Chathura R De Silva's blog

Skiing

2012-01-15T20:36:00.005+05:30

Just like Ice Skating, Skiing was something new for me. Again I was only watching people Skiing and watching them was fun. Swedish kids are real pros in Skiing; there were some amazing Snowboarders too :)

A kid playing on Snow

Snowboarder

A kid Skiing

Ice Skating

2012-01-14T22:54:00.001+05:30

Winter is something new for me; I've seen winter activities on TV but have never experienced any of this before.

Ice Skating on the frozen lakes in Sweden was fun and it was a brand new experience although I didn't quite get how to do Ice Skating properly.

A baby cart on Frozen lakes

Kids playing on Frozen Lakes

Colombo Night Races - 2011

2011-12-17T23:32:00.004+05:30

For the first time in Colombo, the official Night Races happened at 17th December 2011. The main event people were waiting for was the Super Car event which Dilantha Malagamuwa was participating, however the most exciting event was the evermore competitive SL-GT event packed with Evos and Subaru cars.

Dilantha Malagamuwa's Porsche 996

Lotus Car

Lamborghini

Racing Bikes

Safety Car

RedBull Air Show

2011-12-03T19:07:00.007+05:30

RedBull has organized an Air Show on 3rd December 2011 at Unawatuna. From Colombo it's over 100km away and earlier it used to take over 3 hours to travel down south, but now thanks to the newly opened Southern Expressway we were there within an hour.

Luckily the weather was all good for the Air Show and everything went well.

A beach aircraft

Helicopter doing some aerobatics

The main RedBull air craft on the show

The Melomanic Sessions

2011-11-05T11:55:00.001+05:30

The Melomanic Sessions was held at the Warehouse Project on 5th November 2011. It was in support to a patient who is suffering with major health problems.

A singer performing

Performance by CC with a singer

Bolgoda Lake

2011-10-02T19:40:00.007+05:30

Bolgoda Lake

Pictures of Bolgoda Lake from the Cabana at Officers Mess, Air Force Base - Ratmalana

Fishing Boat

A Water Kingfisher with its prey

Water Kingfisher

A Common Kingfisher with its prey

White Heron

Colombo Wall

2011-09-27T23:12:00.007+05:30

Colombo Wall, paintings done by school kids which spreads for 1 kilometer sorrounding the Beira Lake. It was opend on 27th September 2011 to mark the tourist week.

Colombo Wall

A painting - Electric Train

More creative paintings

Photographs on display

The Grid

2011-08-09T22:39:00.007+05:30

It's a dining place located in SpeedRome for the automobile enthusiasts. They have a crazy menu filled with all Formula 1 star names. Prices are bit too much but it's a convenient place to hang out and watch some games on TV with your friends.

RedBull X-Fighters - 2011

2011-07-30T23:39:00.007+05:30

RedBull X-Fighters Jam happened on 30th July 2011 for the 2nd consecutive year in Sri Lanka. Last year it was a free event and the Galle Face Green was overcrowded, maybe that's why they have charged this time. Since we paid for the so called Grand Stand tickets, I was expecting a better view, but no; the view was worse than anybody else's. We were staring at the shiny sun for most of the time and the show was not exiting as last year either.

RedBull X-Fighters Biker

Biker Performing a Stunt

A RedBull Girl

TNL OnStage 2011 - Finals

2011-07-29T23:36:00.012+05:30

The Party in the Park, that's what they called the TNL OnStage Finals this year. In the previous couple of years OnStage happened at the Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convention Center (SLECC) but this season the finals took place at "Vihara Mahadevi" Amphitheater on 29th July 2011.

A Soloist Performing

A Guitarist from a Rock Band

Lead Singer from a Rock Band

A Band Performing

Hypnotizing – Stage Background

Playing with Fire

Dampe Village

2011-07-16T21:19:00.005+05:30

Dampe Village is located near the famous Bolgoda Lake. Since its just 20 kilometers away from Colombo we went there for a day outing on 16th July 2011. The view from the hotel for the Bolgoda Lake is good, and it has a very calm environment to chill out.

Real Estate facing Bolgoda Lake

Fisherman

International Rhythm World Dancesport Championship

2011-07-03T23:51:00.010+05:30

The very 1st Sri Lanka International Rhythm World Dancesport Championship was held on 3rd July 2011 at the Grand Ballroom of Galadari Hotel – Colombo. I first had doubts getting those expensive tickets for the event but at the end it was well worth the money.

The difference between the Amateur and Professional levels compared to the other levels such as Beginner etc… was significant. Especially the Blackpool dancers put up a great show at the grand finals. Unfortunately no Sri Lankans participated in the Amateur and Professional categories but most of the Beginner, Novice and other entry level categories were filled with Sri Lankan dance couples.

Ballroom

Cha Cha – New York

A Latin Dancer

A Latin Dance couple

Ballroom dance

Hairstyle

Kebab

2011-06-14T23:23:00.003+05:30

Discovered a new place called "Kebab", but not all new discoveries are good! Kebab at Maitland Crescent is definitely one of the worst new restaurants. I was expecting some good food but this was a disaster. The salad was so dry; I felt like eating a paper serviette. And those small food containers made me feel I was traveling on a low budget airline. They got everything wrong! Cutleries were those throw away plastic pieces - who on earth give those for customers who dines at a restaurant. And yeah to make matters even worse I had a look at the soft drink can and it says... "TO BE SERVED FOR MARITIME AND ONBOARD PASSENGERS ONLY"

The worst "Kebab" - *sigh*

Rationalist Day 2011

2011-06-07T19:54:00.007+05:30

The "Rationalist Day" concept in Sri Lanka started last year and I was fortunate enough to attend that event. During the past year I got to know the people at Sri Lanka Rationalist Association (SLRA) quite well and I was invited to attend the Rationalist Day this year as well.

The "Rationalist Day 2011" was held at "Namel - Malini Punchi Theatre" like the last year but this time SLRA has decided to have it on 7th June 2011 due to many holidays and celebrations in the month of May.

Despite the really bad weather and the main speaker getting sick and not showing up, the SLRA have asked us (Secular Sri Lanka) to do a longer lecture to cope up. Mr. Hemachandra Wijesooriya, a personal level friend of the great rationalist Bertrand Russell delivered his interesting lecture to the audience. Like the last year’s event there was time for discussion and it was just as interesting as last year.

Link(s): Rationalist Day 2011 - Event Link

Salvage - Live from the Warehouse

2011-05-21T23:18:00.004+05:30

Saying bye bye to the Boring Vesak week; Salvage performed Live from the Warehouse Project - Maradana on Saturday, 21st May 2011 and the music was really good :)

Salvage

Vesak 2011

2011-05-18T23:48:00.009+05:30

In Sri Lanka, Vesak in 2011 was celebrated in a grand scale calling it the "2600th Sambuddhthwa Jayanthi". This magic number 2600 was just a FAKE used for marketing purposes. So what happens in Sri Lanka for Vesak? As for the good side there are loads of street lights, decorations and stuff and as for the bad side... it’s utter boring :(

Despite all that we went around Gangarama in Colombo-2 to see these vesak decorations, and here are some pictures...

Vesak Lanten

Gangarama Seemamalakaya

Boats on Beira Lake

Beira Lake

Boat with crew on Beira Lake

FocussEX T-Shirts

2011-05-12T21:49:00.000+05:30

Check the image below and what do you really see there in the first glance?

It a shop located in Nugegoda, just pass the junction and go towards Kohuwala. You’ll find this shop on the left hand side of the main road.

Galboda Falls

2011-04-05T21:52:00.009+05:30

Galboda is located near Hatton; we learnt that the easiest way of reaching Galboda is by Train. We went to the Fort Railway Station at 5.30am on 5th April 2010 to get the tickets. We were initially planning to get 1st Class tickets but later decided to get 2nd Class tickets. The train started at 5.50am as scheduled and we reached Galboda after a 5 hour journey without any delays.

From the Galboda railway station the waterfall is located about one or two kilometers uphill. It took nearly half an hour to walk that distance. And finally we reached our destination; the waterfall.

Galboda Waterfall

A small train at Galboda

Snorkeling

2011-03-26T23:11:00.009+05:30

Me and Dinuka were planning to go diving in Hikkaduwa since the start of this year. Due to many reasons it got postponed and finally we decided to just go Snorkeling instead of diving since Dinuka hasn't done snorkeling at Hikkaduwa before.

Meanwhile Hasini called and she said she was bored at home, so I asked her to join as I had enough space in my car. She has invited Oshani and she too joined in this journey to Hikkaduwa on 26th March 2011.

I had my snorkeling gear but they were too old and even leaking. So I went to Arpico a day before and bought 2 sets of Masks and Snorkels for approximately Rs. 4000. Without even testing at home took them to Hikka and found out those are the worst! The masks barely fit and soon as you dive water comes into the mask. My advice; don't buy snorkeling equipment from there ever!

So we had to hire masks, snorkels and fins from Hikkaduwa. And we hired a boat for 1 hour which was a little expensive. Much of the Corals are destroyed but there were beautiful fish as always. It's amazing how close you can get to those fish. Unfortunately we didn't have an underwater camera, which we'll be buying soon I hope :)

Me and Dinuka snorkeling under the boat

Boats near the rocks where the corals are located

Big screens at CR

2011-03-10T23:37:00.003+05:30

I'm not a big fan of cricket but was invited to watch the cricket match between Sri Lanka and New Zealand at CR & FC grounds by a friend who has got some extra invitations. So I went there to see the match but that's exactly what I couldn't do!

CR ground was packed by the crowd. I was expecting a more chilled out environment to watch the game but this was more like a carnival. There were big screens everywhere but couldn't really see much of the thing. So what we did was eat, talk, enjoy and occasionally shouting "yeaaaaah" with the crowd.

Air Force 60th Anniversary

2011-03-05T19:42:00.009+05:30

The 60th Anniversary celebrations of the Sri Lanka Air Force were held at Ratmalana Air Force base. I and some friends went to see the air show on Saturday 5th March 2011. Initially it was sunny but it started raining towards the end of the air show.

PT-6 Training Air Crafts

60 years in the skies

K-8 Training Jet Air Crafts

Ammo of MI-24 Helicopter

Paratroopers

A Bell 212 helicopter deploying Sri Lanka Air Force Special Forces

Alumni on Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T22:18:00.004+05:30

People may think it's definitely the wrong day to launch alumni, but do people really care about valentines' day either?

