Colombo

While everyone else relaxed in the air-conditioning at Forrest and Orla's hotel, I hit the streets of Colombo for a bit of street photography, and also to find someone to photograph for my 4,000th portrait - with thanks to those of you who dropped by that day. I went down a side-street, found a smiling father with his two sons, talked a bit of football, then got taken away to be introduced to wife and baby daughter. They were all observing Ramadan and preparing the evening meal. Lots of laughs and shyness but I got my portrait. This project leads me into the most lovely of encounters. If on my own, I could easily have shared their feast.

Colombo is a mixture of old and new, the sacred and the architecturally profane. My eye was constantly being drawn to the most extraordinary juxtapositions. This was a bit of a random choice from so many. An hour spent walking and I arrived back soaked. After a shower we reconvened for some sight-seeing, using tuk-tuks to get around, timing things right to avoid getting wet in another massive thunderstorm and finding an excellent restaurant to spend our last evening with Forrest and Orla, and H and A from the States. We then made our way to the airport for different early morning flights home.

I've been thinking about the things I will most take away from this visit to Sri Lanka. It's a straightforward question to answer in terms of what they are, not so easy to put them into order. I'm going for (1) the people, (2) the wildlife, (3) the food, (4) the weather.

Everywhere we've been the people have been friendly and helpful. Sri Lankans smile a lot. It seems to be part of their culture. I imagine it's infectious. Smile at someone and they will smile back. We need more smiling in this world.

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by and conferred their love. Sorry not to have got back to anyone.

PS 

I'm posting this almost a week after the event. I've been back from Sri Lanka in my body, but my head feels like it's only just arrived. It's been somewhere else altogether for the last few days. It's more than jetlag. I've not been able to focus on anything since getting home. Since my accident I get a kind of 'brain fog' when I overdo things and this is the worst I've had in a few years. All I want to do is sleep! I think my body is simply demanding rest. The last month or so has been very full-on. I'm trying not to fight it. And not panic. It will pass.

This has reminded me how difficult it is for us to imagine different states of consciousness to the one we're currently in. A few weeks ago, working every hour of the day, creativity flowing, it seemed to be the most natural thing in the world to sustain that level of focus. It was impossible to conceive of once not having been able to do that. Right now, though, I feel the opposite. I feel like a different person. Until today, I haven't been able to focus on anything meaningful since getting back. My mind would immediately drift away. Even watching TV was a struggle. I couldn't keep my eyes open. I guess what's amazing is what it's possible to achieve when we have to, when there are deadlines, some jeopardy involved. We can keep going for a long while. But when we allow ourselves to stop it's like a switch goes off in our brain (or my brain, at least) and everything shuts down. Tiredness is a fascinating thing. I doubt it's at all well understood.