If a picture can speak a thousand words...

I guess I've mentioned that the honeymoon is over in previous posts.  It's not Sri Lanka's fault, it's nobody's fault, it's life.  My eldest is pushing boundaries in a rather stressful and frankly, incomprehensible way.  Part of me knows that is what he is supposed to do and it's great that he wants to venture into the adult world but the way he's doing it is disruptive and really not getting him anywhere.  Of course, he would disagree with me on that but then again he would disagree with me over the air we breathe.

So I come to cringe a bit when I go to open my email.  I'm actually hoping for spam rather than a message from school, that's how bad it is.  I am grateful that G is really stepping up to the plate on a lot of this.  But I am the first line, I will always be the first line and I have to be honest I DON'T GET IT.

(Warning to any teen readers:  the following is a typical parental lament. You can return to the normal blog post after the jump!)  

I asked him what is so horrible about his life, school. his parents.  I really wanted to know.  I can't change everything but I figure knowing is half the battle.  He really couldn't give me an answer other than he hates moving.  He wants what we had, the stability of living in one place whilst growing up.  I tried to impress upon him that we chose this life because of what it ultimately offers.  I realize that doesn't hold a lot of water for a 15 yr. old...I get it.  He has idealized Seattle and life there to the point where it's become mythical.  Again, totally normal but he won't allow for the sad fact that life moves on, people move on, you have to move on or be left behind.  I tried to get this across by referring to the last scene in one of our favorite movies "Stand by me" the one where the kids go their separate ways after that one incredible, intense weekend. How those people, the ones you swear will be friends forever just become faces in the hallway, ghosts of your past.  Even as I write, I know that he has got to learn this himself.  He won't acknowledge that he is changing, life in Seattle is changing, that's the way it goes.  He clings on to the past..understandable.  So where does that leave us? 

Of course there are other issues, he is a pretty complex character - that's what is going to help him have a great, rich life.  Like any parent I want to give him the tools to realize that life.  I don't want to dictate it, my period of dictating is drawing to a close( but I do have a few "further mores" to add! Duh!)

I didn't think that I would have to learn so much at fifty.  "What the hell I have been doing for the past 50 years?" I know that other people are going through this and frankly, some of them are going through worse things.  Still, I wish I had someone to talk to who wasn't at the school.  It's a small place and having worked at a school I know what happens in the lunchroom.  The biggest shock though is the loss of my sense of humour, I feel so grim and I hate that.  I love my family, I want them to be happy, I want to be happy!  

What to do...what to do?

The Sketchbook Project

After much hemming and hawing I decided to join The Sketchbook Project. It is a project created in conjunction with the Brooklyn Public Library and a group called Art House Projects.  The idea being that people can get one of these books and record their life/mission/adventures/whatevah the way they choose.  These are then submitted to the library, catalogued and put onto caravans that tour the country.  People can take them out and enjoy what others have done.  You can choose a theme or just write (from what I gather!).   It is a neat way to engage with other people, artists and the public library system.  Sounds right up my alley!

So I sent off my money and waited quite excitedly, I must admit!  I don't think that there will be high demand for my work but it's fun to be a part of something big like this.  Besides chronicling my life seems to be the thing I'm into right now.  So you can imagine my dismay when this arrived in the mail!

 It came on a rather tense day so this just added insult to injury.  "Why would you have to open this when it is clearly a paper product and then drop it in water?".  Yup, that's what they did and we know how much paper lurves water.  
 I'm still bummed!  If any of you write, you know the physical pleasure of opening up a new notebook and smoothing out that first page and having the pristine paper accept the black ink from your quill-like Sharpie.  It is exquisite!  But alas, not for me!  So I dried it out as best I could and now have to work paper the texture of Melba Toast! (dating myself there). So what do you do when something like this happens?  Well, I've decided to work with it and call it "Water log(ged)".  Quite good I think and it makes me laugh,  albeit ruefully.

