News from Sydney

I had an e-mail from Qurban this afternoon to let me know that Munazza gave birth to a little boy on July 10 - very exciting news. Apparently I'm a de-facto uncle!!! It's a shame that I'm not going to Sydney as it would have been really great to see Qurban and Munazza and to meet my nephew.

Dhanushka hasn't been very well this week and I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed at work, so neither of us have been in a great mood. I still have one more day of teaching and Monday I'm examining, so I won't have much of a break this week either. I feel like I need a holiday already.

The training on Monday was ok - not as dull as I thought it might have been. The good news is that I should be getting a slight pay increase this month. I don't think it'll be very much, but as I'm going to have to pay back half of the cost of the course I'm starting every little bit counts. I'm now beginning to regret deciding to do this course, but I've committed to it now. Am still having problems getting flights - but as the British Council are paying for it I'm going to leave it up to the person in Colombo who's dealing with booking the flights. Dubai to London seems to be the problem.

Am hoping that the weather might be better tomorrow as I'd like to go for a swim. Spending all week indoors is not good for the soul - in fact it's soul destroying! Unfortunately there aren't too many places to take time out in the centre of Kandy - no nice parks like in Sydney.

Dhanushka seems to have fallen asleep. He's got some virus - came home from seeing a doctor yesterday brandishing various packets of medication. Doctors here love to over-prescribe - I've told him not to take the valium he was prescribed!!! He has no idea what the medication he's been prescribed is actually for and in fact he probably doesn't actually need anything.

Time for bed soon. Pathetic really, but I'm exhausted.