sleeping naked

1.04.2013

One of the most immediately lovely things is that I am sleeping totally naked again. In England I only ever seem to sleep naked when I am in a relationship. Otherwise I am too bloody cold. I have been sleeping in a long t-shirt, jumper and socks for months and here I lay in the warm with the gentle breeze from the fan swirling over me. I wake up in the night to drink water then woke up the first morning feeling brilliant. Of course I felt brilliant. It was the first time for over two years my body is not trying to get over the half bottle of wine I’d necked the night before.

There is a skinny, uncaged crow (it can’t be a miner bird as I am sure they have yellow beaks) in the garden of the house that says ‘hello’.

So today (Monday) I went to the VSO Head office for the first time and met the Director and programme manager. She is large and tall for a Sri Lankan woman and very direct. My first impression was positive. I had a brief introduction and then was taken to the bank to set up my bank account and afterwards left to my own devices.

This evening I was given hoppers with chicken and potato curries. Hoppers are like a thinner, crispier version of nan, shaped like a bowl and made from rice flour and coconut milk. I had to ask the landlady how I should eat them. People generally eat with their fingers here so you break up the hopper and use it to scoop the curry. At lunch I had a lunch pack which is a slab of glutinous rice with interesting curried vegetables like beetroot and meat on top. I like the veg but I’ll be going easy on the rice.

I tried to watch a DVD on the laptop tonight but it stopped after about 15 mins and then I could not get it to work properly again – either

That bit of my laptop is broken

It got too hot (I did put books underneath to allow the air to circulate)

The DVD is damaged.

I’ll check it out at the office tomorrow. There is a huge library of books and DVDs that they want to get rid of so I shall probably take a box-load with me to Batticaloa.