Book Corner - Finished Reading

Super Spy by Matt Kindt
336 pages
Paperback
Graphic novel

I saw this book at a bookstore in Santa Cruz while visiting my daughter. I flipped through a couple of pages and decided I had to have it...via Amazon.

The book is a graphic novel in that it's almost like a comic book. The graphics are great.

From Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Super-Spy-Matt-Kindt/dp/1891830961
Super Spy is 52 interwoven short stories about cyanide, pen-guns, heartbreak and betrayal. Each story follows the life of a spy during World War II. Spanning the globe from Spain to France and Germany, this book takes the reader on a tour of the everyday life of the spy. From the small lies and deceptions to the larger secrets that everyone hides, Super Spy reveals the nature of espionage and how an individual can be lost and also find redemption. A children's book is something more than it seems... a woman swims the English Channel to deliver a deadly secret... a German spy desperately seeks escape for herself and her daughter... and a spy continues to serve his country even beyond death.

Sinhala and Tamil New Years and Other Breaks

I'll have to say if there's one good thing about working in Sri Lanka it's the time off for holidays.
This week we get the 13th and 14th off for Sinhala and Tamil New Years, yeah! Friday is our usual half day, so it's a two and a half day work week. If you were very crafty you could have taken vacation this week, burned up 3 vacation days and utilizing last weekend and the upcoming weekend quite the long vacation to get off the island!

Along with the usual local holidays we just have to love it when the Sri Lankan president decides for whatever reason (his birthday party) to declare a national holiday.

Book Corner - Finished Reading

Blood Test (Alex Delaware series) by Jonathon Kellerman
Paperback
360 pages
Mystery thriller

Against my better judgement I decided to give Kellerman another try. True to his style the books keeps you interested in the beginning. In fact I was tearing right through it. But then much like the previous novel I read by him it got, well, stupid. The dialogue between the bad guy and Dr. Delaware seemed ridiculous.

Judging by the reviews on Amazon I wasn't the only one who felt this book was not a good read.

The Good The Bad and The Ugly

Living in Sri Lanka.

The Good
Watching the wonderful sunsets from our apartment
Looking at the twinkling lights of the ships anchored out at sea
Relaxing on the beach at Hikkaduwa

The Bad
The corruption
The huge number of stray dogs and cats
The poverty

The Ugly
Story time. We just went shopping across the street and ended up with a few more bags then we thought we would. Easy enough, we would get a tuk tuk to take us to our apartment. Chris went to find one and in short time she was back. The bagger loaded the bags, the tuk tuk driver didn't help. He took us across the street which meant leaving the parking garage, turning left and going about 50 feet, making a U-turn, returning about 50 feet and going down the ramp to our parking garage. Again he didn't help unload the bags and just sat there. I counted out 80RS (we figured 50RS was certainly sufficient) and he shook his head and said no, he wanted 100RS (or at least that's what I thought he said). Chris told him in no specific terms what he could do with his request. I being the diplomatic one said I had 100RS in our apartment,I would get it, against Chris' wishes. I told the driver to wait. I got the 100Rs and came down, stifling my anger I handed it to him and he said "No sir, 120RS". At that point, diplomacy went out the window. I went full Drill Instructor on him. Huh? I used to be a Marine Corps Drill Instructor, we have a special way of yelling when we get "upset". The driver called me a few names, I told him to "GET THE #$% OUT OF HERE". One of our splendid apartment guards was in the garage, he started approaching, then he backed off, go figure.

The beloved Colombo tuk tuk driver, always giving Sri Lanka a good name.