February 2011 – Ian Louis Harris

Gresham Society Event At Wilton’s Music Hall & Dinner At Café Spice Namasté After Z/Yen Symposium, 28 February 2011

Wilton’s Music Hall Door in 2010 by James Perry, CC BY-SA 3.0

Just back from our extraordinary trip to India & Sri Lanka –

India and Sri Lanka, 29 January to 26 February 2011, placeholder and links

…my first working day back in fact – we had a Z/Yen team symposium that afternoon followed by an evening of entertainment courtesy of the Gresham Society at Wilton’s Music Hall.

Very convenient for Michael and Elisabeth Mainelli, this, as Wilton’s is next door to them. It is a fabulous venue, steeped in history but, at that time anyway, in a very dilapidated state.

I think this was a proto Gresham Society event, probably connected to the AGM but before the latterly traditional AGM & Dinner. I also think this might have been a prototype of the thing that became the Gresham Society Biennial Soiree, as the first of those recorded in my diary was later that same year.

Anyway, this event, as I recall, was primarily a Gilbert & Sullivan evening, hosted by Professor Robin Wilson (who is an expert on Savoy Operas as well as mathematics) and mostly comprising performers from his associated choirs and musical troupes.

I seem to remember being required to sing along a fair bit and I think this might have been the first time (but certainly not the last time) I heard the Gresham Professor version of “A Policeman’s Lot”, both in English and, naturally, also in Latin.

I don’t remember how many of us retired to Café Spice Namasté after the Gresham Society do – quite a lot of us I think. In those days Café Spice was quite near Wilton’s – in Leman Street I think or at least very near there. I felt very at home in there having just spent a month eating Southern Asian food.

A very good evening – for me a rather jolly way to return to the world of work.

India and Sri Lanka, 29 January to 26 February 2011, placeholder and links

We needed a long and complete break after the loss of Phillie, Janie’s twin, in December. But this holiday was a long and ambitious one by any measure.

We were planning it at very short notice, by our standards, of course, but fortune smiled upon us in that planning. The Central Plains of India; Chhattisgarh and Orissa (Odisha) can be quite politically volatile, Foreign Office advice yo-yos between “no problem” and “only go if need be”, due to Naxalite/Maoist activity. But what a fascinating tribal part of India it is.

Anyway, it was a safe time to go at that time and the plan, through Steppes East who were excellent on this one, was to use the family of the Maharajah of Kanker as our guides in that region. This was a great idea; Jolly Deo, the Maharajkumar, was the perfect host and guide. We learnt lots and had fun along the way.

I long ago posted the weirdest story from that trip; the day I was press-ganged into being a live cricket commentator, which was published on King Cricket a few months after the event.

We were also fortunate in the Sri Lanka leg of the trip; an opportunity to have a large villa in Galle Old Town all to ourselves for the price of a hotel room came up, by virtue of the villa only recently coming back onto the holiday market following a long-term family stay. I suppose our experience there was a bit like a cross between AirBnB (except without making life hell for the neighbours) and Lastminute.com.

In short, there were loads of adventures to write up from this holiday – pages and pages and pages of the stuff….

…and they are all up there now – pretty much one posting per day. The posting for the first day of the holiday can be seen by clicking here or below:

Journey From London To Hyderabad, 29 & 30 January 2011

Here are links to the photo albums, which I divided up into six short albums, one for each “leg” of the trip:

If you are really keen to explore my hand-written notes, just to make sure I have written them up properly, here they are in pdf form and good luck to you:

Here is the Steppes East itinerary, also available for download – at least you’ll be able to read this one: Itinerary-Wormleighton.

