Hectic Few Weeks!

I must say, I've suddenly become so busy! Which explains why this is a short post.
Our Sri Lankan friend Rads is in town, she came last week and leaves on Friday.
So happy to see her - I get to talk in Sinhala, a language I miss a lot....and now keep forgetting due to learning Spanish.
She brought the orange lentils which were godsent since the only ones you get here are the green and black ones.
So happy she came to visit us - the first Sri Lankan to do so!

Long story short, we had our first Sri Lankan dinner party on March 27th, the day of my parents' 32nd wedding anniversary. And was it a hit! We cooked some of our favourite Sri Lankan dishes and stole some secret tips from Peter Kuruvita and it was delicious - even though I do say so myself!
We had black lentil curry, prawn curry, chicken curry, beetroot curry, cashew and pea curry, rice, rotti and an assortment of pickles and chutneys! For dessert, it was my famous carrot cake with cream cheese frosting and Peruvian key lime pie!
The diplomats and VIPs invited loved it! So much so we have a dinner invitation from one of them on Friday! So thrilled!

Not all Beaches are sweet as Peaches!

Last weekend we went to two Peruvian beaches.
I have to say, they were not beautiful at all. I am so blessed I am Sri Lankan because Sri Lanka does indeed have some of the world's most beautiful beaches. Only thing is, we don't really care or love our beaches!

After my son's doctor's appointment and a quick check up, we headed to the beach. By the way, he is healthy and way above average for his height and weight. At nearly 7 months, he is nearly 10 kilos!

We travelled on the South Panamericana highway to Pucusana (about an hour away from Lima). We stayed at the El Mirador guesthouse.
It's a quaint guesthouse with about 10 rooms atop a deserty hill. We had to be careful when we walked along the towns, the stray dogs and cats could be aggressive. I was happy I had my rabies booster shots at MASTA in London before moving to Lima.
The food was delicious! Cerviche and the seafood dishes were fresh and well-prepared. We ate too much!
Jhonny's is a good restaurant in the beach front. There is an island in front of Pucusana beach but believe me, neither is that beach any better than Pucusana itself. And most of the houses on the island are all private houses, not hotels. But anybody is free to use the (dirty) beach so you could see babies and the locals having a whale of a time even though the fish market right opposite stank to high heavens!
In addition to this, there is also a blow-hole in Pucusana which is opposite a restaurant called El Sol where we ate some delicious seafood omelettes! It was quite impressive!

Unfortunately for us, that Saturday was a massive concert, the 20th anniversary of some hotel so we were bombarded with noise, much to our chagrin. Fortunately, Josh slept well and we were the ones who had to endure it.

Having had enough, I told my husband that I needed a clean beach if he wanted to dip Josh's toes in the Pacific Ocean. I didn't want him near Pucusana beach!
So we headed to probably the most exclusive beach in South Peru.... Asia! Asia is about half an hour away from Pucusana. But Asia was not as beautiful as any Sri Lankan beach but definitely nicer and cleaner.
It's like the Peruvian beach equivalent of America's The Hamptons!
We stayed at the Hotel Asia which was a 3 star hotel with a pool.
Asia is in fact a Lima city away from Lima. At the Asia Boulevard, you get all the restaurants and stores you would normally find in Miraflores. The famous WONG supermarket (UK's equal to Waitrose) was there and a whole heap of designer clothes stores including Roxy (where I bought a pair of leather-strapped slippers)!
I bought a few nice dresses at Michelle Belau and Josh got a nice gecko shirt and shorts. My husband opted to get a leather pair of Quicksilver flip-flops! And we managed to see many SUVs on offer as we were looking to buy a car! We finally settled on the Nissan Qashqai!
So we went to Asia in reality to get some shopping done and to dip Josh's toes in a clean beach. It was his first Pacific Ocean experience and he was happy!

But seriously, I miss Sri Lanka...there is indeed no place like home, especially our beaches!

Why the hell did it have to be Mel?

