Pictures of the Colombo Fort Railway Station

Click on the thumbnails for a larger photo

Our fellow passengers waiting on the train

Crow inside 2nd class car


New bicycle tri-shaws

Doc's Hollywood Cocktail

I know it already sounds delicious right? Chris has heard me call it this for years now and cringes every time she hears it and has probably already deleted this post when it arrived in her email.

Doc's Hollywood Cocktail is no cocktail at all but the supplements I take in the morning! Lately it is (1) aspirin (1) iron table (1) calcium tablet and (1) omega 3 fish oil tablet.

I know the debate rages on about the daily aspirin, does it help? I don't know but I think it can't hurt either!

The fish oil? I guess by the bottles suggestion you are supposed to take 2 to 3 a day. I try to remember to take one before dinner.

And the name? I coined it from something I saw on TV about Hollywood celebrities and the concoctions the take to stay young, the commenter called it the "Hollywood Cocktail"

Parliamentary Elections Day

Today was the parliamentary elections so just about everything was closed and the government declared tomorrow a "bank holiday" not to be confused with a regular holiday, but pretty much means that any business that needs an excuse to close shop has one.

I monitored the Twitter updates during the election and looks like there was only nominal violence.

Wait, did I mention why the government of Sri Lanka declared a holiday tomorrow? Officially, there was no reason, just because; Really it's because there IS a chance of violence so the government figures, hey take the day off and relax instead of getting mad that the guy you voted for didn't win!

The Proper Eating Utensil

One surprising thing about many Sri Lankan's is that they eat most meals with their hands. It amazes me that they can eat the curries with their hands, yet they do. They take the rice and ball it up, add some curry to the mix and pop it in their mouth. There is a proper etiquette to eating with their hands.

Almost every restaurant has a common hand washing station where those who have ate with their hands can clean up. Fancier places will bring a bowl of water to each person at the table to clean up table-side. The idea is not to go past your second knuckle with the food.

Most food is served at room temperature so as not to burn your hands.

I have tried on a few occasions to eat with my hands, it is a little awkward, easier when there is some flat bread available.

The other way Sri Lankan's eat is with the fork in the left hand and a spoon in the right hand, the fork is used to scoop the food onto the spoon and or tear the food apart. I might have that reversed, be looking for a comment from Chris soon.