I wish you enough...

"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.

I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye."

this is something I found on facebook and wanted to keep on record because I felt that it had so much meaning.

An irreversible decision regarding reversing!

Sometimes trying to correct a minor irritant for just one person can cause suffering for many. We saw it a few years back when the roads were closed under the guise of security for the convoys of (useless) parliamentarians.

 I experienced this one more when I was driving down Jawatte Road near the area where there is a KFC and Food City outlet opposite one another.  The police were insisting that all the vehicles were reversed park into the parking slots of both these outlets.

Now you might ask what is wrong with that. After all if you are parking in any high rise parking facility you always reverse the vehicle in mainly because it helps the vehicle owner to evacuate fast in case of an emergency.

But this is the main road we are talking about.

No one reverses on the main road.

Just picture yourself driving down this main road and you decide to turn in and park your vehicle at one of these outlets. You switch on your indicator lights and then drive past the free parking bay and stop and tries to reverse into position. But the guy behind you expects you to turn in. So instead of providing room for you – which would rarely happen in Sri Lanka anyway – his vehicle is virtually kissing your boot. And now you are stuck and so is everybody else unless you abandon your visit and decide to move on. To ensure that everyone toes the line there is always two traffic cops on duty at this location.

It was only after I stepped into KFC and had a chat with an officer over there I understood why it was done.

Apparently GR passes this way every day when travelling to and fro from work. Once he has got stuck near this place as one or two vehicles was trying to reverse out. The fact that half the road was being dug up due to repairs had contributed to the jam around this place to be dense than usual.

This has led to a decree that from henceforth that all vehicles should reverse park so there won’t be any traffic jams created when they are driving out.

Of course it begs the question does that mean when a vehicle is reversing into a parking lot from a main road does NOT cause a traffic jam? I doubt it in fact I would say the traffic jam created by this would be worse.

Sadly it has contributed to one thing.  That is to reduce the footfall into both stores which in turn affect the commissions of the employees of both those establishments. 

After all we can always find another location to do some grocery shopping or eat a piece of fried chicken.  A place where they DON’T ask you to reverse park.

Bitter Sweet!

She strides into the room looking as lovely as a picture. 

She flashes a quick smile at me and takes out a single cup cake and candle out of her bag. 

She glances at me tenderly as she gently places the candle on the cake her long fingers deftly striking a match which she uses to light the candle with. 

She wraps her arm around me, rests her head on my shoulders and starts singing “Happy Birthday”  and whispers “now blow the candle out and make a wish but it can’t be about me”. 

And then she kisses me softly and walks away out of my life.

Paan Paan Good Product with a bad identity crisis!

I have heard of Paan Paan! I have seen the email advertisements they send. In fact I thought they looked pretty good and had made a mental note to go and visit it since it is very close to the area I work in. Yet – to my growing frustration – I never seemed to drive past it. At least that’s what I thought till one day one of my friends pointed out the location and I realized it was a place which I passed every day.

I had been blind to it even though it was right before my eyes. In fact there was even a sign put up which said Paan Paan. I realized that all this time I had mistaken it for some shoddy caravan outlet. Mainly because the tone of the communication I received along with the prices indicated made me expect the store to be far more modern and up market in appearance. Something similar to bread talk rather than a rundown bakery.

Definitely not your high end bakery don't you think?

Because the products they sell are definitely not what you would expect in a rundown bakery. In fact they have a lovely variety of baked products including some interesting types of bread.

The quality of the products were good

 I thought there coffee bun which had a sprinkling of coffee and chocolate was divine. The devilled tuna bun actually had real pieces of fish in it and was spicey. The best of all however was the conventional kadey paan which they make with real butter which is absolutely divine.

What a shame they did not use a better interior designer. 

What is your love language?

In fact I did not know that love had a language or that love spoke till I heard of this theory by Dr. Gary Chapman which is outlined in his book “The 5 love languages”.  It was such an illuminating theory I thought I should share it on here. The 5 love languages are:

1     1. Quality Time

2     2. Words of affirmation

3     3.Acts of service

4     4 Gifts

5     5. Physical Touch

Now the biggest obstacle to healthy relationships is when two people speak different love languages. To someone spending time with the significant other could be considered as love but sadly if to the partner love means acts of service then it is a recipe for disaster. And one could visualize a scene where he says “but how can you say I don’t care for you when I spent  all day with you?” and she says “yes but you sat there and did nothing”. Don’t you think it would be a wise thing to look at what love language our loved ones understand most. I sure am going to do so. I just wish I had heard of this many years ago things would have definitely been a helluva lot better than they are now.

InfatuaTED! delighTED! FascinaTED!

I cannot believe that I had not discovered the wonders of ted.com till now. I have found a mother lode of information and inspiration at this site. Just in case there are a few people out there like me who does not know what this site is yet let me just give a brief description. TED stands for Technology, Education and Design. They feature an amazing variety of short (roughly 15- 20 minutes) presentations by a variety of experts. For instance this particular video which I post below is number one currently and I think it is something all of us could learn from.

I have found ted to be a great way to spend the little gaps of time some time life throws at you. Because I am being educated whilst being entertained. Now who could ask for more?

Copy and Paste: Male Or Female?

FREEZER BAGS: 

They are male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.

PHOTOCOPIERS:

These are female, because once turned off; it takes a while to warm them up again.
They are an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can also wreak havoc if you push the wrong Buttons

TYRES:

Tyres are male, because they go bald easily and are often over inflated

HOT AIR BALLOONS: 

Also a male object, because to get them to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under their butt.

SPONGES:

These are female, because they are soft, squeezable and retain water.

WEB PAGES:
Female, because they're constantly being looked at and frequently getting hit on.

TRAINS: 

Definitely male, because they always use the same old lines for picking up people..

EGG TIMERS: 

Egg timers are female because, over time, all the weight shifts to the bottom..

HAMMERS: 

Male, because in the last 5000 years, they've hardly changed at all, and are occasionally handy to have around.

THE REMOTE CONTROL: 

Female. Ha! You probably thought it would be male, but consider this: It easily gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know which buttons to push, he just keeps trying