Psychedelic Panda!

I managed to get out of examining yesterday, so have had a very relaxing weekend. Yesterday morning Maggie & I went to the botanical gardens for an hour or so, then after lunch and a nap I went to see Ewen, who's been very sick and is at home recovering. He was admitted to hospital last week with severe intestinal pain and although he's feeling a lot better now, it doesn't look like he's going to be back at work this term, which means it's been a busy couple of weeks as the rest of us have had to cover his classes.

I also wasn't so well the other week, although thankfully it wasn't anything too serious - just some virus that's been going around that I managed to pick up. Basically I just felt run-down for a couple of days and although I managed to go in to work at first, I ended up having to have a day off, which because Ewen is off was very bad timing. A couple of weeks ago the provincial governor ordered all public schools to close because of an H1N1 scare. A lot of people have been sick at work - although probably not because of the H1N1 virus - and apparently a few children have died in Kandy.

I went into town this morning to do some banking and buy a few things, but by mid-morning was by the pool relaxing. It was actually quite overcast this morning, but not too cold for a swim. I don't seem to get to the pool much at the moment because of my timetable this term, so I always try and go on the weekend. Maggie was at the hotel when I got there, so we ended up having lunch together. Lunch at the Citadel has become my weekly treat. I eat at home most of the time and don't really go out that much, so I think I deserve a treat once in a while.

A couple of weeks ago the President called an early presidential election, so Sri Lanka will be going to the polls on January 26. I think the President is hoping to get re-elected on the basis that he 'won' the war. However, now that the general who led the armed forces during the final months of the conflict has announced that he's going to run for president, victory is no longer assured for the President as General Fonseka has a lot of support. There are lots of corruption allegations against the President and his family doing the rounds at the moment, but I don't know whether electing a man who was possibly responsible for thousands of deaths in the final months of the conflict is such a great idea either. Such is Sri Lankan politics.

It's actually very hard here to get news about what's going on politically as most of the press is tightly controlled by the government. There are a few independent newspapers, but even they have to be very careful about what they write as a number of journalists have been killed, attacked or have disappeared in recent years. There are some interesting websites though that provide a better idea of what's going on here, including one called Groundviews, which I try to check out when I can.

http://www.groundviews.org/

I don't have much planned for this evening apart from replying to a few emails and catching up on what's been happening around the world. Read earlier on Al-Jazeera that over 100 people have been killed in seperate car bombs across Baghdad. It's sad that nearly 7 years after the US-UK led invasion that the situation in Iraq hasn't improved. I read with interest the other day that various people who were advising Tony Blair in the lead up to the invasion are now saying that they advised the Britsh government against invading Iraq. Strange that no-one was willing to say that publically 7 years ago!!! We all know of course that George Bush wanted to invade Iraq no matter what and that the UK government was quite happy to believe any 'intelligence' linking Saddam Hussein to weapons of mass destruction, no matter how dubious.

It's just started raining again. It's been very unsettled for the past month or so with lots of heavy rain. I don't mind the rain when I'm at home, but hate driving in it. In most countries people are more careful on the roads when it's raining, but not here in Sri Lanka...