Surf Report

I had my first surf lesson 2 weeks ago and I'm intending to hit the waves almost every weekend until the sea gets too rough around the end of April. I can only ride the white water at the moment, but the plan is to learn to ride a proper wave before the end of the season (hence the weekly practice sessions). At the moment I'm riding just to the left of where this dude is as it's not so crowded and the wave is a little smaller, but I'll have to try and step up and muscle my way onto the better waves soon.
My camera and mp3 player took a dive a little while ago so no tunes for me and no new photos for the blog, not until my workmate comes back from the UK bearing gifts (tax is too high here and anything electronic is poor value).
Same old, same old, working on my tan and trying not to eat any seafood or cashew / peanuts as my cholesterol has gone up due to all the oil and whatnot; apparently 15 years of vegetarianism is cancelled out by an excessive consumption of prawns, muffins and cashews.
I've got an early start tomorrow to go to the beach by ghetto bus, all for the princely sum of 1.5 pence per km. Last week I had to take the sub ghetto bus, but 40p for 50km of breathing burning brake pads may have been a step too far; I may be frugal (tight) but I'm not completely stupid. The 70 p bus has air conditioning which is deffinately worth the extra 30 p.
I'll post again once I surf a real wave, get my replacement camera or god forbid do something worth talking about. I really should check out some culture or sights of historical interest but for the moment I'll be sticking to the surf, sun and sand.

A different style of wedding

I was invited to my first Hindu wedding a couple of weeks ago. My workmate was having a traditional do and invited close to 1000 people to the ceremony at one of the biggest halls in Colombo. I had no idea what to expect and it was a little different to my bros wedding last year. As you can see it's a lot more visual than a Christian wedding and there was loud Tamil music playing for the entire 2 hours. The bride's brother acts as a sort of best man and chills with the groom during the build up. The build up lasted about an hour and a half as everyone waited for the auspicious time. Everything was very symbolic although I lost the plot fairly easily even with a wedding program giving me the order of events.
The highlight of the ceremony is the groom tying a necklace around the brides neck which I think is followed by them walking around the ceremonial fire.
Basically it is very colourful and even though it takes place on stage with a whole host of family everyone seems fairly relaxed about the whole affair except perhaps the happy couple, what with being the centre of attention and all.
The home coming happened the week after, which is like the reception, and after a couple of whiskies I was persuaded to hit the dance-floor. I tried to join in and pick up the moves, which weren't much different from those at a rave. The music is heavily percussive and the beat incredibly fast and in tempo isn't far off Drum and Base. The Sri Lankan's love to dance and the music is enjoyed by young and old alike. Definitely a good night out.