Mud Ghecko

...there was another bomb in Kollupitiya... Im ok. But I was about 5 minutes near it, and the smell was nasty. I usually get off and walk that way to office. Id phoned in this morning to say Id be a little late. Well ,ok quite late considering Im normally at office by 7 am.I had to check on my bike and do some extreme banking and it was 10.40 by the time I reached this junction. today I had been tempted to get down in Maradana and get a flyer for the Bajaj CT 100 ( drool ) after which I got in the NEXT bus and thus was about ten minutes later than I would have been. Life is funny,eh. I wow to hencefourth give in to sudden temptations more often.

THE RETURN OF KUSUMAWATHIE* Kusumawthie, my faithful domestic and possibly Wellampitiyas’s answer to Mary Poppins, Elisa Doolittle, and Joan of Ark all in one, is back after a month long vacation, spent searching for a glass dot in her sole. … last Monday I waded home through a sudden evening shower and found my front yard shin deep in a small stagnant tidal wave caused by a blocked drain. Silhouetted against our living room lighting the poor dear was battling the flood valiantly, trying to divert water away from the front door using the bathroom squeegee, and failing miserably, as the drain had a sizeable bolus of polythene stuck in it which she hadn’t thought to remove. Having lived through the Kolonnawa Oil Refinery blast, regular Dengue episodes, surprise Police raids and instances of all out power blackout, not to mention all night exorcism ceremonies with noisy climaxes, I try to be calm in the face of disasters in general, but this was critical -if I had been another 15 minutes ...

I dont know how old or how new this album is but I want it- http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000065V9J/ref=nosim/societyforhumans its PASSION by Peter Gabriel who along with Enya , Enigma and Gregorian - is the real meaning of music to me: a point where space, life and time stand still and your being drowns in theta waves.. Any one out there got it ? Ill swap with my giant compilation of 500 titles. Ill actually go out of my way to meet you. Help me!

Wellampitiya Revisited... -or part 2 of the Looney Planet Guide thereto. You have probably heard about all kinds of vice emanating from Wellampitiya – murders, shoot outs, bus arson(oh joy) and occasional hauls of moonshine: well, speaking from the inside I must tell you these people are not really evil ,mostly they have merely given up with pretenses and dislike beating about the bush and hypocrisy. I personally approve, I mean - instead of the malicious gossip ,backstabbing and subtle under cutting you encounter in so called “civilized” joints, I suggest it would be much more straight-forward to challenge someone you have a grudge against to an open shoot out and have done with them- it’s crisp and uncomplicated.Also being shot cleanly in broad daylight would really be a blessedly quick end to all those vague anxieties about the cost of living, the ozone layer and whether mobile phones damage the few surviving brain cells you do have... Anyway- to continue from last week- Endangered ...

Knowledge is power! Our friend Chammika’s excellent Colombo Knowledge Centre unfortunately does not seem to pop up on search engines , whereas whatever we say on a blogs seems to . ... So I thought I would do everyone a favour by refering to it here and store the link so you can just click for info. http://www.humanitarian-srilanka.org/CKC/index.php The Forum on Right to Information or Civil Society Initiative on Information Sharing, whatever it gets to be called (we are still experimenting ) will also hopefully be hosted here under Consortium’s capable auspices…for info please bug Chammika… Ps Im wondering if this is a chance for Information Professionals in Sri Lanka to pool resources and get cracking on some kind of Association with its own regulations, qualifications and CPD opportunities. ..

…for three days till I had to switch that phone off , plus about 55 texts, mostly with awful spelling which turns me off, 35 insincere expressions of interest from already married dudes, 20 rude suggestions from teenage dudes, 7 really nice new friends , 3 freelance-job offers from advertising sector people and 2 genuine marriage proposals ….in spite of the fact that I had said “ please text ”. Above numbers are approximate but certainly not exaggerated and I still occasionally get a call about this add, probably from someone who is reading an old paper wrapping his lunch or just before he cleans up some cat- poo… In answer to your next question, Im still single and picky.

.....Wellampitiya.-part 1 Wellampitiya… rocks ! No seriously, I’m not saying this because it happens to be my home town, and I want to help jack up the land prices by at least 10 rupees per square foot in the area-. Its just that I find it one of the most colorful, interesting, downright adventurous places to live in .And its not that I have lived here all my life, no: I do hazily recall comparatively civilized places like Nawala, Manchester and even exotic Nairobi and they honestly bore me, they are refined, predictable , really sane compared with this joint. Getting there Located in the suburbs just outside Colombo , beyond Dematagoda on the Kolonnawa Road, you can reach it by making use of that overcrowded very slow, roundabout bus numbered 140 which heads in from Colombo 3, or the 131 from Maharagama: I am constantly surprised to not hear yet that someone has been found suffocated to death in those buses, frozen clawing rigidly at the straps… I think they must be two of the poor...

