Notice how the head of my DP is in the clouds? Get it? No? *deflates*

Spent a while on Facebook browsing through friends’ profiles in search of creative cover photos.  I was a bit disappointment I didn’t come across any; except for @Rushda_’s cover– her’s was cool.

From what I did notice, about 90% of the cover photos I came across were profile or self-pics. The rest of the 10% were scenery shots.  Then again not many had activated Facebook Timeline. I suppose in time to come we’ll see some pretty neat ones pop up.

I don’t particularly like Timeline but having read Indu Nanayakkara‘s post on it, I figured- yeah, it’s going to take over anyway, so we might as well get accustomed to it.

I wanted to do something wacky with mine but I haven’t had the time to get too creative. I just scanned through my Flickr pics and put together what you see above. It isn’t the best but at least it isn’t what everyone else has got on.

Posted below are some outrageously cool and funny Facebook covers that I found off a website.

I’d given up on baking. The last time I baked was a few months back when my cousin’s birthday came up. He would constantly remind me that I’d never cooked or baked anything for him and so I decided to bake him a batch of chocolate chip cookies for his birthday.

Unfortunately, that was a disaster! The cookies tasted horrible and they were as hard as rock; not to mention I burnt my fingers in the process. Since then I decided I should just give up on baking- I’d never really been too good at it. It’s too much of a science of measuring and being accurate unlike cooking in which you can improvise and always mix something or other into a failing dinner and salvage the dish!

But with new year coming up and my little bro being back in the country, (but mostly because I didn’t have anything for my Project 365) I figured I’d give it another shot. This time I looked for a reputable cook online and searched for a chocolate cupcake recipe. A bit of Google searching later I ended up at Martha Stewart’s website. She had a pretty simple cupcake recipe that I set out to whip up! Below is an almost blow by blow picture commentary.

This is post mixing butter and sugar till fluffy, and then adding eggs one by one and blitzing it all together. That’s followed by adding the dry ingredients of flour, baking powder and salt all shifted together into the first mixture while alternating with sour cream (which in my case was yogurt and flour ’cause sour cream isn’t available in Sri Lanka).

I’ve got silicone cups but I love colourful paper liners! Since my muffin tray can hold 6 at a time I decided to use all 12 silicone cups and bake ‘em in one go- to save electricity. #greencook

Popped into the oven- it only takes 20 mins to bake. They looked too plain though… so I decided to make some icing to dress them up. I love how chocolate and citrus flavours go so well with each other. So I decided to make a tangy orange icing.

That called for grating a bit of orange rind and adding it to some butter and icing sugar and mixing it up.

With a wee bit of orange colouring, it’ll yielded a pale orange which actually looks appetizing. Next, nozzle the icing all pretty atop the cuppycakes!

Okay, so that isn’t a very neat icing job. I need to work on that…

And once it’s ready- EAT THE YUMMYLICIOUS CUPCAKES!

For the original recipe click here.

The Three Musketeers

I checked out Sri Lanka’s first 3D cinema last week. While it might have been that Three Musketeers was shot in 2D and rendered 3D later-  it just wasn’t all that brilliant. Sure, seeing famous actors pop off the screen is pretty neat (it feels like a theatre performance) but somehow several scenes still felt very 2D.

I read an article about our new 3D cinema in this Sunday’s papers- the writer raved about it. I however don’t agree with him on quite a few features. Here’s a list of pros and cons from my experience at our ‘Superior’ cinema.

Pros

- It’s pretty cheap for Rs. 600.

Cons

- It’s quite small and seats only 175 people at a time. The screen is in turn rather small as well.

3D glasses

- I missed the first 10 mins of the show because I was frantically trying to wipe a muggy finger print off the blue lense of the 3D glasses. I’m not sure if it were the guy who handed out the reusable glasses or if the process of washing them is not effective but that kinda ruins the movie experience. It’s also not the best when you already wear spectacles and have to place these over your regular pair. For some of the film I had to hold it in place. If I burst out laughing or moved, I’d have to adjust the glasses- over all constantly trying to fit them on your face isn’t much fun.

