una buona notizia ogni tanto

http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezioni/spettacoli/200909articoli/47067girata.asp

vai mitico terence!

technologic

daft punk

http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=bPZJYQXQsm8

waterstart

this is how you waterstart, i.e. no more PULLING the sail up! just move the mast towards the wind, rotate the board slightly downwind, let the sail catch some wind and up you go... simple right? well....not quite... it's simple once you crack it, but it does take a while to do so. variations i'm working on is a clew first waterstart and fin first, i.e. backwards waterstart....



swim the mast backwards towards the wind so it catches some air to release the water from the
sail


rotate the board if necessary, scissor the arms to do this, it helps

the end of the waterstart, hang low from the boom and apply mast foot pressure so you don't round up upwind.

off you go! hopefully with enough and good wind..... rare in galle....

me in una

a nice day in march 08, the wind had died down, i was on the rushwind 6.0 at the time, schlogging around waiting and hoping for the wind to pick up again...but i did have an epic 2 1/2 hrs of blasting, especially in the storm i rode! in the rain there were gusts of around 25knts! couldn't see anything, no shades at the time....found these pics on flickr, contacted the guy who took them and he was very kind enough to mail all he had from that day. nice fella.

too much downhaul in these shots, but it was good for when blasting overpowered half an hour before
the sail is like a crisps packet

downwind under the rainbow, coming back to the beach

practicing some clew-first manouvers, nothing better to do basically, not enough wind to get planing... still sailing clew-first is good to improve gybing skills.

after a few pumps, just about to get planing, lot of mastfoot pressure, sink into the harness, elbows pressing down, get past the front wake and off you go! the sail is now shaping up, releasing the wind in the top section above the 4th batten....yihaaaaaaaaa!

blake

our baby anthony blake shirmal, born in colombo, 21/1/08

fish fish fish.....

with friends

links and vidz and sails.....

some weird surfing!!

http://www.veoh.com/videos/e151908prwBWWZm

a cool site with awesome vidz


http://www.peconicpuffin.com/the_peconic_puffin/video/index.html



ppl i admire, one day....one day....if the wind picks up and i can keep at it!!?!??!

http://www.guycribb.com/ must go to one of his clinics.....soon....

http://www.jemhall.com/ or to one of his....

http://www.roynbartholdi.com/ or even his... ( i like his philosophy...!)


smashed another sail last month, been stranded since then, BUT i've just brought home n. 4 brand new sails!!!!! YES, 4!!!!! a 7.0 metre, 6.4, 6.0, 5.5 (plus a 55% carbon 460 cm mast)!!!! and of course the wind dropped as sooon as i arrived in galle.....damnit. i'm 78.000rs poorer now, BUT the market value of what i bought would be like 1400/1500 euro, so it's a bargain!!! nice way of twisting it around especially to my better half, hu?!?! all freeride/freemove sails, but one or 2 are ok for bump and jump and venturign in some waves....BUT I WONT until next year, that's a promise, no more destroying sails 4 this year, ok? actually i'm better off heading to Weligama where the waves are a lot smaller, instead of 7/10 ft unforgiving waveswhich put u (and the gear) through the spinning 800 revs washing machine cycle and u r underwater praying ur not gonna hit/get hit....yeah, sod that (for a while). better go for speed rides, chop hops (which need to be perfected), carve jibes (which need to be nailed consistently) et al...
hope tmoro is better, has to b coz it cant b worse than today! in the meantime, more internet (windsurfing) just to wind myself up and get ready to go for it!!!

getting bigger and bigger......and bigger

scary bugger...
its body is almost the width of mine....

This one put up quite a big fight and as i was alone it took quite some effort, but managed. the fishermen actually shook my hand for this one! it is my record golia and i have now entered the 20 kgs range (when solo). also caught a 5 kgs kaha parawa, one nella and a kukulamass. all sold for 5900 rs. to the main fish market in Galle town, after the usual haggling on the daily price....

whaaat?!?!!

suddenly one of the gloomiest days of my life...just found this on the net....
if this happens....i dont want to think about it....the beginning of the end, the destruction of the little that is left....go to hell! . Go and develop/i.e.destroy your own gardens. containers?transshipmetn car activities?berths?dredging i.e destroying the sea?turning basins?construction of breakwaters 1150m in length???? are you nuts? i really hope it's the usual cock up.



