Recently In The Sri Lankan Blogosphere...

The delicious mixture of ingredients and herbs and spices that is the SL blogosphere continues to captivate and mesmerise many of us. It's a veritable mixture of tasty things, like a Kottu or an Achcharu.

It must be the festive season kicking into place but there have been a few posts about food and shoes in the past weeks. I'm not sure that shoes have much to do with Christmas but I suppose Santa, or Secret Snow Person as he's now known, does put the presents in a stocking.

T, over at Midnight Margaritas has been stuffing herself silly with Sri Lankan cutlets, bagels and iced coffee. Everyone's favourite domestic Goddess, who needs no introduction has been baking chocolate things that have been making all of us hungry. She's been using ramekins, which I thought was the name of that German industrial punk band, but turns out they're those little crinkly dish things.

Lady Luck has been doing exams, watching TV and getting disappointed by Iranian comedians. I shared her disappointment at Omid Djalili but still find myself laughing at one joke in which he compared British humour to the Iranian variety

"To you an Englishman, an Irishman and a Scotsman is the start of a joke, to us it's a hostage situation."

It's old, I've heard it before but it made me laugh.

There was a big fight that I heard about too. Not the one that everyone is aware of between Sittingnut and Indi, which Indi hasn't really got involved in. Frankly I think Mr Sittingnut should put up or shut up, preferably the latter. No the fight I'm referring to is the big one that took place somewhere up in the hills. It involved one Mr Java Jones, a Leech, some Mosquitos and some dogs.

Java had got a little bit lost and was trying to find his bearings when, as if from nowhere, a menacing gang approached him. Our hero didn't get time to count the number of assailants but he identified at least one Leech and one Mosquito in the throng. He fought bravely though, aided by his trusty canine companions and the gang fled, almost empty handed. If you do see a Leech and a Mozzie, one wearing a Barefoot sarong and the other carrying a packet of king size Rizlas please contact your local Police. You can read more about it here.

What else? Ah yes. Cerno's captivating series on the signs, grafitti and street graphics on display in Sri Lanka continues with this, a prime candidate for the best and funniest restaurant sign and name in the Country. I have to confess that I drove past this place a few months ago and really did look at it and think that it was a restaurant that only sold casserole. Little did I realise it was the name of the place. I imagined that I'd walk in and see a multitude of varieties of the dish, to be able to take my pick.

A couple of posts related to identity and accents caught my eye, as they're subjects that always interest me. Confab's one about accents cand be read here and T's one about being Sri Lankan looked to have got a few people debating en mass. Confab's made me think how much I admire these fellows who can actually write accents, so that the reader suddenly finds himself reading with a Northern accent, or whatever is chosen. It's a talent I'd like to learn but the best I can come up with is merely a good Sri Lankan "Vut to dooo?", which I learnt from Cerno anyway.

Over at West Country Life the missing Sri Lanka continues as our Bea pines for Parippu. I should start a list of the many different spelling of "Dhal" that I've seen, none of which I know as the definitive and correct version. So far there is dhal, dhall, dahl and dahll. I bet the young Roald had so many problems at school. Let me know if you have any extra ones. Either way we all love the stuff.

Temple Trees saw El Pres celebrating his birthday in his usual reserved style. A quiet and hilarious reflection on his many achievements was all that was needed and then he got on with life and building peace.

Indyana has very sadly said goodbye to blogging for personal reasons. With my hand on my heart I wish her well and hope she can sort out whatever things she needs to and can return to telling us about it.

That's about it for now. If I've forgotten you, well tough.

RD