I was invited to participate for the inauguration ceremony of the Curtin Alumni chapter in Sri Lanka at the Galle Face Hotel. I wasn't expecting many people for this event but at the end of the event I saw no empty seats in the hall. On the other side of the Galle Face Hotel there were several functions organized to celebrate the Valentine's Day and I saw large number of people there despite the high price of the tickets. Well the Sri Lankans know how to spend for sure!

KIK Party

2011-01-15T01:10:00.013+05:30

The latest cola in the market KIK were planning for a Beach Party in December, but at the last minute it got called off due to bad weather. Finally they decided to have the party indoor at SLECC on 14th January 2011.

Drum performance

The drummers, dancing and music was good but there weren't enough crowd to fill the huge SLECC premises and to make things worse some local band called "Jaya Sri" started to perform and everyone started to leave the place :P

Link(s): KIK Cola

Yala - Block 2

2011-01-11T05:34:00.008+05:30

I've been to the Block 1 of Yala in 2009. That was the dry season back then. That was an ordinary visit to Yala as most of the people have experienced. But Block 2 is a totally different story; especially during its wet season.

This trip was not planned at all; I didn't know that I'll be going to Yala till Trishan called me on Sunday, 9th January 2011 morning and ask whether I would join their trip to Yala. Since I had no plans in mind I was ok with it. So myself, Trishan, Dharshana (Trishan's friend) and Dharshana's driver were the only people who were in this trip. The plan was simple; leave Colombo by Sunday evening and go to Dharashana's house at Katharagama and rest a few hours at that night before we go to Block 2 of Yala National Park the next day and return back to Colombo on Tuesday.

I wasn't sure what this Block 2 was but I remember that I covered only one part of Yala during 2009 trip. The Block 2 visit takes more than 12 hours and we need to hire 2 jeeps for the visit because the authorities won't allow entering only one jeep into Block 2. Luckily jeeps, trackers and everything were pre-arranged and I had nothing to worry. So we stayed the night at Dharshana's place and got up in the early morning for the adventure. The jeep driver we hired was "Mada Shantha" the term "Mada" comes because he is a guy who’ll put his jeep in the mud and do all the ticks. Well wasn’t a big 4x4 fan before but this was a different experience for me.

Muddy tracks of Yala - Block 2

My intention of going to Yala was to do some wildlife photography but the weather conditions were not so good. It was a gloomy day and no sunlight for the leopards to come out. Therefore I couldn’t get the photographs I was planning for but we have a good time at Yala :)

Elephants protecting their babies

Sanctus Nocte

2010-12-30T01:01:00.009+05:30

Ok, I didn't know what "Sanctus Nocte" means nor I could pronounce it properly. All I knew was there will be some music concert from the band "Salvage" which CC (a friend of a friend) will be taking part.

The event was held at "The Warehouse Project" at Maradana on 29th December 2010. The venue was an actual warehouse, but a really cool place. The music was more Christmassy than I thought but it was good :)

Salvage (CC and the crew)

A guitarist

I got to know the meaning of "Sanctus Nocte" only after the event and it turned out to be "Holy Night" *sigh*

Flash Diffuser

2010-12-29T11:57:00.008+05:30

When you want to take pictures in a low light environment your camera's built in flash pops up and it provides more than enough light to take the photograph. And when you use the flash sometimes the results go terribly wrong!

Simply the flash brightens things too much and it adds lot of bright white areas in the photos spoiling the natural colors of them. There are other ways of avoiding flash and capturing more light; you can adjust the shutter speed, aperture and ISO sensitivity, etc... but sometimes you can't reduce the shutter speed because you'll simply miss the shot. Since Shutter speed is high you have to put the aperture to the highest (e.g. f2.8) to capture more light as possible. And you won't be able to increase ISO too much because it could add noise to the image. So here is a trick I learnt; it's adding a "Flash Diffuser". You don't have to purchase one; you can just create one for you. Just see below article and see the results for yourself.
http://content.photojojo.com/diy/diy-film-container-flash-diffuser/

My camera has a built in flash and I wanted to try this trick on my camera. What was hard to find was the old white film container. No one uses old school cameras now; everyone is in the digital age. So I went to a studio and got some empty film containers for free. After coming home and checking my camera I realized that I need not to cut the film container but I can use it directly. Here is what I did; Just pop the flash and insert the flexible film container directly covering the flash and its mount. Cheap, very easy and works pretty well.

Jingle with a Bang; rather not!

2010-12-25T18:12:00.003+05:30

Well this Christmas eve we decided to head down to Blue Elephant hoping to have some good time. Yes there was a theme party there called "Jingle with a Bang" but it turned out to be pretty boring when we walked in.

Blue Elephant used to be one happening place a couple of years back but it was closed down for most of the time thereafter. I can’t even remember how I got to know about this particular party and to make things even uncomfortable I’ve never heard of the radio station that the party was sponsored of. We were thinking of going to Silk but for some wired reason we didn’t :(

Coco Citrine

2010-12-03T00:32:00.013+05:30

Have seen a new restaurant opened up at Battaramulla for about two weeks but never had time to go there, and the rain made everything even worse. "Coco Citrine" looks amazing from the outside and today I went there and the inside is even better. The location is an old house which they have converted to a restaurant and it's stunning.

It's a decent place to hang out and the food is reasonably priced compared to Coffee Bean or Barista. However I didn't see lot of items on the menu, maybe because they started only a couple of weeks back. But you can surely eat something and chill out at "Coco Citrine".

Hot Chocolate and some cookies

Link(s): Coco Citrine

KIK Launch Party

2010-12-01T20:24:00.006+05:30

Elephant House, a subsidiary of the John Keells Group has launched a new soft drink called "KIK" as a competitor for Coca Cola. The Official Launch Party was held at John Keells Head Office at 3.00pm on 1st December 2010.

Since I had no other work that day and because I was invited I thought of attending the event. Well I'm not really impressed about the drink but the launch party was good. We got free food, drinks, T-shirts and many more :)

Link(s): Get a KIK

Michelangelo

2010-11-20T23:33:00.002+05:30

You might be wondering whether I'm trying to write about the Italian artist Michelangelo; well I'm not! However I'm writing about something Italian. To be precise it's an Italian restaurant I'm writing about. Its name is Michelangelo, situated on the Nawala road Rajagiriya. This is not a very big place but the food is really good.

You'll have seen the fake Chinese and Mongolian restaurants which serves only local food but Michelangelo servers you authentic Italian food.

Sebastian Vettel - 2010 Formula 1 champion!

2010-11-14T21:21:00.005+05:30

Last year he couldn’t secure the title although he was way better than Button, and beginning of this season if I were to place a bet on Driver’s Title it would have been either Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Vettel.

For Hamilton of course things didn’t go well in the start because McLaren was not the fastest car. It was RedBull by far but for Vettel, things never went his way from the start; he was very unfortunate, reckless and he had all sort of trouble. He never led the championship in this season but in my mind I knew he could do it somehow.

Vettel scored 10 amazing poles but he won only 5 races. He was trying way too hard; if he had more patients he could have secured more wins obviously. Theoretically in my mind Hamilton had better chances of winning the championship over the two RedBull drivers because he was stable in the beginning and during the mid-season. His luck faded away for the same reason as Vettel didn’t score more wins.

Interestingly Vettel had to wait till the very last race to become the champion. Vettel did no mistake in the last two races and he surely got the reward – The prestigious Formula 1 drivers’ championship title.

On a side note, I was never a fan of Ferrari and I never liked the attitude of Fernando Alonso. And Ferrari is only the third fastest car at the end of the 2010 Formula 1 season. McLaren showed that they have matched the pace of RedBull both during qualifying and during the race. It’s clearly a good sign for McLaren in the upcoming 2011 season.

RedBull X-Fighters

2010-11-06T23:36:00.015+05:30

RedBull has organized a stunt motorbike show at Galle Face green on the 6th November 2010. Myself and couple of my friends went there to see the show. RedBull has given a massive publicity to the event and there was a huge crowd in the ground. Despite that we were able to go to the front and watch the show.

A stunt performed by a biker

Not Halloween

2010-10-31T18:19:00.003+05:30

Yes, as the heading says it wasn’t Halloween for us. It was Saturday, 30th October 2010 (a day before Halloween) and there were many Halloween theme parties in Colombo and we were supposed to go to those. We met up at Commons and chatted till 10.30 or 11.00. It wasn’t my usual crowd but a bunch of my friends who were there at my childhood. So anyway I knew it’s gonna be different to how we celebrate Halloween. So we ended up at RnB and partied there and it was nothing like a Halloween party.

Commons

2010-10-10T08:59:00.002+05:30

After higher studies, the old gang who was with me didn’t meet in a very long time, the reasons were everyone was working and we didn’t have many free days in common and of course some were not in the country as well.

Althaf was in UK for some time and he finally came back to SL, so we decided to meet up. The meeting place was Commons. It was a really nice feeling to meet the old gang. Of course everyone was not there but at least everyone on SL could get together.

Serenity

2010-09-23T09:10:00.004+05:30

Located near Awissawella, Serenity is a love at first sight. The Natural Swimming pool is the main highlight of the place. Serenity is a good place for a day outing for a small group.

Back View

Natural Swimming pool

A small waterfall

A Hut

Singapore

2010-09-12T13:35:00.006+05:30

After visiting Malaysia myself, my mother and sister came to Singapore for short tour, we were in Singapore from 7th September 2010 to 10th September 2010. Compared to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore is not very beautiful as I hope it would be. The best memory during the visit was going to Sentosa Islands.

Dolphins at Sentosa

Merlion at Sentosa

Malaysia

2010-09-12T13:33:00.007+05:30

Kuala Lumpur (KL) is a city which is not too big yet you can find most of the things there in it. I went to KL just for a holiday visit with my mother and sister. I was there from 3rd September 2010 to 7th September 2010 before leaving to Singapore. During the visit my main intention was to buy some good electronics, and of course have a nice time, so visit we visited many places in and around KL and of course Genting Highlands.

Cable cars to Genting Highlands

Petronas Twin Towers

KL Tower

Ira Handa Yata poster campaign

2010-08-26T16:18:00.004+05:30

It has been a very busy month but can’t turn down a favor asked by a good friend. Udara’s new movie is due to start on 2nd September 2010 and it’s just a week more to go. It was the day they selected to put up the posters and banners in Colombo. Though I was very busy I joined the campaign and covered the entire greater Colombo area.

We started from the Technical Junction, Maradana. Soon as we got down there we noted that all the other posters were removed and walls and everything was very clear. Despite that we started our task, and then we came to the Maradana junction and started putting up posters, before we finished posting the last set of posters police encountered us and told us not to paste posters on Maradana because there is some city cleaning project. So we went to our next location; Fort. From there onwards we faced no trouble from anyone and the task was completed better than we expected.