"Consultancy service for Galle Port development project
COLOMBO: The contract agreement of the consultancy service for the Port of Galle Development project was signed between the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and M/s Pacific Consultants International on Thursday.
The agreement was signed between Saliya Wickramasuriya, Chairman, Sri Lanka Ports Authority and N. Endo, Director (Assist to President Project Execution) of Pacific Consultants International.
This project is to develop the Port of Galle as a regional port by constructing new deeper multi-purpose berths for longer ships and meet future demand and to relocate part of the Break-Bulk cargo handling from the Port of Colombo.
It will also help ease the channel congestion in the Port of Colombo by transferring part of the break bulk activities to Galle and thus contributing towards enhancing container handling activities in the Port of Colombo.
The Japanese Yen 14,495 million (Rs. 13,750 million) loan project will also facilitate the Southern area development plan being implemented.
This will upgrade the Port of Galle that will ensure to handle future generation of cargo vessels, world class passenger ships and cruise ships and also provide facilities to handle car carriers to foster transshipment car activities.
The project includes construction of breakwater (1150m length), a multi-purpose terminal having two berths, dredging of approach channel and the turning basin and procurement equipment and a fully integrated computer system.
The development of two 14m deep multi-purpose berths adjacent to and outside the existing harbour is envisaged with the conversation of existing port to a yacht marina linking the Galle heritage city with a boardwalk for tourism development."

a day at the office

This is my record barracuda (8,5 kgs)



Barcuda: Caught near Galle (somewhere, hehhehe), there were 4, this was the biggest, it put up a helluva fight, i was actually a bit afraid of being bitten. Some of its teeth were missing, but the onese he had, boy they were sharp!

Golia: caught over shipwreck, Galle Bay. It cheated me 3 times on 3 different rocks, the last one i changed tactics, it worked. instead of him coming to me, i went for him. he stopped, turned, i aimed and hit the bullseye.

Tonight party with my fishermen, bbq, fried rice (rice junkies!), some beers, some stories!

spearfishing down south.....

7 kg tala


40 kg kossa, very difficult catch between 3 of us


16 kg thora balea, 2 kukulamass, 1 ranava


over 100 kg...totally! the bedau (grey snapper) is 8 kg


the big belly of the kossa




15 kg golia

after 3 yrs back to some serious spearfishing, our spot is still the same, swam with dolphins, stingrays, loads of sharks, missed some big tunas... knackered after 7 hrs in the water.....wind was beaufort5, BIG waves but survived.

ska-p {esca'pe}

Orgullo nacional, patriota virtual
heroe militar, Xenofobia,
muneco demencial, paralisis mental
eskoria cerebral
A LA MIERDA, REACCIONARIOS
ME LA SUDA TODO LO QUE PUEDAS LADRAR
SIEMPRE AME LA LIBERTAD...
Qu difcil es hablar con la pared
menguar tu estupidez, tu xenofobia,
hacerte comprender que tu agresividad
se puede responder con mala hostia
A LA MIERDA...
Huir de la razn, perder la dignidad
tu forma de pensar
Te quiero recordar que somos muchos mas
y vamos a combatir tu xenofobia.
A LA MIERDA...Oh!!,
seguir en mi condicin de radical
gritar, nazis nunca ms!!..
A LA MIERDA

akurala

a smaller but cuter school...couple of months more...


front and entrance

still working....

peraliya, 1 month to go....yippeee!

view from entrance

left wing

front wing

left and front wing

outside view of right wing

left wing

assembly hall a classroom

front

projects

THIOTAGAMUWA SCHOOL FINISHED !!!(officially handed over 2 months ago tho') kids are in, furniture, computers etc.. all delivered.

Opening ceremony 20.11.06, 14.30 p.m. Public invited.

the entrance
a side view, secondary cycle
the water tower and the only piece (repaired) remaining of the original school

side view

opposite view

from assembly hall

primary cycle

a wing of the secondary cycle

primary cycle (not all), workes repairing damage made by truck delivering furniture..........

girls cricket + b'day party 2nd day

vodka and lime my favourite

on the way to check matara blood bank and first aid building, found this was happening in koggala...middle pic is actually a good kp style shot.

