Week 13, 14 & 15

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Sachi

Three weeks. That hasn’t happened before. Has it?

I’ve been out. Darling got sick. Then I caught it and it dragged on and on and on and here I am with barely the strength to type. We’ve been getting by , I make a little attempt at making meals and keeping a house and getting out of the house to buy groceries but mostly I stay in bed and read Roald Dahl. What a genius. I can almost see the twinkle in his eyes as he wrote down his cleverness. I am always grinning to myself and going oh Mr Dahl you genius.

There’s a picture in here of my mother and a big dog walking with her. That’s really what I want to write about.

I used to take my mother for walks in the evenings for a bit of exercise. She’s very slow at it and is unsure of herself but we walk slowly and that particular day in March, we walked farther than we intended to. There was this by-road I wanted her to see. Darling had taken me through it once just to show me the neighborhood and it had lovely old houses and big gardens. I wanted my mother to see them. So there we were walking down this little road when this massive dog, freshly brushed, walked lazily over to us. It didn’t seem too interested in us really. But it was big. And I figured if it made any sudden moves, my mother was not going to be able to move away fast enough. So we had to go back. As we were turning around to leave, my mother clutching my hand very tight, the dog came right up to us, and looked at me. It had big wet eyes , a bit sad and it looked a bit old. Then it started sniffing my mother. We stood very still only moving inches towards the road so as not to startle the dog. And the dog backed away. So we started walking away. Just too slow. The dog let us go a few feet and started following us. It wasn’t interested in me however. It only wanted to make friends with my mother.

We walk to the main road, and the dog is behind us what 10 feet? Then it quickly catches up with us, walks past another 10 feet and stops. Sniffs the ground , the bushes, the leaves, the flowers on the floor. Then it comes back. When the neighborhood dogs started barking at it , it quickly retreated behind my mother’s skirt only peering around her legs when it was safe to do so. It would bump her legs with it’s snout, look at my mother for a bit of affection, then circle us once more.

It would not leave her. It walked slowly with her, never falling back or walking past more than ten feet. And it paid no attention to me whatsoever. I walked away from them to take some pics and it made me smile, to see the two of them walking together as if they belonged.

It walked us up to our lane, and stood there watching us till we got home. There were nasty children down our lane making a huge racket about god knows what and it didn’t seem to want to walk past them anyhow.

I haven’t seen the dog since. But I hope I will.

85/365
26/03/2014
“Take my photo!”

86/365
27/03/2014
Cinnamon Rolls beautifully risen before going in the oven. Magic !

87/365
28/03/2014
Not-our-dog walking with my mother. ❤

88/365
29/03/2014
In the beautiful city of Kandy. Feeling quite the tourist.

89/365
30/03/2014
At the Temple of the sacred tooth relic.

90/365
31/03/2014
A selfie is the only photo I have today , I took this to see the evening light on my face. Ha.

91/365
01/04/2014
Camping in the living room.

92/365
02/04/2014
My mother teaching me to sew. What a severe teacher she turned out to be. Hmph.

93/365
03/04/2014
Morning tea party

94/365
04/04/2014
Going home with malli in a tuk tuk. Malli’s having a good chat with the tuk tuk driver.

95/365
05/04/2014
Sunset in Pepiliyana.

96/365
06/04/2014
Getting ready for the win. Bunker Buster has been poured.

97/365
07/04/2014
What a beautiful day to be alive and happy.

98/365
08/04/2014
Running for Sri Lanka Baton today. Loving it.

99/365
09/04/2014
Husband has forgotten his back pack.

100/366
10/04/2014
I swear I am not into selfies. Terribly sick and in bed. I wanted to see if I have dark circles. And I do. Only photo for the day.

101/365
11/04/2014
Still in bed. Feel like crap.

102/365
12/04/2014
Took out a shirt to refashion but couldn’t muster the strength. Back to bed.

103/365
13/04/2014
Adding more to the collection. Thanking my mother for the lessons in sewing.

104/365
14/04/2014
Sinhala and Tamil new year. We are on our way from visiting my parents. Rain. Music and husband. Favorite combination.

105/365
15/04/2014
Dinner with the Samarasinghes.

I belong in the Sun.

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Sachi

Let me tell you something.

It was a long day.

I do not plan to speak. Nor write lengthy posts about how tired I am.

I’ll give you pictures instead, taken with my husband’s tab and try to show you what the day was like for me. And for the rest of the family.

It was four in the morning when we woke up. We took the new highway to Galle before the break of dawn, from there we drove among the usual traffic scenario to Matara. The place where my late father-in-law was said to have grown up in.