- The seats are the worst! They’re stiff and they don’t recline much. So for the length of the movie, I was sitting upright and I can tell you that isn’t very comfortable. Thankfully, the Three Musketeers was just an hour and a half long and so I didn’t have to endure much of that. Strangely though, there was no intermission…

So I’ve decided I’m not visiting the 3D cinema unless they’re screening an awesome animated movie or a film that has been shot in 3D- it’s just not worth it otherwise. You should check it out yourself though, ’cause all that said, 3D is a whole new experience. What I’d recommend is that you take a neck-rest, a backrest too if possible, facial tissues to clean the lenses and wear your contact lenses instead of glasses. If you don’t use contact lenses- bring masking tape along and tape the 3D glasses to your regular spectacles. Yup, that might help improve the movie experience.

Those are my (rather rushed) contributions to the photography campaign against gender based violence by Beyond Borders. That campaign in turn is a contribution to the Women and Media Collective‘s (WMC)16 day online campaign for the said cause.

WMC’s campaign has been quite inspiring with submissions of poetry, write ups and photography being contributed to the cause. Beyond Borders came up with the photography campaign when it was discovered that there weren’t many pictures freely available on the internet to accompany blog post on GBV.

The pictures uploaded are devoid of copyrights so they are free to be used by anyone, whenever, for anything to do with raising awareness of GBV. This can be anything from a personal blog post, to a poster or even videos.

The campaign will wrap up this Saturday but contributions are more than welcome. So if you’d like to contribute please do. In the mean time do check out the other photography contributions on the Beyond Borders blog- they’re are pretty neat and inspiring!

You sure wouldn't want to be this tree..

When CNN concentrates wholly on little ol’ Sri Lanka during the weather report– there’s reason for concern. Don’t head to the hills though; plenty of landslides predicted.

The forecast is that the following days, apart from the landslides, we will experience a terror of stormy weather; heavy rain, floods and lightning- that has in particular claimed an alarming number lives since of recent.

Last year a single bolt of lightning struck a row of houses killing 7 people at once. But more than adults there have been several reports of children being struck by lightning. I wrote an article about it last year. I recall there was a grade 2 student who was struck by lightning while riding her bicycle and another nine year old victim who was asleep in her bed at the time.

Last month my cousin was frantically stopped by some men while he was driving to Kandy in a thunder storm for a rubgy match. One of their neighbours had been struck by lightning and they asked him if he could help transport the victim to the nearest hospital. He said that the victim looked dead as they carried a limp body; visibly unconscious, up to his vehicle and placed him inside.

I think we’ve had a rise of deaths by lightning because people aren’t too concerned any more. They continue to watch TV and use electrical equipment or go outdoors during thunder storms. So I’m listing a few precautionary measures below, please read through them and do take care during the next few days.

• Keep electrical instruments disconnected from the main power supply.
• Television antennas should be disconnected from the television sets and connected to a properly installed earth rod. If this is not possible, the antenna socket should be placed close to the earth outside the house.
• As far as possible, avoid handling/touching electrical instruments like the refrigerator, electric iron, metal frame, TV, and radio.
• Find shelter in a safe place to avoid exposing yourself to the open air. If the time interval between the lightning flash and hearing thunder becomes less than 15 seconds, move quickly to a protected location as there is immediate danger of a lightning strike nearby.
• Try to avoid loitering in open areas like paddy fields, tea estates or playgrounds. Especially avoid working in open air holding metal tools like a mammoty, knife or iron rods. If this cannot be avoided, crouch down, with feet together. Footwear or a layer of any non-absorbing material, such as a plastic sheet, offers some protection against ground currents.
• Do not seek shelter under or near isolated tall trees and on high grounds. If the vicinity of a tree cannot be avoided, seek a position just beyond the spread of the foliage.
• By sitting down or lying down reduce the effective height of the body
• Avoid riding bicycles, or riding in any open vehicle such as a tractor.
• Avoid swimming or wading.
• Avoid touching or standing close to tall metal structures, wire fences and metal clothes lines.
• Limit the use of telephones when a thunderstorm is overhead.

Note: There’s no harm in using your mobile phone indoors so long as it’s isn’t plugging into an electrical socket at the time.

