I'd ordered breakfast in my room for 09:00-09:15 and it arrived bang on time. I went for the fish curry today and I have to say is was very enjoyable.

 

I spent most of the day pottering about on the computer, writing up some notes from the last couple of meetings at work and watching the TV. There are around two dozen TV channels to pick from at the Trans Asia. I managed to catch the highlights of the Champions League Cup Final, the highlights of the Australia Vs West Indies and then live coverage of the England Vs New Zealand test match at old Trafford.

 

The Trans Asia now has wireless internet access available and so I purchased a 24 hour ticket for US$12. To get the internet access sorted just ring the business center and they will send someone up to your room with the appropriate login ID and password.

  

I managed to get a Skype connection to my wife Helen, who is back in the UK. This should save the company some money on telephone calls as I call her every evening before I go to bed.

 

I ordered several pots of tea to be delivered to the room during the course of the afternoon. It usually takes around 10-15 minutes to deliver it and the pots serve about 3 cups. You have to remember to ask for cold milk otherwise it will be hot and sometimes it arrives hot even if you ask for cold but the waiters are very helpful and changed it for me with no fuss.

 

Around 17:30 I decided to get out of the hotel room and grab something to eat. I thought it would be nice to pop down to the Galle Face Hotel and watch the sunset. As I have mentioned several times before in my blog this is the best place I have yet found to watch a sunset. I grabbed a Bajaj just outside the Trans Asia and paid 300/- to get to the hotel, a journey of around 5 minutes. Once at the hotel I wandered down to the Seaspray restaurant only to find it did not open until 19:00 so I decided to sit out in the garden area and have a beer (330/-). I spent a very pleasant hour sipping a beer, taking a few photographs, watching the sunset and the waves breaking. There is usually slight sea spray in the air once you get anywhere near the sea at the Galle Face and today was no different. The garden area was quite busy with nearly all the tables taken. There was a musician wandering around playing the flute. I had a bit of trouble getting the bill and had to ask several times before it finally arrived, after about 20 minutes. Note that currently there is some work going on where the sea meets the land and so there is fencing and piles of stones/earth along the sea shore slightly marring the usually picturesque view.

 

I wandered over to the Seaspray restaurant at 19:00 but found out that they were not serving from a set menu but had a buffet on, which I didn't really fancy so I decided to pop over to the Taj Samudra, a short 5 minute walk away. Access via the front of the hotel is now restricted with the road blocked off so I took the side entrance, opposite the Holiday Inn. However, the Taj was very busy with what looked like a home coming so I thought I'd have a wander over to the Hilton Residencies and re-visit the japanese restaurant, Nihonbashi. It took around 30 minutes to walk there, passing through some fascinating streets away from the 5 star and business areas. The restaurant is wasn't busy. I had hoped to grab a Lion Lager but they only had Carlsberg or Heineken available so I opted for the healthy option and had Green (Sencha) Tea. I opted for the Sushi Funa Mori, Kappa Maki & along with the green tea the bill came to 2093/- including service charge and taxes (at around 25%). I had to ask for extra Wasabi as the sushi had very little included with it but the waiter provided it straight away.

 

I grabbed a Bajaj for the 5 minute journey back to the Trans Asia and paid 200/-.

Another 12 months on and I'm back out in Sri Lanka for a short (2 weeks long) business trip. I set out with some trepidation as I had been booked to stay at the Trans Asia hotel, in Colombo, only a short distance from the recent suicide blast outside the Hilton hotel. I left on Tuesday afternoon (May 20th), from Birmingham International airport. The hire car drop off was directly adjacent to the airport and I was able to walk the distance to the terminal quite easily.  I came out via Dubai, as opposed the a direct flight to Colombo in an attempt to split the long journey up and allow me to stretch my legs. Dubai airport is currently undergoing a lot of building work and the bus from the airplane to the terminal building was quite long, probably around 15 minutes. Dubai airport was extremely busy and I can see why they are looking at extending it as it was pretty overcrowded compared with my first visit around 4 years ago. Both flights were poorly attended and I'd guess that only about a third of the seats were taken. I arrived in Colombo on Wednesday (21st May) morning and spent the best part of an hour getting through the passport check due to the extensive queues. The company had arranged for a driver to pick me up at the airport and drop me off at the hotel as the factory was closed due to Wesak.