But first things first.

It was a beautiful morning on the highway.

We came to Matara and hung around the courthouse , for my mother-in-law to be present for a court case. Me, hubby, sis-in-law made our selves useful by walking about and taking pictures.

We found the offices of the lawyers rather fascinating.

They of course had the best view ! I’d consider myself very lucky if I ever get to work near a beach. Sigh!

We explored the scorching hot city of Matara. A bit. Photographed below is what appeared to be a small church.

We cooled off drinking King Coconut. It tasted like Lemonade.

We parked under a Bo tree. I read a bit while the other two napped. I also took out my laptop and worked a bit.

Then I stretched my legs to find these broken Buddhas under the Bo tree.

After my mother-in-law was done , we picked her up and went to Thalalla, where my late father in law had grown up. We scattered his ashes in the beautiful turquoise sea. Isn’t it beautiful that we go back to earth, wind and the sea?

We then went to see the house where he had lived in for a while when he was younger. There was a small run down house and the land surrounding it, was full of beautiful trees . There were even Peacocks.

Photographed, the old beautiful bench out at the front.

The back of the house.

We found the old well, now overtaken by the wilderness.

The water was refreshingly cool and soothing. We found the Lovi tree bent to the ground heavy with it’s fruits.

Having said our goodbyes, we left Matara, stopped on the way to get a bite to eat.

Photographed, Darling’s lunch. Chicken Biriyani. I had fried noodles.

We stopped on the way to pick up some earthenware. Hubby snapped this picture.

Half way through the highway on our back home, we stopped at the service area for tea and I worked a bit. Tea saves my life.

Tomorrow we go back to work, but really, I belong in the Sun.

All that is romantic – Part II

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Sachi

A sucker ! For snail mail ! Is me.

When I was around ten, while going through the contents in my father’s cupboard, ( I don’t know why I was so nosey ! ) , I found a stack of postcards , about a good 5-6 inches thick, bound together by a leather cord. I quickly went through them to see there was only a date and a location written on each. My father, back in his day, had written to himself. He had travelled with his university friends, hiked all across the country, taking busses and trains and walking up and down mountains, sleeping on river banks, eating their lunches in their hats ( I am not kidding. This was a thing. ) and this is how he had kept track of his travels. By sending himself a postcard.

Soon after I found the stack of postcards, a tradition was born because I demanded it of my father. I demanded that he should send me a postcard from his travels . And he did. Later in life, hearing this tale, some of my friends would send me postcards from their travels too. And whenever I travelled, I would send everyone back home post cards.

The truth of the matter is that this is a beautiful thing to do. Every time I hold a postcard in my hand, it is utter giddying joy. And as my friend says, snail mail, it’s a sign of love ! It really is.

This is why, I am doing my part in making sure the postal service in Sri Lanka doesn’t die. I will be doing a Snail Mail week over here at Life as a side project, first making postcards, drawing and writing and then finally posting them all over the world. 🙂

Await pics ! And perhaps, join me ?

Thumb wrestling and train rides

Posted on September 11, 2013 by Sachi

Last Saturday saw me and Darling take a train down south. We hadn’t done that in years ! In fact , the last time we took a train together was when we were dating, and we took a train from Mount Lavinia after an evening stroll on the beach and went to Panadura. Quite randomly and spontaneously. That was fun.

This time, while we could have driven , Darling thought we’d take the train ! Amazing isn’t it, when husbands initiate anything romantic. Ha. 😉 Also, I love it when he doesn’t drive, coz then he doesn’t get road rage and doesn’t pop any nerves and we get to talk and play thumb wrestling.

So, early morning on Saturday, we set off since we were clueless about where to buy tickets and because we were worried we’d get lost. The pics are from the train ride till the moment we got to the hotel. We stayed at Taj Vivanta, a massive Indian type hotel, with Darling’s office team. Wasn’t overly impressed by the hotel ( I guess I was expecting more in terms of interior and design but it was kinda all over the place ) but I had such a relaxing good time there. We bathed in the sea, dipped in the pool and ate enough food for 4 people. God knows I needed it.

While waiting at the train station, distractedly watching the crowd of young photographers , photographing every pot of flower and every wooden crate, and trying to read Bossypants ( which I absolutely adored ) and watching trains stopping and taking off again, it occurred to me that trains are the most scarily fascinating things ever. They still make my heart beat a little faster. I get excited thinking about the ride, the sea, the wind in my face ! Sigh. What I did not expect was the crowd and the wet floors but aah, that was ok . We got to stand near a door, albeit a Japanese couple who hijacked it from us crawling under our feet. But that was ok. We were still taller and after a while they sat on the wet dirty metal floor so it was fine. We watched the world pass by, ate toast sharing with the Japanese couple who were all bows and courtesies and then completely ignored us for the rest of the trip. We also played some thumb wrestling.