10 november, 1st b'day party

the famous sir john honeymoon chick amici

some ppl and jumbosfound in hikka, no, i didnt' catch it...


carpaccio di tonno e focaccia

after party canine cuddles

photos photos photos

well, i got a camera at last so i'm testing it....they r reduced in size, thumbnails basically otherwise it takes ages to upload...

kanai the beast, during a rare peaceful moment, our iresh malli/helper on the xbox, and the same guy doing some work (only five minutes tho' coz the game quickly lured him back to the sofa...!).

a cool day in the sun

woke up really early today, the sea has been calling me for the past week, but had no time for it, but today (i.e.yesterday as i'm writing this the following day), mmm, today ....well, whatever!
so mangaed to get hold of some fishermen, who dropped me in dewata, as they still aren't allowed to go fishing (!?!?! wt hell!!) and off we went, samantha and i, towards rumassala and beyond. at last we could see the rocks on the sea bottom, ade gal penawa or something and we were happy. so in I jumped, gal penawa was about 5 yds visibility, light western current, some big waves smashing on the rocks (which is good), all in all acceptable, but not fantastic. swam for about 30 mins, not a single shootable fish came my way, all the usual small fry or cheap stuff which commits suicide at the tip of the spear, so not a single shot fired, cant be bothered to shoot for the sake of shooting, it's not fair.... i was starting to despair but suddenly a bunch of kukulamass whizzed past, went down halfway, made some bubbles, no chance, off like rockets, absolutely not interested, goodbye. they NEVER come back for a second look, parawa will tho'... but none in sight. so ok, let's swim a bit more, just hope it's not one of those days when they really are NOT interested (for some unknown reason it happens and i cant figure it out...). another 3 came past, full speed, not a look my way, this time i was drumming with the sfaety catch and making bubbles and making sounds with my throat, nothing. looked like alonso chasing shumi (or the other way round!?). anyway, let's swim more.... against the current and some underwater swearing (which is good nobody can hear, apart form the non-existent fish)/
after one hr i caught the first kukula, this time i intercepted it, i didnt let it whizz past i just went in front of it so it had to stop... and die...gotcha my fine dinner!! quickly got the knife out and ended its misery, i dont like then to flap around in the boat for ages (like the boat fellas do) and they think i'm weird coz i finish them off asap. only when i say pau neh? they seem to understand, but they still look at me funny... these suddhas are nuts, first they shoot it then they say they sorry?!??! anyhow, that's one of the codes of conduct and that's it.
swam for another 30 mins and it was becoming a case of ade malu nehe, when i caught another one the same way. right then today we have to act differently i thought, they r closer to the rocks coz they all passd me on the left so far, they must b feeding on the mussles so let's get closer, whizz bang another catch... mmmm, maybe we can reshape the day, a bit dodgy in the white water, but manageable, let's get a bit closer still, oh shit a massive wave, get out out out, phew...didnt get splatted coz managed to go under in time and swam like crazy and as i'm getting out, hang on, what's that, aha! whizz bang, gotcha, numeber 4, not bad, 3 kg this time. yeah but who wants to get splatted??!! ok, got on the boat, told samantha to take me to another hot spot. good idea, water clearer, big current, but ok, two more. i also met pradeep (local spearo whose job is to catch fish) who was fishing in the same spot, said hi, had a laugh and went on my way. by then i had been in close to 3 hrs, so i quickly shot some more (rock fish etc) for the boat fellas and got back. enough for the second outing of the season, must get back into shape and not take any risks (cramps, sunstroke, dizziness etc...).

around lunch time picked my father up, my friend warne and set off towards the beach (with the fish), destination rock view to get it cooked by my mate saha.
i have a new camera so here are some pics of the rest of the day, i.e. mussles, kukulamass, crabs, grouper soup, calamari, 2 bottles of vodka...bed at 21.30!!

two small victims, one half finished

some of the mussles we exchanged for some fags

father pretending he's not drinking, crabs an uncle sold us, grouper soup....