 

I was assigned room 410, located on the north side of the hotel with a view over towards the docks overlooking Beria Lake. As it was around lunchtime by the time I had unpacked I slipped down to the Sushi Bar and ordered the Maki Zushi Sampler (430/-). The rest of the afternoon was spent catching up on my sleep as I managed only a few hours during the journey over. In the evening I thought I'd check out one of the restaurants at the Trans Asia. I immediately decided on the The Terrace because they had a seafood menu. I opted for the Paraw (994/-) and went with the chef's suggestion to grill it. It was served with vegetables. I also had a 3 Coins Lager (360/-) whilst I watch the IPL on the big screen. The meal was excellent and the surroundings very pleasant.

My return flight has been confirmed for a daylight flight on Saturday 19th May so the Sri Lanka trip has been confirmed. I have a hire car to get me to London, Heathrow and I will leave in just over an hour. I have three nights in the Trans Asia Hotel and then one night in the Taj Airport Gardens (because it is only a short distance from the airport). I texted my old boss, Jawaid, who has since left Crystal Martin, and we'll try and meet up for a chat one evening. I haven't much packing to do as for 4 nights I'm just taking a rucksack.

I had set no alarm for Sunday morning as I was feeling pretty tired last night so it was just after 11:00 when I finally got up. I just grabbed a cup of tea for breakfast and decided to have a stroll around Colombo - a favorite passtime of mine when I previously lived here. I headed off towards Crescat (one of the more modern shopping centers in Colombo and situated next to the Cinnamon Grand), taking some of the back streets as they are much more interesting than sticking to the main  throughfares. I took some pictures of Beira Lake on the way. It was nice to see the Pelicans were still there. Sadly I found as I passed by that Mollies, one of our favorite bars in Colombo, had closed down. I had to ask a soldier the way at one point because a lot of the roads around Beira Lake were closed off to traffic. At Crescat I had hoped to buy some Mlesna green tea for Lina, a Sri Lankan friend of mine in the UK. However, although Crescat was open the Mlesna tea shop was not. Coincidentally I met Carl and Angie in Crescat. Angie suggested I try Odels (a department store) as they had a tea shop situated within it.

 

However, first I headed down to Keells, situated underneath Liberty Plaza, an older but bigger shopping center. This is where I used to do most of my shopping once Helen had left for the UK in Nov 2005. They have a good selection of teas but no Mlesna. However, I bought some Dilmah tea and some other Green teas for myself.

 

My intention had been to walk down to Shanti Vihar to grab some lunch. For some reason I was under the impression that Amarvathis was closed on a Sunday but I called in just on the off chance and luckily it was open. Amarvathis had been one of my favorite eating places in Colombo. Thankfully, little had changed and I had an excellent 14 dish Maharaja Thali (250/-) and a salt lassi (100/-). If you ask (which I did) they will also supply extra rice. I'd remembered to bring along the paper left outside my door at the hotel, a Sunday Observer and so I read this whilst eating.

 

Next was to try and find a jewellers. I had bought Helen, my wife, a ring with a Sri Lankan sapphire in when we were here but unfortunately the sapphire had fallen out when we were in the UK and its now lost forever. I had the ring and wanted to try and get a replacement sapphire fitted. However, I failed to find any jewellers open on Galle Road, presumably because it was Sunday. A word of warning here. We are not the only people to find that the setting of jewels in rings is not that good in Sri Lanka. A friend of ours who visited us also had a jewel fall out of her ring once she got back to the UK.

