My Seven-Cent Heirlooms

I enjoy wearing rings, but I have never possessed the discipline required to keep them. Jewelry simply does not cling to me for long. Years ago, I purchased an authentic ruby ear stud in Sri Lanka, an island celebrated for magnificent gems that occasionally migrated into the British Crown Jewels through imperial appropriation. That modest stud survived eight years before vanishing into the ether without a sound. Most precious ornaments fare far worse in my custody. With traditional rings, my personal ownership lifespan is routinely measured in mere weeks.

A sensible alternative presented itself directly on the build plate. I now fabricate PLA rings en masse whenever the impulse strikes. Today I am running off half a dozen fresh bands for our winter voyage to Brazil. Given that a standard spool of budget filament costs roughly twenty-five dollars CAD, each three-gram ring runs to about seven cents. One gets the full aesthetic pleasure of an acceptable band on the knuckle without the lingering heartbreak of an abandoned heirloom.

Sigh. I Guess It's Gone.

It was a pretty good run. I had worn a tiny piece of Sri Lanka day and night since January of 2013. That was the day I got my ruby ear stud in Colombo. The island, formerly known as Ceylon, is famous for its numerous types of precious stones.

   

Today, I've given up on finding my ear stud. When watching TV yesterday evening, I reached up to my earlobe and realized it had fallen out.  Once, Jay located it in the shower area for our building's swimming pool after it'd come off.  Just in case, we ran down and checked last night too. Unfortunately, there was nothing. I am not even sure when the ruby and I may have parted ways. I wrote a note on a bulletin board downstairs but have now come to terms with the idea that I'll most likely never get it back. 

It's not the cost that makes me a little sad, it's the emotional loss of no longer being able to wear it.

Amazing H2O2!

You probably have a little brown bottle of 3% hydrogen peroxide somewhere in your house. I think of the one in our bathroom closet as a little bottle of magic. Not that much different from water, it can be used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent or disinfectant. I started using the standard pharmacy type as a mouthwash years ago and my dental hygienist noticed immediately. She asked what I was doing to keep away plaque. I think it probably concerned her because of the decrease in billable hours.

Last night, I noticed that my ear stud was a little too tight. I removed the ruby from my ear. I had not taken it off since I bought the stone and had a setting made in Sri Lanka in January of 2013. Perhaps it was time to clean it. The back part was a bit dark and discoloured.

I popped the piece in a shot glass with a little hydrogen peroxide. It started bubbling immediately.



It's still going strong six hours later. I guess I'll replace the special liquid and leave it in overnight.

Day 70 - I Got Stoned Today

This space is the ultimate vanity press.

Not only does every word I write end up being published, but the whole mess is an enormous autobiographical monument to my broad and expanding narcissism.  To know me is to love me.  So I've always done my damndest to make sure the world has that opportunity.

Today was a perfect day in Minuwangoda.  It marks the tenth week we have been on the island formerly called, Ceylon.  First, the sky was deep blue with an occasional puffy cloud floating past.  An entire washer load of clothes dried on the line in just a few hours.  Let's see also, Jay and his sister baked a fruit cake.  Six new plastic chairs arrived to replace the former ones which were rather worn out looking.  Finally, the cat is now almost full grown and managed to kill another squirrel today.  I hope this new-found feline blood lust doesn't eradicate the local population.  I know the squirrels are just rodents but anything that cute deserves to live!

Now all about me: Jay removed the free metal ear stud I got when I pierced my ear three years ago.  It had never been out.  I replaced it with my new, ruby one this morning.  I am making such a fuss over this particular purchase of a gem.  I'm not sure why, other than I've never been one for bling, Jewellery has never seemed very practical.  As it is a little bit shy of a one carat stone, it didn't even cost as much as an off-the-rack suit.  I guess I just like the idea of constantly having a little bit of Sri Lanka attached to me wherever I am.

Day 69 - Visa, Vista, and Vermilion Value

My titles amaze and amuse (me, anyways).  Those three things sum up our trip to Colombo today.

I must admit I am now unabashedly a city guy.  I asked a question on thumb.it if people preferred going to a natural or urban setting for a vacation.  Sixty people responded and of those 60% chose the former. So, I feel in the minority when saying we like scenery but it's cities we find captivating.   In Sri Lanka, the capital city can be chaotic and challenging but it's always an experience!


Myanmar (Burma) Embassy in Colombo

First, we went to Rosemead Avenue.  Last week, we discovered the location of the Burmese (Myanmar) Embassy.  We wanted to know what we had to submit in order to get tourist visas.  We travel there via Bangkok at the end of the month.  Today, we handed in the applications, copies of our air tickets, and four passport photos w/ white backgrounds.  Oh, and we needed to give $US 20 in cash for each visa.  They will be ready for pick up on Thursday afternoon.


Buffet in Akasa Kade. Should've focused on the dessert table!


View looking south east from the Ceylinco House

Secondly, we went out to eat in the Akasa Kade restaurant on top of Ceylinco House.  That restaurant was open in 1963 in tallest Colombo building at the time.  Jay has the memory of an elephant and says we ate there in 1988 on a vacation when I was working in Bahrain.  So, absolutely, that happened too.  After almost exactly 25 years we went back to check.  Taller buildings now exist. The huge, daily Sri Lankan-style buffet was still on offer though and great.  I felt all extravagant and like a high-roller forking out nearly 2,400 rupees for a meal.  That's because our lunch bills are seldom over 500.  Still, when it goes through MasterCard, it will come back at under $CA 10 per person!


