotels than those we now were in. But I record also a realization of how awful was ...

I note here the new initiatives I had embarked on with regard to publications, given the negative approach now of the Council, Fortunately CIDA under Andre Vinette was even more supportive, if that were possible, of the work I did than Valerie Young had been. But I note here too other efforts to cut down Sri Lankans, with the arrival ...

This details the beginning of Neil’s efforts to clip my wings, though it began with him actually giving me the use of the upstairs of the house in which Rex Baker had lived – for Neil himself had refused to live there and got himself an expensive house on rent down the road. But the pictures are of the continuing ...

I look here at the start of the second archaeology project, when I visited the Japanese site at Belihuloya which was to become a second home for me in the course of the decade. The pictures are all related to that visit, Ekneligoda and the Budugala ruins, a site Gill explored, the pool below the Japanese restaurant and finally Ananda ...

This post describes perhaps the most exciting part of the first Cultural Triangle Project, the lighting up of Polonnaruwa. Sadly the Ministry did not have the capacity to build on this as we had hoped, though it did respond positively whenever I wanted to show the lighting to friends, a mark of what I term the ‘machang culture’, helpfulness to ...

It was not long before I realized that my influence at the Ministry did not sit well with Gail. The speed with which she turned hostile however I put down to Neil Kemp, whose own inadequacies had prompted resentment. Gail Liesching too proved determined to assert herself despite her lack of capacity. Apart from what I suspect Neil contributed, she ...

This post records the work I did to support Lalith Athulathmudali, who was delighted that I could deploy a host of imaginative trainers for the upgrading he wanted for teachers. Sadly his energy was available for just a year longer, for the following year he got involved in the abortive impeachment of the President. I also record here the arrival ...

I begin with an account of what I tried to do to focus attention on Richard, and then go on to difficulties we faced with regard to our support for English Education, caused by the chaos Lokubandara had caused when he took over the Ministry, He was gone now, for Premadasa had soon realized how hopeless he was, but the ...

I go on here to describe Neil’s pettiness, and his resentment of my skills and influence, which he could not match. Whereas, as Mrs Baker had told me, Rex registered that I was far too qualified for the job I was doing and made use of me accordingly, Neil writhed under what he thought was abilities that dwarfed his, and ...

I come now to the beginning of my interactions with Neil Kemp who had replaced Rex Baker, and proceeded to mess up the Council in style. He presented himself as a modern go-getter but in fact at the end of his tenure we had lost all the influence with officials in Sri Lanka which Rex Baker and John Keleher had ...

I was on the road with Kithsiri again yesterday, with no access to the internet. So there was a day’s break before my continuation of the account of such travel three decades back. I had only a month then, in late 1994, between the journey in connection with the ship and a long Christmas break. The pictures are of Jean ...

This post is the first about my time of comparative freedom, when I could work when and where I liked. I include after the apparently modernized Trinco Resthouse pictures of Profs Siriweera and Pathmanathan since they were such delightful people. A new life A new life began for me on Saturday October 1st 1994, when I no longer had a ...

I got back only on the 11th of September, in time for many changes including a new University Grants Commission headed by former colleagues at Peradeniya with whom I got on very well. This was just as well for my time at USJP was coming to a close. On Wednesday September 14th, having started off a GELT seminar at the ...

This post describes a month of intensive work between journeys to the Philippines in July and then to England in August. Before the latter there was a lot of kerfuffle associated with the General Election, which saw a change of government. The pictures are of the delightful little Wellawaya Resthouse, and then two of JC’s Village in Dambulla. A period ...

Amidst much else I note here how familiar Kithsiri and I became with the East, which most people thought was out of bounds in those days. Sadly I have no pictures of Mr Rajapaksa but I show instead the Eheliyagoda Regional English Support Centre and its hardworking coordinator Prasad Kodituwakku with a lesson being conducted by the Teacher in Charge, ...

I describe here how the family of Kithsiri’s girlfriend came to our rescue when we found the Teldeniya Resthouse full late one night. In time the whole family became great friends. The pictures are from much later, 2020 when we took Kithsiri’s father-in-law back home. En route we stopped at the house in town of his younger daughter, seen here ...