I called in at Majestic City next. This is the largest and probably the best shopping center in Colombo. My mission here was to buy some DVDs off a list supplied by my wife. I got about 75% of the ones she wanted. I paid 200/- each for the DVDs and got 1 free for evey 10 I bought.

 

It was a short walk to my next port of call, the CCC. When we lived at the back of the CCC, at St. James Court Helen and myself used to enjoy counting the number of Bajaj drivers who asked us if we wanted a taxi on the 10 minutes walk between Majestic City and our apartment. Our record was about 12 I think but today it was just 4. I called in at a cashpoint (there are several available on duplication road close to the CCC) to get some rupees out as the DVDs had cleaned me out. At the CCC I had one of their excellent smoothies (150/-) and a bottle of Lion (225/-) and watched some of the West Indies/India one day match on one of the many TVs dotted around the CCC. Feeling refreshed I set off to walk to Odels.

 

The walk to Odels took me up Duplication Road and the change in the road system became very apparent. When I used to live here Duplication and Galle Roads were both two way. Now the section between Bambalapitia junction and the Liberty Plaza junction is one way. North on Galle Road and south on Duplication Road. I was stopped by two policeman on the way. I am a little unsure what they wanted as my Singalese is non existant and their English was difficult to understand. After showing them my room key for the TransAsia I tried to offer to show them my passport and at that point they just waved me on. It took almost an hour to walk to Odels and I grabbed a fresh water melon juice (80/-) at a kiosk just outside the Odels entrance. Unfortunately the Odels tea shop only sold Dilmal tea.

 

From Odels I walked back up passed the Hilton Residences, passing Rohans (another excellent restaurant I found towards the end of my stay in SL). I again had to alter my route back being asked to cross to the other side of the road leading up to the Trans Asia by a soldier. All very different from my previous stay here. By the time I got back to the TransAsia,  at around 18:00, I have to confess I was pretty shattered so a shower was the priority. I rang my wife Helen and made a quick call to my father to let him know I was OK. Then Dave Rodgers, a colleague of mine, rang to let me know he had arrived. We arranged to meet up in the bar at 19:00. We decided to have a meal at Summerfield's cafe. It was a buffet and I had an excellent bean salad, Thai and Mutton curries and Wattatan to finish. At 21:30 we called it a night and I went to bed.

This morning opted for an extra 30 minutes in bed rather than breakfast and so I went to stand down in front of the entrance to the Trans Asia jut before 09:00 ready for my lift to arrive, which it duly did at the promised time of 09:00. It took just over an hour to get to our factory at Wathupitiwala; the traffic being suprisingly light. The day in the office was a mixture of frustration with setting up the scanning for next week and success with sorting out a problem dating back 10 months from my last stay in Sri Lanka and helping one of the local IT guys get at some data for the new invoicing system he is working on. I had lunch in the canteen. I left around 16:30 - the journey back taking longer than the journey in due to the traffic. I got in aound 18:00 and rang Carl to see if anyone was going out this evening. Fortunately they were and so I arranged to meet them in Cheers; a bar at the Cinnamon Grand - giving Helen a quick phone call first.

 

In Cheers I met up with Carl, his wife Angie and Gareth. We watched the Liverpool - Chelsea game, sank a few beers and enjoyed a meal. I got a Baja from the Trans Asia to the Cinnamon Grand and this cost me 200/-. Cheers has few discernable changes since I was last in Sri Lanka; A second big screen and a new menu.  In times gone by we generally came into Cheers for the the food. It was the closest we could get to English food in Sri Lanka. However, as I have been living in England the last 6 months I opted for the chicken curry  from the specials board. I have to say it was excellent.

