Grumble, grumble..........grumble

So what exactly is bothering me these days?

I've got a pain in my neck, quite literally. I have no idea what happened but it hurts so horribly that I find it hard to walk sometimes. So no sudden movements for me these days.

CHOGM. Traffic. Its well past 7.30 when I get home these days and well past 8 when I get to work each day.

George R.R Martin hasn't still finished the 6th book of A Song of Ice and Fire. 

Alright, I'l confess to my incurable addiction to the Game of Thrones series. I'm so unashamedly obsessed! So much so, that after finishing a Dance with Dragons, I actually miss the characters quite badly. When I read something else, (I started on a Neil Gaieman book immediately afterwards), it feels quite empty. I think I'm having a book hangover. Or that period of utter devastation, doom and gloom after a book breakup. If ever there was such a thing.

The obsession started way before anyone had ever heard of Game of Thrones when the first book was only just out. I happened to stumble on it through a friend, (way back around 2000), was quite carried away with it and went about upturning bookshops for other books of the series like a woman deranged but to no avail. After a while the craze died down and then came the TV series after which it got too mainstream and I lost interest altogether. It was at the Colombo bookfair this time that I saw all 5 books together that I thought to myself, hmmm....might as well try reading it this time since it all there. And then, I was hooked with no escape, no way of turning back. And now, I can't believe that I'm waiting for the author to finish his next book!

Haiyo :( 

I also want to start on food again. Cooking and baking being an ardent passion, I want to spend more time on it, trying out, creating and experimenting. Cooking always makes me feel like a mad scientist going berserk in his crazy lab. Its a good feeling :)

In the meantime, I started a food blog. Here's the link.
http://foodsterous.blogspot.com/

Also, the Darling wants to do a short film. Well, two actually and we are short of one actress. So finding one is on the cards as well. 

Anyways, right now I want

1. My neck to stop hurting.
2. George R.R to finish his book.
3. My neck to stop hurting.
4. Traffic to cease existing.
5. An actress for one of our shorts.
6. CHOGM week to be declared public holidays.
7. My neck to stop hurting.
8. Jerome de Silva to do Phantom of the Opera here (Omg! *swoon*)
9. To start something based on cooking.
10. My neck to stop hurting.

Yeah well, its not fun when the simple task of angling your head a few degrees makes you cringe with dread. 

Anyways, I'm off to bed. Hoping against hope that my neck would be alright tomorrow. I'd like to turn my head without looking like a joint-locked robot low on battery life thank you! So annoying :/

Aiyoo CHOGM!

Hours and hours and HOURS stuck in traffic with dust, grime & pollution flying at your face after a hard day at work. Not fun.

Hours and hours and HOURS in the sweltering heat. We have no air conditioned pajeros nor defenders full of white clad bodyguards to shoo other vehicles out of the way so that we can get home quickly.

The government is on a rather violent mission of beautifying Colombo which at the moment consists of ripping up and tearing down pretty much everything in sight. Roads dug up, pavements drilled open, Colombo beautified and us, mystified. We might just be the miracle of Asia after all, for being a city that was built over the period of mere two months.

Oh well, once in a while they have to show the world where all the tax money, loans taken & donations received are going I guess.  

The point being all the drilling, tearing and ripping has made life uncomfortable for all of us, making the already congested traffic of the city even more unbearable. Just the other day, we were stuck in one spot for 40mins without the vehicles moving one inch and it has been the case for the past two weeks or so. I wouldn't want to be dying during this period of time. By the time the ambulence reaches the hospital, my corpse would be crawling with maggots!

What's more, any sort of protests, rallies and the likes are banned in the country during this period as well. Ah well..... 

The Katunayake Expressway would soon be open though. However, the end of the expressway being extremely narrow, traffic from all sides will be flocking at one spot making it near impossible to move. This is the case even now without the expressway being open, the entrance to Colombo from Peliyagoda on to the bridge which used to be somewhat wide is narrowed down to make way for the expressway. Going to work in the morning is a nightmare as it is. Just thinking about how it will be when the expressway opens makes me shudder with fear.