But I have another book in the works as well.  There is an area here in Colombo called "Slave Island"(sounds spooky, I know!).  It's a very historic, culturally and religiously diverse neighbourhood. The name, the crowded conditions, the poverty all make it a rather daunting place for me to venture but it's vibrancy draws me.  It also has the unfortunate benefit of being close to downtown and the new developments that are now starting to come online.  Already we've seen the loss of the Elephant House Cold Storage Godowns and sites are trained on the rest of the area.  So I'm trying to document what's left of the area in a book for G for Xmas.  I got the idea from a store called "Barefoot".  The grandson of the owner published a book about the colour of Sri Lanka.  As I flipped through it I thought, "my shots are as good if not better than these", so I decided why not make one for G?

I'm not such a great photographer but I want to learn.  One thing I think about photography is that you have to anticipate, react and then be patient to make sure you got the shot.  Quite often this means approaching people and asking their permission.  Argh!! I'm a big chicken shit!  You wouldn't think so, but I am!   So me venturing into this neighbourhood really took some cajones.  I was so happy I did!  I was handsomely rewarded!  People couldn't have been nicer and and friendlier.  It's the kind of place where as soon as there is a new face everyone knows so I'm sure my presence preceeded me!  Lots of people very kindly let me take their photos.  But being a little freaked out,  I didn't get all the shots I saw in my head.  That's where I'm running into problems. I can see it in my head and aim the camera toward it, but I can't capture it because I don't have the technical knowledge or the patience.  It's incredibly frustrating but on the up side I am going to go back and take some more shots from a different angle.  I also want to see if I can find this one woman and her baby, I took such a nice shot of them I want to give her a copy.  I hope that's not too creepy!

I would include some of my photos but I don't want to spill the beans about G's Xmas present.  Yeah... he occasionally looks at my blog.  Whoo hooo!

"I don't vant to be alone..."

This

=

This!

Once again, I find myself in the bathroom after "Law and Order, Criminal Investigation" goofing around with the camera.  It must be something about Vincent D'Onofrio that gets me going!  Actually I've wanted to "do"  Greta for awhile!   

I especially love my studio.  It's the bathroom and my crappy little digi cam perched on a swaying stack of toilet paper rolls to get the right height!   I have yet to work up the courage for an outside shot but I do have someone who will take my photo for me.  She's taking a photography course and I dunno, wants an example of what not to do for class?!  

I've got some other ideas and for now they are all black and white.  If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear from you!

Colombo to Mirissa to Kandy and back.

We left Colombo on Friday afternoon to pick up the kids at school and then head on down to the beach at Mirissa.  we were to meet up with friends staying at a rather flash villa. Being as it's off season there was plenty of room for all of us.  

Unfortunately doesn't give you an idea of the topography.

Below are some shots of the time we spent just kinda hangin' out.  I mean what else would you do at the beach?

Nick actually playing with little kids!

I love his gleeful expression!  Soon this dead fish was in everyone's face!

Some of the art at the villa.
I loved the art work but rather sobering when you think how many car parts they had to work with!  Not a good sign.

We left Mirissa quite early on Sunday as we had a long haul ahead of us up to Nuwara Eliya.  We were told it could easily be 7 to 8 hours.  It's not because the distance is so far it's because the roads are narrow and the drivers are quite crazy. We climbed from sea level to the highest point in Sri Lanka at 2500 metres. Greg did an awesome job driving and we only lost our way a few times but were able to loop back to the main roads. It is the journey afterall.  All in all, it probably only took us about 6 hours.  

I love these trucks,  I feel like I'm in the Khyber pass or something

We got in around 4 pm. and found our Misty View Bungalows.  It's very much a Fawlty Towers operation but we have an exceptional view (yes, it is misty) and we have a minder!  It's kind of weird but you do get used to it after awhile.  G, of course, just happened to bring his clubs so I dropped him off at the course on Monday.  There was nobody there except for 15 caddies!  The course is lovely and it is broken up into 3 parts throughout town!  Plus a public path cuts right through it. So not your usual hazards. 

The Royal Nuwara Eliya Golf Club.

Not bad form!

 I went back into town as I figured that the boys wouldn't too bummed if I didn't take them to the market.  I really liked this market as it was so clean and not smelly.  Plus the colours and the quality of the produce was phenomenal.  I couldn't help but take a few arty farty shots!  Please indulge me!

I love the way bananas are presented here.  They look like they are on Mary Poppin umbrellas or even elephant trunks.

 We saw this Grandpa proudly pushing his granddaughter up the hill.  They were so lovely together!

