One Day In Sri Lanka

We were heading to or returning from someplace else when the taxi turned out of a busy roundabout – suddenly several city-blocks of art appeared on a Park fence – I could barely contain myself as I asked the driver to stop and let us out!

We found out that every weekend students from a few college/university art programmes set up their work along the fence and hope for the best. They arelocated at relatively central part of the city in Viharamaha Devi Park (Victoria Park for those of us who get tongue-tied – it is walking distance to ODEL, the Museum, & the Town Hall).

The student prices are very reasonable and despite the occasional bird-dropping or attempt to ‘cover-up’ an error, the art work is well worth viewing.

Mark and I ended up purchasing several pieces from the students – We’ve put them up in our apartment at Global Towers (using heavy-duty velcro so that we don’t wreck the walls). It’s really helped to make our place feel like a home and I think, with the two of us being teachers, it feels good to be surrounded by such excellent student work!

A few Saturdays ago I got a rare chance just to go out and take photographs. It was a Poya Day so most of the stores were closed but as usual, the Flower STalls outside one of the Hindu Temples in the Wellawatta area along Galle St. were open for business.

The fragrance is wonderful as you walk by and the colours magnificent. Thankfully, these guys were fine with me taking their photo as they worked. There was much comraderie among the various stalls and a bit of competition as one group put white jasmine flowers around my neck so another group added purple flowers.

There’s a definite technique to tying the flowers onto the strings – these guys were really fast!

Hey, 2007 has rolled around… Mark and I are currently in the United Arab Emirates on holidays until we get back to the grind this weekend….

If you thought my postings have been ’spotty’ since August…I have a small excuse….

I started a new contract position for Simon Fraser University at the Open University of Sri Lanka under the Distance Education Modernization Project. It’s a short contract…which will end in early February. My official title is: Education Technologist/Instructional Designer/Multimedia Specialist – quite a mouthful but it’s actually a dream job for me as it involves some multimedia development and troubleshooting, working with Faculty to develop high calibre online courses, training sessions on multimedia, instructional design, etc, I’ve had to teach an online course and last but not least, my time is spent advising the university about online course strategies and policies.

Here are a few photos of the campus and office: