We're not blogging much these days but...

you can see photos and keep up with developments at


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See you there I hope!

The puppies "found" a snake. Look away now if you are very keen on snakes

Some flowers around Iwura today

Arrived!

Although the flight was delayed by almost an hour I spent it very happily chatting to a guy who works with FlyDubai on the ground doing something technical and whose whole family seem to be pilots.

I whinged quite a lot about previous flights and how it is unfair that Matt's flights always take on time and I never quite manage to arrive in the dark because of delay in the flight or at immigration.

I don't know how Mark (FlyDubai guy) managed it but I slept the whole way, the staff were charming, we parked next to the airport so there was no bus and there was literally no queue at immigration.

So I arrived in the dark and, by the time I had unpacked and found a jumper, I was all wrapped up and watching the sun rise with the puppies (who remember to sit, go down and give the paw!). It's now 6am and I'm going to walk on the new grass in the gradual light and then treat myself to a fabulous shower before a short nap. Then I've got to get to work for a while - I'm quite looking forward to it!

I haven't spoken with Brayen and Julia yet but they are apparently getting aruyvedic treatment and, although the injuries look very painful, they are not in any way life-threatening and both should be completely recovered soon. I'll speak with them later today and find out how they are. I'm not sure exactly where they are and may even visit them if I can be of any assistance.

If you are good at talking pictures please consider yourselves invited (Jamie? Harry?) as I would love someone to capture the light here - every photo I take is a disaster!

Accident!

So I'm off to Sri Lanka in a few hours to get some work done, see the puppies and chill a little.

Sadly I won't be able to see Brayen and Julia as they had a motor-bike accident (no broken bones thank God but bruised, scraped and battered so off to get some aruyvedic treatment with the family).

Luckily Brayen's family are nearby and were able to step in. This means that I won't be left entirely bereft when there (and, of course, I always have the trusty Ramesh to get me places) and they were able to make sure the grass got planted. We have grass!

Not everywhere. But we have grass. And sprinklers so we don't have to water it.

To say I'm excited would be a crazy understatement!

No more sleeps and I'm there...

More on the flower tower

It feels hotter here than in the UAE but that's probably because it's been remarkably chilly in Dubai recently. I mean, the weather has actually been pretty fabulous with lunches outside and drinks outside in the evening equally lovely. 

Here it seems hot and I feel for the workmen doing the outside walls but am, nonetheless, delighted that the outside is finally finished!  Now all we have to do is plumbing, electricity, tiling, putting in mirror and shelves etc. fixing the steps and then finishing it all off by planting flowers in the "pots" built into the building and more around the flower tower itself. And most of the decisions about that can be made this trip. Those of you who know me will not be surprised to hear I've made a list! 

I feel  like these workmen have been maligned by me. It hadn't occurred to me how difficult it must be to get all the tiles to match up when they aren't uniform shapes and how much time it must take. They were actually here early this morning and caught me in the shower!

In other news

1) we're also hoping to cover the back wall with sugar cane. Unless anyone has better ideas?  

2) there seems to be a much pronounced noise of crickets and a reduction in the cawing of crows

3) we've had an influx of white seeds from one of the trees 

4) Brayen and Yuliya successfully got me an extended visa. Hurrah! 

No photos yet as although I am taking them I'm struggling with sharing. I'll probably do so when back in Dubai.  In any case, they aren't great - I wasn't blessed with a good eye but I'm hoping to get others, with more talent and knowledge, to take some better ones soon. You'll be especially amused/annoyed by my attempt to capture what the white seeds look like in case someone can tell me what they are?

Today, Matthew, I'll mostly be....

It's 0541 in Dubai so 0711 here and I'm now safe and sound on the terrace. The puppies have been petted (and then ignored as they tore my dress - do dogs need to get their nails clipped? I'm sitting on the terrace having unpacked and had a bit of a chat Bryan and wandered around looking at trees and the progress. I am now relaxed. 

It is slow but steady. I can't help feeling that it should be possible to do more than one thing at a time but it does like everything is very time-intensive. It's going to take Brayen and Yuliya a few hours to get to Colombo and update my visa. I couldn't bear queuing at the airport after  what was not a great flight as there was a drunk man shouting on the plane.

The outside washroom remains enormous but is being transformed into what will be a "tower of flowers". If the workmen actually turn up today we may even finish the external tiling. And then everybody goes off for a few days for Easter. 

I'm giving myself today off to relax (listen to the Archers, write this, have a shower outside, read my book, do yoga, eat fruit, get chilly and put on a jumper), watch this episode of Corrie (my dirty little secret!) and then tomorrow I'm going to do a day of work. I'm looking forward to it as I've got some interesting things to prepare. There will likely be quite a lot of noise as it's Easter and there are likely to be lots of celebrations. 

Matt arrives on Saturday so I will have delicious food and cocktails  and we can drink the bottle of champagne I bought and read books and talk nonsense and do yoga and get to know each other and plan out the garden and hang out. Hurrah! I might even really try to get the dogs to chase the crows this time. They are so cheeky! Oh, yes and we might do a video for a TV show. Hmmmm.......

It's been a while and things have happened.

So, it's been a long time since I've posted. Mostly because on the few occasions I've made it to Sri Lanka I've focused on relaxing and all the progress has been made in my absence. So you can see what's happening Brayen and Yuliya have sent some photos. We're not finished yet but it's really getting there now and we've even got guests staying at the moment.

Some of the colours seem to have come out weird but I've no idea how to fix that so, to see it for real, I guess you'll have to get on a plane and come visit!

It's been forever

A couple of friends were kind enough to notice that I haven't posted for ages and this is because I lost my camera. Inexcusably. And irritatingly enough it happened just as real progress has been made. Of course I still have my iPhone but I've been useless at remembering to carry it as well as my local phone and, in any case, I then had to work out how to share them.

I think I've figured this out now as there will be even more progress in my absence (from Friday) and I wanted to capture what it is like now. However, you'll have to click here for the latest pictures as I don't seem to have posted them to my account and so can't embed it. If you have any idea how to fix this please let me know!

A photo montage update

So, it turns out that Shiny's internet package was not all it could have been and that, on the 19th July or thereabouts, I ran out of "internet juice". It took us some time to realise this was the issue and then upgrading was difficult because the account was still in Shiny's name and changing it took some time too. Those of you who know me well can imagine how much I've hated not being able to use the internet freely. We're now back to normal service it seems although I'm not sure how long for at the moment as I don't really understand how much juice I use or even how to find out. Any ideas?

Anyway, rather than write a long post, I thought I'd share some photos of what's been going on and, of course, the rapidly growing and very cute puppies.