Good Restaurant(s) but Really Bad Situation:

Well I was out with some friends the other day and as we are all foodies the conversation got around to food. And of course somewhere down the line the discussion led to how unhygienic some of the so called “posh” restaurants were. Here are three horror stories which I wanted to share.

Gallery Café. Even though I have not had a proper meal there for a long time I step in frequently for coffee and dessert. Well it seems that there was a cockroach in the meal my friends parents were served there once. But what is worse is when they pointed it out to the chef and the manager they had been quite rude about it and even suggested that the cockroach had somehow flown over the wall and landed into the food.

A lady who was eating Salad at the Hilton nearly swallowed a worm with a forkful of rocket lettuce she was about to swallow. Fortunately someone saw the worm dangling and decided to stop her.

And finally I heard from a highly trust worthy source the gelato ice cream parlor at Odel was inspected by the CMC and they found the ice cream contaminated with the e-coli virus.

Well guess it seems that it is not only the cheap things which are no good in these so called Fine Dining restaurants. So be careful very very careful. Apparently the only hygienic and clean kitchen in Sri Lanka is supposed to be at the Airforce mess in thunmulla. 

Merv the Pervs foray in to the tea trade

Maybe I better use the word furore! Because somehow it seems more apt.

Remember a couple of weeks ago there was a crisis in the tea auctions? The average price of a kilo of tea went down by 10 – 20 rupees thereby depriving the country of over 100 million rupees of foreign revenue. I don’t believe the newspapers carried the real story behind these events. If they did I did not see them. So here goes. Apparently Merv the perv had wanted to get the transportation contract of Sri Lanka’s largest tea buyer. In order to encourage them to give him the contract he had been strong arming the Muslim owners of the company by making it difficult for their containers to move around. In fact I heard that one of the store managers of this company had been kidnapped too. As a symbol of protest – as well as because they were unable to transport the goods - the owners of the company had refrained from buying at the tea auctions for one day resulting in this sad situation. Fortunately sanity prevailed and more powerful people got involved and this situation was brought under control. But it is indeed sad to see the state of the society we live in.

New cool and interesting places to stay in Colombo!

I was looking for some digs for one of my friends visiting Sri Lanka in December and was amazed to find the new mid priced (Roughly 70 U.S Dollars) accommodations Colombo had to offer. I just thought I should share/save them on here for future reference though a simple search through trip advisor would yield the same results. Tripadvisor! What a great invention. These were some of the places I discovered.

Lakelodge down Alvis place. Casasusana in believe it or not Galle Face courts on top of German Restaurant. A place I have been frequenting so much without realizing there was a hotel right above my head. And of course Colombo haven which is situated near the Carnival ice cream parlor on the Galle Road.

Colombo Haven had such great reviews that I suggested to my friend he stays there and I am relieved to say it lived up to its reputation. My friend was gushing with praise about how good and friendly they were. And what an enjoyable time he had.

There were also two properties which were getting lambasted by clients. One was the Colombo City Hotel just outside WTC and the other a place called Ranjiths Ambalama? I have not been able to figure out where it is situated yet though it is supposed to be somewhere down Torrington Avenue. You have to see the reviews to believe how terrible these people have been! In fact if not for the negative reviews I would have suggested Colombo City Hotel as the first choice to my friend.

Isn’t this a great example of the power of the information age where bad service and cheating cannot be kept under wraps.

More power to those of us who are on the net and take the trouble and effort to share our experiences.

I couldn't post this on Facebook!

Interview for a CEO

A Large Australian Company advertised for a CEO, but only had one applicant,
whom they weren't enthused about, and so decided to give him a test
Irish Math Test
A Irishman wants a job, but the company won't hire him until he passes a little math test.
Here is your first question, the Chairman said. "Without using numbers, represent the number 9."
"Without numbers?" The Irishman says? "Dat is easy." And proceeds to draw three trees.
"What's this?" the Chairman asks.


"Have you ain't got no brain? Tree and tree plus tree makes 9" says the Irishman.

"Fair enough," says the Chairman. "Here's your second question. Use the
same rules, but this time the number is 99."

The Irishman stares into space for a while, then picks up the picture that
he has just drawn and makes a smudge on each tree... "Ere you go."

The boss scratches his head and says, "How on earth do you get that to represent 99?"
"Each of da trees is dirty now. So, it's dirty tree, and dirty tree, plus dirty tree. Dat makes 99."
The Chairman is getting worried that he's going to actually have to hire this Irishman, so he says, "All right, last question. Same rules again, but represent the number 100."

The Chairman looks at the attempt. "You must be nuts if you think that represents a hundred!"

The Irishman leans forward and points to the marks at the base of each tree and whispers, "A little dog come along and poop by each tree.
So now you got dirty tree and a turd, dirty tree and a turd, and dirty tree
and a turd, which makes ONE HUNDRED!"

That Irishman is now head of Qantas

The One Liners

* I asked my new girlfriend what sort of books she's
interested in,
She said: Cheque books.

*****
* The easiest way to make your old car run better, is
to check the prices of new car.
*****
* Q: What is the difference between men and pigs?

A:Pigs don't turn into men when they drink.
*****
* Q:What's the difference between a good lawyer and a
great lawyer?
A: A good lawyer knows the law. A great lawyer knows the judge.
*****
* Nurse: A beautiful woman who holds your hand for one
full minute and then expects your pulse to be normal.
*****
* Boss: We are very keen on cleanliness. Did you wipe
your feet on the mat as you came in?
New employee: Yes, sir.
Boss: We are also keen on truthfulness. There is no mat.
*****
* Q: Why dogs don't marry?

A: Because they are already leading a dog's life!
*****
* Q: What's the diff between mother & wife?
A: One woman brings you into the world crying & the other ensures
you continue to do so.
*****
* Q: Singh enters kitchen, opens sugar container, looks inside and
closes it. He does this again and again. Why?

A: Because his Doctor told him to check sugar level regularly.
*****
What's the difference between a good secretary and a personal secretary?
One says "Good morning, boss". The other says "It's morning, boss."

The need to communicate...

This picture was taken in a bungalow deep inside (35kms from the main entrance) the Wilpattu national park. If you look very closely at the picture you will realize a cell phone has been kept on a chair which has been kept on top of a ledge so that it can connect to the Dialog network in order an “incoming” call can be received. I have stayed in this bungalow before and know this for a fact. Only when I saw this did it make me realize that what a powerful need the ability to communicate is?

And I guess this need to keep in touch to connect increases by leaps and bounds when you are stuck in the middle of nowhere. It reminded me of a little bit of trivia which I gathered from Nat Geo that the human brain processes loneliness in the same area which pain is processed. That is why loneliness is such a destructive emotion. And we are coming in to the season where loneliness reaches its peak some resulting in suicide. Yes it’s the season to be jolly. Christmas!