Today's post is dedicated to Mel. I've been wanting to write about her for ages but it was just too difficult.
Words can't express how awfully depressing it is to know someone and then hear of their murder.
What a sad way to die.
Mel was there on the first day I met my husband but sadly, we didn't really talk. We happened to be in the same social setting and she spoke to my husband but we were never acquainted.
Nearly a year later, we found ourselves on the same whale-watching tour and we had to share a room (common for most journalists of the same gender) at the prestigious Fortress hotel in Koggala.
Compared to others in the Sri Lankan journalism sector who knew her well, I can't say Mel and I were close. We were journalist acquaintances. But somehow the person she was and the way she died really made me connect with her.
On the whale-watching tour, we shared a room and got on well! We had things to share, she talked about herself and I spoke about myself. How she was a wine journalist before anything else was quite ironic because she never drank too much alcohol! Or probably didn't drink at all even though sometimes I would catch her with the occasional glass of wine!
Moreover, what makes me think about her, is the way she understood things. She had this sharp mind, smart and witty vibe about her. She could ask the interrogative of questions and could give some of the harshest statements. I couldn't tell if she was being sarcastic or telling the truth. She had this way with words, when she spoke and when she wrote.
Either way, Mel was Mel.
You could spot her in a crowd. We weren't close because there were several already known to her. I thought I would be just another journalist friend but back then, considering my husband's then position at the British High Commission, she was one of the first to commend our new relationship. She even mentioned in a Facebook comment what a wonderful thing it was that we donated blood for our birthdays!
Mel was also fair. She never believed in all the freebies people misuse and take for granted in journalism. Getting something at an event was a bonus but if there was a time to pay, she would pay her way. She would never try to say 'I'm a journalist, I deserve an upgrade in business class of your airline' and that was what struck me about her!
She was honest, open and had her firm beliefs.
I just can't believe the way she died.
Living in Peru now, I was so gutted I couldn't go to the funeral. The most we did was send her father a sympathy card. And that's not enough.
In memory of Mel, I only hope we offer our young journalists the chance to do as much as she did. In a country where journalism is now mostly government propaganda, it's imperative that we inspire a better generation of journalists. Ones who would educate themselves, differentiate the good from bad and not think that the wrong thing is right!
She was one of a kind and I sorely miss her! If only I had the chance to say goodbye I would have but never did I know...!
                                              Mel at our posh Fortress hotel room! (2009)

                   Mel writing furiously all the while ignoring the good-looking guy next to her! (2009)

Write and Save a Life!

In my last post I mentioned about a baby's life I saved when I was a journalist. I want to explain the story because hopefully, if someone reads my blog and are interested in writing/journalism/reporting or just contributing a bunch of articles to social media websites, I hope this would give them some inspiration in some way.

It's not to boast and not make me a superior species of the normal journalistic, ballistic human race where sensationalism sells newspapers which overrules truth. However, I just want to say, what you write can mean saving a life, the difference between life and death and hope for a better tomorrow for someone else.

So this was the story I published back in May 2011. I was also undergoing a turbulent time in my relationship back then but the story really made me realise how much I was needed!

I interviewed this doctor who even though he was the Sri Lankan President's skin specialist, he was qualilfied in curing children with disabilities. But most Sri Lankans never knew the latter just the former.

Probably a week after the story appeared I got a call from a very good-accented English lady by the name of Mrs.Saldin asking for the doctor's number. I gave all the details I knew including the address of his clinic and what times he was in. She was happy and I never thought about it.

After about 6 months, I went back to this same doctor hoping to ask for more stories because I ran out of ideas for the health column and he and I got on well so I paid him a visit.
After I interviewed him, he told me about this lady from Badulla.

