Change of Location

Am writing this evening from the kitchen - a change of location so to speak. Have just had something to eat - bean & potato curry, dhal and greens - and am now contemplating what I'm going to do this evening. Before dinner I went for a walk down to the river - something I haven't done in while. Not far from the bottom of my road there's a foot-bridge across the Mahaveli River, so I walked as far as there then came back - a very pleasant way to finish the day.

I'm starting to feel quite sad about leaving this house. Am going to miss the views, as well as the sense of solitude that I love about this place. Dhanushka always said he felt very lonely in this house when I wasn't here, but I love the silence and peacefulness. Right now all I can hear outside are some insects - and the river in the distance. I'm probably going to move into a place where one of my colleague currently lives. It's not far from here and has a beautiful garden. I could look at other places, but I want to live in the same area and actually can't really be bothered looking too much.

Didn't have much of a weekend as I was examining on Monday and then had training for a couple of hours on Tuesday. I have examining again next weekend, which in some ways I'd rather not do, but there are a lot of candidates, so the more examiners the better. Can't complain about the extra money either.

Last Friday I had dinner with Pamela and Sascha at a Chinese place on the other side of the lake from the Temple of the Tooth. It's quite high up on the side of the hill and as we went straight from work we were there to see the sunset from the balcony. The food is nothing special in some ways, but there aren't many eating-options in Kandy and the views are fantastic.

Yesterday was Poson Poya, which commemorates the arrival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka more than 2000 years ago. To avoid having to make up the class at the end of term the centre was open yesterday, but I did manage to make it to the Temple of the Tooth in the evening after my class finished at 5.30. There were lots of people at the Temple because of the poya, but very atmospheric - particularly once it started to get dark. Sitting in what was once the King's Audience Hall, I started thinking about Dhanushka as we often used to sit there together. I still miss him a lot - what to do?