Ravaging Wild Boars

Am back in Kandy, taking it easy after my first day back at work. Although it would have been great to have spent an extra couple of days in Europe, I'm glad that I have 2 days off to recover from the flight and the reality of being back at work. When I got home on Saturday afternoon I discovered that our beautiful garden had been ravaged by wild boars, who'd snuck in through gaps in the fence and dug up huge swathes of the lawn. They visited again last night, so the owners have now arranged to have someone repair and fortify the fence to prevent them getting in again.

Had a great time in the North-East and was very sad to say goodbye to everyone. It was great seeing my Grandma again and catching up with friends and family. Did lots of driving (covered nearly 2000km in a week), which was tiring, but it was worth it. The drive up to the North-East from London took a lot longer than I expected as I didn't quite realise how far out of the way Manchester was and hadn't anticipated just how heavy the traffic can get in England.

Was great to catch up with Jiří though and we had a really good weekend together. We spent Saturday in and around Newcastle and Sunderland as I didn't want to drive too far after spending 7 hours on the road on Friday. On the Sunday we drove across to Carlisle via Hadrian's Wall to see Lisa and the twins, then drove back down through the Lake District to Manchester. I had planned to drive straight back to the North-East, but Jiří's flatmate, Sakkib, kindly let me stay the night.

When I got back to the North-East on Monday morning I picked up my Grandma and took her to Durham for the afternoon. We had a lovely lunch at a café then I managed to push my Grandma in her wheelchair up the steep, narrow streets to the Cathedral, which is quite an acheivement. My Grandma wanted to light some candles for my Mum and a colleague of mine here had asked me to make an offering for her Dad who was suffering from cancer, so I lit some candles for him as well. Unfortunately when I got back on Saturday I received the sad news that my colleague's Dad had passed away on Thursday.

My Mum seems to be doing OK. She had her first session of chemotherapy on Thursday and although she said she's feeling very tired, she's trying to remain positive. I've decided to go and visit them in October and am hoping that I can take a few days of compassionate or unpaid leave so that I can spend two weeks with them.

The drive back down to London wasn't too bad apart from the heavy rain, which made driving much less pleansant. I spent Thursday night at Erica's place, then after breakfast dropped off the car and caught a train out to the airport. Being in economy again was a real let down after business class, but although the flight from Dubai to Colombo was packed, the flights weren't too bad. I was going to travel back to Kandy by bus, but in the end I couldn't be bothered dealing with public transport and ended up hiring a car and driver, which meant I was home within 2 1/2 hours.

It's good to be home, but as in April I had such a great time that I didn't want to leave. I love this house and love living in Sri Lanka, but I do miss my friends and really wish I could see them more often. I just wish EFL teaching was better paid in Europe so that I could afford to live there.

No plans for today. I need to take my car in to be looked at as the clutch is playing up, but I can do that tomorrow. It's quite stormy, so I'm not planning on going to the pool - am happy just to spend the day at home, catching up with Maggie and sorting a few things out.