Wednesday 7th January 2026

I think I was totally wiped out by yesterday's rather long, emotional day, when I left Sky Heaven at 08:15 in the morning and didn't return until 20:45 in the evening. By the time I had settled in for the night, and written my blog and my diary, it was nearly midnight, and I was out like a light. I almost always wake up before the alarm on my phone goes off at 06:30, but I struggled this morning, and I think it had been ringing for quite some time before I roused myself.

I enjoyed my breakfast and before long I was at Tea Leaf Centre Nuwara Eliya, where I was working with the Trainee Teachers again today, which was very enjoyable. We were looking at the appropriate use of instructions for delivering the first part of a lesson, which I modelled for them, and they then took it in turns in small groups of 2 or 3 to deliver the same start of a lesson to the rest of the group. They didn't find it easy, but they all had a good go at it.

I walked down the hill from the Tea Leaf Centre, then caught the bus back into Nuwara Eliya, where I had a late lunch at Yara in the centre of town, arriving back at Sky Heaven around 16:00. I immediately fell asleep, only waking up two hours later to complete today's blog and diary. It's now almost 20:00 and I am still exhausted, so that's me done for today, I'm afraid. I need to balance long, intense days with much shorter ones, in order to pace myself!

As promised, I am back to my normal length of blog entry today. To be honest, I had so much less to write about today, which suited me very well. I just kept myself going day after day last year, and in the end I completely exhausted myself and became quite grumpy, so I have agreed a much more sensible programme for an old guy of nearly 68 this year, which seems to be suiting me fine, as I have hugely enjoyed my first week in Sri Lanka this time.

N.B. A huge thank you to everyone who has not only read my daily blog, but has left a comment - including my sister, Julie! I have already had 15 comments (not quite all with names on, so a few are incognito!). I simply don't have time to respond to individual comments, as I barely have time to write my blog each day, but your comments are very greatly appreciated!

Today you have a couple of photographs of the beautiful views coming down the hill from the Edinburgh Tea Factory, and a couple of the entrance to Sky Heaven and my lovely room with the turret. Finally, you have a couple of pictures of Wathsala, who is the brother of Krishan, Sky Heaven's manager. Wathsala is the pastor of a local Christian house fellowship, who fills in a bit for Krishan from time to time.