Got word today of my start date

Today I heard from Charles that I should be in Sri Lanka for the beginning of May. Cher won't be able to join me until August so that means a few months alone without her :-( I doub't I'll post much before I go. I have some questions I am thinking about emailing to an expat living near Colombo who has a blog. I'll post them here too. The other Blog is at: http://www.srilanka.laurieashton.com/blog.htm

My questions about Sri Lanka so far are:
What does a good dinner like the one you had at the Mango Tree cost?
In India we had tiffin-wallahs, is there anything like that in Sri Lanka?
What is rent like for a furnished place in Colombo?
Have you heard of the Sri Lanka Open University, what is the word on the street, is it a respected institution?
It sounds like you go to Kandy and other places a bit, what is commuting those distances like, can you get there and back in a day and have enough time to see anything, or are the roads poor and slow?

If anyone has answers to these or other suggestions please let me know :-) Rob