Hello Colombo...

and SJ-F has finally made it to Colombo. Yay!

We got here after a 10 hour long flight, welcomed by the downpour of monsoon showers!!! It was great to come home to our own little annexe at the Goonewardene's, who are very kindly putting us up, or putting up with us ;-).

After a very restful sleep with the sounds of just crickets, we woke up early to the singing of a jack-fowl!!!

Day 1 in Colombo was quite eventful, we went to do admin things such as get local cellphones and a bank account etc. We went to the branch of a local bank where M had already opened an account almost a decade ago, when he was doing an internship here after his first year at LSE. To re-activate it he had to sign some docs, which they promptly told us didn't match the signature on their records...we were really impressed by the level of security, when they showed us on screen which signature we had to re-produce ;-)! After that it took 5 people to complete a simple exchange of sterling to sri lankan rupees for me... I was made to go from the upstairs counter, back down the stairs and to 3 different people before I could receive my fx - that is how they ensure employment for multiple people I guess...also a good lesson for me to become more laid back a la the Lankans!!!
The cellphones were acquired fairly swiftly and I can't get over how cheap it is... only 2.50 for monthly line rental and 1p a text, even internationally!!!
Other than that we spent the afternoon looking for cars (fairly unsuccessful ;-), followed by some house viewing, which wasn't so bad - in fact we saw a place that I absolutely loved, the location is Colombo 7 (which I am told is the equivalent of Chelsea here in Colombo!!), and the best part was that the living room leads on to a semi-covered patio area, and there are two large trees and several plants, so its as if your living room is a part of the garden. However, since luckily we're not both impulsive people who'd just say, quit our jobs and relocate to a new country or something, we decided to look at some more places before making an offer on this house... but I really hope we get it, wish I had taken my camera so that I could've posted them here!

Goodbye London....

I still can't believe that after just over a decade, my tryst with London will be over! It will always remain very close to my heart, as this is where I've spent the most memorable part of my life thus far, and it also holds so many special memories, from my days at the LSE, meeting all those new friends, who have now become life-long buddies, and of course, meeting M, my first (and only job) at GS, getting married, etc, etc.

The last four years have been especially fun as my li'l sister has also been in London and that has meant that I've always had at least one semi-permanent house-guest and also lots of fun hanging out!

So this last week in London has been fairly hectic packing up and moving out of our lovely home. As well as catching up with as many of my friends as was physically possible, including attending Moody & Jyoti's wedding, which was cool cos I got to hang out with my Bankside buddies, that's the thing with your university friends, they really make you feel 21 again! I guess that's one advantage of marrying your college sweetheart ;-) - we never quite feel old!

So with tears in our eyes we bid a fond adieu to London - take care of it, it's a beautiful place on the days it's sunny!

packing up

for those of you who had to go through our moving in saga to Bywater Street, you may remember we had the dream team working for us back in October!

Today we have to make to with just M, myself and the sri lankan packers - it's 9.50am and still no sign of them. M and I are being equally productive by sitting on our pc and laptops respectively, rather than organising or sorting the packing - rationalising this by saying that we can't do anything until they get us the boxes!

When the packers finally arrived I was in super-charged mode, while M's energy was flagging, since we both woke up mega-early! We had a short visit by my sister who helped me out by taking many of my winter clothes, as I shan't be needing them in Colombo ;-). The packers finally left at 10pm, we had all given up by this stage, and there is a small amount of stuff that M and I will have to sort through and drop off to them.

big girls don't cry...

after a week-long of festivities for Bittu & Paul's weddings, we finally said goodbye to everyone in Wales. It was a tearful good-bye, and I guess it finally struck me that I wouldn't be seeing my friends and family for a long time now.

I was quite sad leaving Ma & Papa, and Ma and I alternated crying. I reminded Ma of the times she used to send me to boarding school when I was young, and said it would be like that, but that didn't seem to help.

In any case, I will be seeing them once more on Monday before we leave for Colombo on the 30th!

the big Indian Wedding

As my friend's wedding is coming up, it leads me to think about what it is that makes weddings special. I think apart from the actual marriage of the two individuals involved, a wedding is a celebration of this union, and also an opportunity for close family and friends to congratulate and join the couple in these celebrations. While I'm sure all weddings are special to the couple involved, I don't think I've experienced anything more fun than a good old Indian wedding! I think Monsoon Wedding gave a pretty good insight into Indian Weddings to the world at large. They are chaotic, colourful, noisy affairs, and an opportunity to get together with all your family and friends. The pre-wedding celebrations can last upto a full week, with events such as the sangeet, mehndi, haldi and then the actual ceremony itself. I think it's all of these events that really lead up to the big day and help generate the feeling of celebration for the bride.

