Saturday 13 Feb 2016

Today we decided to do nothing but go shopping and hang loose.  Most of my other relatives were leaving today, mostly to Malaysia and Melbourne.  They were catching the 1:45 train back to Colombo.  We went to see my granduncle again this morning.  He lived down the road.  He is a treasure of information.  Even though he is 84, he is pretty sharp.  Having worked at the Central Bank in Colombo all his working life, our conversation is in English.  This is a welcome relief to us as our Tamil is well below local standards.

We returned to the hotel to bid farewell to the departing group.  At this point the sun was really belting down and so we decided to wait a while before hitting the shops.  At about 2pm we decided to make our move.  Our group split up at the shopping area.  Susie and I went separately.  I had to get a few things, including spices and some clothes for my nieces in Singapore.  We then went to a restaurant to have some refreshments.  It is hot here, quite similar to Sydney but slightly humid.  We returned to the hotel after the drinkl.  We later went to a supermarket for a second round of shopping.

That evening Logan had organised a feast at the hotel.  Jaffna crab curry was prepared in 3 versions.  Due to my allergy, I had fish curry.  We had some vegetable curry and rice to go.  It was a wonderful feast and seemed to have gone for hours.  An American couple in the next table were looking at us enviously.  As they were leaving, they greeted us and commented on our feast.