I popped over to Wadduwa on Saturday for some beach bumming (because Colombo beaches are teeming with large noisy families and drunk people). And I must say, Wadduwa should have an attached ‘parental advisory’ warning. But I’ll get to that in a bit.

First off, getting there. At 9.30am, Aamina, her cousin- Sarah and I assembled at the Bamba train station and tossed around suggestions as to were we’d go. Indecision led to us purchasing a ticket each to the furtherest city the next train was bound.

A ticket to Kalutara is just Rs. 35

Chugging along on the train we decided to hop off at Wadduwa. Figured we’d scout around and if it didn’t impress us, we’d take the bus to Kalutara.

Wandering around the town we met quite a few people who were friendly and helpful but terribly confused. After much asking around for bum-aroundable-beaches in the area and being given directions that took us around in circles we ended up at Saffron Beach. Just a hop and a skip away from the station. It’s a new hotel of-sorts. Now, while it’s a hotel it’s more like a cleaner, poshy-er Buba; with a well designed swimming pool and super nice staff. (They have four cabanas apparently).

They take awhile to prepare lunch so we ordered lunch before we headed the beach. Prices on the menu ranged from Rs. 300 to beyond Rs.1000.

We ordered the cheapest stuff on the menu grilled tiger prawns with garlic sauce and fries (Rs. 450) , and grilled fish with fries (Rs. 300).

And then off to the pretty beach.

Anonymity... The smiley face is apt- she's a shiny happy person anyway!

I guess during October/ November the beach is pretty calm in Wadduwa. Which makes it brilliant for swimming. So yeah, now is the time to beach bum around there.

Lunch was a bit of a surprise… The waiter first brought a large platter of tiger prawns and a generous portion of fries that was enough to feed all three of us. Next he brought the grilled fish- which could have fed an entire army! (Okay, mild exaggeration but you get the picture, right?).

Yeah, scary but satisfying *rubs tummy*

We were a little afraid about receiving the bill. Maybe we got the price wrong? There was a mention of 100g beside to the item on the menu,  maybe it was Rs. 300 for 100g? We even tried lifting the fish off the plate to gauge how much it weighed. When the bill arrived we breathed a collective sigh of relief- the price was the same as mentioned on the menu. Suffice to say we were impressed by the low cost.

It was while we were getting back that we discovered Wadduwa is poddak R-rated. It all happened on the bus. The girl (I say ‘girl’ because she looked 17) seated next to me started breast feeding her baby without the slightest reservation! In a crowded bus! Talk about awkward. Aamina noticed a couple indulging in some heavy petting and Sarah noticed another couple getting a bit hanky-panky. And that folks was all in ONE BUS! Yeah, that was one awkward bus ride back from Wadduwa.

Yes… I just wanted to use the slide show feature… *sheepish grin*

I R teh angreh NERD by =Heller45 on deviantART

I’m a bit behind with this post because it’s in response to the flurry of opinions about the awkward-phase of every generation being teenybopper-ish; that Himal, Jerry, Tulie and Halik blogged about last week.  I found them rather unfair.

I get what you mean that each generation is equally bad but you (mostly Jerry, Halik and Tulie) seem to peg the entire younger generations down as ‘teenyboppers’ while that’s far from true. While teenyboppers will exist in every generations, from medieval times to the present, there will also be the nerds- the kids who aren’t as obnoxious and so they go unnoticed.

If illustrated mathematically in a Venn diagram, what you say looks like this…

Having read all four posts, I thought back to when I was a teen- did I do any of the things you’ve mentioned? I even consulted my old diary (yes, I maintained a diary). I found zero crushes, zero party-crashing, zero alcohol and cigarettes, and zero parents thinking I’m from another planet.

Somehow as a teen the last thing on my mind was the opposite sex and trying to impress them. I didn’t think too much about my appearance; no spending hours preening in front of a mirror. My clothes were almost uniform- comfortable jeans (to run about in), t-shirt with a funny slogan and my sturdy blue converse shoes that I wore my entire teenage life (about 15 years and over. They fell apart only last year when I went on the Sinhalay Travels hike to Nitro Cave).

