Going Bananas

No, I'm not officially mad. Am just excited because we've got bananas growing in the back garden. Banana flowers (the purple bit in the photo for those who have never seen a banana flower before) are used a lot here, both in curries and as a salad, but I had no idea that bananas actually grow from the banana flower as each layer peels off. Can't wait until they're ready to eat.

As it's quite cool - bordering on chilly - early in the mornings at the moment, this morning I went for a long walk passed where I used to live on Riverdale Rd and down to the river. There's hardly any traffic on Riverdale Rd and even on the road along the river there was very little traffic, so it was a very pleasant way to start the day. Maggie often goes for a long walk in the evening, but I think early morning is a much better time of day to be out and about as it's much more humid in the evening.

Am thinking about going to the Citadel to lunch today. Yesterday I was at work examining for most of the day, so am thinking that the Citadel is the place to be today - a long lunch, followed by a nap by the pool and a swim. Not a bad way to spend the day really.

Kiya left last Friday evening. It was great having her around and I'm so glad her visit co-incided with the long weekend last week. We had such a great weekend. We're actually hoping to meet up somewhere in April, although it does depend on how long the April break ends up being as at the moment it's relatively short and I'm thinking that I might end up staying in Sri Lanka.

The situation in the north seems to be deteriorating, even as the government tries to convince people that the defeat of the LTTE is imminent. There are still hundreds of thousands of displaced people caught between the military and the LTTE with no-where to go and yesterday a woman blew herself up at a checkpoint killing over 20 people - most of them military personel.

On January 8, while I was in Cambodia, Lasntha Wickramatunge, the editor of the Sunday Leader, an English-language newspaper that has been very critical of the government, was surrounded by 4 gunmen on motorbikes as he left his home and shot dead. The editorial that appeared in the January 11 edition of the paper makes for sobering reading.

http://www.thesundayleader.lk/20090111/editorial-.htm