what we've been up to...

hello dear ones. where o where to begin? we have so much to "show-and-tell" you. a very busy week at work followed by a week at the beach has kept us off-line for several days so sorry for the lack of new posts.

i write to you from a sweltering sri lanka. it has gotten even hotter since the last time we wrote about the heat. it's all relative i guess. other places on the globe have it hotter so...i am thankful that it's not worse. nonetheless, we are sweating 24/7 and it's buggy. we're itchy and scratchy and sticky. if you were here you'd wanna be naked and as motionless as possible.

Time at the beach was spent playing ping-pong, daydreaming about writing books and traveling the world--climbing mountains--having babies--surfing. we swam, surfed, drank frothy amber Lion ale to majestic sunsets, star-gazed, swatted mozzies and sand fleas, i scratched my bites, we sweated non-stop, and had wonderful relaxed chats and laughs and discussions with our friends.

Kalu, Wendy, and 2 month old baby Jasmine were visiting from Bristol England and we were able to spend some time with them. Jasmine is a happy beautiful girl and it was so special to see the three of them together.
Jasmine, being half-Sri Lankan herself didn't seem to mind the heat and the bugs weren't interested. Wendy is glowing radiant with motherhood. Kalu has a Papa's touch.
What precious days and how lucky we are to share them with our friends.

Sri Lankan women rarely go swimming in the sea but one day Ama said she needed the sand and salt water from the sea on her legs. We sat at the waters' edge and let the waves crash over us. Some of the waves crashed hard and we got swept along the sand a few times but hung on to each other laughing like you do when you're startled but find yourself in the embrace of a friend. Ama's long black-grey hair hung loose, her long skirt and blouse, wet and sandy. She rubbed her calves with wet sand to ease her pains and she talked about being a mom of two young men. Ama was speaking Sinhala and though I only understood some of what she said, I got the gist of it. i realized again how similar we all are. people of the world. women of the world. sitting together reminded me of beach-walks and forest-talks and quiet times in the early morning with the women in my life. It felt good to have that time, to hear what was in her heart and to carry it away in mine.

Leo and I decided to treat ourselves to one night at a nice hotel farther south called the Lighthouse. It was designed by Geoffrey Bawa, a famous Sri Lankan architect, the same man who designed the Gallery Cafe, one of our favorite dinner places in Colombo. If any of you make it over here, we'll have to stay at the Lighthouse. It is visually stimulating, making the most of the natural beauty of its surroundings (all rooms face the water), lots of open air space, raw textures and material: wood, rock, grass, water, iron, light, glass, cement. Raw and amazing. This picture is of the spiral staircase entrance with skylight.
It was divine to be in a/c but also have the option to be on the terrace over-looking the sea.
This is the view from our porch. The steamy look is from the fog on my lens going from the a/c to the hot, humid sea air. Crashing surf and palm trees. mmmmmmm~

We were like giddy hermits in a new AWESOME shell. We stayed in our room much of the time watching National Geographic, taking baths...

watching movies, star-gazing on the porch, reading. Playing King and Queen.

The surf was breaking hard as usual in Hikkaduwa which is intimidating to me as someone learning to surf. Leo, being my great coach and teacher of the way of waves, asked our buddy Asanka to take us to Weligama, a sandy little cove on the south coast with a mellow break that's more suitable for learning. We strapped our boards to the top of Asanka's tuktuk and hit the road.
It's an hour and half of seaside driving full of stimulating village life all around. There were very few other people (YESSSSS!), big waves far out for Leo and lots of mellow but fast whitewater waves a good distance from shore for me. I had a BLAST. That's me with my Sex Wax (that's what they call the wax you use on the board).


I practiced my basics: Paddling, duck-diving, turtle-diving, standing up, angling my board to the right, and to the left, and of course falling on my lil ass many times. Exhilarating. Like you feel when you are a kid. GO GO GO until your body is so tired that you just CAN'T.

Now we're back in Colombo and if I mute my music this is what I hear and see as I look off into the sky this evening:
Birds are flying north, black silouettes against slate-blue clouds and melon-colored sky. CAW CAW of a crow on the roof across the street. Another bird in the mango tree behind the temple says something a little farther away like, Wow-wow-wow. I know what she means. The sunset is awesome. Four green parakeets fly synchronized changing direction like one bright green body. Friday night traffic is faint in the distance, the blare of a bus, the earthy grinding rattle of a tuktuk. And just now, suddenly....the whole sky is lit up....flaming...and now it's dark.

Blessed be the night, blessed be your day. Sleep with angels all you precious souls. Happy birthday Calliope Campbell.

Goodnight~