What did I do if I didn’t go for parties, patronise night clubs and drink myself silly so I’d feel like a grown up? I used to work till 3am on school societies’ and committees’ work, researching school projects, the senior batches often asked me to design posters, magazine covers, handle house theme designs for the sports meets. This was the only time I got strange looks from my parents- they’d wake up at that ungodly hour and tell me to stop working and go to bed.

Any other spare time was spent reading books, playing rollercoaster with my classmates, fun fund raising projects in school, endless hours of reading stuff on Encarta (an encyclopaedia CD) and playing the educational games on it, blogging and going for movies with my siblings on the weekends.

I don’t mean to sound ‘holier than thou’. I suppose there’s a lot I’ve missed out on actually. I just think it isn’t fair that you clump younger generations into a single stereotype and diss them. Diss the teenyboppers if you must but remember that’s just one pigeonhole, there are many other types of teenagers too (apart from the nerds as well); you just don’t notice them as much.

Walk into any school and you’ll find them among those teenyboppers you often see at the night clubs you patronise or Jazz Sunday. Each stereotype can be found in every generation.

So in reality the Venn diagram should look more like this (mutually exclusive stereotypes)…

So technically while Himal can’t really say the present younger generation is worse than we were, if he belonged to any stereotype apart from the teenyboppers (noting that these stereotypes can overlap as well) you can understand why he did presume that.

Addition: I just asked my mum if she thought my siblings and I were odd- in our likes, dislikes, sense of fashion and so on. Her response was- ‘No’. She added that we were un-rebellious bookish teenagers. So there you have it! Right from the older generation- what more evidence do you need?

So far I’ve been able to talk my way out of coppy situations but this time around while I was checking out how badly off my headlights were the cop strode over to his bike and wrote up a temporary-licence slip! I was with my cousin at the time and he told me that once it’s written down there’s no trying to talk your way out of it. Drat! So with my mind buzzing with how I was going to retrieve my licence, I reluctantly took the slip of paper and drove on home.

Come Monday, I woke up early and drove over to the police station at which my driving licence was being held for a ransom of Rs. 100 (with 10% tax to the post office). The line wasn’t too long and after about 15 mins of shuffling up in the queue, I handed in my temporary licence and was given a charge sheet. I then proceeded over the next queue, since the post office had a small stand just a few feet away exclusively for collection traffic violation fines. I’m not complaining of course; it sure beats another drive to the post office, paying the fine and returning to the police station to collect my licence.

Anyway, while heading over to the second queue I told off a *truck driver for trying to jump in front of me. Thrown into a tizzy, he meekly stepped aside and gave me back my spot (I’ve been feeling quite empowered what with the women’s rights project I’ve been involved in lately. Read about it here). Well, I don’t think he understood a word I said but he certainly did get the point.

Once I got my receipt I made for the 3rd floor in a hurry to be reunited with my licence. Except when I got there I found two lines, of only men (goes to show men are worse drivers), stretching across the whole room! And then something unexpected happened… the policemen around told me to head to the top of the line. I was hesitant at first but they smiled reassuringly and so I ambled directly to the desk at which a lady cop was returning all the confiscated licences. A plain clothed policeman took my receipt, located my licence, asked me to sign a register and handed me my little plastic card. No sweat.

I mumbled an uncertain ‘thank you’ and scrambled out while trying not to make eye contact with the truck driver I’d told off earlier.

The only explanation I can think of as to why they returned my licence immediately was because I was a girl. Apart from my sex, I was just like the guys in those lines- a traffic law offender and healthy enough to stand in the queue. Would this be an inequality in the system for which guys are up in arms when girls talk about equal rights? About how chivalry is reserved for women who consider themselves the weaker sex?

Then again I think men are to be blamed for creating the inequality. If they never resorted to treating women as an inferior sex then such inequalities would never have emerged. I don’t know if that mentality can be completely eradicated but as long as it exists women will require protection. Of course not all men are harasses, I just hope more men realise the nitty-gritty of the situation and stow away the ‘say bye to chivalry’ line when the subject of ♦feminism is brought up.

*Let’s assume he’s a truck driver; for easy reference.

♦I’m talking about classical feminism. Some of the more recent feminist movements have radical ideas that I certainly wouldn’t support.