saha's beach joint. the best.

latest and almost last

after disappearing for while, time for some updates...
had flu, i'm getting a camera again soon, at last, it corroded while living in una for 18 months, as everything else does...it rained inside my monitor, had to repair that too lately plus the roof which was leaking.

day before yesterday had 3 openings, now i know what stressful/boring lifes politicians have!!??? two community centres and 125 (not all completed tho') latrines... we had to cut a ribbon of one of them!?!? i tested one or two during the day as ceremonies are NEVER ending here.... the worst part is the various ppl ranting on and on and on (in sinhala) so we dont' even know waht the hell they r saying...the politicos are probably saying THEY built them!! (it's ahppened before..) autoglorifying (is that a real word?) themselves and collecting votes. oh well. this is just the start, more to come. 20th november the thotagamuwa school is going to be a BIG event, 3 daysssss the principal said!!! unbelievable... dances the first day, opening the second and i suppose drinking the third..? absent the fourth?!?! reminds me of those posts about parties and work... anyway, it's worth a party, i'll post some pics with the new camera so u can get an idea. or if u go past there (before hikka on the left, blue school) have a look, u'll like it. ehehee!!
after that the first aid + blood bank in matara g.hospital. after that, soon, 2 more schools, i.e. peraliya and akurala. all the rest has been certified, the last of the ngos is leaving on the 10 nov. the funds have been spent, apart form the projects in the north and east which have been frozen, just to add to the misery of the island. future is unknown. they might b scrapped altogether. after that i'll go back to my old job, 0r something new, mission accomplished. tbh, i'm a bit tired of all this frikin tsunami work. but what had to b done, had to b done, it's a duty anyway to repair the place u live in. i can see the finishing line now and i'm happy with results and for a welcome change. it's always the same, get the permissions (from ignorant directors of this and that body), deal with mostly cheating contractors, deal with beneficiaries who want more and more, deal with the fights that erupt btwn masons and villagers, deal with our office...boring and basically never ending. until now. it's ending. i want to start my own thing and make some proper business at last (but have a nice windsurfing holiday first, maybe vietnam or thailand, or go home to italy after 2 yrs for a holiday!). i suppose w/surfing because i'll see my parents in a months time, )after 2 yrs my mother).
what else,mmm... oh, kanai the balla is growing and made some homemade kottu last night, yummie.
served as late brunch this morning too!
ciao for now, and forza west indies!

dakshina day

this morning i was woken up by my bedroom door rattling. it was around 7.40 and i thought it was kanai, the dog, behaving like the fool she is. i went back to sleep and again i was woken up by the same noise. umph/bang. 3 times. i got up and ppl were on the road. smthng strange... there's an attack, there's an attack! i said bullshit and ate my words straight away... tactactac, umph, tactac, bang, tactactac... machine guns, grenades, rpgs... i looked towards the navy camp and a big cloud of smoke was coming up. my fisherman friends from jakotua, next door to the camp, called my wife, nona bombs!, ltte attack!.

good morning...i thought shit, i have to take the president of the "corte dei conti"(http://www.corteconti.it/English-co/The-italia/history.doc_cvt.htm, accountability anyone?) around hikka, galle and matara today! what the hell... so it took me 90 mins around the back roads to get to thotagamuwa, the site of our first school. LOADS of traffic, like the tsunami days... the small ceremony of the entrance of the children (first time) into the school was ok, but i was constantly on the phone to get info about the battle. luckily my friend the cmdr of the base is ok, so are some of the rest we know, nearby fishermen included (so far at any rate, no bad news, for us i mean..). apparently some 5 boats attcked, one hiding behind chandi's boat (a fisherman we know). he had told them "don't go that way or the navy guards will shoot you!" they didnt reply and indicated the other boats which were loaded with ppl and weapons. after that 2 went inside the base harbour and blasted themselves, the other 3 started firing and launching rpgs at the "tsunami boat" (a prevoiously damaged one) thinking it was an active one. wrong target. some others landed and a battle started which lasted about 2 hrs. i listened for 1 hr then had to go. the army also fired from the ramparts in the fort.

