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!