Link(s): www.irahandayata.com

Paintball Shooting

2010-07-03T21:44:00.006+05:30

Since we wanted to plan a team outing we decided to go for paintball shooing. Paintball shooting is a little dangerous game, but it’s really good in team building. So we have made a reservation at Excel World for this team event. We had about 11 people but 3 of them got scared and didn’t participate at the end. So we were limited to 8 people.

We were given paintball guns each loaded with 125 paintballs, a mask and a jacket. Soon after we put on the safety gear we were given instructions on the game. We could play 3 games in the given time and after each game we have to switch sides and blah blah… But the most important part was the handling of the gun. It’s operated by compressed air and a can of compressed air was fitted to each gun together with the container for paintballs. There is a safety button and a puller if the gun got jammed.

Four of us in my team went to our side as instructed and as the instructor blew the whistle we started the first game. We made an impressive start but I got shot in the mask and the game was over for me. Then there was a break for about 5 minutes and the game 2 started, we defended most of the time till the opponents ran out of ammo. Soon as I figured they were out of ammo I ran into their territory and got them surrendered. Then we quickly collected the paintballs which were on the ground and prepared for the third game. Since we knew everyone was running low on paintballs we saved the paintballs and fired fake shots. One of our team members got shot and luckily he left behind his gun. I grabbed that gun as well. And I started a little Rambo action with 2 guns in my hands and it went terribly wrong. I got shot just like in a movie, a guy comes breaking in with 2 guns shooting like crazy and gets shot :P. It was game over for me.

A paintball

Formula McLaren racing at Pannala

2010-06-13T23:44:00.034+05:30

In Sri Lanka we don’t have Formula 1 cars or GP2 cars. The best we have also cannot be compared with any of the cars mentioned above. There are couple of types of Formula cars in Sri Lanka, namely Formula Ford and Formula McLarens (LGB). Formula McLarens are powered by a 1300cc engines whereas the Formula Fords has a little more power.

The car i drove at Pannala

I got to know about a Formula training program conducting in Sri Lanka, this is the first time I have heard of such a training program conducted in Sri Lanka. The Asian Motor Racing Association (AMRC) has brought down an ex Formula 1 license holder Akbar Ebrahim to get the training done. I signed up for the program after doing some research on the trainer. The practice session was scheduled on 12th and 13th of June 2010 from 10.00am to 6.00pm on both days at the Pannala racing track. The AMRC provided us transport from SpeedRome to Pannala and the way back on both days.

Giving advice to the drivers

We the drivers got in to the bus and went to Pannala race track. It’s my first time at Pannala; most of the other drivers had previous experience at Pannala track. We arrived at Pannala late due to traffic and had couple of rain showers on the way. Luckily it wasn’t raining at Pannala but it was a cloudy day and the track was wet. As we arrived we were briefed by Mr. Akbar and the drivers were divided in to three groups because we only had 9 cars. Then the lessons started both theory and more practical. Mr. Akbar been a professional trainer gave us very useful advice. Since the Formula cars are build with the least complicated parts without the theory no one would have survived. The very first theory lesson included driving techniques like Blip to get the maximum traction from the rear wheels at corners, late breaking, in-slow out-fast and lot more. Once we were sent to the track we had to follow the safety car in the first few laps. That gave me an idea on the track. Pannala track is only 1.4 kilometers long, but it had all sort of corners, straights and so on. After the safety car went in to the pits the real practice started. I spun several times at the last corner and during the last practice on Saturday I crashed the car but myself and the car was not damaged. Saturday there were many incidents, but according to Mr. Akbar the incidents were nothing big. Sunday was the qualifying and our lap timing was taken in to account. During qualifying a somewhat serious incident happened to one of the cars. That happened at the same place where I crashed on previous day. During Qualifying 1 it was yellow flagged for 2 laps out of 5 laps for the batch I was racing. Despite that out of all 27 drivers (from all 3 batches) I was rated 7th from the lap timing on Qualifying 1. However the Qualifying 2 was a disaster for me, I again spun at the last corner and lost lot of time and couldn’t carry the pace for the next lap as well so my timing in Q2 was worse than in Q1.

Car crashes - Left: my car, Right: some other car

Then there was a simulation of a race and simulation of safety car deployment, after that each batch started the race. I started from the 4th position due to my Q2 timing. Formation lap started and I warmed up my tyres for the race, came to the grid and as the green flag waved I started my race. I had a really good start placing myself just behind the car in the 3rd position. It was a generally slow car and I managed to pass that in the first lap itself. After a couple of laps I passed the car in the 2nd position too but soon later I did a mistake and lost a position. In lap before the final lap the car in the 2nd position did a mistake and I took the maximum advantage of it. I saw the chequered flag just after the guy in 1st position. I really wished I had few more laps, at that time I was closing in on the car in the 1st position continuously.

My car before the Qualifying

We all had a good session and I’m so glad I came 2nd in my race, and I’m evermore happy with the rating I got during the Qualifying. There were some well experienced drivers as well as rookie formula drivers so overall I’m very happy with the session and specially the advices from Mr. Akbar. My body was hurting from the first day but after the 2nd day we all were exhausted. But the fun and the experience were well worth it.

Captions from the race

Race start

Link(s): http://www.amrcspeed.lk

McLaren wins the Bull fight

2010-05-30T20:03:00.004+05:30

Just finished watching the Turkish Gran Prix and what a disaster for the RedBulls. RedBulls were pretty much settled as one-two either Mark Webber or Sebastian Vettel getting the victory, but what a disaster for them when Vettel tried to overtake Webber. Vettel was constantly closing on Webber and he knew when to overtake; but did his team mate give him room? Unfortunately no and not only that, they collided and it was race over for Vettel while leaving Webber with a damaged front wing. Both McLarens passed the damaged Webber and passed the chequered flag after few laps giving a much deserved victory for Lewis Hamilton.

During qualifying both McLarens matched the pace of the RedBulls giving 2nd position for Lewis Hamilton and 4th for Jenson Button. And during the race Hamilton was keeping very closely with Webber till the first pit stop where he really shouldn’t have pitted. The pit release gave Vettel the advantage over Hamilton and his trouble was doubled. Somehow Vettel and Webber had a little dance while overtaking and gave upper hand for both McLarens. McLaren’s F-duct worked very well to keep up with the Bulls. While the RedBull’s and McLaren’s were only a second or two from each other the rest of the cars were nowhere to be found.

McLaren’s traditional rival Ferrari is lacking pace a lot and their car is not in a good shape howsoever. Meanwhile Renault has improved a lot during the past few races. But none of these teams could keep up with the RedBull’s or the McLaren’s.

Rationalist Day 2010

2010-05-18T22:56:00.013+05:30

I was quite surprised when I heard there is a group called "Rationalist Association" existed in Sri Lanka. After that one member from our group “Secular Sri Lanka” has contacted the president of the Rationalist Association and he was told that their association is organizing a day called Rationalist Day 2010.

We at Secular Sri Lanka thought of attending the event for the purpose of introducing our web site Secular Sri Lanka among the members of Rationalist Association. So I borrowed a good quality camera and a tripod from a friend to cover the event. And we have given a good publicity about this event from our website as well.

Rationalist Day - 2010

Finally the day arrived - 18th May 2010; we went to this place called “Punchi Theater” at Borella with our equipment to get the video and to present our site. I also printed some handbills to distribute among the members of the Rationalist Association. The President of the Rationalist Association in his welcome speech itself gave an extensive introduction to our website and the group. It was something I didn’t expect. Then just after the keynote speech from Professor Carlo Fonseka a member from our group introduced our group and the website to the audience. I must say the audience was very excited about the effort we have put so far. After that the Rationalist Day was pretty much in our hands, there was a time allocated for a discussion and throughout the discussion the topic discussed was a Secular Sri Lanka. This is by far the best discussion I have ever had with a bunch of professors. Long story short, we rocked Rationalist Day 2010.

Link(s): Secular Sri Lanka, Secular Sri Lanka - Alternative Link

Karting with Rookies

2010-05-09T15:28:00.009+05:30

We were planning to do this Go-Kart session for over a month, due to many reasons it got postponed. Finally we made it to the Speed Drome Go-Kart track on Sunday, 9th May 2010 around 10.30 am. It was the first time I’ve been to Speed Drome in a morning. The place was very quiet; no one else was there apart from the bunch of us.

The Karts

So I briefed my rookie friends Lahiru, Rajeev and Jo for the race. We went to the pit lane and geared up for Karting. Normally when I race with others it’s impossible to overtake because they are real pros, but the rookies have got it all wrong. They were way too wide on every corner and overtaking was just a piece of cake. I remember myself karting for the first time in the same track couple of months ago but I pushed the kart hard enough and gave a real hard time for the experienced fellows on the track. After the 10 minute session we pitted and got the timesheets, it was a complete disaster for me. My lap time was not good enough. Of course all the slow carts on the track had something to do with it but the main factor was the track temperature. The tarmac had some vapor even though it was 10.30 am. It was a cloudy day and there were no direct sun light to heat up the tarmac. However this karting session was not a competition. I was just showing the fun side of karting to my friends.

Karting at Speed Drome

Coral Sands - Hikkaduwa

2010-05-02T21:59:00.007+05:30

Corel Sands Hotel at Hikkaduwa is not a very luxurious hotel but a decent location for an outing. Below are few pictures from an outing from 1st to 2nd May 2010.

Sea View

Hotel View

Outdoor Restaurant View

Dinner Table(s)

McLaren’s have come out strong once again

2010-04-18T22:27:00.001+05:30

Having topped both Practice 1 and 2, McLaren looked strong in Friday’s practice sessions. During the Practice 3 the McLarens were placed 2nd and 4th by the RedBulls getting 1st and 3rd position. We only saw little action from Ferrari’s and the Mercedes. During the Qualifying having topped both Q1 and Q2, Lewis Hamilton impressed his fans. However the Top 10 shootout didn’t work for Hamilton that well. RedBull’s secured the Pole Position for the 4th consecutive time at Chinese Grand Prix giving Sebastian Vettel the Pole position.