He said that she and her husband had trouble conceiving and wanted a baby so badly. They were quite well-to-do and had wealth but God hadn't blessed them with a bundle of joy. So one day, through an arrangement with someone, they went to the Kalubowila hospital in Colombo South and waited outside for 'rejected' babies. Little did they know, when they were 'given' one baby, they didn't know that his mother had rejected him because he had a disability. He had hydrocephalus (result of an imbalance between the formation and drainage of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain). It is commonly called 'Water in the Brain' because it looks as though the baby has water in his head.
Sadly, they didn't know this and when you adopt a child illegally, who can you turn to anyway? Definitely not the police!
When their foster baby was about 2 years old, the condition surfaced.
They were desperate and emotionally upset. The doctors in their area told that their adopted child would not live.

So one fine day, this article appears, and they call me for the doctor's details.
They visit the doctor whom I interviewed and he puts the baby on a course of treatment. There is surgery performed to filter out the fluid. In a few months time, the baby is hale and hearty! They are the best parents ever, in spite of being foster parents, they took in and sought to find any means necessary to save their adopted child!

When I heard this story, I just couldn't believe my ears! I mean, I was just a messenger, just a reporter but I had this one special gift - I could be a messenger and save lives!

For all my time in journalism in Sri Lanka, I never received any awards and since I worked for a government-controlled newspaper, I never thought I'd win anyway! But this was worth more than anything I've achieved in journalism -  before my marriage and baby - or even my life!

So the morale of this post is to inspire people to write!
I was a rather accidental journalist but I knew I wanted to write. I never thought I would get a job at Sri Lanka's most-read weekly newspaper and thought my articles meant nothing being all government-controlled. But this story changed everything. Now when I'm sad or disheartened, I know that there is a baby's life I saved all because of me!

So if you're out there, go and write, get anybody to publish your articles, you never know whose life you will save! Stop thinking you're not good enough or you're not qualified enough or you don't fit the bill. Just take that pen and put it to paper, tap those words from your keyboard and text those words on your iPhone! A small difference means a world of change!

Because I'm Worth It!

For the past one and half years, when I quit my job and that was not just being a journalist but giving up my beloved health column at the Sunday Observer, I thought I'll never be worth the same self I was.
In a nutshell, the column was a secret success and my baby. I would never forget the day a foster parent called me to save their foster son by asking for a telephone number of a disability-specialist doctor I interviewed. Had it not been for my article and the interview their son's life wouldn't have been saved!
That was the former me....the me I missed....!

But how wrong I was!
Not only am I worth so much as a wife but I mean the world to my son. And that's the best job ever, being a mother...! It's the most difficult, most gruelling, most difficult job in the world but it is also the most rewarding, most priceless and most wonderful job I have been so blessed to ever have.
However, I never thought that I would have an impact on people in different ways.
I met Tanya and Claire through Internations (a world-wide expat group). I thought since I'll be in Peru for 4 years, I might as well go ahead and make friends of my own....not just the ones in the diplomatic circles!
Tanya is loads of fun and Claire, I just met her once before but we got on really well. Claire is intelligent, bright and has a sharp mind. I found her so interesting...!
So I just randomly invited them over for tea last Thursday. Claire brought her lovely boyfriend Jorge too!
I never knew that inviting such a random bunch of people, they would get on like a house on fire. Jorge's attempt at English was really commendable.
And here, I was worried there would be some drama....!
I never knew that Claire felt somewhat like I do. Being an alien but still being optimistic to carry on and make an effort to be positive.
She puts her thoughts and experiences the best and you can read her post on my tea party here
Seriously, it made my day and I hope she finds it in her to be positive and think that not all expats are hoity-toity snobbish airheads! I mean there are plenty but it's the good ones, the diamonds in the roughs that make all the difference.
So I'm definitely doing another tea party....especially since they all loved my food!