Talk is that the whole of Colombo will be in a sort of a lock down during the entirety of the event. The place will be crawling with delegates and their entourage, not to mention the batallions of security guards on tow. There is even talk of the delegates' own Rolls Royces being brought down. Now Sri Lanka is a small place and Colombo is even smaller with everything congested in a tiny space. Hell, I'm not sure if the Colombo streets are wide enough for a Rolls Royce to reverse!

Now wouldn't it be fun if we gave the delegates their very own official tuk tuk to ride around? The best way to explore Colombo is by tuk, everybody knows that. So why not give the delegates an authentic Sri Lankan experience? We could vamp em up with deco of course. We could stick the national flag of each delegate's country at the front of the Tuk. And Prince Charle's tuk tuk could have a fluffy crown on top of that with frilly fur lined curtains and all that. Fun!

All jokes aside, getting around Colombo during that period is not going to be fun. Lots of roads are going to be closed and almost all of Colombo's leading hotels and their environs are going to be quarantined, making me wonder how in the world are us common folk going to get to work. Whatever roads that are left will be congested with traffic and Colombo will be groaning like a man with constipation in the loo in the morning. Its going to be as painful as well. Colombo is a small place and makes me wonder, do we really have room to occupy all this?

Meanwhile the authorities are doing their best to distract the people from their painful lives, made even painful by the absurd measures taken to "beautify" Colombo by painting these rather glittery and grandiose pictures of CHOGM through media. Well, some people may be appeased and even excited but I sure as hell don't give a flea's tiny behind about CHOGM when I'm stuck in traffic for a good 3 and 1/2 hours, sweating like a grissly bear in a sauna, falling asleep and waking up every 5 mins in fits and starters only to find my legs badly cramped and whole body numb in the stuffy old staff vehicle.

And it'l only get worse from there. I sure hope that the authorities will do something about this since getting to work during that particular week is going to be practically impossible what with the roads being closed, certain areas completely closed off, security, traffic and etc. The only possible solution to me seems like a week of holidays for people who work in the Colombo area. People have already gone through a lot. I don't think anyone would appreciate spending further time on the road and getting harassed by security personnel on top of all this "beautifying" inconvenience.

Anyways, the Lady is rather disgruntled. Tired and fed up of the traffic, the dust, the grime and the traffic. Hopefully they will find a solution soon. 

No country for locals

The long weekend is coming up and there we were running around looking for a good place to wile away our time. But what d'ya know, it does seem like most hotels in Sri Lanka are not available to locals!

A certain "villa" in the Bentota area being one and several properties in Galle area, most being within the fort and named after words in the same lexicon as "fort" being the culprits of this gross discrimination. Speechless is the sentiment and comment-unworthy being the word of the day. These hotels are not even worth the mention.  

And when did the official currency of Sri Lanka become US Dollars? Every hotel that was inquired after would give their rates in US Dollars. Even when you've convinced them that you are a local and that you would like the local rates please, thank you. Rupees seem the forbidden word. It is a word that one is ashamed of even to speak!

Anyways, what is it with white skin and Sri Lankans? Walk into a restaurant and you would see everyone from the waiters to the management bending over backwards to serenade the white skins with their pitiable smiles and pathetically entreating words. Its almost painful to watch sometimes, the local staff embarassing themselves thus. The locals are attended to last, after all the foreigners had been preened and pampered. Some even dare to give airs and intimidating looks if a local dares ask a question or makes a comment while feigning utter indifference. I don't think anyone would notice if a local choked on his food and died in such a place!