Without further ado, here are the pics. I am lazy. So I love Cross Process. To bits. Enjoy !

Second class tickets only

Love the vintage .

Travelling light . What a nightmare.

Bossypants

You sexy beast you.

Yet another vintage clock I wan’t to steal

Hot milk for the morning crowd

Captain !

All a blur

Passing towns and villages

Somber

Travelling buddies. Non stop chatter.

Bonus !

Stopping at Aluthgama

And we have arrived !

Pettah

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Sachi

Pettah. The colors. The patterns. The people. Everything is beautiful here. It’s noisy and everything seems to be moving in all directions all at once and if you are not careful, you can get run over, but , this place; it’s beautiful. It’s every photographers dream come true.

And last Saturday, I had my dream come true. Let’s say, I made it come true. Isn’t that the only way to live?

I went there with hubby , sis-in-law, Malaka MP and MK , all very gifted photographers. And all very close to my heart. As for me, I just wanted to scratch this particular itch, and I had so much fun in the process 😉

It was early morning . Very early . Pettah was barely waking up when we got there.

It’s a lot of photos, but I hope you enjoy.

Xoxo

Sachi.

The luxury of being home

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Sachi

My sister had her first baby , ( don’t know if she will have any more but. ) and she insisted she goes home to our mother with the baby. So I packed my bags and went with her leaving my husband to fend for himself. Long distancing for the first time since the wedding. The baby and sis took all my time and energy which I was more than thrilled to part with, but I had missed my husband, which I realized the moment I saw him yesterday.

The baby is amazing, my sister is doing good and my husband joined me and my family for the weekend so I am happy.

It’s been a whirlwind of a week though. Today somehow, the baby was sleeping half the day, and my sister was also resting, so me and husband went outdoors.

Have I told you I love being home?

There is so much of clean fresh air, and stunning sunsets, acres and acres of paddy fields , plenty of birds and flowers, my mother’s garden and now, an amazing addition to our family to make everything a dozen notches better.

While I am not going to share the baby pictures yet, here are pictures from our evening outside the house today.

Husband is here !

Blogging from the garden. Fancy that !

In my mother’s garden

Clear blue skies above him.

We went for a ride

The Scarecrow. Photo by Darling.

We stood in the middle of the paddy field and enjoyed the view

This, is what I came to photograph.

: We even caught a beautiful sunset

Extended Weekend Food

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Sachi

14th Jan was a holiday in Sri Lanka.

Darling’s mother was hospitalized due to a complication with one of her eyes, so we did a bit of running around . Came home and made a fried rice with Ghee for lunch.

The smell wasn’t very pleasant at first but it tasted very very good, if I may say so myself. I picked up the bottle of Ghee from one of our trips back home, out of sheer curiosity. I’ll be using some of it again.

I also made a Watalappan with some Jaggery Darling brought me to cook the new year Kiribath. ( Milk rice ) . But I didn’t use them. Found the Watalappan recipe here. But like it suggested, I didn’t make a caramel for it. I somehow knew the Jaggery in the pudding would make its own caramel. Also, if you feel like the pudding is going to be too sweet , reduce the amount of Jaggery or increase the milk. I went with my gut quite a bit here and it was delicious ! The more chilled it was, the better tasting. Yum!

So now. Let’s see the pictures shall we?

Leeks

I make myself cry !

Chopped Cashew

..and raisins of course

The bottle of Ghee I picked up from one of our trips back home

The coconut shell spoon given to me by my mother in law.

Ready?

The final result. I added fried and chopped sausages and pepper.

Watalappan

ගමේ පොළ – Market in the village ( Pictures )

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Sachi

Over the weekend, me and Darling went to see my family back home (Makandura , Sri Lanka ) and my dad took us to the Sunday market which was quite a treat for me coz I had been dying to go back there.

When we were small, my father would take me to the Sunday market and I would trail behind him with a basket in my hand. My father would buy vegetables, rice, meat and fish. I would stand under the huts selling goods and wait for him to finish shopping.

There would be sellers screaming the items they sell and their prices , there’d be a lot of people bumping into each other, saying hello how do you do or loudly haggling with the sellers. And then there would be me, watching , enchanted.

Those were the times.

After all these years, the Sunday market back home still stands and I couldn’t be happier my father dragged me there yesterday.

Here are some photos.

Shot with my most adored 50mm.