I have been graced with a high threshold for boredom. I can wile away the hours simply thinking about stuff. If brain power were really visible by an electric light bulb as in cartoons, then mine'd burn at about a billion watts. On the other hard, my modesty will probably be the death of me someday, don't you think?. For yet another day, I had no grande plan to execute, no wrong to right, nor nary a scheme to hatch.
Lal, my drinking buddy, and his wife, Jay's eldest sister, left at about 10:15. This morning breakfast was milkrice. I find myself eating much less than on previous visits. However, I'm afraid, very afraid. There's not a bathroom scale to be found in this house. I had been so religious about losing 5 lbs a month from last February that I used to weigh myself each morning. Now, for a week, I've been clueless. I fear slipping back into bad eating habits which, in general, means putting double the food I need into my mouth. I pray that I'm still somewhere near the 168 lbs I was on the morning we left. (Wait. Oh, no. I just discovered it is afternoon tea time. A local franchise called Wasana sells cakes and Sri Lanka sweets. I see oil cakes which are like homemade donuts the shape of a house and having no hole. As well all manner of sweet fried things. Alas.)
Jay, his younger sister, and I did go into town to pick up some items. As well as food and household items, I picked up a pre-paid Internet voucher. At the airport I picked up a local SIM for my phone. For about $13 it contains 200 or so free local and International SMS, a whole wallop of local talk time, and even about three hours of international calls. Most importantly, the one-month tourist deal had 1GB of data. We have never had access to the Internet at the house in the past. Now as my Android phone can act as a wifi hotspot, we do. Don't tell Dialog.lk but the company only meters the data usage on the phone apps, so we managed an additional gratis 600 MB on this tablet and the Acer netbook. Still I burned through the prepaid gigabyte in a week. Today I picked up another 1GB voucher for the equivalent of about $2.25. Obviously, my Facebook wall will continue to the chucker-block full of Instagram snaps and witty words of wisdom.
I'm sitting in the equivalent of the house's breezeway. The weather was sunnier in the morning but it's still about 32C. I can hear an amazing assortment of birds in the yard, enough to drive me coo coo. Oh wait, I hear those too! Other sounds include a late afternoon run of a 'bakery tuktuk' driver playing the song I'd associate with an ice-cream truck. I think it is the electronically synthesized sound of It's a Small World After All. All manner of jungle flora abound on each side.
I can simply sigh and think some more ...