how to win friends and curry

After a visit to Arpico, a mega-store that is like a Sri Lankan Wal-Mart, girl filled three shopping carts full of basic necessites like pots, pans, towels and marmite. Upon arriving back in the house and unloading the things, it was 9 p.m. and girl and her cousin - who is on holiday from Boston and is staying with her for three weeks - were very hungry. Pleased that they had succeeded in filling the house with things, girl got the brilliant idea of making dinner.

Girl and her cousin decided that they would make a daal curry. They soaked the daal, chopped onions, and assembled the spices that girl couldn't identify but that her aunty had told her to put in her shopping cart. Then they realized that they had never tried the gas cooker. There was a big canister of something that looked like gas next to a couple burners. They tried to turn on what looked like a switch but nothing happened.

They were stuck. The people who lived in the house next door were out, so there was no one to ask for help. Then they saw a light on in the next door flat's servant's quarters and ventured in to ask for advice. The old man explained to them how to turn the cooker on and off and demosntrated a few times. Happily, they put the daal on the cooker.

About ten minutes later, they realized they didn't have any salt. They again went to the servant's quarters. Unfortunately girl couldn't remember the sinhalese word for salt but with some creative sign language managed to convey to him what they needed. The man gave them a whole bowl full of salt and then told them repeatedly NOT to put all the salt in the daal. They probably seemed like a hopeless cause. In fact, the servant decided to give them some additional advice about how to make daal curry - what spices to put and when to put in the milk. When he saw they were using skim milk rather than coconut milk, he finally felt so sorry for them that he made a kind offer. He told them that the next time they wanted daal, let him know in the morning and he would make it for them when he had spare time during the day.

The girl needs pots, pans, furniture and TV for her new home. The boy is throwing away pots, pans, furniture and TV 'cause he has no home.

Settling Down

The girl apparently found a home in an edgy part of Colombo. The boy is still packing and moving. Beginning end of this month, he is homeless. He could be jobless too. He’s been running between the storage and the Salvation Army and driving to Enfield every weekend. Hopefully, this will be the last weekend that he goes to Connecticut. As if that doesn’t keep him busy enough, his friend from California keeps dragging him out around the city until wee hours of the morning. So the boy hasn’t got much sleep and keeps getting in trouble with his boss. When the boy gets sad he calls the girl. It hasn’t been easy keeping in touch. They only managed to talk to each other a couple of times a day compared to the dozen times a day they did when she was in New York. Indian ship severing the sole backbone that serves Internet to Sri Lanka didn’t help. The girl claims she now knows how to use a phone card. So the boy is hoping he will get a lot of calls and it will be just like the old times when he was in Connecticut and she in New York.

Welcome to Dickmans Road

Its not quite Nolita, but girl's new neighborhood is trendy in its own way. As luck has it, girl is living right in the middle of Colombo's thriving transvestite district.

needles and haystacks

girl arrived on monday to a sparsely furnished flat. in one room, there was an antique wood bed frame with a wire spring bottom but with no mattress. in another room, there was a wobbly wood plank bed frame with a mattress. after some contemplation, she decided to go with the wobbly bed. as she slept that night, wiry coily things kept poking through the sheets. it was like sleeping on a stack of hay. or like getting an acupuncture treatment every night. but she was glad to be back in a home where she had lived long ago. where she had attempted to go down the flight of stairs with a tricycle. fortunately she survived, but a wooden gate remains blocking the entrance to the stairs.

The Boy Wins Major Legal Battle

The boy emerged victorious in the long drawn legal battle between the boy and the State of New York. The epic saga ended when the Judge handed down a ‘not guilty’ verdict today at the New York State Traffic Courts in Brooklyn. The boy and his defense team headed by the girl, who is currently on a state visit to Sri Lanka, managed to convince the Jury that the boy was unfairly charged for violating parking rules in the city of New York. The defense team convinced the jury that ‘do not park between midnight to 3am’ sign does not imply the same as ‘do not park between 12am to 3am’. The judge ordered the state to pay back all fines to the boy and to pay back for restitution for boy’s legal fees, which reportedly amounted to millions of US dollars.

Another World Trade Center

In New York, construction is just starting at Ground Zero. The noise and dust will be everywhere. Girl does not have the patience to wait for that building to be rebuilt. She flew thousands of miles and has come to a new World Trade Centre. She is on the 10th floor of the West Tower.