The Chinese prostitutes aren’t going to like it much. Neither will the paedophiles and the beach boys; which all together makes scrapping off the visa on arrival policy a good move by the government of Sri Lanka, I’d say.

Starting today Sri Lanka will no longer be issuing visas on arrival to 76 countries. Instead visitors from these countries will have to log in through an Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) system and will have to wait for approval before they can holiday in the sunny island (though a bit too sunny these days- but I’ll save that for another post).

This also means that tourists will now have to pay for their visas. Here’s some prices I was able to find online-

It will cost the passenger US $50 (for a tourist visa with double entry for 30 days), US $60 (business visa with multiple entries for 30 days) or US $ 25 (for transit visa with single entry for seven days). The fee has to be paid online. “The ETA will be approved in minutes. In some cases it could take longer. But no application will take longer than 24 hours,” said R.M.S. Sarath Kumar, Controller (Visa).                                                                                        – ThruthDrive

I did a bit of asking around and one tour operator who’s been in the business for the past 35 years explained that it will be a huge blow for the tourism industry, but it will bounce back in a year or so. Sri Lanka is a tourist destination after all.

Personally, I think this might be a good move. While tourists help tumefy the economy they bring along a number of bugs as well.

Forcing tourists to pay up will restrict illegal immigration- we’ve got quite a number of people from the SAARC countries who find work in Sri Lanka and stay on. It should help curb Korean and other east Asian prostitutes stints here and will reduce the risk of HIV spreading in Sri Lanka. On HIV, I’m not too sure about this but, it might even help control the disease spreading among the beach boys too. And lastly child sex tourism, with the ETA system sex offenders like paedophiles will be recognised and can be denied Visas.

If the government would take all of that into consideration, the ETA system might do the country good.

Proposal- such an unglamourous word. It’s got none of the quixotic trappings of falling in love and living happily ever after.

The whole process of a marriage proposal is clinical. First you and the potential-other is sized up- what you do for living, what your family background is, any black marks earned in the past, any unsavoury habits, how you rate in the “looks” department and so on.

If each scores more positives than negatives, parents will visit each other and you two will be introduced. You’ll be scrutinized like bacteria squirming under a microscope. If you’re found to be a sort of symbiotic bacteria (as oppose to the parasitic type)- you’d have passed that round. And then if you find the potential-other agreeable, you’ll have some time to get to know them. Which isn’t half bad. The whole process of being seized up can’t be much fun; but hey, your parents end up finding you someone relatively suitable and that saves you the uncertainty of looking for your future other half yourself.

And of course, you still have the opportunity to get to know the potential-other and give them the boot if you find they are unhinged or that they pick their nose.

I however, haven’t reached part: 01 of seizing up yet. This is all of what I’ve observed with regard to the proposals my sisters have got. Yes, I’ve two older unmarried sisters of 31 and 27. So my parents have their priorities set and I, at 25, have the luxury of not dealing with proposals. Yet.

If proposals of guys who are younger than my second sister come around my mom would ask me about them but I’d say ‘no’ before she could finish. Me? Enter doomed married life? But…but… I’m too young!

Or so I thought. I think it’s a symptom of being a younger sibling. You’ve always been treated like a child and so in your mind you still are a 5 year old whose only worry is if you can finish your homework before the run of evening cartoons are screened.

But no, apparently after your mid-twenties, all the decent guys of your age group would have been taken and you’ll be left with the paltry few who no other girl wanted. THE HORROR!

So the most recent guy my mom suggested happened to be a friend of mine. You can imagine my surprise… I’d never thought of him in that way but I figured since I knew him and he is a good soul, maybe I should give it some thought. The moment my mind wandered into that uncharted territory I started hyperventilating! I kid you not! I could feel the world closing in on me!

I’m NOT ready to get married. Nu-huh! I haven’t even figured my life out as yet…

So I’m in a bit of a dilemma. What I’ve figured out so far, which I think is quite reasonable, is that I’ll consider the proposals that come my way but I’m not getting married for at least a few more years. After all, my mom and her mom got married at 27… I could carry on the tradition, right?

Argh… cursed growing-up.