I've never quite grasped the concept of "no locals please" in hotels and restaurants. True, certain locals do have very disgusting and destructive habits but so do a good part of foreigners. Certain foreigners have been known to make roti on their irons, boil vegetables in their electric kettles, burn room carpets doing one bizarre thing or the other and even cook chicken curries to eat with bread in their rooms for Gods sake! And somebody was saying that locals were bad? Please enlighten me if anyone has any idea why this should be so.

There is no place for Sri Lankans abroad and now, there is no place for Sri Lankans in their own country. While foreigners are entitled to our land, our beaches, our shores and our forests, us tax paying citizens must content ourselves stuck at home on our hard earned holidays. The best part is, it is the locals themselves who thus discriminate their own kind. Born and raised on this land, having become who they are, having earned what they have earned from its people, whoring away to the foreign while shunning their own kind is just beyond low. Disgusting really.

Well, Hitler himself was a Jew they say.

If anyone wants to be a true patriot and speak up against such hypocritical local businessmen, this is the time and the opportunity. I'd like to see the Facebook patriots of the country speaking up against this kind of discrimination and unfairness rather than going around posting valiant, tear-wrenchingly patriotic statements on social media, smashing No Limits, banning halal and hurling rotten eggs at whoever frequents shops that belong to individuals of certain ethnicities.

Meantime, if I ever happen to raise any children in this country, I plan to bleach their skins white and dye their hair blonde, just to get the waiters to notice them at restaurants and be allowed access to a nice local resort for their holidays. After all, a mother would want her children to be recognized and to be treated with respect.        

Missing the theatrics :(

For the first time in the past oh I dunno, 10 years (?), I'm missing a Jerome de Silva play.

Jesus Christ Superstar is at full swing at the Lionel Wendt till the 13th October. I've never been one to go purchase tickets before the actual day. Although always houseful, I've always been able to get good seats at Jerome's plays as there had always been one or two front seats available even on the very evening of the shows, so I had never bothered. However, I went to get tickets mid week last week just in case and also because of all the buzz [cue - "What's the buzz, tell me what's-a-happening...." :P ] created by it so far. Only to find out that ALL the good seats and most of the not-so-good seats were gone, and that too even when I've gone well before the show to get the tickets! I was rendered speechless. You can just imagine the disappointment.  

ALL the seats at the front, the best seats in the house, on ALL days had been marked off with a big fat C. When asked, I was told that they were sponsor tickets and that they had been reserved. Well, I'd understand the reservation of the front rows for a show or two, but reserving the front seats for sponsors on ALL days? What about folk like us who enjoy front row views too? Do we not deserve it? How unfair! Its heartbreaking.

And why do I want good seats? Why can't I stop my whining and get my sweet derriere on the balcony and see the play? See, I like theatre for the same reason that I like live music. Because it is life itself unfolding before your eyes. And nothing compares to the experience of theatre from a front row. There are no boundaries, no blobs of heads, no oohs and aahs from the audience separating you from the drama. You are living it with the actors, you are in there, you are connected. You hear every word, every gasp and whisper and see the slightest flicker and flinch in the characters' eyes. These are important things, these make you feel alive. 

So yes, its always been either good seats or no seats at all. And yes, I'm picky like that.

I've always had a fascination for Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals. Combine his music with the craft of a brilliant director like Jerome and you've got a golden child. Although Jesus Christ Super Star is not my favourite of Webber's work, I was very excited when I first heard Jerome is staging it here in SL and was quite looking forward to singing along with the play (as nerdy as it sounds, I'm quite capable of singing along with most of the songs). Besides I was interested in how Jerome was going to pull it off with a local cast, knowing the man's various talents and abilities in choosing just the right people and just the right moves and incorporating the two seamlessly. Well, guess I'm not going to be able to see him really kill it this time. Sigh.................

