Keith in Sri Lanka

I was up at 06:00 this morning trying to produce the notes for a meeting that I had with Jesmin last Friday. I got most of the job completed, but then I had to have a shower and pack, before having breakfast with Gav at 08:00. Reggie picked me up at 09:00 to take me to Tea Leaf Centre Bogawantalawa, where I am working this week. We got as far as Nanu Oya when I realised that I had left my bag with my money and my passport behind, so we had to go back again! We arrived at Tea Leaf Centre Bogawantalawa just after 11:00, and, fortunately, they had very little planned for me today, so I was able to finish the notes that I had started at 06:00, then catch up quite a lot with my Volunteer Coordinator work, including various emails that had gone unanswered, as I simply hadn't had time to deal with them. I have been struggling to keep up with everything over the past few days, so it was a relief to have time just to catch up a bit.  I felt better once I had cleared a backlog of work, as it...

It was great fun having some of Tea Leaf's senior staff members staying with us at Sky Heaven, and we enjoyed sitting together for breakfast around 09:00. We then got ready to go to the Mariners' Restaurant, by Lake Gregory, where there was a get-together for senior staff at Tea Leaf to enjoy spending a day relaxing at a lovely venue (despite the awful weather). We were due there at 10:30, but the tuk-tuks were rather late arriving, so we didn't get there until after 11:00.  It was rather fortuitous that we were delayed, because just as we were leaving Gav arrived at Sky Heaven. He is doing a sponsored walk from the northernmost point to the southernmost point of Sri Lanka, and is staying 3 nights at Sky Heaven, with Nuwara Eliya being roughly half-way through his Sri Lankan adventure. It was a pleasure to meet him, and he could have come with us, but he needed a hot shower, and some time to rest before he joined us later on in the day. Many of the other Tea Leaf staff were...

I had an enjoyable morning, with a late breakfast, followed by time to catch up with some of my paperwork for Tea Leaf, plus a bit of time on my blog and my diary. I then popped into The Grand Hotel just for an hour, because I wanted to catch my friend Sajeevan, as he hadn't been at work yesterday. I had a quick drink, but Mahinda was playing his saxophone, and he announced that I was going to sing, so I just sang 'Imagine' again, only a bit better than yesterday. I couldn't stay long at The Grand Hotel today, as I was meeting a group of Tea Leaf staff by the racecourse to go to a carnival at 16:00. We went in tuk-tuks to where the carnival was supposed to be, only to find that there was no carnival (and the weather was appalling anyway), so we then went back to Sky Heaven, as some of them were staying the night there. We got everyone's rooms sorted, then we all sat round chatting over a cup of tea, and laughed a lot! The weather continued to be dreadful - it really...

For regular followers of my blog, you may be wondering why I haven't mentioned The Grand Hotel yet, as you will know that on previous visits it has been a favourite haunt of mine. Although I have already been here for 10 days, I haven't been yet as I have had a very full timetable so far, so reduced opportunity, especially as Sky Heaven is actually an extremely lovely place to work from. The other reason is that it has become extremely expensive since I first went there in 2019. Immediately after a very good online meeting with Jesmin this morning, where we talked around various aspects of my role as Volunteer Coordinator, there was a power cut! I really needed to continue working online, so I finally succumbed to the temptation to visit The Grand Hotel, as they have their own generator there, and you are guaranteed internet access. I must admit I was looking forward to seeing everyone again, as I have spent many happy hours there. I duly arrived at The Grand Hotel, and I settl...

I cannot believe how appalling the weather is at the moment. I have never experienced anything quite like it in my previous 5 visits to Sri Lanka. It is supposed to be the height of the tourist season, with mainly sunny skies, very high temperatures, and only the occasional shower here and there. Don't get me wrong - it's still way warmer than you guys are experiencing back in the UK, but I reckon we can beat you for rain here at the moment - it's just continuous! I was already scheduled to have a day catching up with paperwork for my Volunteer Coordinator role, so I stayed in at Sky Heaven, and just got on with it, with the result that there were no opportunities to take photographs today, apart from one halfway through the afternoon when a rainbow appeared, although I'm not sure I got the best photograph of it I could. Fortunately, there was a lull in the rain in the evening when I met up with Isabelle to have dinner at Milano's. With little news to tell, I will g...

Today I was tasked with visiting potential places for volunteers at Tea Leaf Centre Maskeliya to stay, so I obviously didn't want to interrupt them too early in the morning. I had a late breakfast at 09:00, then proceeded to chat through options with my current host at Daresh Home Stay. It is very basic accommodation, but I have only had to pay 4,000LKR per night for bed and breakfast, and he is prepared to reduce that to 3,500LKR per night for volunteers staying more than 2 weeks. My next visit was to Heavenhills Guest House, which is literally across from where I was staying, and is run by a Namal Kumara, a former student at Tea Leaf, so I enjoyed chatting with him. He has a rather more upmarket place to stay, and it is certainly worth the 7,000LKR per night for bed and breakfast, which he is prepared to knock down to 6,000LKR per night for volunteers staying for more than 2 weeks. Both of these places have 2 rooms for guests. I then visited Butterfly Mountain Lake Side (where I ...