Finally, there are photo albums on flickr of the pictures that didn’t make the cut for the main albums – there are some gems in there nonetheless for picture lovers:

Goodbye Aditya, Goodbye Southern Asia, Time To Go Home, 25 & 26 February 2011

Took exercise in the suite and also took a little sun before checking flights and then breakfast.
Aditya breakfast included juice and fruit, kola kanda, breads and danish, sausages, eggs, baked beans, roti potatoes and yoghurt!
Took more sun and reading until about 1400 when we washed, paid up, finish packing and left Aditya with Samantha pronounced Saman-dthe.
Very long drive, horrendous traffic and Ged started to panic a bit although we reached the airport with a good 90 minutes before takeoff.
Comedy urgent search for club lounge and many many security checks.
Then at Chennai we had a farcical transit missing the chance to go out for a few hours in favour of some comedic transit fun including upsetting security by sitting on the only free seats and BA having to go through the motions of taking us back in baggage wise and reissuing our boarding passes.
Still we spoke some interesting folk e.g. the Norwegian businessman pulling out of Sri Lanka and a nice bloke from DHL outsourcing to Chennai.
Amazingly we and our luggage arrived home in a timely fashion.

Our Last Full Day On this Journey, At The Aditya, Including Obscene Amounts Of Food, 24 February 2011

Our album of Galle photos, all 31 of them, can be seen through the flickr album below:

001 14 Feb 2011 Cricket On The Western Ramparts Of Galle Fort P1010867

Our last full day starts early with tennis at Lighthouse – Ged prevails despite lack of strapping!
Say tearful goodbye to Prageeth, wash and take Sri Lankan breakfast of Kola Kanda with jaggery (red rice soup) & hoppers, fish, daal curry, Pol (coconut) sambal, hoppers, chicken curry and string hoppers plus juice and fruit of course and other sambals – that’s all!
Stagger back to our sweet and enjoy the sun deck.
Early evening we take massage – deep tissue for me and Aditya Signature for Daisy.

Then splendid supper of papaya and prawn salad (a little bland) followed by an amazing seafood platter just one to share and we were then so full we retired without pud.

Our other Sri Lanka photos- 79 excluded from the album – can be found through the link below:

A Day At The Aditya, On Which We Took Many A Sunset Photo, 23 February 2011

Our album of Galle photos, all 31 of them, can be seen through the flickr album below:

Rose early and Prageeth took us to Lighthouse Hotel for tennis via an unscheduled stop when is tuk tuk ran out of diesel.
Uneventful ride home, shower, and then enjoy the sundeck most of the day.
Short stroll down to beach late afternoon…

…and photograph the sunset from our sundeck – stunning.

Then some R&R before dinner, which was crab in an oriental sauce with chips and salad. Coconut banana dessert was worth the wait! Looked at photos before sleep.

Our other Sri Lanka photos- 79 excluded from the album – can be found through the link below:

Switch To Aditya, Near Galle, 22 February 2011

Our album of Galle photos, all 31 of them, can be seen through the flickr album below:

Slightly later rise and we swim rather than play tennis. Then we take a good breakfast and pack.
We say a fond goodbyes to Amal, Sanjay, Wojciech, Justyna and all.
Our driver, Ganesh, arrived early but seem to like the Frangipani atmosphere. We transferred to Aditya via Galle Fort to collect my bank card!
Check-in at Aditya – seems short of staff so we take beer and nuts and then enjoy the afternoon coming to terms with our huge suite and especially it’s sundeck.

Watched England struggle to beat the Netherlands at cricket.

We dined around 1930. Tasty beef salad and seer fish supreme, followed by rum infused chocolate flan – then “we” watched the rest of the cricket – well actually Daisy nodded off, Ged watched it.

Our other Sri Lanka photos- 79 excluded from the album – can be found through the link below:

Tennis, Cricket And Sunset At Frangipani Tree, Thalpe, Sri Lanka, 21 February 2011

Our album of Galle photos, all 31 of them, can be seen through the flickr album below:

Early rise and it is clammy. Tennis feels like real hard work – Ged wins 6-2.
Shower and take breakfast. Again enjoy the resort; read, take a little sun, share a Sri Lankan curry to fish lunch, finish Finkler, swim and then played cricket with staff and a couple of guests.
The big left-hander top scores again for the oppo at 75 or 80 of the 109. Ged gets less wally than most, takes two wickets and a catch (Michael the English guest). Ged’s team struggled to 22 for three but then Ged and Amal (who clearly has hidden depths and strength) muster 70 odd in six overs to at least make a respectable total.
Shower and then return to photograph the sunset.

