6 Apr
Ray and Ange's place, Colombo

Andrea has gone to the School with Ray and Ange this morning for a snoop around so I have a couple of hours to myself.

Ray and Ange's pad is top. It is one of a mirrored pair of 2 storey houses, built by their owner as dowrys for his daughters. One of his daughters promptly shacked up with some bloke in Switzerland and the other is at university in India. Kids today. Thus he has leased both to the International Overseas School of Colombo, which is how Ray, Ange and their neighbor Marie (who I keep calling Diane for some reason that In cannot fathom) came to live here.

The houses are, as I have said, mirrors of each other, with their frontage centered around a covered double car port behind a bloody great double gate (security is, apparantly, somewhat of an issue.) To the sides of the car port, each house has a small front garden, the inner wall of which extends to enclose the carport on either side.

The interior of the house is quite surprising; immediately inside the door you are in a double height living room. Upstairs you can see a small ballustraded section looking in to a small seating area or office on the first floor. This sense of space and depth, however, is not the first thing that strikes home.

What realy hits you is that there are 2 big holes in the roof, open to the sky each with its own garden beneath; one just inside the front door and one towards the back of the living room. One is about 6' square, the other closer to 10' square. This lends a very Zen feeling to the whole place and is apparently a common feature of Lankan homes. Definitely an idea to note for anyone thinking of building a home in the tropics. There is no airconditioning in the living area, which one would expect to turn the whole place into a sweat box, but the combination of high ceilings and the roof openings makes the whole place very airy and comfortable. Life could definitely be worse.

On the downside, there is apparently a rat problem, definitely a roach problem and there are intimittent millipede races between the two gardened areas; these are more amusing than a problem but I could imagine them becoming tiresome after a while. Ange told us that they explode if you flick them; must remember to try that later. Mossies are also a problem, but with the number of geckos around, I'm sure they could be controlled.

We checked out of the Galle Face yesterday afternoon and trekked over to Ray and Ange's about 3 pm. I have mentioned previously that it was a no booze holiday yeaterday so we were well stocked up with offy fodder. We had, however, failed to consider that other (somewhat lesser) requirement for life; food. Ray and Ange's fridge contained exactly 4 eggs, some local cheese and several bottles of varous alcoholic beverages. Fortunately Marie and her friends had returned from their Bentota dive trip and had thought further ahead than us. Fantastic veg sushi and Japanese curry followed, mixed with several bottles of wine and some local beer; Lion Beer (not too bad.) TYhis lot saw us sleeping like lambs by about 11. Ray and Ange got in at around 1am, their flight back from S'pore having been delayed for 3 hours, so we all had a good chin wag for 1/2 an hour or so before all hitting the hay (again.)

Have just remembered that Ray has the whole of Series 1 of King of the Hill on DVD so my planned Potted Hisytory of Sri Lanka will have to wait till we're on the beach.

Till then, Bomber out