when we were at peraliya school, under cosntruction, i was pretty tense and worried coz phones were down. anyway got back to galle, after dropping my ppl at the hotel, and went home. there's a curfew and the predictable (i had forecast this to my wife) riots against the kaluwella tamils and the well known shiva's restaurant and other establishments. i saw police and armed forces protecting the tamil shops and broken windows and property. adding more misery to a crap day. tmoro is another day, we'll survive but i can imagine what my friends who have hotels and restaurants will say... at the start of every season they always manage to create havoc...what to do?

strange coconut (from web)

tsunami files, part 4

cute little toddler receiving some mats to sleep on...










another one who looks really like a grown up man! notice the pissed off face...he's got a house now tho', from an indian ngo.











the truth... this tent, one of "ours", was in a small camp in mahamodara for months and months.
btw, i asked both the (ex) mayor of Galle and the A.G.A. recently if the gosl had built any houses in the galle district (i.e. from bentota to weligama), they both said NOT A SINGLE ONE. to my knowledge only in Hambantota, and that had a scandal attached to it too!?!?!?!? both said that without ngos it would still be like the 26th dec 2004.... you hear that dear ngo bashers? (btw, i'm NOT working for an ngo, OK!?!?)




















various brats, trying to annoy us!










some chauvinism...it's in fashion, right?

various random tsunami pics,part3

the lads!! i love you guys, u know that. we have bonds that cannot b explained. any outsider cannot understand.

lefto to right: mimmo golizia, massimo lapietra, massimiliano "chuck norris" borzetti, marco agnoloni (i'm obviously behind the camera!).

there are more, but this was the first team. since then, katrina, darfur, now lebanon, plus of course italian emergencies.

the galle fire brigade boys, employed to buid tents. yes, we actually managed to make them work!?!? pic taken at seenigama, a really terrible place to put a camp. sand, sun, wind, sweat. terrible.

the guy kneeling is rizam, a fantastic man. i met him in galle town one day as we were removing bodies from the debris, we joined forces. every morning we met in town for about a week, we had a truck, gloves, sarongs round our mouth to keep away the stench of rotting corpses. basically we had a truck with driver, i used to scavenge for wood to make makeshift stretchers cum coffins and after that malwenna (my landlord where i used to live) rizam and myself would hoist the body onto the truck to b taken to karapitiya. from morning to sunset ppl would call us from one end of town to the other to remove the dead....after that i employed him as team leader for the squads building tents, he would never tire. apparently after galle town they called him to empty the peraliya train....he says he totalled over 500 removals. great man. thru friends' funds, bought him a three wheeler (and paid for his licence!). oh, visitors! i'll continue later....

the tsunami files, part2

so after landing all the equipment and organising unloading of trucks/planes etc.. for a few days and having started building camps, these were more or less the scenes at the sites of the 12 camps ranging from past ahangama to seenigama, total 650 tents.
(hope i can align pics this time...)


cleaning the site
discussing location of lines and clusters of tents
organising the squads for rigging, picketing and covers (2 layers)









entertaining the rascals!










the truly excellent slaf boys in koggala! top guys really, they gave a big hand, can b proud of them. txs lieutenant bimal and cmdr madumage for organising your men so well!







myself, after an arsebreaking month..pissed and knackered!

we also put up a field hospital (including an operating theatre) , it was operational 2 days after tsunami, at the malwatte m.o.h clinic in unawatuna. the average number of patients treated wasw daily over 100 so by the time we dismantled it 3 months later we were closing in to 9000 cases treated. i must say after the first 3 wks people were coming because it was f.o.c. and were mostly complaining about flus, but nevertheless our 6 docs were always keen to help anyone. on the 31 st night we sortof had a new years dinner, many people cried, including some docs, it was very touching and noone will ever forget those moments. we had some very serious cases at the start, cuts, limbs missing, infections etc. my only trouble was crowd control, loads of people new me so wanted to jump the queue! and i had to explain, patiently, that it couldn't b done. no hard feelings tho, they understood...

some pics of the hospital.


one of the numerous field visits outside the hospital. health issues were developing in the refugee camps, bad water, bad food etc. so we organised camp visits.

patients waiting....

opening my tsunami files, part 1

maybe it's time now...i can open (slowly coz uploading takes time...) my tsunami files...