 

Once the match was finished the others headed back to their apartments but I headed on down to the Cricket Club Cafe grabbing a Bajaj outside DeliFrance for 200/-. The traffic was queuing to get onto Galle Road as the police appeared to have closed access onto it. However, within only a minute or so the traffic was allowed back onto the road. The changes here were mainly in the staff, although a few of the waiters from when I used to come in here on a regular basis were still there and recognised me. One other noticable change was that the CCC now has Lion on draught and I am sure it never used to have.

 

After a swift beer I walked passed the old apartment and grabbed a Bajaj off Alfred House Gardens. It cost me 300/-. The Bajaj driver had to take a couple of  detours due to closed roads but it added little time onto the journey.

The morning started with me checking out of the Tamarind Tree. It was a very pleasent hotel but I had asked to be moved to the TransAsia in Colombo. Although the service was excellent at the Tamarind Tree I found it a nuisance that I couldn't make international phone calls from the room and the mobile coverage was very patchy. There was also no mini bar - not even any bottled water in the room. It was also very isolated. Nice if you wanted to get away from it all which I like for a couple of days but I soon get bored.

 

The day was spent at our Katunayake factory sorting out a few issues with the new implementation of the scanning system. As usual I had lunch in the canteen.

 

The evening was spent at the Taj Airport Gardens where we had a meal at the chinese restaurant. By we I mean Mark, Mario, Lucky, Isaac, Shaun, Carl, Emma, Gareth, Martyn, Jawaid, Paul, and two ladies who were new additions to the management team since I left and whose names I have to confess I have forgotten :(

 

Martyn gave me a lift to the TransAsia, the hotel I have been booked into for the weekend. I checked in, dropped by bags off at the apartment and tried to ring my wife Helen but got no answer so I decided to go for a beer in the bar in the foyer. This cost 420/-, quite expensive for a beer in Sri Lanka and reminded me why we seldom came to the Trans Asia when we lived in Colombo. Fortunately I managed to get hold of Helen when I got back to the apartment.

Already, within 24 hours of being back in Sri Lanka I have noticed a big difference. The number of soldiers visible on the roads has increased dramatically. The main road between Nittambuwa and Katunayake is also closed just before the airport. To get into work from The Tamarind Tree hotel to our factory on the EPZ at Katunayake involved a detour around the perimeter of the EPZ and through Katunayake village itself.

 

The day at work was most enjoyable. The renovations at our Katunayake factory since I had last been here 10 months ago were impressive. I also had a look around the new factory we had purchased next door and already within 6 weeks the renovation work was starting to take shape. It was great to see so many of my old work colleagues again and to once again sample the delights of the works canteen. I managed to update the database structure despite some electrical problems that knocked the external network access out a couple of times along with the a/c unit in the office.

 

I got dropped back at the hotel around 18:30 The standard of driving has not improved since I was last in Sri Lanka!

 

I managed to get one of those electric mosquito repellent devices working. Not as straight forward as you would expect as the device left in my room had a two pronged electrical plug and all the sockets in the room were three vertical holes - a type of socket I had never previously encountered. However, a chat with the receptionist and a visit from a maintenance guy solved the problem with an extension lead with a three pronged plug and both three and two sockets on it.

 

I went up to the dining area around 19:10 but was told dinner was not served until 19:30 so I investigated the bar and decided to have a Lion Beer whilst I waited. The evening meal was excellent. There was soup, salad, 3 main courses and an assortment of sweets available on a buffet table. I had the onion soup, skipped the salad and went straight onto the Sri Lankan curry assortment. There was white and yellow (ghee fried) rice, chicken currey, Dal & two other dishes (I think one was called Rampala - the other was tempered beetroot). I finished the meal off with a brown, blamanche type sweet that I think is made from Jaggery. We used to have it sometimes in the canteen and I have acquired a taste for it.