And Jerome...well he brings Broadway to us Lankan folk. Not all of us are fortunate enough to go to Broadway you see. And Jerome does his best, and does a damn good job of it too. I've been hearing good things about the show so far but I'm glad that I didn't settle for a backrow seat cz there had been concerns where the people sitting towards the back couldn't quite make out the vocals. Well, till I get to see the actual Broadway show one day, I shall retreat with my head hung low. Until then I shall try and comfort myself revisiting an old recorded version of the Broadway play that I have in my collection somewhere. If I can still find it that is. Sigh.............. Quite sad. Very sad :(      

Book Fair - Sights, Sounds & Repurcusions

47 books, aching limbs, a gaping hole in the wallet and a full and singing heart. These are the repurcussions.

Trudging around the bookfair with so may books hanging on my arms. I feel biceps & triceps coming up on my arms already. 

Sights, sounds and not to mention the smells, well there are many.

Overcrowded beyond belief, its fair to assume that even less than 50% of the people who attend actually read. Apart from the people who actually read, people who attend the book fair belong to several general catogories. I shall list them down, for your general understanding;

1. The entourage - Parents, uncles, aunties, cousins, great uncles & great aunties who accompany a single kid who is there to buy a single book. And that too an O/L exam papers book.

2. The party-goers - Where there's something happening, they are there! Doesn't matter whether its a book fair, geek meet or a funeral, if its famous, they want to be there. Usually seen sitting under a tree, slurping on a cup of maggie noodles or eating elephant house ice cream while chatting to one another quite loudly. 

3. Romeos - These are genuine romantics, searching for their soulmates amongst the sweaty frantic crowds who hussle about in the heat. Generally, they do not have any interest in books. Unless a girl is holding it.

4. Don Juans - Well, rather aggressive & creepy Don Juans and not even an ounce as good looking. They creep up to you, whispering foul somethings in your ear and try to get a cop up. They do not have ANY interest in books. Even if a girl is holding one. Unless she is holding it by her boobs.

5. Pseudo-intellectuals - Thinks being seen at the book fair makes them seem intelligent. Usually seen wearing artsy cotton garb, reaching for the biggest and the heaviest looking books on the shelves. Holding it for a few seconds, release on to the shelf. Hold & release. Hold & release. Repeat until noticed. 

...........and the list goes on.

While it is great to see the crowd's enthusiasm in the bookfair, its heartbreaking that those who are actually there for the books have no way of browsing at leisure and making purchases because of the throngs. There should be some kind of a control, maybe a higher priced entrance ticket (Rs 100-200 maybe?) that can be redeemed at any stall when purchasing books from there? I think that should keep the unwanted crowd (ones whose purpose in coming there are not books) at bay.

Sounds - Women yapping away blocking the isles, gossiping about this one and that, teenagers squealing over the 50 shades of crap or quarelling over the last copy of the New Moon, lovers' quarrels, mothers/aunts/uncles on phones to their children/nieces/nephews informing that they are at the bookfair and inquiring whether there was anything they needed, sound of falling books, flipping pages, ah this is hardly a quiet place.

Smells - Sweat, strong perfumes, popcorn, mixture of perfume & sweat, hotdogs, maggi noodles overpowering the smell of new books and the refreshing scent of new pages being flipped which wafts by to the delight of your nose every once in a while.

Anyhow, it was shocking to see how the prices of books have gone up over the last year. And the discounts were a joke. Expographics played the foulest methinks, with an alleged 10% "discount". There, I heaped my arms up with books and took it to the counter.No discount was given to the said books and when asked, I was told that the prices marked were after the discount has been given. I was furious as the prices, or rather the "discounted prices" were much higher than the prices offered elsewhere, but there was nothing to be done as the books have already been billed. Well, that is the LAST time that Expographics will see me. 

Anyways, bookfair should introduce shopping carts. Otherwise, a few more years of trudging around with books hanging off every limb, I'm sure we will turn into brown versions of the Incedible Hulk pretty darn soon.

I'm sure in a couple more years, reading will be a rich man's hobby and a poor man's luxury. Pity really. Coz rich men are usually not really interested in or don't really have much time for reading.