Having close family and friends around helps to create the atmosphere of what makes a good old Indian wedding, and throughout the week, there was plenty of dancing and singing in the build up to the hindu wedding on Thursday! Merthyr did us proud again by holding the rain at bay during the actual ceremony, just like on my wedding day!

Despite her reluctance to put on a lot of jewellry - I think she looked amazing on her hindu wedding day! and I think Paul was a great sport all through the ceremony, even showing Bittu up by touching the panditji's feet while she just stood there!!! After, what was a very long day, the four of us (Bittu, Baby, Preeti and me) were spending the night in Bristol, it was like old times when the four of us just hung out in her kitchen drinking tea and reminiscing!

The next day was the grand finale at Orchardleigh, with the church ceremony followed by the reception. The ceremony was short and sweet, with beautiful readings by Sreeti and Tana. The whole week was lots of fun, and also a bit exhausting, and we can't believe it's over! Here are a couple of pictures (I'll add more to photosite/flickr later).

Bittu's Wedding (part 1)

After an 8 hour drive from Amsterdam to Wales, we got here for the first part of Bittu & Paul's wedding extravaganza.

To give you a bit of background, I've known bittu for over half our lives now, and well, she's the kind of friend, that even if you don't talk to or see that often, you just have so much history, that each time we catch up, it's like an un-interrupted continuation of our friendship from wherever we left off.

Anyway, the Sangeet was a super-duper success, with an abundance of food, drink, and dancing.

So this one is dedicated to my piya-tu girl!

on to Holland...

We arrived here in good time to enjoy kottu-roti made by none other than Sada Mama himself! Generally enjoying the good food and company of the Sadacharan's.

Wednesday late morning/early afternoon was spent at Keukenhof. The myriad varieties of flowers was just astonishing. The weather was perfect, sunny and not too hot. Although the gardens were pretty spectacular, my wish to re-enact all those bollywood films (think dekha ek khwab in Silsila), remained unfulfilled, since the tulip fields weren't in full bloom, but we'll save the dancing between the tulips for another visit ;-). Incidentally it was also our 9 year anniversary on the day, which predictably M had forgotten - he thinks I spend way too much time remembering too many dates, and that now we should only remember our wedding anniversary instead.

Got up early this morning, to see the famous Dutch flower auction - pretty impressive, and the first time I've seen a reverse auction - once again the sheer amount of flowers are a sight to be seen, and bring to home that the Dutch people take their flowers very seriously. Something else to note, was how little the flower distributors pay for each rose (as low as 9 euro cents a stem) compared to what you and I end up paying at a florist (especially in central London!).

Some pictures

the need for speed...

...continuing on the German autobahn, I was able to experience M's need for speed by driving at (yes you'd better believe it...) 203km/hour. It was fun, albeit for a couple of seconds, but I guess you really have to be a type A alpha male to find the experience exhilirating. In the meantime, I just envisaged us being the European version of Bonnie & Clyde, or more aptly, Bunty aur Babli ;-).

driving in Deutschland

After a very restful stay in Eysins with Amma & Thatha, lots of yummy food, chats and fun, we departed for our short stay to Köln. Amma got up mega early to pack us some bites (cutlets and patties, as well as some rice packets ;-).

The sun was shining, and we were zipping across the Industrial heartland of Germany, which doesn't have the rustic appeal of the French countryside, nor the picture-postcard views of the Swiss countryside. Despite this, M was loving the German autobahn, especially when we got to the speed-limit free section of the motorway. I now know why the Germans make the best cars - they actually let you drive them to the limit!

We finally got to Köln at 4pm, as the primary purpose of this visit was to meet up with Hira, we are staying at the same hotel as her, which was quite lucky since it is very centrally placed, and right next door to the famous Köln cathedral, which took over 600 years to build!

Swiss riviera

Our sojourn in Europe continued, with a leisurely drive through the Swiss mountain pass of Simplon, across to the Lake Maggiore, had a lazy lunch at the small lake-side town of Cannobio, followed by stops at Locarno, Lugano, Como and Bellagio. Bellagio looked stunning with the dusk sun shining on the yellow-stone buildings. we took the ferry across the lake from Bellagio to Mennagio and then drove back to base-camp Geneva!
pictures to follow...

Sister act...

It was my sister's first trip to Switzerland, and we had a great time showing her around places and hanging out, including celebrating M's birthday!

The usual scenario when the 3 of us hang out, is that Preeti and M gang up on me, however, I think she was so mesmerised by the stunning locales, that there wasn't too much of that this time ;-).

It was also a bitter-sweet realisation, that it would be a while before we'd be able to hang out together like this again, so looking forward to her month-long trip to Colombo in December, watch out for Sister Act part 2!

Some pictures from her trip: