Pre-Christmas

A rainy Christmas Eve in Sydney - unlike a few weeks ago when I walked from Coogee to Bronte. Was thinking about going out for a walk this morning, but I don’t think I’ll be going very far in this weather. At some point today I want to go to the markets to pick up some green mangoes (amongst other things), so I might head into the city later.

I ended up working basically the whole week – which is great in terms of the money, but draining in terms of energy. I wasn’t supposed to be working on Friday, but Thursday afternoon I had a call from the co-ordinator asking if I could cover for one more day as the teacher whose class I’d been taking still wasn’t feeling very well. I have 3 days work after the Christmas break and then a few more days over the following 2 weeks.

I actually need to start getting myself organised. Had an e-mail mid-week with the flight details – leaving Sydney on January 15 and arriving in Colombo the following day – so I don’t have that long to make sure all my affairs are sorted out.

Sasha (Cath’s cat) and I are doing very well. Most nights she sleeps on my bed, which is fine, although she’s been waking me up at 5.45. Fortunately I was working mornings most of the week and had to be up at 6 anyway. I like having my own space, but at the same time I do miss having Cath here - especially our late-night musings.

Last night I watched ‘Water’ a wonderful and very poignant film about the plight of widows in pre-Independence India by ‘Deepa Mehta’. I remember there was a lot of controversy surrounding the film when I was travelling in India as a lot of conservative Hindus were outraged at the portrayal of widows in a film. Originally it was going to be shot in Benares, but there was so much protest that the state government banned the production of the film there. Strangely enough it ended up being shot in Sri Lanka! I was very surprised to see all these Sri Lankan names in the credits. I definitely want to try and get back to India at some point while I’m in Sri Lanka. I would love to visit Kerala and if possible Ladakh.

Am not sure if Qurban and Munazza are going to join me tomorrow for lunch as Munazza hasn’t been so well, so it may end up just being me and Sasha!

Merry Christmas to everyone!