I arrived back in Sri Lanka around 03:00 this morning. I flew from London, Heathrow direct to Colombo using Sri Lanka airlines. Work had provided a hire car for mr to drive from my home in Ripley to Heathrow. I set off around 04:45 and arrived at Heathrow around 08:15. The only real problem was at the Europcar depot where he terminal 4 ferry bus pulled up at the terminal 1, 2 & 3 stop. I was at the terminal 4 stop and it was only when the terminal 1, 2 & 3 ferry bus pulled up at the terminal 4 stop and I fortunately checked with the driver as I got on that I realised. Needless to say as I was getting on the wrong the bus the correct one pulled away. Why have signs clearly stating which stop is which when the bus drivers ignore them?

 

I have to say, apart from when I got upgraded to business class, I had probably the best flight I have experienced. I had two seats to myself as the airplane was only half full and the food served was excellent. I read Geoffrey Boycott's autobiography for most of the way over; a book I can throughly recommend to any cricket fan.

 

The Tamarind hotel had sorted out transport between the airport and the hotel and the drive is only about 10-15 minutes. Once I had filled in the obligatory signing in form at the hotel I was shown to my room. As I had no mobile signal I tried to dial out from my room but after trying unsucessfully a few times I contacted the reception and was told I had to ring from the reception to get an outside line. Fortunately it was only a few minutes walk and so I popped up and contacted my wife, Helen, just to let her know I had arrived. The charge was 180/- per minute. I arranged an alarm call for 07:30.

 

The Tamarind has chalet style rooms. The chalet I was in had a lounge/dining/kitchen area, a bedroom and a bathroom. Unfortunately there was no ceiling fan in the bedroom so I had to put the a/c on. Normally I don't bother with the a/c and just have a ceiling fan on - I never quite managed to sleep very successfully without one or the other - its simply too hot for me! I managed to get to bed around 04:30.

 

The alarm call was bang on time at 07:30 and I felt suprisingly refreshed considering I had only had a few hours sleep in the last 24 hours. I slipped up to the main building for breakfast and had a fruit juice, cup of tea and some vegatable and dhal curry. There was "western" food available too.

Its been a long, long time (almost a year) since I last updated my Sri Lanka blog. Since then I spent 5 months in Morocco and 5 months in the UK. The good news is that I am returning to Sri Lanka and the bad news is that it is sadly only for just over a week.

 

The company I work for, Crystal Martin International, want me to upgrade the factory scanning system I orignally wrote when I was living and working in Sri Lanka to the same version as I have implemented in Morocco and also to implement the system in our sub contract factories. Consequently I am arriving in Sri Lanka on Wed 17th Jan and leaving again on Thu 25th Jan.

 

I must admit I can't wait to see Sri Lanka again as Morocco was a huge disappointment and living in the UK again has lost its attraction after what I saw of South Asia during the two years I was living and working in Sri Lanka.

 

I gather I am staying in the Tamarind Hotel, close to our Katunayake factories (we now have two having opened another one since I left Sri Lanka), during the week but hopefully can get to a hotel in Colombo or Negombo on Saturday & Sunday night so I can see a few of my old haunts.

 

I've been following events in Sri Lanka quite closely since I left and the recent spate of bomb attacks have saddened me very much. There was a bomb blast on a bus at Nittambuwa, close to our Wathupitiwala factory which came as a shock. I used to fill my car up at a petrol station in Nittambuwa and have travelled through it on many, many occasions.

 

 

I had an excellent works farewell party last night. Many thanks for Lesley, Bandara, Ruwan, Saman, Dilantha, Krishantha, Kanishka, Mervyn, Lina, Shaun & Jawaid for all turning up. Hope you had a good time! We went to the Taj, Airport Gardens Chinese restaurant. We got a selection of starters and main courses and I even found room for a dessert. I got some fabulous presents, a book on Yala (I sadly never got to go to Yala in person), an excellent tourquise shirt and a beautiful engraving of two elephants which will take pride of place on my wall back in Ripley (Pictures of these will be posted shortly!). Many thanks for Lina offering her driver to take me back to Colombo so I could have a few beers! 

The farewell party has been moved to next Wednesday so I am now at a loose end tonight. I have to call in at the factory at CMK to pick up some money from the accounts department so I think I may opt to have a meal at the CCC and possibly a few quiet drinks on the balcony, get an early night and try and getaway early tomorrow morning. As yet destination unknown!

Tomorrow, Saman the IT manager, has arranged a small farewell party at the Taj Airport Gardens, with a few of the people from work. I think we are meeting at 19:00 in the Chinese so I may try and book a hotel in Negombo so I can have a few drinks and not have to worry about driving back to Colombo. It should only be 15 minutes in a Bajaj to Negombo from the Taj.

I now have the accumulation of two years living in SL stored in the spare bedroom awaiting packing. I am living out of two suitcases and have a third suitcase to buy to fit the extra work related stuff I will need in Morocco and so can't ship back to the UK. With just over a week left I have two more full working days before I intend to spend Friday & the weekend visiting a few places for the last time. Next week I have three days in work but they are already pretty much taken up with meetings.

 

I must admit I wish I had a couple more weeks over here to visit more places one last time. Since Helen left in the middle of January work has taken up most of my time and I've had very little chance to do anything but work, sleep and eat! Still this weekend I intend to try and get to the elephant orphanage one last time, and perhaps to either Galle/Banderwela/Negombo - or even all three!

One piece of good news we have just had is  that Helen has been offered and accepted a new job and she starts tomorrow! Not got all the details yet but its just 1 junction up the M1 so quite close to home. I'm really pleased for her because I know it is the main reason Helen returned to the UK - she was unhappy not being able to work. I can't quite figure that out myself - I'd retire tomorrow if I could ;)

 

At least that means we can go ahead and refit the bathroom, hopefully before I get back to the UK for 2 weeks holiday starting Fri 3rd March!

It currently looks like my move to Morocco is going to be delayed until mid March, after I have returned to the UK for 2 weeks holiday. Problems with our raw materials stores computer system look like keeping me in Sri Lanka for a few extra weeks. The up side of this is that I may now have time to take a train journey up into the hill country, which I've always wanted to do. I am thinking of going to Bandarawela. Have any of my readers advice to give on this?

The apartment looks a bit bare now that Helen has packed much of the stuff away ready for shipping to the UK. I couldn't even find a teapot to make a pot of tea! The apartment feels empty without Helen. When she went away before xMas it wasn't so bad as I knew she was coming back again but this time I now she  has gone from Sri Lanka for good and I won't see her until March when I go back to the UK for a holiday. Well when I say see that is not strictly true as we have managed to setup web cams so I have see Helen (and our little cat too) .

 

I have just realised that in theory I only have two weekends left in Sri Lanka as the third w/e I will be flying to Morocco. Next weekend we are doing a stock take so it only leaves the following w/e to actually have a final look around Sri Lanka. So many things left undone, so many places left unseen! I had so many plans for seeing places in Sri Lanka that just never got done. Still, I got see more places than the average ex-pat.

 

After working for most of Saturday at our factory in Wathupitiwala I spent much of Saturday evening & night on-line playing EVE along with a number of mates from the UK. Really looking forward to getting over to the UK in March and going out for an evening with the lads and sinking a few pints and rounding it off with a good old fashioned British Vindaloo curry. Its been far too long (18 months) since I've seen some of the lads.

 

On Sunday I did some shopping at Keells at Liberty Plaza as Sageetha, our maid had left a list of things we'd run out of. I took the car as after dropping the stuff off at the apartment I went down to Maturas for a one of their excellent Chilli Masala Dosai, a couple of drinks of Lassi and a couple of the vegetable samosas (which were glorious). God I'm going to miss that place - and the prices, under 400/- for the lot.

 

I need to make a shortlist of my favorite restaurants for one (or possibly two)  last visits.

