Health and safety is not a prime concern in the Sri Lanka building trade; I've yet to see any steel toecap flip flops.
With building land at a premium in Colombo and this old traditional house in a state of disrepair, it was sacrificed to the gods of redevelopment; I'm still waiting to see what they put up in its place.
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Nothing much to see but there isn't much point sitting round the house all day scratching my arse. After getting home and discovering I'd been collecting tokens for the skin cancer club I hid in the shade for the rest of the day like a vampire goth.
I also played for my work's ten pin bowling team against another company. My bowling skills are almost non existent, but I went along to the practice for the crack (a laugh as opposed to freebase cocaine). During the first practice I scored 63 and 94, which is poor to say the least but not completely unexpected. Somehow on the second practice and fueled by beer I scored an unimaginable 137 and 144 beating virtually everybody else. On the strength of my last performance I was promoted to the team where I preceded to return to my previous form and failed to break a century; I don't think I'll be playing again next year.
My boss was exhibiting an old Triumph, which was one of a batch donated by the Queen to Sri Lanka after the war.
I looked for a Sunbeam Talbot as my dad's doing one up but there weren't any that old; the only Sunbeams were these two, one of which is an Alpine.
Last of my pick is this pimp Merc. I seem to be a sucker for two seaters with white wall tyres going by these pics.
Whilst visiting my sister I got left holding the baby. Lily has high jacked what was my birthday so I'll be playing second fiddle to my niece from now on; at least she has the fashion sense to rock a stripy shirt like her uncle.
Bride and groom flanked by proud parents.
The wedding was slightly unorthodox in that the bride and groom's 3 kids were christened half way through the ceremony and I had the honour of being a godparent; I wonder what age it's suitable to introduce kids to skateboarding and hip hop music?
Free lager was available to all, although I tend to think it's best not to overindulge in the vicinity of your employers.
Before coming to Sri Lanka I hadn't drunk Brandy since I was about 16 and then one sip almost made me sick. Hard liquor is drunk more than beer here and Brandy seems pretty popular, along with arrack, which is the locally produced coconut based spirit. The food was good and I had just enough brandies to aid conversation.
"Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast; for it is the number of man; and his number is 666" Book of Revelation, Chapter 13, Verse 8.
These posters were stuck to the wall of the cemetery I passed on the way home; probably something to do with condemning the terrorists.
The Jeeps were pretty funky and would cost an absolute fortune here in Sri Lanka with the import tax somewhere around 300 or 400%; I'm sticking to my mountain bike and 3 wheel taxis for now. There was also a mountain bike course but I didn't fancy it in my flip flops.
The event attracted an affluent crowd so there was plenty of catering for the spectators, although unlike England there was no beer tent.
The whole thing was situated in the grounds of what I think is an apartment complex. There were also people competing in some sort of rowing competition and a golf course in the background. I hung around for about 45 minutes but as I'm not a lizard and there wasn't much shade decided to head back home before I was cooked.
On the way home I passed the most ghetto shop ever. There are junk shops in most countries but this was more of a "rubbish found at the side of the road" shop. If anyone needs an odd damaged wheel disc, a used flask, or one of an assortment of damaged or broken car parts let me know and I'll pick it up for you. I can also lay my hands on virtually unlimited supplies of broken computer parts and electrical items, which appear to have no value whatsoever but are still displayed for sale in numerous locations.
The day after the gig I skipped town (and country) and made the flight to Singapore from Brisbane. The first night in Singapore I sat in a bar and watched a football match that I can't remember now. The next day I went into the city. I resisted the urge to spend money and went to find the skatepark.
The skatepark was right in the middle of the city with tower-blocks on all sides. I'd intended to get my skate on, but they were holding a contest that day. The bmxing was on first so I waited around for the skateboarding. The standard of skateboarding was pretty high and the locals weren't fazed by the humidity, which is virtually the same as Sri Lanka. It was overcast but I still managed to get burnt whilst sat around watching the contest and drinking a beer.
On my way back to the hostel I came across a couple more contests; one was for scratch djs and the other was some sort of street dance. The dancing was cheesy but the scratch djs weren't bad. The corporations have figured out they can sell pretty much anything off the back of street culture. It's kind of weird now the underground is overground.
That was the end of my hols and I flew back to Sri Lanka the following day. The strange thing was that coming back into Sri Lanka felt like coming home, but then I guess that's what it is for the moment.
The park was fun for a couple of hours but I decided to head to Brisbane the next day.
This place looked sick but the bowls are bigger than they look. I messed about in the shallow end at the top right of the picture and carved around the bigger bowl a couple of times.
I'd visited this park the day before and headed back after I'd skated the bowls as it was the funnest park I'd visited on the whole trip
It was quite spread out but it was so smooth you didn't loose any speed.
Transitions, hips, Wembly gap, it had a bit of everything.
It even had a sweet bowl that was between 5 and 7 foot deep that was really fun to pump around.
I'm defo old school now as I spent more time carving and less time flipping.
It was a pretty large project to take on. They had professionals in to do the groundwork, bricklaying and fit some of the services but Trevor and his son in law Brian did most of the rest.
Australian buildings have bigger rooms than in the UK and the ceilings are 3 m high to reduce the heat.
Somewhere between the trees is a lake that makes up part of the 40 acre garden.
The pool is huge and it was scary enough just hitting the tiles below the lip; I'm a little long in the tooth to master a beast of this size.
The rest of the park is fun just to carve around; I hardly did any real tricks but had a blast on my last day in Sydney.
There was a huge skatepark at the Sydney Olympic Park, although as it was bike day I couldn't skate.
The whole of Olympic Park was like a ghost town, which was pretty weird. They do hold big matches there but I guess there are probably more stadiums and facilities there than any city could need outside of the Olympic games.
Manly beach in the rain; there are signs advising you not to swim after a storm due to pollution being washed into the sea from the drains.
Another obligatory tourist photo, of the Sydney Harbour Bridge during the day
and at night.
