This post describes, after another journey with another Codipilly driver, my first journey to look at GELT Centres in operation. The pictures are of the Medawachchiya Resthouse, not too bad for a relatively new building, and the beautiful old Hanwella Resthouse. The beginning of GELT inspections We got back to Colombo next afternoon after that night at the Ruhuna University ...

After a journey with another Codipilly driver, I record here my first longer trip with Kithsiri. This included a stay at the beautiful Ruhuna University Guesthouse high above the sea, with a bath after we had clambered down the rocks. The pictures are of Ruhuna University, not the Guesthouse, but an even better example of Bawa architecture, the Moneragala Education ...

This post recounts my first meeting with Kithsiri, when he took me to two of the AUCs I had not known before. The pictures are of the AUCs in the south, transformed now into the Agriculture Faculty of Ruhuna University and the National Vocational Training Institute, Niyagama A first serendipitous trip Fortunately I knew something of the GELT rogramme already ...

Having finished the record of my travels while at Oxford, I start a new series today to alternate with my travels within Sri Lanka while I worked at the Council. I am still dealing with what I did in the eighties in those posts, but I move now to the nineties, and a new dimension to the work I was ...

This records the increasing recognition of the political contribution of the Liberals, with Chanaka presiding over the inaugural Dudley Senanayake lecture. But I had to juggle David Steel with the music duo whose programme had been disrupted earlier. There is more then about our efforts to revitalize English curricula, at school and university level, and of progress on the English ...

This post introduces a couple who became great friends, and were a refuge when the Council changed drastically after the departure of Rex Baker and Clive Taylor. I mention too progress, despite the violence in the country, of a new syllabus for Advanced Level English, and a continuation of events at the Council. But I mention too serious disruption of ...

This post mentions the reign of terror the country underwent this year, as the JVP upped the stakes in its resistance now to President Premadasa. But I continued to work as normal, though sometimes the streets were empty as I walked to office. The first two pictures are from the collage of wedding pictures that Ena put up in her ...

I note here changes in the Ministry of Education, which led in time to disaster for the projects the British Council had developed under John Keleher. Though the new Minister, Lokubandara, did not last long for the President soon realized how incompetent he was, the changes he initiated had long term effects too. His Secretary was married to my cousin ...

This post deals with a brief but very full time in Sri Lanka between the visit to Pakistan and a long sojourn on the university ship, including a farewell dinner for John Keleher. And after I got back we had a lot of work with Scott Richards, including a wonderful production in which Richard de Zoysa’s scholarship boy protégés from ...

I first refer here to an activity that took up much of my time in the next couple of years, an archaeology project which was quite fascinating.  But I mention also the election, which Mrs Bandaranaike lost, and lots of activity at the Council. The pictures are of Gill, of Nigel and Kaushi at New Year’s Eve at Lakmahal in ...

I describe here the actor I most enjoyed touring after Geraldine McEwan four years earlier. This was Frank Barry whose wife had a very different sort of connection to me in that she worked at the College to which one of my best friends amongst Univ dons, Tony Firth, had moved. The Barrys were fun to travel with, interested in ...

This post deals with a political tragedy, in that Mrs Bandaranaike, persuaded by her household, reneged on her commitment to the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, which meant she lot the Presidential election held a couple of months later. I had a domestic commitment too at the time, for my aunt Lakshmi finally moved from the Old Place where I had ...

This post looks at two other initiatives I embarked on, one of which was immensely successful. This was the English Writers Cooperative, which we set up at the Council, but which survived long after I had left and the Council ceased to support such initiatives. We had an admirable editorial board to begin with, and I was glad I had ...

Having finished the long account, over 95 posts, of travels in student days, I return to travel in the eighties in Sri Lanka, when I worked for the British Council. This post deals with an important political initiative in 1988 on the part of the Liberal Party, negotiating a compromise between the SLFP and the Muslim Congress, which we managed ...

After a time though I realized that I was ready to move on, and in fact I was at Windsor when I was told the thesis had been accepted. It had been a great year, but closure was necessary, though I was glad this had taken time because now I had no regrets about leaving Oxford, at last. The pictures ...

Waiting again was a bit of a bore but there was some excitement in that the third inhabitant of the flat, Warwick Lightfoot, was running for President, and though I was too old to be actively involved, he obviously welcomed my advice – and indeed would spend ages in my room, even if I was in bed when he got ...

I describe here the conclusion of work on the thesis, while as noted social life in a range of different dimensions continued, with friends from school and from my first year at Oxford coming up. The pictures are of Richard and John when they saw me in Oxford a couple of months ago, and then both of them separately at ...

This describes a fun excursion and then the continuing efforts at Norham Gardens and the changeover of tenants in the two flats. The pictures are of Malcolm and Chris Hall, below, along with Margaret MacDonald, then Dave Rampersad on the right at an early planning meeting of the Piers Gaveston Society, and then Stephen Coles and Carole Lansbury, Malcolm’s mother, ...

This post describes work on the thesis, which was actually fun for it was good to settle down to it after having had to stand aloof for so many months. Not much revision was required and I had the most wonderful typist. The joys of vacation continued, with my friends at Univ being as hospitable and comforting as ever. And ...

I describe here what I think of as the best production Rudi Corens did for us, Aeschylus’ ‘Libation Bearers’, which was put on in the Council Gardens, with a fantastic set, the design for which I still have framed in my bedroom. And political work continued, and work on the furniture project, as well as another drama workshop plus plans ...