Those of my more eagle eyed readers might have noticed a new link, Shandy's Moroccan Blog, located on my home page. I have created this new blog for posting my Morocco experiences as this will be next destination after I leave Sri Lanka. Current ETA for arriving in Morocco is the weekend 13th/14th February, although this has not been confirmed yet. I'm already getting a bit excited about this next chapter in my life and spent this afternoon sitting out on our balcony drinking some red wine and looking though the Insight Guide into Morocco, I bought yesterday. I will be living and working in Rabat but for more information you'll need to read Shandy's Moroccan Blog!

Now this is something I really miss in Sri Lanka, More snow as big freeze continues. Whilst I agree that there are few things as disagreeable and stressful as travelling in snowy icey conditions there are also few things as enjoyable as sitting in an armchair in a nice warm room watching the snow come down followed by wrapping yourself up in overcoat, gloves, mittens and woolly hat for a short trudge through the snow to a local public house along with the obligatory couple of snow balls with your partner before sitting down by a roaring fire and downing a few pints of a winter ale. And the one benefit you know about snow in the UK is that it never lasts long. A couple of days and it'll all be gone. Well maybe next year I'll have chance to experience this, although I am due for a visit back in the UK at the beginning of March and when I did this at the same time of year in 2004 it did snow so I'll keep my fingers crossed!

I feel really sorry for our wonderful maid Sageetha. Helen had bought her an xMas present in the UK and I had bought her an xMas card and was going to give her a bonus for xMas but because of Helen's flight delay I arrived back at the apartment, alone, after Sageetha had left for the day and she doesn't come back into work until Monday, after xMas is over. She had left us a card and present and I wish now I had at least left our card and bonus now but I had really wanted Helen to sign the card so it came from the both of us. Anyway I rang Sageetha and explained about the delay. I hope she understood me (as her English her pretty good but not perfect) as I'd hate her to think we had forgotten her when she had bought us a card present and card.

 

The good news is that it looks like the CEO of our company in Sri Lanka,Shaun, will take the apartment over from me when I leave in February and he has said, with my recommendation, he is more than happy to take on Sageetha when I leave so I hope she will be happy with this arrangement.

My wife Helen should be with me right now having set off from Manchester airport in the UK round about 18 hours ago. She was due in at Bandaranaike International Airport at 09:35 this morning. As one of our factories is at the free trade zone at Katunayake, right next to the airport I had arranged to just call into work for a few hours and then pick her up and go straight into Colombo with her. However, when I arrived at the airport at 10:00 I was told the flight had been delayed for 2 hours. Not a problem as I slipped back into work for a couple of hours.

 

Using the emirates web site I found out you can check flight arrivals on line. Monitoring the flight I found out in landed at 11:22 and consequently arrived at the airport at 12:00, paying the 100/= car parking fee and the 120/= entrance fee to the arrivals lounge. The car park is only a 2 minute walk to the arrivals area. However, by 12:50 I was getting a bit worried. No sign of Helen. I decided to walk back down from the arrivals lounge to the arrivals pickup point in case somehow we had missed one another. I got about half way and my mobile rang. It turned out to be Helen :) In Dubai :( I was able to quickly take the number of a hotel she was apparently staying at and ascertain she was alright before agreeing I would ring her from our apartment.

 

An hour and a half later after an eventful drive into Colombo involving a minor accident with a motorcyclist whilst I was in the middle lane going straight on and he was in the left hand lane turning right (An xMas cracker driving licence contender if ever there was one) I managed to ring Helen and ensure she was OK. OK but not happy. She had a 4 hour queue at the emirates counter in Dubai after missing her connecting flight to Colombo due to refuelling and then fog problems. She is currently at the Millenium Airport Hotel in Dubai awaiting her re-arranged flight for around 23:00 (Dubai time) this evening, getting her into Sri Lanka at 05:10.

 

And this is why I am happy to stay in Sri Lanka and not travel abroad!