Preparation for Sri Lanka

14 February 2010- Happy Valentine's Day
Sunday
Getting ready for my first venture overseas with OAT to Sri Lanka and Southern India- and I'm ready to get away from the cold and snow. The snow got me this year- only a foot or so, but took out one of the Moraine locusts- bad part is it also took the swimming pool fence and the pool cover probably but I'll worry about that when the thaw sets in- which it has- partially. Just enough to cause ice damming on the roof over the dining room part of the kitchen so the water has backed up under the shingles and there is a leak over the kitchen window with deteriorating wall- but paper holding it together. And in the midst of this I get a call from OAT to say I am no longer flying Air India direct to Mumbai-Chennai-Colombo- but will be going British air to London and Sri Lanka Air to Colombo arriving at 225 am. Of course, they did not include the itinerary in the email they sent, and the thaw was also affecting the computer cable so it took a few phone calls to get and print out my new itinerary. Later OAT called to let me know I would have a day room at the Ramada in Colombo- so the adventure begins. But at least the send off went well- provided a ham for lunch for the office while I showed my photos of Northern India and , got the top rating from the boss for my performance last year (as he asked with a straight face "Aren't your travels getting closer together?" Then a 2 hour interactive session with the students. Now it's time to put stuff in the bag and do the final checks- you'd think I'd have a checklist by now.