Cher giving out candy

Cher giving out candy
Originally uploaded by Rob@SFU.

Well, it has been a while since I wrote, my apologies. I've been getting ready for Cher to arrive and have been busy with work...

Interesting times here. As you're likely aware the foreign minister was assasinated on Friday night. Cher and I took of right after work to visit a resort south of town about 45K. We woke up early as Cher had only been in the country a day and was a bit jetlagged. I was flipping through the channels looking for news in English when I saw the news footage of what turned out to be the assasination. I recognized the house they were showing as it was on the street I run down each evening and was also the house next to where Laura had just moved into... I found the BBC and heard the "Top Story" of what had happened and promptly called and woke up Laura - for some reason she thought I was joking, not sure why, I'm the most serious person I know... Anyway, it was a sad event but I couldn;t help but chuckle at the situation Laura was in - sorry Laura!!

Here is how I relayed it to Shaheen...

There were actually 12 assassinations on Friday night, but of course the one is getting all the media attention. There is a bit of a funny story here though, if one can find humor in such a tragedy. Friday morning our regular driver Ravi had to take another group down south so we had a replacement driver, Gamini, the father of our office assistant. We always cringe a little when we get Gamini as he can’t handle the clutch that well. Laura refers to driving with him as “Mr. Toads Wild Ride” from Disneyland, however I feel a lot safer on any carnival ride than I do with Gamini behind the wheel! Anyway, on the way to pick me up (first) the van broke down, putting Gamini about half an hour behind as he had to return to the office to get another vehicle. I was waiting outside my apartment waiting and eventually he showed up and we left to pick up Laura who happens to live two doors down from the foreign minister. Typically she walks up to the front of the foreign ministers house to wait for us as it is easier for the van to not have to turn around on a dead-end lane. So Friday morning we are half an hour behind and when we arrive she is surrounded by police and soldiers and is in the act of explaining why she is there hanging out. We sort of laugh at the situation and leave, only to hear that later that evening the guy is assassinated! I was down south at a resort with Cher and turned on the news. It was in Sinhala but I recognized the house and when I turned to the BBC we heard the news. We weren’t sure what a state of emergency was but learned that it meant nothing to us in the south. We later heard from Charles that it was situation fairy normal in Colombo too, just lots of checkpoints and searches. 2 people were assassinated behind my apartment as well and I’m trying to figure out who they were and why they were killed. What scares us a bit is that it is reminiscent of 1983 and there is a lot of propaganda on the streets in the way of huge posters saying that the LTTE needs to be crushed etc.. I also heard a news story stating that the assassinations may have been carried out or supported by the military, this scares me even more than the LTTE as it would mean a coup may be in the works. We’re all safe and things are quiet at work.