A Departure and New Beginnings

The past week has been a tumultuous one - both globally, with the death of Benazir Bhutto in Pakistan, and on a personal level. The day after Christmas Dhanushka decided that he wanted to go back to Sri Lanka and despite trying to convince him to change his mind, he left on Saturday afternoon. I still don't fully understand what made him decide to leave and I have no idea what will happen when I get back to Kandy, but I do know that it's been a really tough week.

Dhanushka should have arrived back in Sri Lanka yesterday morning, but he hasn't contacted me and I have no idea where he might be as everyone there thinks he's still here. It's worrying not knowing where he is and how he's doing, but if he doesn't want to contact me there's not much I can do about it.

This evening Claire invited me to a small party at her place, but I decided after what has happened that I'd rather be alone. My Mum and Dad have gone out, so after dinner I went for a long walk along the beach and saw one of those stunning West Australian sunsets. Since I arrived it's been one sunny day after another and today was no exception. The day after Christmas it was 44 degrees, which was a bit much, but since then it's been in the low 30s. Sometimes I find the brightness too intense, but there's also a certain beauty to the clarity of the light - particuarly in the morning and evening.

Have managed to catch up with a few people, but there aren't actually that many people I know in Perth anymore. I'm looking forward to getting to Sydney as it's hard to be here now after what happened. Hopefully being in Sydney will make a difference.

Yesterday afternoon I decided to go and see a film as going to the cinema isn't really something people do in Kandy. I saw 2 Days in Paris, appropriately, a film about relationships written, directed by and starring Julie Delpy. It reminded me a lot of some of Woody Allen's films - quirky with lots of dialogue - very entertaining and yet quite poignant. I've missed going to the cinema - there's something about the experience of seeing a film on the big screen. There are quite a few interesting films on at the moment, so hopefully I'll get the chance to see a few more while I'm in Sydney.

Happy New Year to all. Here's hoping that 2008 (hard to believe that one decade of the 21st century is nearly over) is a good one. I have a feeling it's definitely going to be an interesting one!