The World Trade Center in Sri Lanka

Before coming home, we also went in the World Trade Center.  We took the escalators up to the Sri Lanka Gem and Jewelry Exchange.  My ear stud was ready.  Now, I have an authentic 0.90 carat, Sri Lankan ruby ready for my left ear.  I picked out the stone and the jeweller had the stud and its setting made. The red gem is my birthstone and I expect to keep it in my ear until I die.  Hopefully that is, at minimum, another thirty years.

We rushed home by bus and arrived at 4:15 pm before the rain started.  Honestly, maybe I'll have to start believing in this talk about climate change.  Traditionally, the winter months are perfect on Sri Lanka's south and west coasts.  Yet, this is turning out to be the wettest winter in over 50 years.  I keep telling myself this little mantra:  At least the rain here is hot, for in Vancouver it's surely not!

Day 65 - A Hungry Wild Canine

This morning we went to Colombo.  We went to find out some information from the Myanmar embassy.  From last spring, we noted the e-visa application for online purchase, but we'd not checked recently.  Yet, since last week, their website has been down displaying text to see an embassy directly.  It took us a while to find it, and we walked completely around the Town Hall grounds in error.  Eventually, we found Rosemeed  Avenue and found the Myanmar embassy in a villa.   It was quite a hike.  With the forms, photos, and copy of air tickets, we need to give them passports for three days.  We figured that might interfere when travelling as hotels here sometimes ask to see them.  So, we decided to do this chore after another big trip on the island.  We have less than three weeks left, unfortunately.  I want a new drug that alters no mental function other than the perception of time.  I would like to at least double the amount of time we are staying here.

We went on another bus and got off at the Fort.  The next goal was to check on my ear stud.  My birthstone is a ruby and Sri Lanka is known for its gems.  I thought I should upgrade the free metal stud I got when I had my ear pierced down in a Bellingham, WA mall three years ago this month.  These two facts prompted me to enter the World Trade Center Towers and I picked out a gem.  The jeweler is having the setting crafted and it will be ready after three days even though I might not pick it up until later next week.



After this,  we walked to Chatham Street.  It had been a while as I believe the clock tower area had been closed, at least during the final war years.  We saw The Pagoda Tea Rooms.  It had be quite some time since we'd been there!   It was pretty upscale now, at least more that I remembered from the 1980's. The establishment had been running at least a hundred years before that. The prices, though were still quite reasonable so we ordered lamprais for lunch. My only squabble would be that there was no hard boiled egg! I am also pretty sure by the time I'd first stepped inside the Pagoda, the restaurant was well known for a few other visitors.  Duran Duran had filmed segments for one of their videos in the place.  I went to YouTube.  It seemed as though two different videos had segments from Sri Lanka.  I will post them here.  The first one doesn't feature where we ate lunch but the second does.




Before heading back to Nugegoda, we had several more passport photos taken, as the lady specifically mentioned needing a white background.  Jay thinks the ten we had kept in Minuwangoda may have had blue backgrounds as are required by some counties.

In the afternoon we just sat around with the folks here talking about events and life.

Day 64 - We're Back (in Nugegoda)

We left the house in Minuwangoda at 9:00 am today and were happily here a bit before noon. Sometimes it takes closer to four hours than three. We were lucky.



We're also lucky to stay here. This is Jay's elder sister and his brother-in-law, Lal. This is a typical spread they make when we come for lunch! This will be our place for the next few few days while we decide whether we shall go to the southern beaches, visit the Myanmar Embassy as their e-web visa seems broken, or let Dennis buy a ruby or an ear stud with some sort of precious stone.

It's warmer here.

Not Quite to the Fort

Jay and I headed towards downtown Colombo today.  We hit two big shopping plazas: Majestic City and Liberty Plaza.  The only thing purchased though was a DVD of a award winning Sinhala film and a map  of Colombo.

Shopping is never big on our agenda.  Generally, we try to get to a Laksala, the government handicraft an souvenir reseller, but haven’t yet.  How many tiny elephants can one give away?  I was half thinking about buying an authentic ruby ear stud as precious jewels are a big export commodity here.  On all the past visits, I was never interested in the slightest.  Now that I have a $9 gold-coloured ear stud in my left ear, I figured I may as well upgrade.  Rubies are my birthstone. We’ll see if I get a chance before we leave the island.  That unfortunate occurrence will happen soon enough!

One other interesting thing we did today was lunch.  Jayantha got his first real job at a hotel not far from here in 1979.  He was a room steward and barman.  We went back to Hotel Janaki and it seemed to be doing well.  We had a great Sri Lankan lunch in their air conditioned restaurant.  I know that Jay enjoyed seeing the differences, like a new swimming pool area.  Of course the whole neighbourhood area had changed a lot in thirty years too.  For example on the bus we passed a great many new multiple storey apartment building towers between the Galle Road and the High Levels Highway.