Blogging, Soccer, etc.

I wish I was able to blog more frequently. Not that I have a lot to write about. But the main issue seem to be time - or lack of it. But I cannot let the world-cup, the soccer kind, pass away without adding a paragraph or two on how has changed my life - to be more precise, my evenings.

I’ve played to odd game of soccer when growing up. Not by choice, but since it required only a ball – or something that looked like a ball that can be kicked without losing a toe-nail. The goal posts were almost always a couple of stones or bricks. But as we grew up, we watched soccer players like “Klinsmann” playing on the Telly. The slightest touch of an opposing player used to send them sprawling across the paddock – they were far from the tough nuts like Springboks or All-Blacks. I was having none of that – so my days of playing soccer faded away.

Just like it had happened for many others, Africa and the Vuvuzela attracted me to the sport back again this time. Suddenly I found myself coming home from work, sitting in front of the Telly completely riveted to it. There were even times I watched back to back games till early morning hours. I started to back Argentina and Germany. Although Argentina eventually got knocked-out, Germany is well and truly in with a chance. Today a friend of mine invited me to watch the final on a 30 foot screen at a popular sports club – I am seriously thinking of going.

My wife says it is midlife crisis.

When I was young...

Back in the day, I used to say to myself 'Here we go again' whenever my father started a sentence with 'When I was young...'. Having said that, I'm going to do just that.

In my younger days, fireworks were really fun. And above all, dependable. When we pulled out a sky-rocket from its bundle, we knew it was going to threaten low-flying aircrafts. They had strong tails and took off as straight as an arrow high into the night sky. And anything that was supposed to go 'Bang', did. The sound would have caused the neighbors to call the ol' bomb squad if we were to light one up during off-season. The 'Chakra' burnt and rotated in all it's glory for at least two minutes.

I am quite disappointed with the sorry state of the fireworks on sale these days. Every time I light one up, I feel like a participant who is just about the spin the wheel-of-fortune. It is quite common to find sky-rockets that won't fly or out of the ones that do, they wouldn't explode with a thunderous bang that would give your grandma a heart attack. The 'Charkras' and 'Nilas' often won't last longer than it would take you to say "what next".

But it still pleases me to see the sparkles in my kids eyes every time I light fireworks. I just hope they will somehow become better as time passes by.

Busy, are we?

I had some visitors over the other day. They are here in Sri Lanka on a holiday (Remember holidays? We used to go on them when we could take some time off from work?). They once lived here in Sri Lanka but now call Austraaaalia (did I get the accent right?) home.

We were catching up and reminiscing over dinner when one of the visitors said, “Hey guys, why don’t we go on a trip to Udawalawe?”. For those who are wondering “WTF?”, Udawalawe is a national wild life sanctuary in the southern region of Sri Lanka and is known for its abundance of wildlife, especially Elephants. Back in the day, a trip to Udawalawe to watch the Elephants and very often get chased by one or two, was a regular event on our annual calendar,.. sometimes even bi-annual.

I thought it was a great idea and immediately started thinking of possible date – especially a weekend. I was thinking “Hmm,.. lets see,.. next Saturday I will have to take R for her fit-on at the dressmaker, Sunday I have to attend P’s wedding,.. how about the following weekend?.. I guess that Saturday too is out as I promised….”

I guess I must have been thinking out loud, as my friend from OZ said, “What’s with you guys (I guess he mean us Sri Lankans, now that he is not one of “us”) these days? So many appointments and shit? Can’t you make a snap decision and take time off from work anymore? I was thinking of going on this trip tomorrow or day after,.. not next weekend”.

He was genuinely puzzled. But here’s the thing,… it never occurred to me that I was being too organized. I always thought of myself to be a spur-of-the-moment kinda guy. Maybe living in Sri Lanka, especially in Colombo, have made me something else?

Brain Freeze

When Kelso did the Brain-Freeze thing on “That 70s Show”, it brought back memories of me trying to gulp down a cone of Allerics ice cream before the “Ice cream Van” left. Yes, those were the days, when any half decent ice cream was delivered to your doorstep on those famous Ice cream vans. And Allerics was the preferred brand those days. Of course the impending arrival of such a van can be heard miles away by its instantly recognizable tune – before you could say “where is the change”, all the neighborhood children flocked alongside the road with a few rupee coins clinched in their little palms.

Just the other day, I saw a familiar sight, a white and green coloured van, with a catchy tune playing and of course those unmistakable “tube-lights” on it’s roof… I started walking up to it almost as if I was in a trance. My heart was racing – could it be an Allerics comeback? Alas, No, it was “Elephant House”; the next best thing to Allerics I suppose. I captured the moment with my camera-phone. But strangely I was not in a mood for an ice-cream cone this time.

Simple things in life

Food, especially the Sri Lankan kind, is amazingly addictive. Sri Lankans living in foreign countries will vouch for the truth in that statement. But where there’s a void – there’s an opportunity. The more enterprising individuals among us can and do make a killing out of importing exotic Sri Lankan goodies into countries like USA, Australia and UK where large Sri Lankan expatriate communities exist. But there’s nothing like getting some poor sod to bring you a parcel from your mother. Why, just the other day I learnt that someone I know had even sent a couple of Lumpri (fresh from the oven, with the Banana leaf and all) on a Sri Lankan flight from Colombo to Birmingham – what will they think of next?

This all reminds me of some favorite local food-brands combinations. These are flavors you’d never quite experience the moment you step out of the island.

* Elephant House Fountain Cafe hot dog
* Carnival ice cream
* Pilawoos chicken and cheese kottu (Did you know that the good ol’ Pila was featured on the Time mag? Strewth!)
* Kist tomato sauce (mind you not Ketchup)
* Harischandra coffee
* Fab Lumpri (with extra coconut oil… hmmmm Yum!)
* MD woodapple jam

Then there are the all time favorites – the generic kind.

* Isso vadai
* Chinese roll
* Roast paan
* Pol sambol
* Lime soda

Of course this is by no means an exhaustive list. Infact, I’d love to know what type of Sri Lankan delicacies tickle your taste-buds. So spill the beans by all means.

KITT

If you were a kid like me growing up in 1980’s you would undoubtedly recall the TV series “Knight Rider” and “KITT”. Back then we thought it was the best TV program and of course the coolest car ever! I even recall people fixing the signature “moving red light” onto the hood of their vehicles to give it that KITT look. It didn’t matter what their vehicles were; cars, vans, lorries, trishaws, and even the good ‘ol push-bikes.

Well, guess what? Knight Rider is back, but without David Hasselhoff (thank God for that). It is supposed to be a new made-for-TV movie. The best part is it has got even a cooler KITT – a still-to-be-released Black Ford Mustang Shelby GT500. The word is, it has got a supercomputer that can hack into almost any system, an even better weapons system than it’s predecessor (guess the flamethrower is still in then), AI,… and get this – it has nanotechnology giving it the ability to shape-shift. WOW! It is the best car ever!

I’m sure I got you all interested in it now. So check it out.