I'll try to start with the oldest, even if i only started taking pics when i finally could afford to carry a camera or even had time to take a picture!, so that would be around middle to end of february 2005. that means that the images are not really full of horrible details, those are engraved in my head only and also that they can safely be viewed ...


These were our planes, carrying operatives, doctors, field hospitals, tents. taken from a one plane to another. they landed in koggala on the 27th dec 2004 in the morning. others went to trinco, all from ratmalana.

bloody adsl down for days, got interrupted during upload, sorry...was trying to post some photos of my collegues, the lads...

i can't align the b....y pictures.....! i'll try another post, part 2..

some crazy internet stuff

http://drunkenmaster.altervista.org/Files/pingpong.swf ping pong artists

http://www.english-atheist.co.uk/clap.htm about george and his insanity

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6304447980554417691 gross natural gas

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2277296597726446805 real human spidey

http://www.chilloutzone.de/files/06011902.html somebody needs new specks!!

http://www.chilloutzone.de/files/06011902.html is this why iraq war is taking so long??!?!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9212302984142285295 new model of amude as you say?!?!

http://www.bofunk.com/video/1357/eye_popping.html this happens while watching/reading the news!?!?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2578133611227717466 and u complain of mahinda and chandrika etc..!??!! this asshole was our prime minister (until last month...heheee!)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-297680640121602206 another use for the webcam, but b careful!

soon in the ocean and wind...EEEEEEEHA!

hhehehe..can't wait for the 23rd of May, c'mon Shioni bring me the windsurf, PLEASE!!!! I can't remember longing for something like this since I was a kid...actually I am behaving like a kid..or worse...people laugh at me but who cares, they have no idea of the fantastic feeling of freedom and well-being while windsurfing...only windsurfers know...

no news...good news?

No posts for a while, pretty busy these days...

Listening to test match broadcast on the net....

Just heard Arjuna Ranatunga on the BBC claiming that tsunami funds promised by other countries never arrived in Colombo?!?!that 90% of the problem (housing) is solved!?!!? That they did a good job?!?!? that only 2/3 hotels are remaining to be repaired!?!?! probably he only considers the big interests, i.e. Keels, Jetwing etc... has he ever been to hikkaduwa/Unawatuna/Pottuvil etc..after tsunami??!! Does he care about the small places?!!?

Unbelievable...maybe coz he's the deputy tourism minister he wants to attract foreigners to the country, but does that give him the right to lie?!?? very disappointing, i respected him as a cricketer, but as a politician?very dodgy...he should concentrate on getting fat...

kukulamass...or silver pompano (Trachinotus blochii)

One of my favourite catches and meals....! the kukulamass, chicken meat they call it, feeds exclusively on mussles, not available at the market coz it doesn't get caught in nets and doesn't fall for hooks... it lives too close to rocks, making it almost impossible to catch...unless you hunt it in its own territory...the white waters, where the waves pound the rocks and the spearfisher must shoot straight at a FAST moving prey, while avoiding being splatted on the Rumassala rocks...!

local pests, advice for tourists

Creative Ways to Break Off Fruitless Interactions (taken from another blog)

If one is caught in conversation with an interlocutor who refuses to take a subtle hint, one always has the option of rudely and abruptly terminating the interaction - the phrase "bugger off" comes to mind. But with a little bit of lateral thinking, such interactions can be terminated very effectively without hurting anyone's feelings.To take two examples from my own experience - examples which arose in extremely different contexts.

1. While travelling in Sri Lanka a few months ago, I was frequently troubled by the relentless pestering of touts. This is the common experience of tourists in any public location within tourist precincts in Sri Lanka. Most tourists rapidly became very agitated under relentless pestering by touts and often resorted to extremely aggressive language to drive them away. My lateral thinking-cum-Pythonesque solution to English-language importunities from touts (touts always spoke fluent English) was to respond: "Est-que vous parlez Francais?" When the tout invariably replied to this question in apparently fluent French, I then stated (in English): "I'm sorry, but I don't speak French". I was usually able to make my getaway while the tout remained rooted to the spot in a state of puzzled bemusement (spot the deliberate redundancy) .

