I have come home - how exhilerating it is!

It is just after 7 pm having completed a busy day, with a refreshing shower, three glasses of orange juice from my orange grove, and dinner, and am home alone for once with one Ridgeback Hugo Rama under the bed.

I have finally come home to stay a while. It sounds normal to most of us, but if you have been unduly and unfairly delayed from coming home for two and a half months, you will fell differently. We take our homes for granted, I now value my home, my bed, the smells and sounds around me.

Apart from the weekend I spent a few weeks ago to get accustomed to home, this is the real return if you can call it that. My sister and her family (I stayed with her after being released from hospital) are off for the holidays out of the country and the home help have all gone for avurudhu, so it was the ideal chance for me to pack my bags and also leave town!

It was an interesting episode getting back to the farm today. I had so much stuff, including 1000 oranges I had brought from Minneriya on Thursday, that I asked Amila who used to work for me in the past to help me by taking me in his new DIMO batta! It was amusing, as added to that were two bags of rice that I had milled in Minneriya, along with all my clothes, including the washing, books and papers, bedside lamp, and radio, my TV as I don't have one on the farm, and two puppies, the cutest two Ridgebacks ashen colored born on Park Road, a very unusual color, which I will hopefully get some photos to upload soon. My crutches and wheel chair added to this lot actually filled the vehicle.

My caregiver and attendant, the most important person these days that makes life bearable was missing, despite promising to be back in the morning prior to my departure. Well he had the very unusual illuck and sad news, because one grand mother died last Sunday, and he went home for the funeral on Tuesday (yes in villages they do have funerals on Tuesdays when they do not wish to keep the body and cannot afford expensive embalming) When he returned on Wednesday evening, as soon as he got to my place he got the news from his mother, that his other grandmother, his mothers mother had also just passed away enroute to the Negombo hospital in an ambulance. So he went on Friday morning promising to come on Saturday morning, saying the funeral was on Friday, and he is not aswering his phone, his way of coping with the white lie he told me, because the funeral was today Saturday. Both grandmothers live in the same village about 5 minutes walk apart, an unusual occurance now, as his father and mother are from the same village and their mutual family properties are adjoining.

So I shall take a break from the cares and worries and try to enjoy what my sorroundings can offer. I have arranged for a three wheeler to take me around for any must do jaunts, like going to the bank or taking the dogs to the vet, as I am without wheels at present and even if I had wheels as I am unable to drive and don't have a driver, I think this is the most practical option.

The three wheeler driver is the Baas (Contractor) who built my shop on the farm, and my wood burning kitchen adjoining the house and the kennels for the dogs. I cannot believe he thinks it is a better deal to drive a three wheeler and earn money that way, but I think he had some medical problems that made the earlier work too tiring for him to chose this less tiring option.

As you readers can see it is always a different day in the life of the wanna be farmer!!