OUR MAILING ADDRESS is 475/3A Thimbirigasyaya Rd, Colombo 05 Sri Lanka. I have yet to pronounce all the syllables in our street name. It is an impossible task for a southerner to say that many syllables!

Well I’m back among the living! Boy oh boy was I sick. I almost have a normal appetite but still get a nervous stomach when I see a buffet. I just don’t make eye contact with the food and limit my intake to bread and a little fruit. I managed to eat half a portion of spaghetti for lunch. I am so ready to eat some home cooking. You can’t imagine how much we will miss Thanksgiving with the Wisbrocks in Salem! They put on a feast you wouldn’t believe. Nobody serves a finer meal. Trust me we have had dinner there for so many years, I can’t remember how many and every one of them was memorable.

It is Monday and pouring rain. It hasn’t rained for a week or two but it is making up for lost time. I managed to get some shopping in today. After breakfast I went back to bed, which has been my pattern since getting ill. After an hour and a half nap, I managed to get out the door. Shopping is a wee bit different here. Today I decided to buy towels. Unfortunately you can’t buy towels, washcloths and hand towels at the same place. It must be an American thing. So I bought black washcloths at one store, black towels at another store and have not yet found any hand towels. There is only one department store that I am aware of. There may be more but this department store is the best thing going here and they only carried towels. I have another bathroom to furnish but will wait until I am more sure of the colors. Our bathroom is black and butterscotch.

I found some ready-made curtains and am praying they will work in our bedroom. If they do then I’ll pick up a second set for the front bedroom. There are actually four bedrooms but we will probably just furnish two initially. Doubt that we will need any more unless a whole bunch of you decide to come for a visit at the same time. Wouldn’t that be fun!

I also picked up an entry rug but still need some outside mats for foot wiping. I found a great handheld blender that will be great for pureed soups. Yum! Got a dish rack and some kitchen towels and a couple of trash cans. I bought some cutlery. We haven’t been able to find what we wanted so this was the best of the choices we’ve seen. We have inquired at two restaurants where we ate but both of them imported their cutlery from Thailand!

Dare I tell you about sheets? Fitted sheets are as scarce as hens’ teeth. Then you have to realize that there are two sizes of queen sheets and our size is much harder to find (of course!) When you buy sheets here, they come one to a package or a fitted sheet and two pillowcases but I have yet to see a complete set of sheets here. They are just as expensive as the states and are made here. So far, we bought a duvet cover, and one fitted sheet with four cases. We had one choice of color if we wanted a duvet cover. I constantly feel like I am hitting a brick wall. You cannot imagine how many stores I’ve been to to find the size we need then most of the sheets are poly/cotton. Sorry I only do 100% cotton. What a pain in the tushie! Today’s shopping was a bit difficult because traffic was horrendous. My driver said it was because so many people were off last week with poya day and the election plus some stayed away the day after the election for fear of violence that never happened, thank god!