A WONDERFUL WEEKEND

I have a confession to make. These days it's getting harder to get around to blogging (that's it, that's the confession; I'm sorry, I imagine you were hoping for something juicier). I love writing but it gets hard to find the time to do it and you have to come up with an idea to write about. I'm not even entirely sure that anyone is reading what I write!

Lucky for you (yes, consider your good fortune), every now and then inspiration comes my way. It is hard to find that inspiration when a steady routine guides your days, but when the unexpected or the different drops by, it gives me something to talk about. Last weekend we went away on a trip to Anuradapura. For the first time in quite a while, we found ourselves exploring a place we had never been before. This is the perfect circumstance to discover new wonders all around you. So today's blog is a tribute to the Wonders of my Weekend. I hope you enjoy my WoWs!

WoW #1: The first WoW really deserves to go to how much driving can be packed into my day. We left the house around 7am on Friday and drove out to drop the kids at school. Fifty minutes later we were driving back past the house on our way out to Chilaw, an hour and a half's drive in the other direction. After teaching there for three and a half hours, we drove back, past the house and on to the school to pick up the kids. Then back to the house to collect Darren. An hour later and we're driving through Chilaw again (only an hour this time because we're going through Chilaw town, not heading out to where my class is) and then about another hour further to get to Puttalam. This is as far North as I have been so far. Puttalam was one of the places we went to when we first arrived and I remember being anxious, hoping that we were not getting too close to the war zone. Sigh! The naiveties of youth. But this time we were pressing on further, quite a deal further. Driving on for another three hours, we finally arrived at Anuradapura at 8pm. In all fairness, I believe Cedric deserves the honours of WoW #1. Hail to the bus driver, bus driver man!

WoW #2: On the morning drive to Chilaw, we went past four young blokes standing by the side of the road, waiting for the bus or something. They all wore jeans of matching cut - one in fluorescent pink, one in bright orange, one in deep red and the fourth in royal purple. I would tell you whether or not this was a hip and funky fashion statement but, the truth is, the glare from their trousers rendered visual observations impossible.

WoW #3: Cows on the road are quite commonplace in Sri Lanka. Even so, the sight of an entire herd moseying along at their own pace, quite oblivious of the traffic weaving a way around them, right in Chilaw's town centre is still pretty amusing. These were the temple cows. They don't have owners; they have been donated to the local Buddhist temple so they are allowed to roam free. Luckily for them, the Buddhists don't practice animal sacrifice.

WoW #4: I always find paddy fields pretty WoW - they seem to stretch forever and they look so soft when they're green - but when they give way to surprise you with a reservoir, that's definitely an audible 'WoW!' It's pretty breathtaking to be driving along a long strip of road with no roadsides, only water stretching as far as the eye can see on either side and scattered trees growing up out of the depths.

WoW #5: An eerie WoW, a strip of road lined with house after deserted house - roofless, doorless, windowless, crumbling. Once these were homes, but I was told they had been deserted during the terrors of war, when people did not want to be unprotected in their homes at night. Families had fled to find another place to live. These homes are on the land bordering national park and nature happily moved right on in. Many of the homes are completely filled by greenery as mother nature reclaims her territory. Also on the side of the road are signs warning that this is a place where wild elephants may wander - as if these people didn't have enough to contend with. Further along the road, where there is less cover of national park for enemies to suddenly appear from, homes are still occupied. These houses are surrounded by elephant fences.

WoW #6: Bottles of soft drink for 30 rupee (30 cents)each. I don't really need to say anything more than that, do I? This fellow is now guaranteed that we are going to stop by his simple, dried-mud shop every time we pass. Adding to the WoW factor was sitting out the front of his s hop, enjoying the drinks and the breeze, while my kids played cricket with his kids, waiting for the adults to finish their drinks.

WoW #7: I've said it before, I'll say it again: paddy fields are pretty WoW. Even more so when the sun is setting over them in the most beautiful and iridescent of colours that I've only seen matched once before - by four boys in multi-colour pants standing by the side of the road on the way to Chilaw. Wish I had a photo of this one for you.

WoW #8: Not a bad piece of architecture. Plus, the monkeys hanging around were huge. I think they were on guard duty - when they weren't eating out of the bin.

WoW #9: On Saturday we stopped at a nice hotel for lunch and a swim in the pool. Most hotels will let non-guests use the pool for a small fee and many will even let you use the pool for free if you have lunch at their restaurant. The hotel had beautiful grounds and the pool was massive - and we had it all to ourselves! (Hmm, I better stop telling you all how wonderful Sri Lanka is; I might have to start sharing). I think I was even more impressed with the change rooms and found myself wondering how much they might charge me to bunk in there overnight. Not to say that our guest-house was bad (in fact, it was beautifully clean and looked after), nor that this hotel was so very fantastic (although it was pretty great) - but it had HOT WATER . . . in the change room! . . . and it had a hair dryer. As you can tell, I'm easily impressed.

WoW #10: Having Sunday lunch at a friend's place just outside of Anuradapura. This lunch invitation was the reason we found ourselves exploring Anuradapura for the weekend. I believe we invited ourselves. Glad we did too. First the boys enjoyed a game of cricket with some neighbourhood kids. Then our hosts showed us to a table set up in a breezy place under the shade of a large jak tree, laden with jakfruit, spread with a traditional Sri Lankan feast. I don't think a fancy restaurant could do better. An awesome meal with awesome company. And I still got to stop and visit my new friend with the 30 rupee soft drinks on the way home.

WoW #11: (Why stop at 10?!). We were not the only ones travelling North for the weekend. A Catholic church up around Puttalam way was celebrating a large festival that weekend and many people from all around the island were travelling up to enjoy the weekends festivities. It was easy to identify them. They were the ones in the vans crammed with family members, with the load of camping necessities - like mats, plastic chairs and cooking pots - tied to the roof. Anyway, as we came back into Chilaw at the end of the weekend, we drove across a bridge over a large river. I have never seen so many people in a river. This was clearly the place to stop when everyone has just had enough of driving. The river bank was dotted with vans in the places where people had decided to stop, set up a circle of chairs and enjoy a bit of a picnic and a play in the river. Everyone seemed to be having so much fun I just wanted to stop and join them. Unfortunately for us - and I don't think I would have convinced Darren anyway - we needed to get ourselves home.

So that was my Weekend of Wonders. I just love finding delight in the simple things of life that can still make you say WoW!