It was a dramatic Grand Prix race indeed. Fernando Alonso’s “Jump Start” came out as a surprise for the well experienced driver. He was given a drive through penalty for that. Nico Rosberg, Jenson Button and Robert Kubica had the advantage on tyres and were virtually ahead of others by a very far. McLaren’s tyre strategy was again different for Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton made 4 pit stops altogether while his team mate did only two. Nico Rosberb was leading in the early part of the race gave the track position to Button because of a mistake he made. Hamilton having to battle the RedBulls, Renaults and seeing the big red Ferrari’s in his rear mirrors managed to pass the Russian newcomer Vitaly Petrov with the massive Top Speed of the powerful McLaren. He subsequently passed Kubica and Rosberg and climbed up to the second position behind team mate Button. Hamilton was catching Button but then lost time and Rosberg was catching Hamilton. Hamilton however responded with the superb last few laps and was only a second behind Button when they saw the Chequered Flag.

It was a much needed McLaren one-two win at the end. McLaren are now leading the Constructor’s championship ahead of their traditional rivals Ferrari. Jenson Button is the current driver’s championship leader. Sabastian Vettel is indeed the man to watch. But there is an interesting fact. Nico Rosberb again both out-qualifying and out-racing his team mate Michael Schumacher is currently in the 2nd place of the driver’s championship. Nothing can be predicted because it’s only the start of the season. Lot more action can be expected when the races moves to Europe.

Start of the 2010 Formula 1 season

2010-03-28T18:12:00.007+05:30

Have seen two interesting races; Bahrain and the Australian Grand Prix. In both Sebastian Vettel took the pole position with flying laps at the qualifying. But unfortunately for Vettel he couldn’t win any races even though he did amazingly well in the start of each race. Those Television commentators always talks about the reliability issues with new cars on the track but what about the RedBull car? In both races Vettel was forced to give up because of problems with his car. However his colleague’s car didn’t face any technical issues in either race.

According to the reviews there are 4 very powerful teams in this season namely Ferrari, RedBull, McLaren and Mercedes. In a media interview Lewis Hamilton has said that his car McLaren MP4-25 hasn’t got enough pace as the rival RedBulls. However having technical difficulties in the Vettel’s car McLaren did gain more points in both races.

There is another special highlight of today’s race despite for his poor qualifying result, Hamilton was chasing Robert Kubica for the 2nd position and at one moment he almost got through, but the surprisingly Hamilton came in to the Pit Lane and pushed back to fifth :( He was behind the two Ferraris for many laps and at the very last moment made contact with Mark Webber and lost another position.

Lot of changes has happened so far and I’m expecting lot of action from all the teams in the rest of the season :)

Speed Drome

2010-02-28T20:01:00.014+05:30

Speed Drome

There is an outdoor Go-Kart track located near the parliament grounds. I’ve seen it many times but have never been there. I had no plans and I called Udara to check what he was doing. He said he is near Speed Drome with Dinendre. Then I asked them to wait there till I come so we can do some karting, he called back and said you need to wear shoes and he is coming home to get his pair of shoes. I asked my sister whether she is interested to come and she said ok. Went to Udara’s place and picked up Udara and his sister Bagya. Dinendre has done some karting and he gave us basic instructions when we arrived at Speed Drome.

The ticket cost was Rs. 750 for 10 minutes, so all 5 of us got the tickets. While we were waiting we saw another group racing karts. It was faster than I expected. And they were really good at drifting at the corners. Finally it was our turn and we went to the pit lane. Soon as we walked in we were given a paper which has the set of rules that to be obeyed. Then we were given helmets and a pair of gloves for each. Then we got in to these tiny Go-Karts and some guy came and stared my Go-Kart, I was racing from the very first second. Too bad I spun while taking turns few times. Then some instructor came and told me that I need to slow down at the bends and blah blah blah...

10 minutes was way too short, I really wished I could do few more laps. This is good for a change and trust me the moment I got out of the kart I was so exhausted. Karting is fun, should do it more often :)

Karting at Speed Drome

Link(s): http://www.speedrome.lk

Box-O-Noodles

2010-02-18T22:09:00.008+05:30

Today no food at home so I decided to go out and have something for dinner. Didn’t feel like driving so I walked towards the Coffee Bean. Just before the Coffee Bean I’ve noticed this wired place couple of times but today since I was walking I managed to see it clearly, guess what I discovered... 'Box-O-Noodles'. I've heard about 'Box-O-Noodles' but didn't know where it was or what it really is; obviously it’s some to do with noodles :D.

Went inside and had a look at the menu.. funny names from top to bottom in the menu, whatever those are I decided to go with this 'Black Ninja' thing. Took about 5 minutes to prepare the food and I got it BOXED. So that’s why they call it 'Box-O-Noodles'

Box-O-Noodles

Links: Box-O-Noodles

Wadduwa

2010-01-31T12:08:00.006+05:30

So Dinuka was asking me about a hotel for him and his friends to stay not too far away from Colombo. I managed to get him a deal from a hotel at Negombo but for some reason they didn’t take it. They’ve somehow booked a hotel at Wadduwa and asked me whether I would like to join them. I initially said no because I had something planned during the last weekend of January.

The plan I had in my mind didn’t work out so I joined with Dinuka and his friends on the Wadduwa trip. We started the journey at round 10 am Saturday 30th January 2010 and straightaway went to the hotel called ‘Shalimar’. Well it’s honestly not a good place, rooms are not good and the pool was not clean. But it wasn’t a big problem for us guys. There were couple of funny things happened during the trip. The first was the welcome drink, Oh my god it was way too sweet, then the Lunch. As I know for the people who are in a Full Board package any hotel allows the guests to take the lunch buffet, but not in this hotel *sigh

The only good thing happened was the Guitar Jam. Unlike the other hotels the housekeeping didn’t bother us for the noise we made. The Guitar Jam went till early morning and it was truly awesome.

The Guitar Jam

Poker

2010-01-04T08:07:00.005+05:30

No; that's not how I celebrated the New Year. This is the card game 'Poker'. I know a friend who lost big time while playing Poker. I have never played Poker before but I was invited a couple of times to play it, finally I thought I’ll give it a shot.

Lahiru and I met over a friends place and he popped the idea on this. Then I said that I’ll be free on Sunday and the next day he called me up saying come to Rajeev's place to play Poker. First Lahiru gave me a crash course on rules and stuff. Then we started playing it. It’s mostly about guessing and you don’t really need much of a brain to play that. I'm not saying it’s not much fun but it surely is a waste of lot of time, for those who plays it for money then it’s a waste of money: P

Arugam Bay II

2009-12-27T21:41:00.006+05:30

I’ve been to Arugam Bay before in its tourist season and it’s an absolute beauty. The waves the wind and everything was so perfect. However in the raining season it’s not the case; you cannot even go out because of the rain. In the raining season it’s very hard to find a day without any rain. Thanks to a weather forecasting website I was able to find a day without any rain. It was 26th December 2009; the day is exactly 5 years after Sri Lanka was hit by the Tsunami in 2004, and surprisingly Arugam Bay is one of the very first coasts to get hit by the Tsunami in Sri Lanka.

A set of old friends of mine was planning on a trip and my initial idea was to go to Hikkaduwa and have some fun, somehow the destination happened to be ‘Siyambalanduwa’ a place where many people haven’t been to. Siyambalanduwa is closer to Arugam Bay, just 30km away to be precise. So we planned a three day trip, the route we chose was a little long. We started the journey in the early morning around 4.45am from Colombo on 25th December 2009. We were near Rathnapura by 7.00am and we went to Bambarakanda waterfall, the tallest waterfall in Sri Lanka. It was about another 40km off our route. We went to the waterfall and had breakfast there. After that we went to Diyaluma waterfall, the 2nd tallest waterfall and probably the most famous waterfall in Sri Lanka. We didn’t make a stop there like earlier because the waterfall was clearly visible from the main road.

Bambarakanda waterfall

Diyaluma waterfall

After watching the waterfalls we continued our journey to Siyambalanduwa. We stayed at Piyum’s house at Siyambalanduwa. In the first day we didn’t do anything other than watching the two tallest waterfalls. We went to bed early as we were planning to go to Arugam Bay in the next day morning. We got up early and went to Arugam Bay. The sea was not beautiful as before, there were no surfers and it was not much crowded. But fortunately my forecast on rain was correct, it was not raining and the skies were clear. December is not the season for tourists but by 11.00 am there were many local people coming to Arugam Bay especially from Colombo to enjoy their long weekend.

Arugam Bay

Since the lunch was already arranged at Piyum’s place at Siyambalanduwa we left the beach early, on our way we went to an ancient place called ‘Magul Madu Viharaya’ and headed back to Piyum’s place. Passing ‘Lahugala’ we saw a wild elephant, they were very close to the main road. First we thought we were lucky to see an elephant around but then again we saw many wild elephants on the way.

In the third and final day we visited another historical place called ‘Biso Kotuwa’ a big swimming pool of ancient times :D. The route we chose to get back to Colombo was even longer than what we used to come to Siyambalanduwa. But it was even better, we came through ‘Udawalawe National Park’. The Udawalawe National Park is a paradise for elephants. We saw about twenty individual elephants here and there.

A wild Elephant at Udawalawe National Park

It was raining heavily throughout the journey way back to Colombo; however we managed to get back safely around 7.00pm on Sunday.

Return of the Master: Schumacher

2009-12-24T08:29:00.016+05:30

The news cannot be much better for the 2010 Formula 1 Season. Michael Schumacher has returned to Formula 1 after 3 years, well he was there with Ferrari for the past 3 years as an advisor but not as a race driver.

Schumacher will be racing for Mercedes (formally known as Brawn GP) alongside Nico Rosberg; another German Formula 1 star that raced for Williams in the previous season.
There have been lots of changes in Formula 1 this time, the rules, the teams, the drivers and pretty much everything.

While Ross Brawn remains as one of the team principals, I hope Mercedes will come up with a competitive car for the 2010 season.

An Illustration of 2010 Mercedes Formula 1 car

Finally, welcome back Shumi :)

Indoor Cricket

2009-12-14T08:21:00.005+05:30

I’m not a fan of Cricket except for watching those 20 over matches. Udara asked me whether I’m interested of playing some indoor cricket. He has already booked the Indoor cricket court at Austasia and invited myself and my brother to come with them. Me and my brother were on our way for something else and luckily it finished early. So we came to Austasia.

Playing Indoor Cricket at Austasia

Indoor cricket is something different to outdoor version of cricket we know. The rules are totally upside down. However playing indoor cricket for 2 hours is quite a workout.

Batch Trip - 2009

2009-11-01T21:24:00.007+05:30

After we left school most of our batch mates got together at the Batch Re-Union, there we talked about organizing a batch trip, so it finally happened.

We booked a hotel called 'The Paradise' at Negombo just for a spend a day. Not everyone who came to the Batch Re-Union was there for the trip but most of them were present. We were planning to start the trip early as 8.00 am but we were able to leave Colombo after one hour delay, however it was not a big issue as Negombo is just 30 kilo meters away from Colombo.

