Yesterday we bought our 20th anniversay present. When we were first married, we used to buy each other a sweather or shirt for our anniversary. Sonia, Ron's mom, said we were pretty boring. So we changed our ways and started buying an artwork that we selected together each aniversary. Thanks to Sonia we now have a decent collection of art and lots of good memories from the process. Yesterday we bought the Fire Devil mask. It is about 25-30 years old so it shows some wear but it is a magnificient mask. Yes, once we can send photos we will.

I was so pleased yesterday to find some Tiger Balm, a ointment that is good for headaches and twenty other remedies and a tennis ball to make a parking aid for our landlady. You hang the ball from a string so it will touch your windshield where you want to stop in your parking space. Hope that makes sense. As it is, she will park her car, then get out and realize she is too close to the house and you can't walk around the car. She gets back in and moves the car six inches. This way, she will know exactly where to stop. So I get back to the hotel, open the Tiger Balm package and discover the jar has sat in the sun and salt air so long you can't get the top off and the tennis ball has no bounce. Fortunately, it doesn't matter for our usage.

I had my first Ayurvedic massage yesterday. It is almost a nude massage (you keep your u.p.s on: up=underpants) She used about a half of a cup of oil on me. I could slide back to Colombo when done. She gave me a wonderful head massage but it took forever to get all the oil out of my hair. Yuck! I hate oily hair-so picky she is. The massage was more of a soothing rub than the therapeutic massage that we are used to. It made me miss Don O'Dell, the massage therapist in Vancouver. He has thumbs of steel. It hurts but your muscles are relaxed when Don is finished with you. We have heard about a blind massage therapist at the Hilton in Colombo so will try him, hoping to get something more helpful for our tight muscles.

We head back to Colombo late this afternoon, around five when the workshop ends. I hope to do a bit of sight seeing today. I come to the Internet cafe before the heat makes it unbearable in this small room. Although they have a air conditioner, they don't use it due to the expense. SL has power problems. The power has gone off in our hotel two-three times, although it was brief, several minutes.

That's it for today.