So we've got our holiday rhythm of sleep, eat, veg, doze, eat, sleep down to a science.  

So this is usually how our afternoons end.

So tomorrow we pack up for another drive to Kandy.  This one is not so long and we're going down in elevation.  I think there is more of a townsite to check out.  See you there!

CHOGM...I thought it was a holiday!

This is the week before all the heads of the Commonwealth of Nations descend like locusts on Colombo (CHOGM).  Due to politics between Canada and Sri Lanka, Canada has decided to give this meeting a miss.  There have been a few awkward moments but more for the HOM than us.  On the good side, if Mr. Harper came then we would be stuck in town! (Because it is all about how it affects me!)   G would be "liftin' that bale and totin' that barge"  for Harper' posse.  As it is, it will be a horrible week of road closures and sulking teenagers off school.  So instead of barricading myself between the Xbox and them,  we're taking our sulking teenagers on a road trip! Whee!  Shades of WallyWorld loom large!

The first night out we're down south beyond Unawatuna (gawd I love saying that place's name!) to visit a colleague who is on R and R from Delhi.  She's staying at a villa with someone else so, there may or may not be space for us.  Apparently place is heaven on earth!  Sri Lanka really is blessed with gorgeous beaches. Then to Nuriyallia(spelling?) and then on to Kandy. Kandy, I imagine, is going to be similar to the Cameron Highlands as it is a tea growing region and where the colonials went to cool down!

I'm looking forward to it.  This has really been an emotionally hard 10+ days for me.  I've been up and down like a yoyo.  I know intellectually that you never get anything thrown at that you can't handle but it doesn't mean that it still doesn't take it out of you.  I really feel like time has sped up and the things I want to do are getting pushed further and further back as I have to react to the here and now.  Our time here really is very short...um... our time in Sri Lanka, not earth!

Also been trying to get our Xmas holidays organized.  N wanted to go to Seattle, M wanted to go to Malaysia, and G was ambivalent !  So took those bulls by the horns and booked.  We're going to KL, Cameron Highlands, and Penang!  Whoo HOO!  Life is good.  I booked a hotel in KL that is near our old place...will be weird to be back but not living there.  I'm sure the changes are huge!  The kids and I will go in advance of G and do some shopping etc.  Gotta throw N a bone every once in awhile!  What's great about my instagram foodie other son is, is that he is excited about where we'll eat!  It's unanimous though...Suzi's Corner!

Wow, there she be in all her car park glory!

So I'll report back when I can get internet and time!  

Halloween.  I thought maybe I had dodged that bullet by moving here.  But due to the insidiousness of that other evil empire (Hallmark) even the Sri Lankans are taking it on. There was one store that had hired an actress to be a witch.  I got what she was on about but there were some very bemused shoppers!

Our community coordinator put together a Halloween tour for the little kids at post.  The HOM loves to dress up her place and I sense that there was some rivalry with some of the other staff!  So they went to her house and then came back to our building to haunt the floors.  We were astounding by how much candy those little hands can grab!

I wasn't going to really do anything but something deep inside me broke and I had to, I just had to!  So I brought out the old tickle trunk and jumped in.  I made tombstones out of cereal boxes and white glue, a watermelon jack o'lantern, "boarded up our place" and condemned it! (Must give credit to M...his idea!)
 Our helper, Sulani, just kind of looked at me while I was doing all this.  I had a blast doing it too. I find that those projects were you have limited resources, time and money are often the more creatively rewarding, the less you have the better it is. (WARNING: this does not apply to shoes!!)  I wish that I could have figured out how to control the hallway light sensor but management is picky enough without that added hassle of me adjusting the lighting.  Anyway I spent entirely too much time on something that lasted, say, 5 minutes tops!  Isn't that always the way?  Plus those little kids didn't even get my puns...sheesh.  They just wanted candy!  I can't work with these people!

M, of course, got into the act and in addition to baking cookies for his buddies came up with this really bizarre outfit.  He insisted that I buy him a dolly and then we were to dismember it.  Too macabre for me, so we figured out a way to create the effect without any discarded limbs.

He is good fun!

Anyway I hope everyone had a super holiday.  The day after, we saw Christmas lights at the mall...the horror...the horror!