Is it only the Brits who talk about the weather?

Think I got my times and dates all confused yesterday. Hope you can sort through what I meant to say.


You may have noticed that the Brits are obsessed with talking about the weather, and our favourite complaint is that the sun shines all week and then the clouds come over at the weekend.

Well, not wishing to sound like a typical Brit but………..the sun shone all week in Batticaloa and then came Sunday. Our one & only day off and, well you have already guessed. The clouds came over; it rained most of the day and was a bit cool.

I don’t like to complain, Sri Lanka is a great place, great people, but surely we can do without this British aberration!!!!

Anyway we trotted off to the beach in the afternoon and had a dip in the sea. It was very rough and impossible to swim, just a case of playing in the breakers and getting knocked over by them.

After that we went to the stadium and had a game of 5-a-side in very slippery, muddy conditions. We were absolutely drenched and looked like a group of bedraggled tramps, but we were happy. Must have been tired as we elected to leave the bar and go home at 9 and fell straight off to sleep.

Today is a sad day, as our resident Aussie volunteers, Marty & Kathy headed out of town, I first met them in Colombo when they walked into the TRO office there and asked if they could do anything for 2 weeks to help out as they had come to SL for a holiday, but wanted to do something more. Marty is a Surveyor and Kathy a nurse. They were sent to Batti on the same day I came here and we met up again.

They have been great fun and really good company, so they will be sorely missed. We have shared a few beers, meals and games of footie. Poor Kathy had a queue of victim’s patients last night after the game and dealt with us all with great sensitivity!!!!

Wishing them a safe journey home and few well-earned enjoyable days in Kandy.

I may be staying here a while as Adrian (our Swiss Project Manager) is a teacher and he is starting football coaching classes for teachers in the LTTE controlled areas and needs an assistant. Obviously, with my great skill and prowess I have volunteered to help him, so we may be developing a football-coaching scheme. See if I can get them onto squash next. Make a nice change from project proposals!!!!

Hope all are well; your comments are greatly appreciated. At least I know someone is reading this drivel!