Bienvenido à Perù

It's nearly 11pm and I am sitting in a plush apartment in the Miraflores district in Lima, the capital city of Peru.
Even though my last post was about how happy I was being a Londoner, life changes I tell you!
This is what you get when you get married to a diplomat, you see yourself being whisked away to Lord Knows Where and you have to deal with it! Not that I'm complaining but you get to used it I suppose over time.
The jet lag hasn't been easy to overcome and acclimatising from 5 degrees C to 25 degrees C, it's quite a turn-around. I love the heat, always have and always will but I really wasn't prepared for the climate shock of that. And here we are, the start of a four year posting in a country of the Incas and other Peruvian civilisations who made their mark on humankind.
I honestly can't complain, I tell you! Our house is big....not just big, it actually comes with a swimming pool. Wow! Yes, I know, I shouldn't really complain. And the kitchen comes with two ovens and we have a great barbeque grill outside. So tough job, being a diplomatic spouse. Okay so we had to sacrifice a lot of things, our career, our families and even our body to have diplomatic children but at the end of the day, there is a whole world of good we can do.
It's just the right attitude.

AM, the predecessor's wife is a lovely person! Had it not been for emails back and forth London to Lima, I would have panicked! My husband wasn't ambitious but we were thrown in the deep-end about the planning and preparation to Peru. Moreover, my Spanish is not really good but I have hope and optimism....I hope I can crack it even though I know Sinhala, Malay, Quranic Arabic, some French and a hint of Hindi. It's just squeezing fluent Spanish somewhere down it which would be a real tester. Ah well, I am STILL optimistic!
Speaking about the right attitude, as a diplomatic spouse, the charities you can commit to are endless. Come on, you needn't do WAG coffee mornings and cookery classes....I mean all that is important and I hear there are loads of Americans here but on the bright side, it's up to you to lead the life.
Either you shut yourself out from the locals, culture and news and mingle with expats or immerse yourself in everything that your adopted-country-for-four-years has to offer. I would personally go for the latter but I am in my late twenties and I do have a sense of adventure so yes, I'm weird!
Also, Peru has so much to give! The food is fabulous, the seafood is amazing, the pisco sours are heavenly and the art and culture is so diverse, I mean it's like unlocking the key to a new world. I feel that by moving continents, I've gone where none most of my family would ever dream about except read it in their history books or if they see it advertised in some sort of travel package. Macchu Picchu! Now how awesome is that.....! Oh well, I better stop ranting..!

All the same, if you go on about setting a better example, joy will be yours forever. Maybe that's stretching optimism too far but at the end of the day, there is more to life than being a diplomat's wife!

Start of a new blog!

A new chapter, a new life, a new blog.....!
After five years of the same sordid controversies that got me into trouble and the ones that were bound to get me into trouble, it's great to just take a back seat and laugh at how badly other people clean dirty linen in public.
I know nobody can erase the past and I wouldn't change a thing on what was said about me in the past in those other blogs but like I give a hoot...!

Fast-forward five and a half years, I see myself a wife to a diplomat and a mother to a baby boy and a resident of London. That sure was pretty fast..even for me! Like I so didn't imagine I'd be a mother in my late twenties let alone be a wife. At least I'm glad my hen do at Amuseum gave me some good memories to settle down in life and that I had some sort of career to speak of before I accepted my husband's romantic proposal.

So what can I tell about my new London life?
Well, not that I dreamed of living life here. After moving from the U.A.E. to Sri Lanka, I thought I'd ultimately end up in Colombo having worked on my dream career and a name. However, life doesn't go the way we planned, and usually gives us something better.....and I'm a firm believer in that!
But London is home now and it's super-exciting, frenetic, scary and it can be difficult to keep up with it. Colombo, on the other hand, can be moulded into what you want it to be. It can have its PMS side effects too but it is more manageable and tolerable. London, I can't understand if it's headed the right way or the wrong way. And my gosh! Londoners can be the most miserable lot in the world but at the same can be the most fun and most caring people in the world. Little bit of good, bad and the ugly for all I know.
Nevertheless, London is home (at least for the moment) and there's something special about being a Londoner that really makes your head swell with pride.
The fact that you can afford the Waitrose shopping, tolerate prepubescent kids swearing at the bus stops and pay the exorbitant taxes to feed the Queen tells that Bedlam is an equally better place to call home than London.
Though, it is the most happening city in the world and it shows so that said, I'm a Londoner now and it's just happening!