Dinner of jumbo prawns with chips and salad (eventually) interrupted by darkness as our side of Olive Ridley needs a shilling in the meter . We move to the other side, then back for banana bread and ice cream and watch a bit of Oz V Zim with “M”.

Our other Sri Lanka photos- 79 excluded from the album – can be found through the link below:

More Rest & Play, Frangipani Tree, Thalpe, Sri Lanka, 20 February 2011

Our album of Galle photos, all 31 of them, can be seen through the flickr album below:

Another tough day in paradise beckons.
Ged rises mega early to see if the swarming swallows arrival of the evening is replicated in reverse in the morning – it isn’t!
Daisy and I played tennis; 5-5 – very tight game.
Then shower, breakfast, reading (When Freddie Became Jesus, then started The Finkler Question). Snack lunch of burger to share and beer to share, then more reading.
A late afternoon stroll to Wijaya for cocktails with the expats. Moscow Mules and Arak Sours.

Then tuk tuk home. No real sunset to speak of. Watch the swallows swarm as usual and then some R&R before supper.
Tiger prawns with salad and chips (switched the rice) and wine again!

Our other Sri Lanka photos- 79 excluded from the album – can be found through the link below:

Garden Cricket At the Frangipani Tree, Near Galle, Sri Lanka, As Reported On King Cricket, Plus My Journal For That Whole Day, 19 February 2011

This report for King Cricket relates to a small part of our India & Sri Lanka trip, for which the Ogblog placeholder and links can be found by clicking here or below:

India and Sri Lanka, 29 January to 26 February 2011, placeholder and links

Here is a link to the King Cricket piece, which relates to one of several games of garden cricket on that holiday – this one at the Frangipani Tree, near Galle, on 19 February:

Match report of garden cricket at the Frangipani Tree near Galle

King Cricket published the piece on 19 July 2011. Just in case the above link goes duff, I have also scraped the report to here.

Frankly, some of the comments are better than my report – it is worth reading for them. King Cricket can be like that.

Lord’s isn’t the only place where cricket and tennis intertwine

Here is my contemporaneous journal record for the whole day:

Very heavy overnight rain – some of Daisy’s things get wet – no point in even considering tennis this morning at seven – Daisy does hair drying instead.
We invent our own exercise regime.
Breakfast, reading (Kalooki Nights), lunch of grilled calamari, chips and bread! With beer.
World Cup [cricket] 2011 starts but we play our own garden version.
Five aside, Wojciech refuses to play but tennis ball cricket enables Daisy to have a go.
We make a respectable 89 for three of eight (I scored 15 in an open stand of 40 odd). We meet “Major General” Richard and his sporty son Chris (my opening partner) and daughter Millie and who knows we might meet the wife (Rosie?).
Our side loses as big fella Sanjay takes advantage of asymmetric field which helps left-hander with big hitting ability.
Even Daisy scores a run off my bowling.
More reading afterwards, followed by dinner of lamb tajine followed by chocolate ice cream washed down with a Spanish Crianza
Tough day.

Our album of Galle photos, all 31 of them, can be seen through the flickr album below:

Our other Sri Lanka photos- 79 excluded from the album – can be found through the link below:

Disappearing Soap And More, Frangipani Tree, Thalpe, Sri Lanka, 18 February 2011

Our album of Galle photos, all 31 of them, can be seen through the flickr album below:

Overnight: THE MYSTERY OF THE STRANGE DISAPPEARING SOAP!
(Squirrels crawl through the bathroom slats and take the small bars, Amal tells us!)

Amal brings us an early morning coffee and we play tennis.
We shower and take breakfast in the cool shady breezy spot where we had dinner last night.
We read, having bagged a quiet breezy spot on the lawn. We take a snack lunch of tuna sandwich with some chips and salad washed down with a beer. We read some more.
Garden cricket is not forthcoming [but it was on the subsequent days] so we swim and back up remaining photos using Wojciech’s spare laptop.
We get ready for dinner, observing the swallows that nest for the night in the coconut trees outside our room.
Huge dinner of prawn samosas, crab with rice and veg, but the centre piece was the crab. Valdavieso Sauvignon Blanc washes it down and a flourless chocolate cake is the final straw.

Our other Sri Lanka photos- 79 excluded from the album – can be found through the link below:

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