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All those moments which don’t have a full blog post, but should be mentioned in dispatches…and which I have realised happened so often they became one of the best parts of living here, which is all too quickly over.

  • Yoga on the top deck at Wijaya Beach at 8am. Contorting and twisting my body beyond all comfort, and then looking up at the palm tree and feeling the sea breeze on my skin and knowing that this beats any morning in London as a way of getting ready for work.
  • Going for “post-work drinks” with the boys from the Sun House. We sat in the gloom of a crummy beach bar, in which I was both the only woman and the only Westerner. As somewhat of a guest of honour, I had first swig from the bottle of arrack going round, and was treated on delights such as garlic prawns and roasted bits of unidentified animal.
  • Walking through the sea to reach the impossibly romantic island of Taprobane.
  • Watching a mongoose snuffle its way across the lawn.
  • Playing croquet with Tim and Sanjay, cheating furiously and blagging around the course. To my inevitable defeat, of course.
  • Corporate drinks at the balcony of the Lighthouse, successfully proving that all corporate events are the same everywhere. Right down to the horrible canapes and awkward chat with co-workers, followed by immense drunkeness.
  • Cycling the paddy fields with Alex. Having avoided a Boris bike for so long this should have been a complete anathema, but was instead one of the most pleasant mornings spent in Sri Lanka – followed, of course, by a dip in the sea, and some sort of foul health food soup, washed down with lumps of brown sugar.
  • Breakfasting with monkeys, of course.
  • Late gin and tonics and early gin and tonics with Woody.
  • David shouting “dildo! dildo!” into Clemmie’s face, while she screams “liquorice allsorts!” back. Even putting this in context does not make it any less funny.
  • New people, often unmentioned, always appreciated.
  • Almost any night or day at Wijaya Beach.
  • Serving tea at June poya, thanks to an invitation from the Sun House boys.  Vats of tea made from jack fruit flowers were produced, with lumps of the thick brown sugar I had with health food soup. This act of kindness (in fact, simply allowing myself to be mobbed by devout Sri Lankans desperate to try tea provided by the white girl) has apparently earned me lots of “sil”, raising my next incarnating creature from amoeba to nematode worm.
  • Preparing canape dinner for a crowd of sixty with a team of three fantastic chefs who took my bossiness in great good part, as well as indulging my need to try everything. It is possible they made double amounts for precisely that reason.
  • Being given a handmade Kindle cover as a goodbye present. It’s quilted and yellow.
  • Unexpected kindnesses.