Day 012 of Our Winter: We are spending a lot of time on the veranda-type area at the front to the house. Jay had this house built when working in Saudi Arabia. The family moved from an older house on the same property. They moved in during 1985. In 1986, I first visited here after meeting Jay when working at the same Saudi Army compound in the city of Taif. Most houses built during that era were single-storey structures with the kitchen / bathroom at the far end of the building. The area in front could be used to park a car. Jay's dad used to have his tuk-tuk parked in the area but that still left a lot of room for relaxing there. Now it is exclusively used for chairs and a covered outside area to sit. The front door opens into the living room.
Both photographs were taken in this area today. The one above was during a torrential rain shower that lasted for about twenty minutes. The photo below was earlier in the morning. I had several cups of tea in the space today.
On another note, we bought some more air tickets this afternoon. We have a week coming up in Dubai and on a one-week cruise from there mid-December. Today, we bought tickets to Bangkok for another couple of weeks. Thailand has eliminated the need for Sri Lankans to get visas. This makes the short 3.5 hour flight an easy destination. The four of us will head there on January 20 and explore some of the country. We will come back to Colombo in early February. At the end of that month, Jay and I start to head home via Hong Kong, another cruse, and flights from Tokyo in mid-March. What a lovely winter in the Middle East and Asia! We're so lucky.