Day 29 A New Collection

Yesterday (30th Dec) before we left the Hotel in Pasikuda I thought I will gather a few corals that were lying everywhere on the beach and use them to add some glamor to our home:). I often find these basic items such as pebbles, stones, dried leaves etc used to brighten up interiors of rooms/halls to be amazingly stylish. Of course one needs a bit of creativity to get the best out of those but for now I am leaving them closer to the main entrance.

Day 28 At Centara in Pasikuda

Day 27 Pump it up!

As my Zumba instructor is away enjoying his Christmas holidays in Columbia, it was imperative that I find a good enough alternative. I tried out a new class which was totally not up to scratch and called up a few others and those did not meet my expectations. So I settled down to YouTube and so far I am loving it. I found so many cardio work outs, Zumba workouts, reduce tummy workouts etc and some of them were pretty amazing. I have now being trying those for  5 consecutive days which makes me feel pretty good thought I haven't lost any weight! I thought I will never be able find the motivation to do a 1 hour work out alone in my room but looks like I have been underestimating myself;)

In addition to the above, I have been keeping up with my movie objectives as well and watched 2 movies today- The Conjurning and The adventures of Tintin.

Day 26 Watched a sci-fi movie

I do not wish this entire blog to be about movies but 'Gravity' was a different type movie. I generally do not enjoy sci-fi movies but decided to sit through this one and I was not disappointed. Though there was hardly any storyline, it was an engaging movie that gives you glimpse of life in space. The movie emphasizes what we already know and yet it still leaves you astounded.  The countless challenges that astronauts have to deal with, the amount of skills, knowledge and the resilience required from them and the beauty and frightfulness of space were all fascinating. However I thought it was a bit silly that one astronaut-Sandra Bullock  was clueless on how to operate the control panels of the space craft and that by the time the fire alarm went off already half of the spacecraft was ablaze. I also found it very strange when Sandra bullock uses a fire extinguisher to jump through the atmosphere or did I get that wrong? I am making a mental note to double check on that. 

However I certainly enjoyed all the drama set in space! 

Day 25 It's Christmas!

This is the lunch prepared by me for Christmas day. As I don't quite celebrate Christmas and as no one in my family likes Turkey, it was a simple preparation which included only chicken. Nevertheless everyone loved it! I look forward to preparing a special dinner for 31st night. 

Day 24 Oz the Great and Powerful

As I was flipping through the TV channels today,I luckily stumbled on the movie- Oz the great and powerful. I had missed the first few minutes of the movie but I wasn't too late! It was a beautiful movie and since the last Disney movie I watched was 'Brave' which was many months ago, I was thrilled to watch this one as I am a big fan of those type of movies. The enchanted land was breathtakingly beautiful with many wondrous sights and it blooms in full color. The Oz the wizard, who is not a wizard but a simple carnival magician helps Glinda to save the land of Oz from the two wicked witches. I loved the visual effects of the movie, the story line, the magicallly bright colors and also the characters of Oz, Glinda the princess, the flying monkey and the doll. All in all it was a great movie that can powerfully sweep even  adults in to a world of fantasy and magic. 

Day 23 Decorating a Birthday Cake

Day 22 First Party of the Season

Day 21 Gift wrapping- learning new styles

Day 20 A visit to Ape Gama

I visited 'Ape Gama' last Monday-16the December. This was not a planned visit and therefore we did not have any preconceived ideas. So we were able to enjoy what it had to offer though it wasn't much at the time. I think they become fully operational after 7 when the food becomes available too. 'Ape Gama' is a replica of the ancient Sri Lankan village. It gives the visitors a sense about the village lifestyle. The simplicity of life in a village is portrayed through the simple houses and other key places in the village like the 'Kada mandiya' and 'Veda gedara' -all of them very basic and simplistic.

Day 19 Pie Crust

Today is officially my first day of the Christmas break and I had a great day relaxing, watching TV, tyding up the house etc. the things that I love doing. As I was a little behind in my blogging, I thought today would be a perfect day to get back on track. So I decided to teach my self to make that all important pie crust. Though I didn't actually get down to making it, I watched a few videos on YouTube and also read a couple of recipies and wrote down a few pointers which can be filed away in my recipie folder. I will probably try it out tomorrw. So all in all, it was a good start to my much awaited, well-earned holiday! 

Day 18 Picmonkey as a First.

Day 17 Pampering Myself

I tried out my new body polish today. It is called Grapefruit and Coconut crystal body polish. So far I am quite content with the product and my skin feels smooth and refreshed. It is still too early for comments so I shall leave that for a later date.

Day 16 Trying out Instagram

Instagram seems to be an application that has become widely popular in such a short space of some time or at least it seems that way to me as I am not using it. So today I thought i'll get my hands on this 'cool' app. 

Day 15 A Letter to the Editor

As I was browsing through the Time Asia magazine for this week I thought it might be a good idea to write a response to one of the articles as this is something I have never done. I checked out the 'Conversation' column where responses from readers are published and felt even more interested. So I picked the article about rising ADHD among younger kids in the US and wrote about how there is a lack of awareness among SL parents and teachers about psychological conditions and how such kids are marginalized in the society in this part if the world. 

Although I do not expect my response to be published, if it does, it will be a great start as I intend to write to Time Asia, occasionally from now on! 

Day 14 A Visit to House of Fashions

It is Colombo's latest department store and is claimed to be the biggest mall in south Asia with a single person ownership. So we decided we should no longer postpone visiting this new fashion hub in Colombo. Given these facts,it is hardly surprising that we had quite high expectations when we entered the place. The building, though not majestic, was quite grand from outside. We entered the car park without much hassle but once inside there was a fair bit of waiting around before we finally got to a parking slot. This was disappointing, given the magnitude of the car park and  that there were only a handful of vehicles. Once we stepped out we noticed that there were no sign posts indicating directions to an entrance. 'This way' said one security personnel and we headed in the direction pointed. 'Go up the way you came' said another after a bit of slope-climbing. So we ended up walking back up to the main entrance only to learn later on that there were other more convenient entrances from the car park to the mall. 

After some tottering, we finally walked through the doors and into the mall, with a growing awareness of our conspicuously falling enthusiasm and the interiors didn't do a great job of restoring it! 

The christmas decorations were sketchy and I was not all that impressed with the way in which items were displayed. There was of course  a considerable array of clothing items, accessories, gifts etc which was a plus point. However the display and outlook which I think are extremely crucial for a department store have not been given the place of prominence they deserve. The staff seemed inadequately trained and their presence almost overbearing. I almost got shouted at for attempting to take a photograph! 

Long way to go 'House of Fashions'!  But in their defense, this is a huge venture and it is just the beginning. No doubt, they will turn things around. Perhaps, they should start with the simple concept 'customer is king'. 

Day 12 Movie Review

Nearly a week ago I set myself a target to have a move week-one of the easier and most fun targets that I have ever set for myself. I am well on track and have been watching on average 2 movies per day if I have been keeping score correctly. Continuing the trend, today I i planned to check out 'World War Z' and 'The Side Effects'. I started with 'world war z' which was quite happening at the beginning but it soon bore me. So I switched on to watch ' The Side Effects' which I found quite interesting with its unexpected twist. It is a movies about a new drug for depression that totally fails to do what it promises or at least that is what the viewer is led to believe before it takes a cometely different turn all together. The movie also draws a certain level of attention to medical practices and ethics which adds value to it other than the pure entertainment value.