 The post is long due, but better late than never they say. Its the weekend and I'm determined to milk it to the max. Saturday morning. I'm buried in books, my rooms a mess and me, a happy, happy girl. Life is good :)

Happy Girl

Heading towards the bookfair tomorrow. Can hardly contain myself!!!

Yesterday the vehicle queue was SO bad that I was forced to back down and retreat from the BMICH entrance, knowing that if getting in was THIS hard, getting a peek at the books even sideways wouldn't be an option. Unless there were more vehicles than there were people. Which seems to be the case in the country these days anyway.

It was with some effort that I controlled myself today. The desire to head that way was so great that I found it hard to stay still. Something is very wrong with me when it comes to books (not that I'm alright otherwise). The mere thought of books turns my knees into butter and my heart flutters a hundred million times. Could this be love? 

Well, I've realized of late that I'm a very happy girl. Love, support and warmth surround me in the form of a loving, doting family and a lover/partner in crime with a beautiful soul who are the pillars on which I build my world. I take every day as it comes, accepting, adopting, adapting which is easy when I have the pillars on which to lean on, for I know that this is solid ground. With such pillars, who gives a flying rat's tiny flea about other stuff? Money, career, future and the rest are just que sera sera.

I am one of the very few who found solid footing on firm hard land whereas many others are deceived by the debris that float their way, mistake it for reliable ground and drown in the process of trying to stand upon it. I on the other hand am either blessed or just wise in that sense.

Live life carefree. Make the ones that matter to you happy which in turn will bring a smile to your own face. Help when you can, who you can, the act of which will make you glow from the inside. Its living that matters. Not hoarding, not wanting more and more.

Well I thought I'd take some time to thank the universe for my many blessings for a change. Grouching, complaining, whining and grumbling can continue from tomorrow onwards.

But for today, I am a very happy girl.

And book fairrrr!! Half day tomorrow and hopefully the after lunch time slot will be relatively peaceful. EXCITED!!  :D

Book Fairrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

The book fair is right around the corner and I JUST CANNOT WAIT!

Halls and halls of, stalls and stalls of, rows and rows of books! Sigh.......... Bliss! :)

Wandering through the alleyways flanked left right and centre with books, air perfumed with that special smell unique to those entire worlds trapped between pages, once you enter these halls you at once feel dizzy with the possibilities that lay bare right before you. Should you charge head on like a bull on to this world or tread delicately, savouring every step, every breath taken in this overwhelming atmosphere, you are confused. Which way to look, which way to turn, simple gestures and sense of direction all become muddled in your head, because you want it all! You want to devour it all in one single gulp! But as your impatience rightly whispers in your ear, you just cannot do so.

One trip to the car after the other, just dumping my loot in the boot of the vehicle, securing the goods only to shimmy right back into the lair for some more. Emerging arms, elbows and bags full of goodies. Sigh..... I am insatiable.

Going home is always a treat. Heading homewards while in your head, there is a mound of yummylicious goodies to be devoured in the backseat that you just cannot wait to caress, to smell and to flip through. The feeling is exhilerating. 

I know from experience, that September is not a good month for my wallet. But it IS  a good month for my face. I go cross eyed from looking at all those books, neck croocked from trying to read the bookspines at an angle, and my face muscles are permanently stretched in a goofy smile. Well, can't complain. Good facial exercise I'd say.

14th being a Saturday, I think I should probably head that way on that immediate Monday  to avoid the crowds. The worst day to visit the book fair is on its starting day. The following day doesn't do much to help either. Monday would probably be the best, the third day being a work day and cozily in the middle. I guess a leave is due. Or a half day. Probably.

Went for my first Poetry P'lau today. A very pleasant experience. Good poetry, good conversation, not to mention really awesome coffee. I dare say there is a big chance that I would be heading that way the next time too.

Its late and I've just finished my second cup of tea for the night. Sleep is no where near, however a book is near that demands attention. Therefore, I shalt now to my book!