Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/NTYXC6WQDEUm4ges8

Christmas Day. The Jesus story is, I guess, proof that abstinence is not 100% effective as a birth control method. The presumably olive to brown Joseph and Mary must have been surprised with a white baby tailored to European aesthetics. They had no idea of his future role in Renaissance art.

A quiet day. I went for a morning walk through Galle Fort. It was most enjoyable. On Xmas morning it was almost deserted. Some churches were having services. The place is very original Portuguese, Dutch and English colonial. While a bit touristy with boutiques, restaurants, shops and cafes, it hasn’t been ruined. It’s easy to imagine it as it was hundreds of years ago.

The Sri Lankans don’t have Xmas as a cultural event of significance, but they do observe the holiday aspect, and they certainly cover everything with xmas baubles to cater to western tourists.

I lost my hat some days ago. When shopping for a new one the first thing that came to hand was a broad brimmed hat with a ‘Sri Lanka Cricket’ logo on the front. My obvious foreign-ness and the hat proved to be a magnet for locals, who wished to engage in cricket banter with a tourist. Problematic, as I know less than nothing about cricket, and care even less.
‘Hello sir! Where you from? You like cricket!’
‘Australia. No, it’s just my hat.’
‘Aaaah! Australia! Khawaja is very good player, Sir’
‘The Pakistan team? Is he the one with tattoos, or the big moustache? He has a big serve?’\

I am vaguely aware of Bradman, Warne, Lillie, and I think two of them are deceased. The Shane Warne circumstances confirm my belief cricket isn’t a sport, and doesn’t get you fit, just sunburnt. At elite levels, it fosters the delusion that unlimited priapic cocktails can be consumed with cocaine chasers without consequences. His companions at the time, no doubt formidably skilled in their craft, lacked a CPR certificate - you’d think that would be mandatory in their line of work.

I should have looked further and bought an unmarked hat.

The heat and especially humidity here is a bit overwhelming in the middle of the day. I feel like I’m being autoclaved. Vasectomy is a more pleasant form of sterilisation. I now know what it feels like inside my Instant Pot set to ‘high’. Chaminda has confirmed it is a bit hotter than usual. The hotel I am at (Sun House) is on a hill, and at least gets a few breezes.

Christmas dinner was a prawn curry with rice, dhal, beetroot curry (surprisingly awesome), bean curry, chilli and onion sambal and a few pickles. No wine, just water, and I was unable to turn one into the other. An enormous contrast to exactly 12 mths ago, when more water, less wine would have been wiser.

I’ll need to confine my activities to morning and afternoon. Yesterday after 4 pm it was quite pleasant.