Wednesday 25th January 2023

I'd like to start today with a huge thank you to the handful of people who are still reading my blog. It really is a handful - I barely get into double figures these days - and I joked with my wife Valerie yesterday that, apart from her, I have very few regular readers now. I am going to hang on in there, as I made a commitment to a couple of people in my Rotary Club that I would continue with it, even if it is hardly worth the effort now!

My lack of readers may well be due to the fact that, although I am in a beautiful country and having an amazing time generally, I lead quite a mundane existence from day-to-day, with today being no exception, as I stayed at home all day to continue to help Yad with the KNH Annual Report, which I have to say is actually very interesting for me, and not as tedious as it might sound, because it is such a rewarding project.

I did slip out for an early evening stroll, as the evening mist was falling and before it got dark! I found it rather atmospheric, as I live in a fascinating hilly area, with many local paths that I have yet to explore. I stopped by at the nearest tiny shop to where I live, one I have yet to purchase anything from, although I intend to rectify that soon. A young girl was stood in the shop holding a chicken, and I got a lovely photo of her.

There is a workshop running here first thing tomorrow morning, so I will escape into town in the morning to spend the day continuing with the KNH Annual Report at The Grand Hotel - and maybe popping in to see Donald and Ladushan, as I will have to spend a bit of time tidying up their Business Proposal. I'm hardly rushed off my feet, but I do have plenty of very basic work to keep me ticking over.

Today's photos are from my early evening stroll, including the lovely photo of the girl with the chicken and a guy I chatted to on the way back who was growing cabbages!


















Comments

  1. CharlesJanuary 25, 2023 at 6:31 AM

    The photo of the little girl holding a chicken is a winner, Keith. Keep up the good work (and the blog), please!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 25, 2023 at 6:03 PM

    Wow nice sir.. enjoy every seconds sir

    ReplyDelete
  3. TimJanuary 26, 2023 at 12:16 AM

    Still reading Keith! It’s good to get your impressions of ordinary life in Sri Lanka before we arrive there on 6 March. I’ll be in touch shortly to confirm our lunch date,

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJanuary 26, 2023 at 12:53 AM

    Not in any way mundane Keith. Fascinating! The girl with the chicken photograph is delightful … a great cover photo for a book! Writing reports of projects … your forte!
    Wonderful work you are involved with B 🦊x

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friday 16th February 2024

Image
It was my final day in the Pre-Primary Department of the Royal International School today, which was kind of sad, as they have been so welcoming, and I have had the most amazing time there. Miss Agatha and Miss Tharika run a very tight team that manages 902 children from Toddlers to Nursery to Lower Kindergarten (LKG) to Upper Kindergarten (UKG) extraordinarily well, and which provides an excellent foundation for these pupils' learning journey. I had a wonderful morning where I was observing Number lessons with the UKG Co-ordinator and the English Co-ordinator (seeing the level of English in the Number lessons). In almost all the lessons, the quality of the teaching was exceptionally high, with the attention to detail - and in particular with the resources they had prepared - quite incredible. And apart from all of that, it was great fun, which is, in my opinion what learning should be for children. I had a nerve-wracking afternoon, as I had to deliver a session on time management
Read more

Wednesday 14th February 2024

Image
My younger granddaughter Esther is 5 years old today, so I messaged her 10-year-old sister Isabella to ask her to wish her a 'Happy Birthday' from me. It was much less of a crazy day today, with a morning filled with lesson observations - this time observing English lessons in the Upper KinderGarten (UKG) classes, which is the equivalent year to Reception, so I could imagine Esther being at school with the children I was with all morning today. It was really useful today to watch the teaching of English to the 5-year-olds, whose level of understanding is already very impressive. As with the Tea Leaf Centres, it is a fully immersive system, so everything is conducted in English, and it is impressive how much English these 5-year-olds already know, in the same way that the progress Tea Leaf students make through the one-year full-time English Diploma is also extremely impressive. If you have been reading my blog, you may remember that Erica, who I had a wonderful weekend with in
Read more

Saturday 6th January 2024

Image
I would say that this was easily my most enjoyable day so far, but it got rather spoiled this evening when I handled an extremely frustrating situation very badly. Let's focus on the good part of the day, because it really was a pleasure to work with Miggy and Stephanie all day, as we went in search of accommodation for Stephanie from next Tuesday 9th January, that we could also recommend to future volunteers who are working with Tea Leaf Trust in the Nuwara Eliya area. We visited 10 different Guest Houses between 10:00 and 16:00, with a brief stop for a delicious buffet lunch (that only cost 500LKR - a round   £1.25 -  per head) in b etween. We found some very suitable accommodation to suit a range of budgets in a variety of locations, but there was one place that was exceptional, where we returned at the end of the day to make a booking for Stephanie, who will go there at the same time as Isabelle, a new volunteer, next Tuesday. Our ideal accommodation (and I would happily stay t
Read more