A Beautiful Day in Sri Lanka

O.k. this doesn't happen very often, but today I had a wonderful day that went without a hitch.

First, I woke up early and without the alarm clock. This meant I wasn't too tired and could linger over a cup of coffee while I read e-mails before heading out the door.

The weather was actually not too hot as it rained last night, so my bike ride into town was fairly comfortable. And no one tried to kill me.

The guards at the parking lot of the Galle Face Hotel did not even blink when I asked if I could leave my bike there while I went to the Indian High Commission.

At the High Commission I only had to wait an hour for my visa (last time I was there for more than two hours!) and there were no problems -- visa received and good until January 18th.

Then I headed down to my bank to close my accounts (remember the money changing incident last fall? -- these are the accounts from that episode) and get my dollars transfered to my account in the U.S. The only slight delay was a request that I sign everything again in order to better mimic my signature in my passport (which was put there eight years ago -- my signature has evolved a bit since). Accounts were closed and the transfer process begun in less than 15 minutes. I was promised I'd see the money in my U.S. account by Wednesday.

I had to wait a bit at the dermatologist, but he did confirm my diagnosis (eczema -- something is apparently stressing me out) and prescribed some pills and cream. I kindly rejected the pills at the pharmacist, but took the cream (I've had this before and there is no reason for oral medication).

On the bike ride home, no one tried to kill me.

Once home I took a quick shower and headed over to accounts where although the woman who hands out money was at lunch, they actually got her so she could give me my money!

Over to Sewalanka where I got approval to be paid back for the kitchen pots I brought from America (I was going to take them home, but now that I have to ship stuff I don't want to pay to ship them back) and was promised water would be brought to my house this afternoon.

The supermarket below the office had two wine bottle boxes available. I still need another, longer box to ship two skinny but long items, but otherwise I should be o.k. with boxes to ship stuff home.

Now I'm at home working while drinking coffee with vanilla ice cream (this is what they call an iced coffee here) and eating cereal that was on sale at Crescat last week. Yep, I'm living the high life my last week in country.

And that my friends is what makes a beautiful day in Sri Lanka. A beautiful day is when everything works out even if there are a few delays.

One week to go.