Friday 13th February 2026

Well, it's Friday 13th February, and I'm not suspicious in the least, but it proved to be quite a day! After a morning doing 4 more lesson observations - 2 for Grades 5/6 and 2 for Grades 7/8 - I left Kurunegala at 14:00 for what I hoped would be a refreshing weekend in Galle. I had agreed to let Yohan drive me - the same guy who brought me from Norwood to Kurunegala on Monday 2nd February. We were well over an hour into a 3-and-a-half-hour journey when .....

..... the car suddenly lost power on a very busy road, and Yohan had to quickly pull over to the side. All attempts to restart it failed, so he went in search of a car mechanic, and returned surprisingly quickly with one. The mechanic seemed to figure out what was wrong, but it required a new part, and Yohan disappeared one way in a tuk-tuk to buy it, whilst the mechanic disappeared on his motorbike in the other direction - hopefully to return when Yohan came back with the new part.

Meanwhile, I sat down in a very run-down looking cafe bar, absolutely melting in the heat. The mechanic arrived back before Yohan did, but he did eventually return, the car was fixed, and we drove the rest of the way to Galle, arriving just after 20:00. We had been due to arrive around 18:00, so the little breakdown episode only set us back by two hours in the end, which was a shame, but I'll just have to wait until tomorrow evening to watch the sunset!

Galle is a lovely, historic town, although the old, walled, fort area of the town is very commercialised and caters almost exclusively for tourists. However, this weekend I am a tourist, so I am just going to enjoy my touristy break in these beautiful surroundings. I pottered around the old town for a while, but I was tired, so I just had a simple supper of hoppers washed down with some Lion Lager at The Secret Garden before getting a good night's sleep.

Well, the photos show a very poorly car and Yohan with the mechanic before he disappeared to find a spare part for the car. There are a couple of photographs taken outside The Secret Garden, with one showing the entrance, and the final photograph is just one I took as I was strolling round the old town.







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