Something I did using my cheap Nokia 3220 , captured not in a desolate savannah outback but on the Orugudawatte-Wellampitiya route on a blazing island afternoon.Subsequently run through a Photoshop Watercolur Filter. Enjoy.

Mahisha has asked me why we call one of our cats "Mantal"...I thought Id reply here- Mantal has slight problems - I dont know exactly what its called.He takes time to notice things. For example he may be hungry but he doesnt realise that actually eating some food will solve it. SO he runs around sadly sniffing the air. He also dosnt know that sitting behind the tyre of a reversing car will result in getting his head flattened, so we have to keep rescuing him from our car. He does not know what fire is and sometimes sniffs the gas ring and loses all his whiskers in one go. Needless to say we dont let him go out onto the road and in fact he has no interest in going out. As for mating season, the poor dear doesnt know which side of a female cat he should approach if its actually worthwhile so he doesnt bother . He is a cat in a million and very sweet, but I know he will come to a sticky end someday. One day soon I shall tell you about Mantal and the resident guarandiar...

...this morning. Check the news: -in theory you should be able to find live radio streaming here: http://www.surfmusic.de/country/sri+lanka.html

if you are a wabbit this should just about push you over the brink.... http://alisher.city.tomsk.net/shared/bunnies/ and Im sorry Im doing this- I know I shouldnt I just cannot resist it. please someone buy that book, its worth it ,trust me.

I totally love these cartoons. This person doesnt know me but is getting me spot on! Wonderful style. Yes, for those of my friends who need something substantial and real to hang on to - my rain story is in wow, (with a few adjustments in the tense ) and thats a wow feeling for me :-) heres the photo of yours truely with the five cats. http://www.dailymirror.lk/sections/supp/w@w/071106/03.asp speaking of which, why do so many Sri lAnkans hate the poor things? I love cats- I think they are walking feng shui,the majority of people I meet actually shudder at the idea. Why ? I mean what have they ever done to you ? Being afraid of dogs I understand (altho I love them too) - they are clumsy, smelly and bite you suddenly and absentmindedly in spots you dont want to show the local GP. But cats? why do some people REALLy hate cats? They are clean, quiet* and smell lovely when they come in from sunning themsleves. Is it because they look as if they know something we dont ?for example - how to ...

well I dont normally do the cheap trick of copying funny stuff off other websites and pasting here- but for just once I will make an exception possibly because these were so priceless, I dont want to ever lose them (plus I must rememeber never to have myself autopsied without my explicit verbal consent...) (the brackets are mine..) She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life until 1989 when she got a divorce. (I actually personally relate to that one) The patient was in his usual state of good health until his airplane ran out of gas and crashed (must check on that black box!) Rectal exam revealed a normal size thyroid. (Long fingers?) Between you and me, we ought to be able to get this lady pregnant. (gulp) A midsystolic ejaculation murmur heard over the mitral area. (scientific but it sounds pleasent whatever it is) The patient lives at home with his mother, father, and pet turtle, who is presently enrolled in day care three times a week. (lugubrious-probebly bec...

Sad to say in this day and age of equal rights, women who want special treatment are becoming just as selfish as men sometimes worse. You hear a lot of cribbing about selfish guys but occasionally when a guy tries to be decent he is trodden down anyway. Today in the 140 bus about 3 rows ahead of me there was this school kid maybe about 16 yo who had his hand in a plaster. A heavily built young mother with a six yo kid came down the aisle and the boy gave up his seat for her and the kid, in spite of the fact that his hand was bandaged and he was obviously wincing holding his school bag no one offered him a seat (mostly women and school kids nearby) and the woman he gave the seat to ignored the fact that he had a massive school bag to hang on to, and took the set as if it was her God given right . I was 3 rows back squished into the corner of the bus so it would have been rather conspicuous me interfereing but when I nudged the person in front to take his heavy school bag, she actuall...

Let’s talk about public bloopers… Total, hair raising, absolute, community-witnessed embarrassment. We all have those nightmares don’t we of being well and truly and totally mortified in front of a crowd. (And kindly leave Janet Jackson out of this – she did it on purpose as you all know) Well, dear gentle readers, ever since I can remember my nightmares normally come true… Perhaps it was the encaged extrovert exhibitionist hiding in me: I remember trying to sing when I was about 12, the song was the Carpenters’ one which begins “ Such a feelings coming over me… ” Well, I was just into the first line when my voice choked up and refused to work – in front of a class of 40 7th graders and the resulting silence was astounding, but nothing compared to the following sniggers and snorts- children, precious darlings, are very honest and open about their unfeeling and un empathetic opinions about other children– so that was effectively the cruel abrupt end to my career in song. Unfortunately f...