Keith in Sri Lanka

Although I slept very soundly, I still only managed 5 hours of sleep, as I was awake at 07:00, and Daya's fiancee, Vinothini arrived at the house shortly after that to see us. I guess it wasn't surprising, as my body clock was all over the place after the long journey yesterday, and Sri Lanka is 5.5 hours ahead of the UK. I was too tired to have a shower last night, so my morning shower today felt wonderfully refreshing, and I felt quite wide awake for the first half of the day! One of the first things that we did this morning was to visit Daya's parents' graves. There are buried just a short way from the house, and since my last visit, the brothers have added a headstone to mark where they are buried next to each other. It is traditional here to honour your parents' graves on days like today, and it was lovely to do that with Daya and Vinothini. There is a beautiful view from where they are buried, although the photograph that I took of it doesn't really do it ...

I left London Heathrow Airport at 21:00 on a 10-hour flight to Colombo Airport in Sri Lanka. As far as long-haul flights go it was a pleasant one, although maybe not for one poor passenger, as a message came across the speaker system asking if there was a qualified doctor or nurse on board, and the man sat right next to me made himself known as a qualified doctor! I think another qualified doctor beat him to it, so I'm not sure what happened after that! We landed on time at 12:30, and I was met at the airport by a driver called Prabath, who my friend Nilanga had arranged to pick me up. We had to go via Kurunegala to pick up some of my stuff that I had left there, and Sandra Wanduragala greeted us with a pizza, as we enjoyed a very short break before driving on to Norwood, where I am staying at my very good friend Daya's home for 4 nights. It was an exhausting journey, and a big relief to finally arrive not long before 22:00. It was wonderful to see Daya and some of his family a...