Once again, following the vote in Geneva, which made clear how influential the United States of America was, and how comparatively friendless we were, there is talk of re-establishing relations with the West. Thankfully this year it has not taken the form of denigration of good relations with others, as happened last year when those elements in the Ministry of ...
Only two people are now left at Lakmahal of those who filled the house 50 years ago. First of all, in those days, there was my grandmother, who still dominated the place at the age of 65, just a bit older than I am now. My parents and my brother and sister were also upstairs, each with their own rooms, ...
I had wondered whether, with the advent of another year, I should start a new series for the Saturday post on this blog. But so much happens in the various ponds and tanks that I have, that I will continue with the same subject, as I do with the gardens on Wednesdays, though whether there will be enough happening throughout ...
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 ...
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, ...
After the early morning walk on the beach, on that first morning in Berwick, we went back home to poached ducks’ eggs which Bruce prepared and lots of toast and home made marmalade, which was most satisfying. I lay then on the sofa and read while Penny came down and had her more exiguous breakfast and they did their household ...
Today’s pictures are from Macedonia, or rather what is now officially North Macedonia. This is to distinguish it from the Greece province of Macedonia, which has the areas historically associated with Alexander the Great and his father Philip. I went there in 2016 and found a range of attractions, the overblown statues of the capital Skopje which had an exquisite ...
I have for many weeks looked at the ponds and tanks on the balcony, the blossoming lotuses for a month and before that the fish. Before that I had described the fish in the various ponds and tubs in the garden, so that there has been very little about the flowers there, since the early days of this series when ...
In the more than a month that passed two years ago between my resigning as State Minister of Higher Education and crossing over to the opposition, I realized how utterly Ranil despised the concepts of good governance that had been a cornerstone of President Sirisena’s manifesto. The failure to amend Standing Orders as promised, the omission of Ministry Secretaries from ...
In retrospect it is clear that there was no hope of stopping Mahinda Rajapaksa rushing headlong into disaster, given that so many of those around him, while pursuing their own agendas, had lulled him into a false sense of security. But it still seemed necessary to try, and I did have at least one significant success. This was heartening, since ...
The Paranagama and the Geneva Reports: Attempts to Mislead the Public – Pt 1 contd., Question 10: The Government has alleged that the Paranagama Report agrees with the Channel 4 video allegations. Is that true? Answer Not at all. It is a deliberate misreading of the Paranagama Report. At paragraph 428, the Paranagama Report states explicitly “ the authenticity of the video ...
Today’s pictures are from a dreamlike trip to Maluku, the Indonesian islands east of Sulawesi, stretching to Irian Jaya, or Papua New Guinea. I have already posted pictures of the end of that holiday, on an island in the Kei group almost at the eastern end. This post covers travel there, but only the first half for I am so ...
I turn now to the balcony below the garden, and start with a survey of the other rose plants there. I have indeed shown one that was there, but that was in a pot later transferred as mentioned to the garden above. There are however others, including another pink bush which was planted in the same bed as my first ...
I had forgotten to note yesterday that I was returning to the British Council, and my travels in the early nineties, having completed ten posts about travels with Kithsiri half a decade later. This post too continues with a range of work, though by now it was clear that the Brits at the Council were determined to stop much of ...
Today’s pictures are from my last trip to Greece, in 2017, when I saw places I had missed out on during earlier visits. After a day in Athens I went to Meteora for its magnificient monasteries, and then on to Thessalonica. I had a cruise past the monasteries on Athos and also visited the Macedonian sites and museums and Philip’s ...
I describe here how I fitted in a visit from an old friend from England amidst other obligations, and ensured he saw a lot, even though I was away for part of his stay. But by now I knew Kithsiri could be entrusted to take on some of my responsibilities. The picture is of Richard a quarter of a century ...
I decided to include one more post today in this series, after the usual ten, for this brings me to the end of my student days in Oxford. About my last term of formal work, this takes up a thread from the past in describing a Victorian evening. This 1978 one was in Cambridge, but in emulation of those Adrian ...
My travels took on an additional element when in 2000 the Sri Lanka Military Academy commenced a degree programme in collaboration with Sabaragamuwa University. Under their thoughtful commandant Gamini Hettiarachchi, depicted here, they had approached the UGC about this soon after I joined Sabaragamuwa in 1997 and I believe the Chairman was happy to hand it over to us to ...
Having gone the round of the ponds in the main garden, I should mention again the pond by the garage, which I last looked at, and that cursorily, a couple of months back. It continues splendid, except that no lotuses have blossomed there since the host of flowers, white and purple, that appeared in the first few months of the ...
Today’s pictures are from a journey in 2016 together with Vasantha Senanayake to Zambia. We went first to Livingstone for the Victoria Falls but these pictures are all from the North Luanga Park where we went next, for a few fabulous days. We had a cabin by the river for wonderful sunrises, with once an elephant swimming across towards us. ...