Arrival

Girl took a 14 hour flight to Hong Kong on Friday the thirteenth. The flight was nearly empty (the superstitious must have been staying at home) so she had a whole row to herself to lie down and sleep on. She fell asleep at take-off and when she awoke, there was only 1 hour 43 minutes left of the flight. It was the shortest flight to Asia ever! In Hong Kong, she left the airport to explore the city. She bought a pink hair clip at a street market, and some clothes at a mega-mall. Amazingly, she didn't get lost and made it back to the airport in time to catch her flight to Colombo.

The Boy on His own

The boy wonders if he is able to function properly without the girl. He was stranded on Friday night after meeting with friends for dinner. He was locked out of his friend's apartment and his own was occupied by someone else. So he decided to drive to Enfield the same night longing for a bed and a good night’s sleep. He managed, only barely, to stay awake. He passed Greenwich, Stamford, Norwalk and then a decided to take a break. Fairfield. Bridgeport, Stratford Meriden and another break. Eventually, He arrived at Bigelow at 4 in the morning. And he searched desperately for a charger. Because the girl has been trying to call him from Hong Kong on her way to Sri Lanka. He didn’t find a charger. His home phone was already disconnected. He had no Internet or TV. He was just thankful they haven’t cutoff the electricity.
He only got a couple hours of sleep. The boy met his friends in Enfield for a day of golf. He didn’t do too bad and took 63 strokes to complete 9 holes. This was the first time the boy finished a 9-hole course on his own.
The next day the boy slept the most of the day and if not for his friends in Enfield, he wouldn’t have had anything to eat. The boy wanted to finish packing so that he could come another time in a truck and take his things, but he didn’t get much done. His friend who has been ever thankful to him for keeping him company at the secaucurus hosting facility invited him over for dinner. He had yummy food and played a few games of chess.
It wasn’t long before he started miss the girl. He wanted to call her desperately. He didn’t know if she was trying to call him. His phone was still not working. He made one last attempt to find a charger and this he did find one. He still didn’t know the girl’s new telephone numbers. So he couldn’t call her. He waited hoping she would call. He decided to stay the Sunday night in Enfield. He would have had no proper place to sleep had he come back to the city. He woke up at 5:30 the next morning and drove back to the city like many a time he had before but only this time he was driving south. When he got tired he listen to Nada Surf. That was probably not a good idea. He remembered the many times he and the girl drove around aimlessly listening to those very songs. He felt sad. He had to call to her. And when he got to work, he did. He was thrilled to hear her voice.

The Cannonball Run

Before getting to California the boy had to sneak out of office to make sure the evil boss doesn’t catch him. Then he loaded the car with the heavy luggage and spent a few minutes cleaning the sublet and set off to catch a plane. He didn’t get very far before he hit traffic on the BQE. Cars lined up bumper to bumper as far as he could see. He was sure he was going to miss his flight. But then the traffic cleared up and while the girl was looking for seats on a later flight, the boy raced towards the airport. He finally arrived at the parking lot with minutes to spare only to find out the parking lot is full. He was directed to another car park where he parked his car, grabbed the heavy luggage and ran to the shuttle. He had just enough time to board but not if he had stayed in line. So he jumped the line. The girl would have been so proud. Eventually, he made the flight. He was tired when he landed in San Diego. He checked in to a hotel and waited for the girl.

There are somethings money can't buy ...

four flights of stairs $500
carrying lugage to CA $200 a piece
getting my first moving violation $1000
having to deal with the girl - priceless

Hotel California

Despite the fact that the entire county of San Diego was sold out of hotel rooms, boy and girl - homeless once again - enjoyed the sunshine and the freeways of California. They went jet-skiing in San Diego, bike-riding on the boardwalk from Santa Monica to Venice Beach, and cruising on the boulevards and expressways of the Sunshine State in search of food and shelter. In the end, they found lots and lots of food, and even a whirlpool. It was an exciting and sometimes frustrating adventure throughout the southland - they felt just like Harold and Kumar in search of White Castle hamburgers. After a few misteps and interesting characters along the way, they found what they were searching for, but alas, it all ended too soon, and boy was soon off on a plane back to New York City.

The Girl's Leaving.

Despite his busy schedule, the boy is running off to meet the girl. He has a date with her. She is leaving on a jet plane tomorrow and don’t know when she will be back again. She is going to resolve the civil war in Sri Lanka. The boy is not too happy and he is following her as far as he can all the way to California. Together they will go to San Diego and the boy will return to the big city. The girl – will fly to the other side of the world.

Last Day

Girl's last day at work before her, um, leave. Leave of absence. On Friday she said her good-byes and shared cake with her work friends. Now its Monday - the last day - and she has to clean out her office, delete her inbox, and finish a couple documents before departing, not to mention purchase 3 airline flights, send two faxes, and find new homes for her work-toys.