Janet's Journal

February has been a lot quieter here in Negombo. Independence Day on the 4th was marked by Sri Lankan flags flying proudly throughout the town and just a few military aircraft circling the skies from the big military parade in Colombo.

On the question of weddings, I am still not entirely clear why there are none in February. For some cultures though it is not an auspicious month for new beginnings as there are only twenty eight days. Having said that, there have been two very noticeable, big Indian weddings at Jetwing Blue.

Pink elephants arrived on the beach one afternoon, later that evening a pair of camels guarded the entrance to the wedding buffet. Bejewelled ladies in exquisite brightly coloured saris flitted amongst the men, some of whom were wearing the elegant cream sherwanis. Everywhere was festooned with lights

I didn’t attempt to go to the huge St Valentine’s Eve rock concert on the beach. A huge tropical downpour a few hours before ensured that everything would be soaking wet. Judging by the number of empty bottles on the beach the next day a good time was had by all.

The latest big event has been the 1st Central Asian Beach Voleyball Championships. Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Iran fielded men’s and ladies’ teams.

For the whole weekend Brown’s Beach was transformed with flags, food and drink vendors, cheerleaders and fun ball games for spectators. Sri Lanka’s women and Iran’s men were the winners of their respective tournaments.

Due to the ongoing foreign exchange crisis here. Diesel is in very short supply. There are scheduled power cuts twice a day totalling nearly eight hours. Apparently all will be well in April when the rains start again and the hydro electric power stations will be fully operational, in the meantime the coal fired ones cannot cope with demand.