Teachers’ Representative and Routers

By now I was hoping to be online at home, but fate has conspired to deny me that simple pleasure.

The router finally arrived in dramatic fashion last Friday. I was waiting outside the British Council for a three-wheeler after work during a heavy afternoon shower when a staff member ran across the road to let me know that a package had just been delivered for me. After dinner that evening I spent an hour playing with the router trying to set it up, only to discover that the ADSL service had yet to be activated. Sri Lanka Telecom assured me when I called them that the service would be activated yesterday (Monday) but when I spoke to them yesterday after not being able to get online I was told – in typical Sri Lankan fashion - that the service would not be activated until tomorrow (Wednesday)! So despite the arrival of the router I’m still no closer to being able to post this from home.

The other big development is that in a moment of insanity I volunteered at the staff meeting last Wednesday to be the Kandy teachers’ rep. There are only 6 full-time teachers, but as most decisions are made in Colombo – often without any thought of how those decision affect teaching staff in Kandy – I felt that if no-one else wanted to do it that I would offer my services. We had our first meeting on Sunday evening and I’ve just finished typing up issues discussed at the meeting, which I’ll have to now take up with management.

Last week Dhanushka and I decided to by a DVD player, something we’d been talking about for a while. My computer plays DVDs very well, but unfortunately the sound quality is somewhat lacking when not using headphones. Also my computer refused to play some of the DVDs I’ve bought here, so Dhanushka and I were both extremely happy to be able to see the end of ‘Umrao Jaan’.

On Saturday I booked two tickets to Europe in July. We still have no idea whether or not Dhanushka will be able to get visas (unfortunately the UK is not part of the Schengen agreement, which means that he’ll need two visas) but there are no cancellation charges, so even if he can’t go we won’t lose any money. We’re flying Etihad Airlines, which is based in Abu Dhabi, flying to Paris for a couple of days before heading across to the UK. We’ll spend a week in Belgium with Philip and Denis at the end of the trip and are flying back from Bruxelles, which works out perfectly. Not many big airlines fly into Bruxelles, so I was very excited when I found out that Etihad fly there. Makes life much easier and avoids backtracking.

Have had another very quiet weekend, which suits me fine. Watched ‘Kill Bill: Part 1’ after lunch today and am feeling very relaxed – ready for another working week!!! Yesterday evening I took some pictures of our two goldfish, who are very happy in their nice, clean home.