2. I sometimes interrupt boring conversations by apparently taking a call on my spectacles-cellphone. I don't have one of these. I don't believe that they actually exist. But with the rapid growth in technology these days, my interlocutor can't be sure that I am faking it. Simply press the arm of your spectacles close to the side of your head, answer an apparent call, and begin one side of a fake, urgent and totally engrossing telephone conversation. If your interlocutor doesn't get it straight away, hold up your free hand in the "stop" gesture and frown as you continue the fake conversation. Your pestiferous interlocutor will probably wander away as you continue the conversation - convinced that you actually have a spectacles-cellphone... or perhaps an obscure mental illness. Either way, your end is achieved.

warakang is dead...

Uncle Warakang 1/1/1932-3/5/2006


bye bye uncle, we know you will be in a good place...catching fish in the monsoon...in your catamaran, alone, even in the wind and rain...he was a real sri lankan, not like these jokers who live round here nowadays...

Family crest and link

The Crest

Found this by chance! 50% of myself is Kaye, so here is what i found on the net:

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~kayefile/search2.html

Apparently we are one of the oldest families in Engalande! (England)

Main web page:

http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~kayefile/index.html

couple o' days absence, very busy....

first of all the pc's fan conked out so it had to go to colombo 4 repairs, can't trust the shops here in galle, not enough spares etc...anyway it's back now and I'm 1750 LKR poorer...

then i've been running around mostly to Hikkaduwa Urban Council with 82 houses to be repaired, lists, docs, the works....pain in the backside, but should be successful, permissions on the way, next week we ca open the building site...yippeee!

managed to see my mate sahabandu, owner of rock view in unawatuna, at last, after a long time as they say here. went shopping for veg for the restaurant and he made me the bset calamaris!! yummee, couple of beers and goodnight

a visitor!!

woke up, checked the blog, A VISITOR!!! but no message, well, maybe not interesting enough!
anyway, good to see that.

i wanna go to the candy erm... curry shop!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OenXRp-Vw5A

try this absurd video!!!

a good day...for you too?

oh well, at last the mull gal (first stone) is down at Akurala, near Ambalangoda, school site at last...ceremony is done and dusted, luckily not at some absurd (auspicious) time like 05.34 or 04.56, local politico came, went...so did we...actually not too bad, 09.27!!



Interesting thing is that the land was donated by a family who lost a daughter and granny, they got emotional during the speeches, nice people, really innocent in this area, unfortunately unlike the southern coastline were tourism is "developed", they really need a new school and education... we'll finish BEFORE end of 2006, promise!



here are some pics...i'm the uniformed guy in blue this time, Miss. Barbara is the girl

Adding music...how the %&@#$ do you do it!?!??

Would like to put some music when someone, if ever i receive a visitor, opens this blog...anybody know how?? even the blog help is not that good, can't figure it out..doh!

anyway i'll carry on with the photos then...what to do?

This one is one of our planes carrying tents in the days after the tsunami from Ratmalana to Koggala Sri Lankan Air Force field, good photo hu? actually the views were really impressive.

Two of our pilots died a couple of months later, hit electrical cable back in Italy while they were putting out fires... these planes collect water while flying at water level height and can spray water on fires while flying...















Commemorations for the pilots in Trincomalee, Rome, Ratmalana and Koggala.This pic is from the Koggala function, i'm the fella in the white shirt , behind the flag.

waiting for the windsurf...STRESSFUL!!!

waiting waiting and more waiting...
for what? you may ask...for my new windsurf to come from US...hopefully it's still in stock at the shop!

http://inlandsea.com/default.aspx?CategoryID=22&ItemID=Mistralexplo

i'll be getting the 144 lt one by the way, not enough wind in Galle for anything much smaller i suppose...maybe Tangalle trips will be required, more wind there, we'll see...
follow link to have a view...any comments? like it? hopefully the sail is also blue and grey, must have some sort of style, if not while sailing at least look like a windsurfer...

the START!!!!!!!!!!

well one day i had to do this....so here goes...MY BLOG!
pls b patient, i'm trying to familiarize with the system, but i'll definetely post some stuff here..that's IF anybody EVER visits the blog...