We arrived at the hotel before 10.00 am and had a lot of fun till the lunch time. After the lunch nothing interesting happened since all of us were tired by then. Finally we left the hotel around 4.00 pm.

TNL OnStage 2009 - Finals

2009-11-01T03:19:00.009+05:30

TNL OnStage 2009 - Finals held at the SLECC. Like the last year a special performance was done by ‘CivilizationOne’ and it went extremely well. ‘CivilizationOne’ had to come on stage for the second time as they couldn’t ignore the demand from the crowd.

There were some bands performed equally well, the winning band was ‘Five Minutes Apart’ and the winning soloist was ‘Sam’.

A new Formula 1 champion

2009-10-18T23:42:00.007+05:30

Yes it is Jenson Button from Brawn GP, a team which did not exist 6 months back has done it. It’s not only the Drivers championship, from the constructor’s championship game Brawn GP has won the race as well.

The 2009 Formula 1 season is not over as yet, the last race of the season will be held at Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi. From the Drivers standings Sebastian Vettel and Rubens Barrichello are fighting for the second position while Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen are fighting for the fifth position. The Abu Dhabi GP will be another unique race since it’s the first ever twilight race in Formula 1.

As the end of 2009 season arrived and there isn’t much for me to celebrate my focus has already gone towards the 2010 season. For the 2010 season there will be 4 new teams joining and sadly BMW will be leaving Formula 1. Fernando Alonso will be moving to Ferrari replacing Kimi Räikkönen. Robert Kubica is moving in to Renault to fill Alonso’s position. McLaren will most probably be dropping Kovalainen and look for another driver to support Hamilton. McLaren’s former driver Räikkönen would be ideal for them but surprisingly McLaren are considering Jenson Button as a candidate too. I don’t know why McLaren would think of Button since Räikkönen is already available for them to grab. And McLaren has totally forgot it’s the magic of Brawn GP which helped Button to gain the drivers title :D

Back to playing Basketball

2009-10-12T19:01:00.008+05:30

It has been over 5 years since I haven’t played basketball. I did try once last year when Udara came back to SL. That day I almost fainted after playing for 5 minutes so that doesn’t count :D

My new RBK Basketball

I went to Reebok and got myself a new Basketball (which has Allen Iverson’s signature on it) and initiated basketball practices again. Dinuka has invited couple of his friends from school and we played some good 2 hours of basketball on Saturday, 10th October at my old place called 'The Church'

I rested the whole Sunday and even at the time of writing this my legs still hurts.

Yala

2009-10-04T23:18:00.021+05:30

I know it’s wired to say that I’ve never been to Yala before, but that’s the truth. Me and a couple of people I know planned this trip to Yala. We managed to book the hotel ‘Yala Village’ which happened to be inside the Yala jungle.

Around 5.00 am 3rd October we left Colombo towards our destination. There were two main routes to Yala from Colombo, the Coastal road and the road which goes through Rathnapura & Embilipitiya. We chose the coastal route which is about 30 kilometers longer than the other road. Around 9.00 am we reached Tangalle and stopped for breakfast. It was a poya day and most of the shops were closed, but there was a small shop opened in Tangalle where we had breakfast. After that we continued the journey to Yala. We arrived at the Yala Village hotel around 11.00 am. The hotel was indeed located inside the jungle; the rooms were separate cottage separated from the main building. Our cottage was about 40 meters away from the main building. We’ve received instructions from the reception not to step outside from the cottage after the sunset because of the wild elephants *sigh*

We checked in to the rooms unloaded the bags. After that we went to the main building for lunch. The buffet was good but I wished there were more stuff :D. We spoke to the reception and arranged the Yala Safari. The Jeep came around 2.30 pm and we went on the Safari. Somewhere down the road we stopped and the driver got down and got the tickets. They’ve allocated a guide for every 3 vehicles. There was a small museum and we took couple of snaps there.

Yala Museum - Leopard

Yala Museum - Bear

In the very beginning of the safari we saw many peacocks, dears and loads of wild boars. The Yala jungle is in the dry most part in the island. We saw lot of crocodiles eating dead buffalos. According to the driver the buffalos just come to the places where the water is and just die (super wired).

Eagle

Crocodile

Peacock

Somewhere down the road the driver has spotted a leopard and we tried to locate that for more than 10 minutes but it has vanished already.

Came back to the hotel safely and we were in the mood for a swim, it was past sunset and Yala wasn’t hot as I thought. After we got out from the swimming pool we came to the entrance of the main building to go to our cottage and guess what the wild elephant has already come and people told us not to go. We were there for a while till the elephants make a move from our cottage and quickly ran towards the cottage had a change and came back for dinner. After the dinner also the same drama, another wild elephant has come and we were stuck in the main building for some time.

In the early morning Sunday, 4th October we got up and went for breakfast. The sea is located not too far away from our cottage and we went to the beach, we again received a warning from the reception not to go to the sea as it is rough. We saw the red flag displayed on the beach so just walked here and there in the beach and came back to the cottage to watch the Formula 1 Japanese GP. Unfortunately BBC sports was not available, the only option was Star Sports with loads of lame Indian commercials.

We packed our stuff and went for lunch, after lunch we directly got in to the car and was on our way home. We stopped the car in less than 15 minutes drive because there was a giant wild elephant.

Elephant

We used the Embilipitiya, Rathnapura road to come back to Colombo. For a nature freak Yala might be thrilling but for me, well I prefer Hikkaduwa more :)

Covering the East coast

2009-09-07T23:03:00.028+05:30

I have been to Trinco about 5 years back but at that time we couldn’t enjoy much because of the situation there. After the ruthless war ended we were given the chance to visit all parts of Sri Lanka. Visiting Trinco again has been in my plans for quite a time, but for some reason I couldn’t make it happen. About three weeks back Ranga called me and asked about the Trinco trip to be planned for the long weekend in September. Since I had no plans on that weekend I agreed to go. The initial plan was just 3 days but later we changed it to 4 days which will enable us to visit more parts of the Eastern Province.

There were few friends of mine who went to Trinco recently and I called and asked them about the whereabouts. We went on a shopping round on Thursday evening to buy stuff needed for the trip.

We left Colombo at 3.00am on Friday 4th September 2009. I thought the roads will be deserted but it was not. We learnt that many people are going to Trinco just like us. We stopped near the ‘Kanthale wewa’ for breakfast and continued the journey to Trinco. It was around 7.30am when we arrived at Trinco.

Since the entire day was there for us we went to the Nilaveli beach located about 15km north to Trinco. The beach is absolutely amazing compared to the beaches down south specially the area around Pigeon Island. We took a boat to the Pigeon Island from Nilaveli and stayed there for hours. After that we went looking for a place to eat but unfortunately there weren’t any. We went further northward about 30km to see some ancient temple but the road condition was way too bad and half way through we decided to come back to Trinco and rest.

Pigeon Island from Nilaveli Coast

Pigeon Island

At around 5.30pm we went to the beach at Trinco just to see what’s there. It’s a mini Galle Face green with a better beach where people actually go for a swim. The sea is very calm it was more like a swimming pool. Since we didn’t have any proper food for lunch we went to a hotel at Trico and had a great dinner.

Saturday 5th September 2009, we got up early as 5.00am and went to a place called ‘Koneswaran Kovil’ where you can see the sun rising from the east coast. Dharshana have already organized us to visit the Tricomalee naval base, the naval base is one of the largest natural naval base in the world. We were taken to the naval museum and it was stunning.

Trincomalee Fort entrance

Cannons at Trinco Fort

Items at Naval Museum

Pre WW-II Naval Artillery

Saturday evening we were planning to visit Muttur but the boat services were overcrowded, instead of going to Muttur there was a special boat service covering most of the Trinco harbor so we decided to go on that.

View from Muttur Boat

Navy patrol boat

'Seruwila II' boat

Saturday evening also we went to the Trinco beach and chilled there for a while. Since we had to travel about 300km the next day we went to sleep early. Sunday 6th September 2009, early morning we got up and by 5.30am all of us were ready to go to Pasikuda. From Trinco if we have taken the coastal road the distance is less, but the roads were not in good condition. So we went all the way back to Habarana and from there through Polonnaruwa and Manampitiya we went to Pasikuda. The beach there was even better than in Trinco it was not deep whatsoever. After that we went to Batticaloa and had lunch. From there we went to Ampara and reached Dharshana’s cousin’s place around 4.30pm. Chilled there for a while and we were on our way to Arugam bay.

Surfing at Arugam bay

Surfing Video

Around 7.30pm we reached Pottuvil and from there we went to Arugam bay. The place was a mini Hikkaduwa with more space to breath. The hotels and guest houses were all occupied though it was the end of the season. We were on the beach chilling till 1.00am and went to sleep. Got up a little late Monday 7th September 2009 and went back to the beach. Early morning is the best to surf and the waves were ideal. If you love surfing this is the best place you’ll ever find. There were more than 50 surfers and most of them were foreigners. We had breakfast from Arugam bay and we were back to Ampara. From Ampara we took the Maha Oya, Mahiyanganaya road to Kandy. Traveling through Mahiyangana Kandy road is like watching a movie, relaxed where you can enjoy every moment without any stress. We stopped for lunch on that road and went hit a buffet with some excellent food. After arriving at Kandy we directly came back to Colombo around 7.30pm.

This is officially the longest road trip I’ve even been on. 1288 kilo meters covering 7 provinces out of 9 in Sri Lanka and almost touching the rest of the provinces (Sothern & Northern).

McLaren’s are flying again

2009-08-22T21:06:00.003+05:30

2009 Formula 1 Season started with Brawn GP team winning most of the races in the first half in the season. The season had many rule changes. Especially people were discussing on the KERS. Though Hamilton was promoted to the 3rd place in the first race in the season he was disqualified from that couple of days after that. No KERS car won nor managed to get a podium finish till Massa finishing 3rd on Nürburgring in Germany on the 9th race in the season.

McLaren cars received a major upgrade just before the Nürburgring, and yes it was well reflected in the Practices and in the Qualifying. Though Hamilton finished last due to an unfortunate incident in the very first corner the McLaren cars showed that they are very powerful. Next came the Hungarian GP and McLarens were flying. Hamilton scored the Victory making the first ever KERS car victory in Formula 1 while his team mate Kovalainen taking 5th place.

