where the heart is

After exactly 12 months, I am on a proper vacation. By proper vacation I mean that I can do as I please, whenever I please. That may not be true in the strictest sense considering that I am part of a Sindhi family – the amount of errands to run, the people to fetch – but so far, I have been able to sleep about 12 hours every day that I have been on holiday. It is brilliant I tell you.

The above may suggest that I haven’t really been productive at all in the last 3 days I’ve been in good ol’ depressing, economically run-down Colombo, but I’ve gone for a Christmas dinner, hung out with cousins, caught up with friends over the phone, made plans, almost finished Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh and watched half of Crash. Oh yes, I have also worked on a questionnaire and a fieldwork brief – the clients never really leave you alone do they?

In the true spirit of Christmas and for the love of lists, I am going to jot down all the pros and cons of being in Sri Lanka on holiday:

Pros are being able to:
Be with family and the fabulous niece
Catch up and gossip with old friends
Smoke up
Not work (somewhat)
Catch up on sleep
Catch up on some much-needed reading and watching movies
Not spend your own money
Eat all the wonderful food; also cheap-ass alcohol
Reap the benefits of a third-world country existence i.e. high interest rates on fixed deposits, chauffeur (or as we fondly say, Driver!!), domestic helpers (maids!), and briberrrrryyyy. Wooo hooo!

Cons:
Not being able to smoke whenever I please (long term health benefit)
Low water pressure – specific to my house I think
Being away from Singapore when all the good movies are coming out
Slow Internet speeds

Since nobody apart from my not-so Internet savvy mum stays in the house when I am away, the Internet connection has lapsed (not that it was awesomely helpful before considering it was a dial-up). So now, I have to do without it. However, as it happened, while I was on the laptop and whiling it away organizing my files (technologically therapeutic), my wireless internet connection suddenly came to life! Woot. Basically some building in the area had switched on their wireless and the magic Internet waves filtered into my humble abode.

However, today, it does not seem to work. The magic appears to have disappeared. Sigh.