The Jungle Diaries

La Petit Mort: A Jungle Diary @ The Flame Tree EstateThe French condition, “la petit mort” hung in my head as I woke up this morning, for there was a moment, as there is almost every day, when, upon waking, I could so easily fling myself back into sleep. Just like Ghandhi. “Each night, when I go to sleep, I die.”The room is dark, and cool, perfumed faintly of lavender; the

Thursday, 25 May 2023There’s something very special - in that most ordinary of ways - about walking the dog; or dogs, in my case. It’s taken a few years to understand what the exercise is really about; but I believe that both the hounds and I have now properly taught one another how to behave so we all get the most out of it. For them, it’s about going very, very slowly - so

At the barbersH.R. Managers are in their happiest pace when discussing either redundancy terms or the compensation package that will tempt you to leap across to their well-moisturized limb of corporate life, and begin, once again, the ascent up the greasy ladder. There is the salary, of course, sometimes, but not always, cut up into digestible discussable sections, each adorned wit

Now Thank We All Our GodOnce, when people still had time for, or a belief in things other than shopping or raw survival, Sundays were special. There was getting up late for one thing - very late perhaps; or not at all. Staying all day in bed was always a wicked though rarely called-upon option. That was the point: getting up when you wanted to. Even if, after that, the day was dott

Wednesday, 7th June 2023The Lovely NowAfter days and days of heady sunshine, the rain falls. As ever, spectacular. Within minutes of the monsoon deluge starting, the lawns become shallow green lakes, their surface calm obliterated every millisecond by fat cool rain drops falling like a bedtime story from heavy skies.Cool damp breezes stir and waft across the frangipani garden and i

The Pride Owl, 15th of June 2023The owl’s hoot kicked it all off. It was 5.49 am and it rang out, sonorous, low, loud but not noisy. Mellow. Rather beautiful. Almost bewitching. A thing of the night, heard in the day. Just like Gay Pride, sounding out exactly where it shouldn’t. This is June, so the season of Pride marches is lighting up so-so diary pages of many souls within t

Hand Gestures: An Alternative TutorialAt 6 am Mr Goonetilleke the Younger’s workers were already busy tapping the rubber; and as I shot past them, four dogs on a single lead, I waved a good morning.The wave I got back reminded me that hand gestures in Sri Lanka are rarely like this – of the usual kind. Simple, easy to interpret, quick to deliver.To mention “Hand Gesture” in

The kerfuffle in the kitchen The kerfuffle in the kitchen has calmed down since I (at last) remembered the old adage about too many cooks spoiling the broth. And acted upon it.Sudeth and Kasun, our (pre) existing chefs, have stepped effortlessly into the gap created by the departure of a big enchilada and the pot is set again to simmer smoothly. Two Commis chefs have joined the tea

17th August, 2023. “Thanks for the warning,” came the text from Danby this morning. The message displayed his characteristic linguistic athleticism: lean, economic, pertinent, fully fortified against any misunderstandings, whatsoever. An expatriate, living in a house of books perched above a golden beach, and surrounded by battlements of cinnamon, Danby’s honed lifestyle ough

20th August, 2023. Everyone has their thinking space: the bath, the shower, the treadmill after work. Voltaire had his bed, Dylan Thomas his shed – and I a narrow track of road weaving through jungle hills and valleys. Flame trees and palms line the edges, and beyond stetch plantations of timber, pepper, rubber - and space.A thinking space. And a very agreeable one, as I give fou