Today, 22nd August 2009 I was watching the Qualifying of the European GP and McLarens did fly once again. The Pole position was taken by Hamilton while Kovalainen taking the 2nd place. Valencia Street Circuit is where KERS can play a big role, McLarens will charge the KERS battery in the practice lap and when the race starts they will be smoking the rest of the cars for sure :P This is only my prediction, let’s wait and see what happens tomorrow :)

Hikkaduwa Beach Festival 2009

2009-08-03T00:06:00.026+05:30

The Hikkaduwa Beach festival started last year, and the Sri Lanka Tourism is conducting it as an annual event. The Hikkaduwa Beach Festival 2009 started on 30th July 2009 and continued for 4 days.

VIP Ticket

We planned the Hikka trip about a month ahead knowing booking a place to stay would be an issue if we wait till the end. I tried to book my usual place at Hikka but it was already booked by someone else. So we booked another place which happened to be on the land side. As soon as the tickets were out I managed to book 10 VIP tickets. Since I was the first to collect those tickets we got tickets starting from ticket number 00001 to 00010 (VVIP I guess)

Though the Hikka Fest started on Thursday, 30th July we went there only on Friday, 31st July. So we missed the entire Drum Festival. Friday we left Colombo around 11pm after having dinner. We arrived at Hikka just before the midnight. We chilled at the guest house till 1.30 am and went for the Beach Rave party at Imperial Hotel Stretch. The music was all techno and the place was crowded. There was a separate area for the people having VIP tickets but that area wasn’t much packed. Though we had VIP tickets we stayed most of the time in the general area.

Beach Rave

The Rave party went till the morning however we left the party around 4.30 am and slept will 10 or 11 am Saturday.

Saturday afternoon we went to see the beach carnival at Corel Gardens. There were few interesting sculptures made for the Sand Castle contest. We were also planning on doing a sand castle but we didn’t have much time to prepare and gave it up. At the other side of the beach near Corel Sands hotel things were prepared for the beach games.

An attractive sculpture

The Beach Carnival area

We came back to the guest house and rested till 9pm. Then we went to the Roti Shop and had dinner before going for Theme parties at Narigama beach stretch. There were 3 separate DJs going on at that location. The beach stretch was not big as where the Rave party held but this time it was totally packed with the young crowd from Colombo.

Theme parties

Since we started partying early on Saturday we came back to take some rest little early as well. Sunday everyone got up late just like the Saturday, again everyone missed breakfast but had a good brunch. I wanted to stay Sunday night at Hikka as well but others wanted to go back to Colombo since they needed some rest. We all went to the beach where the beach carnival took place and headed back towards Colombo.

Our final moments at Hikka

Link(s): Hikka Fest

Colombo Motor Show 2009

2009-07-25T20:15:00.008+05:30

The Colombo Motor Show 2009 was held at the BMICH from 24th to 26th July. This year there were lesser cars than the previous year's show.

Hummer H2

Porsche Carrera 4

The Mini's

Honda S2000

Land Rover Defender

Simplicity

2009-07-25T01:32:00.014+05:30

You all know how much I love TNL; they have organized an Acoustic musical event called 'Simplicity' under the theme 'Get Unplugged' at The Golden Mile at Mount Lavinia on 24th July 2009.

It was TNL's 16th birthday on the previous day and they were giving free passes to the event for all the callers. I didn’t have to call since I had my ways in :). The event was simply awesome.

Sand Castle

2009-07-18T20:52:00.008+05:30

How hard would it be to build a sand castle?? Well you might think it’s easy but no its not. Me and couple of my friends did some research using the internet to learn how to build a sand castle and we learned a lot. We bought some basic equipment like baskets and went down to Mount Lavinia beach to build one. We did not complete it in full but here is how it looked like at the end…

(The Sand Castle)

Next time we’ll be doing it better :D

Sri Lanka: Small Miracle

2009-07-01T21:07:00.016+05:30

I was searching for some information on upcoming events in Sri Lanka and I randomly saw this video on YouTube.

Sri Lanka - Small Miracle

Link(s): Sri Lanka Tourism, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Bentota

2009-06-28T19:00:00.011+05:30

I have been to Bentota Beach Hotel couple of time during the last year alone, it’s a nice place. But most importantly their food is the best. I and few people I know initiated this trip and we all were ready for this, we booked the hotel 3 days in advance, but that’s the only thing we had to plan for. We decided to use Train to travel so arranging van burden was completely eliminated. Plus it’s very cheap :D

Saturday (27th June 2009) we went to the Fort railway station to get the train. The train was supposed to arrive at 1.30 pm but when it arrived it was passed 2.00 pm. The traveling didn’t take much time, by 3.00 pm we were at Bentota. The Bentota railway station is just walking distance to the Bentota Beach Hotel. We checked in to the hotel and chilled out for a while and soon we went to the pool. The pool wasn’t much crowded because the weather wasn’t that good. After that we went to the beach for a moment and went back to our rooms to rest for a while. Finally it was the time I was waiting for... the Buffet :). I’m quite sure the others who went with me were shocked of seeing me eating all that food. I mean you should eat all you can while you can right?? Plus we have paid for that. I only stopped eating because the others were done with the dinner, otherwise I would have gone for another round :D

After the dinner we rested for some time and went to the dance floor near the pub around 10.30 pm. The DJ was not very good and the music was kinda boring but I must say the crowd rocked the dance floor. We stayed there about 2-3 hours and went to bed and got up a little late in the next day morning. Went to the breakfast again had a super meal and went for a swim in the pool. At the hotel there was a separate pool to play water polo so we used that pool as well. After doing all that we went for lunch and took the bus back to Colombo.

Bentota Beach Hotel - View 1

Bentota Beach Hotel - View 2

Bentota Beach Hotel - View 3

Bentota Beach Hotel - View 4

Ground Zero

2009-06-13T22:13:00.016+05:30

To start off I must admit that I’m not a big fan of computer games. I have played some computer games but that’s it, I have never played a multiplayer game with anyone else.

I went to see few old friends of mine on Friday (12th June 2009) just to see how they are doing. Well they were alright and they asked me to come play some computer games with them, well I couldn’t say 'No' and since I haven't done anything like that before I said Ok. Prakanthan called and booked this place called 'Ground Zero', I didn’t even know what it was or where it was. It happened to be at the 'Excel World'. There were 7 of us and I asked Prakanthan what computer game that we are going to play, and he said it’s 'Halo 3'. I have seen Nuvina playing Halo on his computer so I figured it was some first person shooting game. But at Ground Zero it was X-Box and there weren't any computer key boards. They had these devices just for the games.

The next thing I knew the game was on, and I was like 'OMG what to do now' but somehow I figured and Damn... it was fun. Glad they do it like everyday but honestly it’s a waste of money plus it’s not what I used to do on Friday nights just not my thing. Having said that I’m not gonna say that I didn’t enjoy it, of course I did enjoy it a lot :)

Car showrooms in Thailand

2009-06-10T20:21:00.011+05:30

In the shopping malls in Sri Lanka we don’t see cars for sale, the most precious car showroom in Sri Lanka in the Porsche showroom at Peliyagoda. But I saw all these cars in a shopping mall at Bangkok.

Ferrari - Front View

Ferrari - Side View

Lotus

Porsche

Lamborghini

Lamborghini Podium

White color Lamborghini - Front View

Lamborghini - Side View

Lamborghini - Front View

Dinner Cruise

2009-06-09T13:09:00.013+05:30

On my second day at Thailand (3rd June 2009), while we were going on this city tour, the tour guide asked whether we are interested on going to Dream World and some Nature Park and a Dinner Cruise. I personally liked the Dream World as it involves lot of games we don’t see in Sri Lanka. But the problem was it takes the whole day and unfortunately for me my sister didn’t like since she wanted to do more and more shopping. The next option was the Nature Park (an open Zoo or something) again the time was the problem. So we were left with the only option which was also the most expensive of all 3, the “Dinner Cruise”.

My first guess was it’s not worth the price, but seriously it’s totally worth for that price. On 4th June 2009 we were taken to this place where we have to get in the boat. At that point only I realized a grand dinner on a big boat size of a super Yacht with all the singing and is just perfect for anyone. For me it’s my first experience like that. The rivers in Thailand are wide enough for a big boat to travel, there were many as 20 big boats like in one section of the river alone. We got onboard the boat and went to our table on the upper deck. Soon the boat started to move along the river and the singers started to sing. The view by the river is just wonderful; there were many hotels and other skyscrapers built near the river. The upper deck had an open area so we could see the beauty of Bangkok from there.

The Boat

The Buffet

Dining tables on the boat

Buffet of the another Boat

The Buffet

The Singer

The 2 hours I spent on that boat was amazing, if we had something similar in Colombo it would be another attraction point for the tourists.

Thailand Tour

2009-06-07T20:52:00.018+05:30

Thailand is a country where you can spend a quality holiday for a cheap price. I was planning this tour for quite some time. I saw couple of promotional emails going here and there and I and couple of my friends initiated a plan, A Tour in Thailand. A 10 day (or more) tour which covers most parts in Thailand and do many different activities. Well all that planning and it didn’t work for some reason. For a moment I thought I wouldn’t be able to go to Thailand this year but guess what a miracle happened, my mother has also seen the same promotional vouchers and she asked me whether I know anything about it.

So it happened, no friends just family. We booked the tickets and got visa about 2 weeks before the tour. The duration was set to just 5 days and since my mother and sister wanted to do more shopping it would just be Bangkok :(

We left Sri Lanka on 2nd June 2009, and at the Air port we saw the Sri Lanka Air Force Kfir and F-7 Jets taking off for rehearsals of the Victory Day. It was a wonderful view as I have never seen a military jet taking off. We boarded the plane and landed safely in Bangkok after 3 and half hours. The flight was almost empty and I watched couple of old movies during the flight. After we were cleared from the air port we were taken to the hotel which we booked, the First Hotel in Bangkok isn’t the best nor the worst. The First Hotel is located close to most of the shopping malls so it is very convenient.

Colombo Air Port

View from the Plane

First day we arrived at night, so there isn’t much to do, just have dinner at Burger King and went to bed. The next day morning we had some good breakfast from the hotel and the tour guide was supposed to pick us up but they informed us that they’ll be late so we went shopping. Basically we went to see where the malls are located so we could have some idea of Bangkok.

View from the Plane - Bangkok at night

Burger King - Bangkok

After the tour guide arrived we went on the City Tour which was included in the package. First they took us to two temples, which I don’t know why they took us there. Anyhow the temples were different to what we see in Sri Lanka, but there were some thing in common. There were temples every inch in Thailand just like in Sri Lanka for some wired reason.

