Sunday morning at home

Last nights excess is nothing now but a sharp headache. I have taken as much as painkillers medically allowed deadening the pain. The spliff I just smoked helps relieve the hangover. My tongue feels like sandpaper. The carton of soya milk I drank with the painkillers is helping somewhat to calm my stomach. I am hoping all the meds and the spilff will kick in soon.

I reach up to the side table by my bed and gulp down the mug of overly sweetened black coffee and look to see if the paper man has come. The air conditioner drones softly. I am protected from the Sunday morning heat that swells up from the tar roads of Colombo as the sun rises. Soon it will be just too hot to think about doing anything or going anywhere. My three Sunday papers, the Observer, Times and the Leader are unceremoniously dumped on my bed by the disapproving wife. She and the kid are slowly up and about getting ready for their usual Sunday plans. ODEL for shopping and strolling about and then return home for lunch. Always Chinese on a Sunday, always from Chinese Dragon. By then hopefully I have finished my newspapers, showered and feel a wee better. Ready for lunch and back to bed to sleep off any reminder of Saturday night. It was a good night, had dinner with the family at Kolu’s Kiss Kiss bar, dropped them home and hooked up with Paddy at Cascades. Mahesh and Leo joined afterwards and memories of Kiribath at Trans Asia at 5 in the morning ensured that the weekends partying was max.

The microwave beeps me out of my revere. Last night was at Cooka’s house in Ilford for his kid’s birthday. I as usual walk in with my compulsory bottle of booze and thrill all the yummy and not so yummy mummies at the party. ‘Aney Dhammika vut men this is a kids party no?’ WTF…

My kids on concert band tour in Spain, so its just Lems and I, she’s driving and I have the license to party. Ate a load of cutlis, patis and mutton rolls, drank lots of Glenmorangie, smoked some really good shit (mine) and enjoyed the wonderful company at Cooks. Nalin, Lily, Ruwan, Cader, Adrian, Mega and Eggy deserve special mention. Lily as always gave me my Bilal’s lampries to takeaway for Sunday morning. The short eats I ate last night are a weak memory, the microwave beep reminding me the food is ready. I am hoping all the painkillers, spliff and now the lamprie will finally sooth my hangover.

I am back. The lamprie was delicious. Oily but delicious and I do feel better. The hangover has reached the stage where it’s now a manageable dull throb somewhere near my temple.

Different weekends, different countries, same bloody hangover.

Khan lost in four rounds to Garcia last night in Vegas. Fights showing again on Sky in 30 minutes.

So I am going now. Bye.

Six Thousand Miles away from Smiles

The incessant drizzle has been hours now. It had ceased for a while when I got home. Just enough for Jaspers run, walk and toilet. Now late summer evening, but unusually dark due to the rain clouds and that bloody drizzle. Like the last drops we squeeze out when peeing, but for hours.

Cooked a venison sausage curry (the joys of the stix – proper venison sausages from the local butcher) and ate with just white jasmine rice. Kids away on head start and Melo’s vegetarian today. So she will be British, something like olives, cheese and biscuits for dinner. Any health benefit spoilt by the Lucozade she chugs afterwards. Busy at work, so she’s not home yet.

I am set up on the sofa. Mobile, Laptop and TV remotes. Although I have left the back door open I don’t feel really cold. I am in a white skinny and my now new favourite, a Paradise Road sarong. Well worn with age I must add. The quick zoot fix for the days ends nicely settling in. One of the reasons I am finding the weather quite mild. When your head feels really heavy, the mild breeze coming in through the door and the Wimbledon on BBC TV in the background merge into this gorgeous feeling of contentment and comfort. My body has sunk into the leather sofa, moulding it to shape.

My mind wonders all the way back to Wattapuluwa, Kandy, and the outside weather adding to enhance my memories.

I can feel the bus shudder and the driver furiously grinding the gears as he coaxes the bus up the Kadugannawa mountain. It is time for me to perk up in my seat and wipe the journey out of my eyes. I am almost home. The silhouette of the bible rock is only an outline on this late Friday evening. I am on a Colombo – Kandy Intercity bus on my way home for the weekend. The worries and heat of the week left behind as the cool breezes of Kandy caress me as they flow through our groaning bus as it climbs the mountain.

All too soon we’re in Kandy. The wonder of mobile technology has allowed me to phone ahead to inform my parents I am close to Kandy. I am one of the quicker people to exit the bus, as I have no bags to encumber me. Quick stretch and I look around for the car. The bright cyan blue, yes BCB, Lancer station wagon is easy to spot as it shines brightly through the incredible clutter of the sights, sounds and exotic and not so scents of Kandy. Huge yellow buses, Red CTB buses, the  KFC double decker, the private intercity buses with their bright plumage of advertising, vendors with their carts brightly lit in glorious fluorescent is a panorama of colour. Nighttime adds to the romance of the situation.

Kumara, our trusted driver, gardener, valet and Mr. Fixit greets me with a big grin as I jump into the car. He does not forget to pull over at a roadside liquor shop for my customary Friday night in Kandy by myself quart. Which is gulped down in three hefty swigs, quick Gold Leaf and I jump back in car. Kumara already has a menthol toffee ready for me to pop into the mouth in readiness for the meeting, worshipping and kissing of said parent now waiting in Wattapuluwa wondering why the five-mile drive to Wattapulwa from Kandy Town is taking us so long. My father silently suspecting it would probably be a tot at an aforesaid roadside tavern.   

Finally we climb the mountainous roads of Wattapuluwa and get home. I jump out to open the gate for the car to take the sharp turn that leads to an incline directly to the top floor living room and front entrance. Everything is bathed in the headlights. Ninja my mothers Alsatian dog’s barking and jumping in delight. My nephews and niece are screaming the news of my arrival to everyone in the neighbourhood. The house lights up with everyone exiting their rooms and my mother who was sitting in the living room switches on the house foyer and garden lights.

There is a cacophony of sound. All blurring into hugs, kisses and screams of welcome. The big Alsatian dog has suddenly been overcome with love and is humping my leg at the same time. I am home.

The TV flickers incessantly very like the rain outside. It’s 7pm, the reminder for the famous US TV program COPS has come up. I switch it on. I am home. In England. The clouds have cleared. I can hear the steady distant drone of an aircraft overhead. We’re directly on a flight path but thankfully really high up. I hear the chirping of birds competing with the aircraft, a helicopter suddenly flies by. I glance up and outside. A blur of white, light blue, grey sky, brown garden fencing, green grass and a bunch of bullfinch are busily feeding on worms the rain has unearthed.

I have to go now, I can hear reality.