The next highlight of the City Tour was the Gem Museum, first I thought it was some boring place but I was wrong. It was one super place; loads of jewelry and stuff were there to see. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of this place due to security reasons :(

There are lot more highlights in the 5 day tour to Thailand, so it’ll be posting them separately. Overall the country, people and specially the food is excellent :)

Shopping Malls at Bangkok

Roads and the 'Sky Train' at Bangkok

Batch Re-Union 2009

2009-05-31T19:31:00.006+05:30

It’s been a long time since I left school; we have never organized an event together as a batch after we left the school. About two months back Batawala (Bate), Dinuka (Aliya) and I got together for some reason which I don’t remember exactly. There we talked about organizing a batch party, since I know people from all around I told them that I’ll talk to couple of places like ‘Buba’ and ‘Excel World’. But not all people could come there with the distance and time.

The second time we met at Dimuthu’s (Somnas) place and we were planning on hiring a playground and conduct an open even but unfortunately the grounds were all booked out. However we were certain about one thing, the date of the event. We set if to 31st May. Somehow we got hold of this reception hall and we booked it as the earlier budget and this was going very close. So the venue was ‘Bakeps’ restaurant at Nawala.

We started the printing of tickets and other ground work about a month before the event. Finally it was the day before the event, all the organizers went to the location and decorated the place for the event and went home. On the day of the event (31st May 2009), we all arrived around 9.00 am and started the rest of the decorations and stuff. The event officially kicked off at 11.30 am and surprisingly it went well and according to the schedule. And most importantly almost all the guests came to the event and it was super, even the people we weren’t expecting came, wow…!!

Isso Wadé

2009-05-10T22:01:00.013+05:30

I remember the times when I enjoyed playing on the famous Galle Face green as a kid, when me and my friends grew up we hanged out there for couple of hours when we had some free time. That place is there in my memory especially because of New Year eves.

Whenever I go there I have this GOD made special kind of a food called 'Isso Wadé'. Sometimes I go there just for the Isso Wadé. I simply loved it, yummy… but a little hot. However that old times are no more, I wonder if the Galle Face green is opened to the public now. It has been a long time since I had an Isso Wadé; since we no longer go to the Galle Face green I have forgotten this tasty food.

(The 'Isso Wadé')

Though I had no interest of seeing the ‘Vesak’ decorations, I went out with couple of friends to see how ‘Vesak’ in Colombo looks like on a Saturday (9th May 2009) night, and guess what I found; my favorite Isso Wadé. And there is more good news; now there is ‘Crab Wadé' too :) Didn’t try out the Crab Wadé since I was full with the Isso Wadé; should try it out someday soon.

(The 'Crab Wadé')

Hunas Falls

2009-04-10T13:59:00.021+05:30

Few days back i got a surprising message from Pradeepa saying that she is organizing a trip to Kandy. I felt not to respond because there is absolutely nothing to see in Kandy. Obviously people like me don’t want to visit places like the Temple of Tooth (just a boring place). Somehow with my objections some of the directions changed and we went to Kandy & Hunas Falls.

We started the trip around 5.30 am on 9th March 2009, straight to Kandy, till the others go worshiping i tried to take few snaps of the ducks at Kandy Lake.

(Ducks at Kandy Lake)

After the others came back we went to this small forest called the "Udawatta-kele" (Udawatte Forest). There is nothing big there either, but it said to be the Kings private forest back in those days :D. By the time we finished the small hike we all were hungry, Saumya has organized lunch at "The Swiss Residence", so all of us went there. It was an amazing place; we headed to the pool before lunch.

(The Swiss Residence at Kandy)

After lunch we finally went to see the "Hunas Falls", it was situated around 30 km away from Kandy but it took us about an hour to get there because the road wasn't good. Now guys i honestly have to say this, Hunas Falls is not worth watching, even though it was raining it wasn't a big water fall; of course from the height its a little tall but the amount of water coming there is soooo little (Like a bathroom shower).

(Hunas Falls)

I have herd the Hunas Falls hotel is quite nice but if you are only going to see Hunas Falls then forget about it.

Dolphin watching at Mirissa

2009-04-05T20:48:00.057+05:30

It all started when Jo asked me and Lahiru about Dolphin watching, i had never thought of planning such a trip. Somehow Jo initiated the trip; we set the dates as 11th and 12th of April. But for some wired reason we advanced the tour for a week. There were couple of parties in Colombo but i was ok with going on this trip since this was different ;)

There are 2 famous places in Sri Lanka for Dolphin watching. Kalpitiya is the most famous place, according to reviews and from the people i have spoken to you can see loads of Dolphins there. But there was another place, and it is Mirissa. At Mirissa it’s a two in one journey that is we can see both Dolphins and Whales :). So we planned to go to Mirissa. I and Kushan gathered at Rajeev’s place to discuss on the trip about a week back and that’s where we planned the whole journey.

Been to Hikkaduwa too many times I had some contacts of places to stay. And my personal favorite was “The Curry Bowl”, affordable nice place situated just after the Corel Gardens. I booked the place and Jo booked the van. In this trip the most important part in planning is booking the boat. But we didn’t book any, the reason was the price. If you want to go in a luxury boat trip then book Walkers Tours but it would cost you about Rs. 7500/- per head. Speaking with the people who have already gone for Dolphin watching we learnt that it’s the luck that matters to see Dolphins but not the kind of the boat we go in. So we decided not to take the expensive Walkers tour boat ride.

We started the tour on Friday (3rd March 2009) evening with me, Lahiru, Rajeev, Jo, Lakshika and Shiham. On the way to Hikkaduwa we stopped at a shop and bought Egg Hoppers, that and some snacks we picked up earlier was our Dinner on Friday. We arrived at Hikka around 10.30 pm, though we had to get up early neither of us went to sleep early. We all hanged out a while played the guitar and chilled a bit. By the time we went to sleep it was around 1 am. Next day i got up around 5 am and had to wake up everyone. All of us were ready by 6.45 am and we were on our way to Mirissa. Unfortunately our van broke down. While the driver trying to figure out what to do we went to the beach to watch the fisherman pulling the net ashore. I also went and pulled it with them for a while :)

(Pulling the Fishing net ashore)

After the van driver putting a temporary fix for the problem we got in the van and continued to go to Mirissa. We arrived at Mirissa by 8.30 am. We spoke to a fisherman and he told us not to go at that time because it’s too late. We also felt that it’s late and we told him we’ll come next day morning at 6 am. We got in the van and went towards Hikka, and again the van broke down. This time it was near Unawatuna, we somehow went to Unawatuna beach and let the driver go and fix the van. We went to this little rock mountain near the sea where there is a blowhole. There was only us on that place and we spent about 1 hour there.

(Near the Blowhole at Unawatuna)

After that we went to Unawatuna beach and hired a glass bottom boat and went on a ride to see the corals. Unfortunately most of the corals were damaged :( After the boat ride we straightaway jumped in to the sea :). When we got back we saw a gypsy with a huge python around his neck walking towards us. I never liked the idea of taking pictures with a python around my neck but it happened ;)

Van came and picked us up from Unawatuna around 2.30 pm and we went to Hikka and decided to have the snacks as our lunch. Since we were planning on going to Mambo’s that night we decided to have an early dinner. At this time Kushan arrived to the Curry Bowl and we chilled for a while. Since we still didn’t go on Dolphin watching, I called Dinuka and asked him to come to Hikka; he said he’ll come in the morning. We went to the beach near Coral Gardens and there was a sea turtle. People were feeding it and we did that too, at there we went on yet another glass bottom boat ride again. Corals at Hikka are way better than what we saw on Unawatuna. And there were lot more fish at Hikka too. Everyone was hungry at this time so we went to this awesome place called “No.1 Rotti Shop” That place is unique; I have never had Rotti like that in my entire life. They have all kinds of Rotti, Chocolate Rotti, Prawn Rotti, Chicken Cheese Rotti… you name it its there :)

After having that awesome food we came back to the Curry Bowl and chilled again, played the guitar, sang few songs and it was nice. Time was around 10 pm when went to Mambo’s place, and guess what??? The place was deserted. Though the music was on, there were absolutely no one there. When I was there couple of moths back it was packed. That’s the Mambo’s I expected but it was totally different on that night (must be the off season and/or the recession). Since we had to get up early we played some pool and for an hour and came back and slept.

Got up at 4 am on Sunday (5th April 2009) and called everyone to wake them up, and I called Dinuka to check where he is, surprisingly he was close to Hikka at that time (Normally he never comes on time :P). There were heavy lightning in the skies above sea, but it wasn’t raining in the land. I had a bad feeling but all of us got in the van by 5 am and we were on our way to Mirissa for the second time. Though it was early morning it took about an hour for us to come to Mirissa. It was raining slightly; we spoke to some fisherman and finally got a deal for 10,000/- for 4 hour boat ride. By 6.30 am we started the boat ride. There was a dark cloud right above us and still there were rain drops falling on us for more than 30 minutes. And suddenly skies got cleared and we saw two sea turtles :) and about 5 minutes after we saw two huge Whales.

(Tail of a Giant Whale)

Soon after that we started to see Dolphins all around the place, there were more than 1000 dolphins for sure :) There were three other boats with us who has come to the deep sea with us for the same purpose. Dolphins were very close to all the boats most of the time.

(The Dolphins)

We watched the Dolphins for more than a hour and a half and actually got tired of watching dolphins as there were plenty of them in the sea :P We Decided to end the boat ride and came back ashore.

(The Crew)

It was about 10 am when we came back to the main land. And all of us were hungry; so we went towards Hikka and had Lunch from Rotti Shop ;) Dinuka and his friends stayed at Hikka and the rest got in to the van and headed towards Colombo. Overall the trip was a really good one with a big difference :)

FIA retain their old rules

2009-03-22T14:41:00.012+05:30

I was listing to news this morning (22nd March 2009) and I herd the biggest news of the week (probably). It's about the new rule which FIA announced on who would be the Drivers Champion for 2009 Formula 1 Season. In my earlier post i have stated my doubts about this (read the full article here).

FIA had announced that they are going to change the rule on deciding who the Driver's Champion would be in 2009 Formula 1 Season. Earlier it was the driver who gets most number of points becomes the champion, but FIA had changed this as The driver who wins the most number of races who would become the champion. And guess what??? They have decided not to implement this new rule for this season.

Exactly one week more for the 1st race of the Season to begin and I hope every team is doing their best to keep the fans (like me) happy :)

The Beach

2009-03-22T14:40:00.011+05:30

It was quite a happening week but unfortunately the ending was boring. It was the 21st March 2009, I was invited to a party called "The Beach" at La Langousterie - Mount Lavinia, a place I have never been before and the crowd; well I haven't hanged out with them before either :D. As I entered La Langousterie it was like a mini version of Mambo's at Hikkaduwa. It is the dream place which you would buy and start a business like a restaurant.

Party was just starting when we stepped in; crowd wasn't bad, mostly ACBT people and few outsides (like me and Udara). The kids seems to be having fun but us; ummm not really. The thing was we weren't with the usual crowd. Luckily Rajeev and Jo came and saved me a little bit but we all got bored at the end. Maybe the music was not very good but we have partied with far worse music; so definitely it’s the crowd that rocks the party.

Remarkable rule changes for 2009 Formula 1 Season

2009-03-18T20:54:00.011+05:30

Formula 1 rules evolve every year, that’s one of the core factors which keeps the F1 fans guessing what would happen with the new rules. For the 2009 Formula 1 season FIA has changed the rules remarkably. Slick Tyres were not used in F1 races for around 10 years due to safety reasons but now it’s back in action for the 2009 Formula 1 season. This alone would not affect the end result of the series much however this would indeed increase the excitement of every race, but if the track is wet and with the possible crashes and safety cars coming in to the track it would even slow down the races more than we think like what happened in the 90’s.

Slick Tyre (Bridgestone)

As of technical changes FIA has announced that they would be allowing Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) for the F1 cars in the 2009 season. Now this is something huge, again there are both ups and downs. Acceleration wise it would definitely be an advantage but additional weight of the KERS equipment would be a problem for higher speeds. So in general for the tracks which have fewer straight lines than the bends this would be ideal. But I wonder how many teams would be actually using this new technology. As of the movement of this being written, Renault has confirmed that they would be using KERS for the Australian Grand Prix.

And the last but not the least, the biggest change as I see is the deciding criteria of who would be the Drivers champion. Earlier it was the driver who scores most of the points in the season who will be the champion, but in 2009 FIA has changed the rules. It’s the driver who wins the most number of races in the 2009 season will be the world champion. However the rest of the places would be decided on the old points system. This is wired indeed, if this rule was there in the 2008 season then Massa would have been the champion in 2008 though he has got 1 point less than Hamilton.

I have serious doubts with the FIA’s rule about deciding who would be the Drives champion, and we could even expect some twisted results at the end of the series. I believe the beauty of the championship should decide on the last game, like in the 2007 & 2008. But if the new rules are to be applied then the decision would come long before the last race and the final race would have no much excitement :(

Broadcasting a wedding over the Internet

2009-03-13T21:03:00.007+05:30

Yup, I know it’s wired but I did it. It was my cousin's (Nilupa) wedding and I had to broadcast it over the internet from Mt. Lavinia Hotel since there was a huge demand for that from my other cousins who are not in Sri Lanka (Specially from Rosi). This isn't the first thing that I have broadcasted live over the internet; the first was Lawyers association annual get together at Holiday Inn. Both the occasions I missed what was happening there.

For Dummies: It isn't hard all you need is a good quality web cam, Laptop and last but not the least the Internet :P

I wasn’t an active blogger during the past month or so, for the time being I’m leaving this short blog entry but there will be some new updates soon, especially after the 2009 Formula 1 season begins :)

Negambo

2009-02-04T17:58:00.016+05:30

Negambo is one of the places I have visited least, to be honest I don’t remember going to the Negambo beach in the past. I was invited to the home coming of my old friend Sathya who is also Udara’s sister. The place was Jetwing Blue Oceanic. The invitation card specifically indicated that we should wear casual cloths; I was quite puzzled and called Udara on the day before and asked what that means, he said wear whatever you like and come. Knowing the fellow for the past 20 years I didn’t buy his word. I called Gajan also and planned the thing out.

It was Tuesday (3rd February) after finishing work I came home and went to Negambo with my Father and Brother. The time we arrived there was 8pm, and by that time all the others has come and they already started to party. My Father and Brother left before midnight and I stayed back.

As the time went by a new day arrived, and guess what?? All the people stood up and started singing the National Anthem and there were fireworks all around. Yup it’s our independence day (4th February). We all sang our national anthem together with all others (proud to be Sri Lankan) It was 2.30 in the morning but we are still partying. Around 3.30am we went to the rooms that Udara booked but, NO we couldn’t sleep. We were talking various things about our childhood and stayed up all-night.

In the morning I went to the beach and… wow it’s amazing. I have never seen the sea without the waves. It was like a swimming pool (trust me :P). The fishing boats and everything was different to what we see in down south.

(Negambo Sea and the Fishing Boats)

The environment in Negambo is exactly the same as Hikkaduwa, plenty of Hotels, happening nightlife, the beach and everything. But there was one thing which was different, and that difference was not in a good way as well. It was the food; it was horrible, maybe it’s the hotel we stayed in :( We discussed said same thing about food during the dinner, breakfast and as well as in the lunch. After lunch, we chilled for a while and came flew back home since there were no traffic what so ever.

The Stig Revealed?

2009-01-21T19:27:00.007+05:30

The Stig

The million dollar question, who is the Stig? Lot of individuals has claimed that they are the legendary Stig but BBC has kept this as one of their best guarded secrets. And yesterday (20th January 2009) the ex Formula Three and NASCAR race driver Ben Collins has claimed that he is the Stig.

I have my doubts on this but let’s wait and see. As Jeremy Clarkson says “All we know is… he is called THE STIG”

Source(s) : TopGear

New Year Eve 2009 at MAMBO's

2009-01-01T18:24:00.010+05:30

Till the last week of I had no plans for the 31st night, suddenly I got quite a lot of invitations from people who are organizing various events at Colombo on the 31st night. On the other hand some of my friends were planning to go to Hikkaduwa, so I was in two minds whether to stay in Colombo or go down south.

Mambo's Beach Party: New Year EVE 2009

On 30th I decided to go to Hikkaduwa since my friends has already booked a place. As usual things never go according to the plan. Some of the guys had problems of going down south and they didn’t come with us. It was only Me, Udara, Devinda and Harsha who went to Hikka. We went to Hikka by 7pm and chilled for a while at the place we booked. The place was an old bungalow called “Curry Bowl”, not too luxurious but was very good and it’s extremely cheap (just 1000 bucks for a double room). We went out at 10.30pm and had Dinner and we went to the place where the party was supposed to happen. The Mambo’s place, the environment and music was perfect. There were lot of foreigners and quite a lot of people from Colombo too. The place got packed within two hours and it was the time to celebrate the New Year. Fireworks were on, but its nothing much compared to what we see in Colombo.

Fireworks at New Year EVE 2009

It was the beach environment and the music that kept us going. We partied till 6am in the morning and fell asleep. We were very tired but manage to get up at about 11am. Went searching for a place for breakfast and ended up having Lunch (quite unusual isn’t it :P). Went back to the beach and we were there till 3pm enjoying the view ;)

It’s bad that I missed all the happenings in Colombo and specially to let down the people who invited me for those. I’m pretty sure from all the 31st night parties I’ve been to, this is an unforgettable occasion. Cheers to Mambo’s place at Hikka :)

Leisure World

2008-12-28T17:33:00.009+05:30

I was planning on a double trip to Kithulgala and Sinharaja with Devinda on this weekend but had to stay back at home since my sis had to go through some medical check, but all that went without any trouble and I was fully free on the weekend, however others has already gone on that trip so I was bored at home the entire day Saturday. Suddenly my sis popped up and said shall we go to Leisure World tomorrow, I was going to say no but since I don’t have any special work I said yes.

We check the packages available at Leisure World from their web site and it was quite reasonably priced. Sunday (28th December) morning we went to pick up a friend of my sis and we went to Leisure World, at first sight it looked like a kiddies park and there was a big queue to buy the tickets. When I went to get the tickets I realized that there was lot more adults than kids. Bought the tickets and first we went to the water area, there were few thrilling games but the pool was over crowded :(. Spent about 2-3 hours in the water area and we went for lunch and then to the other games. There was few exiting stuff there too. Altogether there was around 10 games (excluding water area) but not all were good.

With the price (which was around 1200 rupees per head) I would say its worth for the price. Guys, if you haven’t been to Leisure World, this is a place that you should consider going to :)

More Info : www.leisureworld.lk

Viva Las Vegas

2008-12-19T18:26:00.026+05:30

I got this phone call from Udara on a Saturday asking for some help for designing a Poster, then i asked what type of a poster and he explained me the thing. Udara, Dinendre and Kalana were organizing a major party; the theme was "Viva Las Vegas". I went to Dinendre's place and we were deciding on the poster and all. There was another party which was supposed to held at the same day at Zetters so i asked Udara and Dinendre why they chose 18th and I said we will not get all the party animals to our party at that day. However things didn't change as they have booked the club already.

Viva Las Vegas poster

So it was the 18th December, i finished my work and quickly headed to Tramps. Things were all set for the party. By 10pm the crowd started to come in and as it was as "VEGAS" there were a lot of things that I can’t write on a public blog. The party went well but too bad for me and the other organizers we missed lot of fun because we had to deal with many things :(

I don't even have a single photo of the event, the only media file i have in my phone is one video (which is very short)

Viva Las "VEGAS" Video

I missed the Zetter party too and in the morning i was really tired, but what to do i had to go to work on Friday :(

Old Boys get together at Waters Edge

2008-12-14T03:58:00.007+05:30

It’s been a long time since i met my old friends; finally on the 13th December there was an Old Boys get together at Waters Edge. Me and Dinuka were sending invitations to lot of people through Facebook asking them to attend this event and lot of them turned up surprisingly :)

The get together was amazing, had loads of fun. I never thought we'd have this much fun but it was just superb.

And also... probably this is the Last party at Waters Edge that I’m attending :(. I'm really worried that Waters Edge will be taken over by the Government. Trust me this is like the best thing that has happened to Battaramulla so far. I'm a big fan of our dearest Chief Justice but not on this decision.

TNL OnStage 2008 - Finals

2008-11-30T19:42:00.010+05:30

This year OnStage finals was superb, I honestly didn’t expect that much from the event. I was over thrilled by the performance of most of the bands especially ‘Nemisis’, ‘Ethereal’, ‘Love Me Dead’ and the soloists like ‘Rajitha’, ‘Dee’ and others; they were really good. But most importantly it was ‘CivilizationOne’ what the people were waiting for. And they ROCK !!

I missed the preliminaries and the semi's but glad i attended the Finals. I loved ‘Ethereal’ playing ‘Eye of the Tiger’ and ‘Nemisis’ playing ‘Nadee Ganga’.

The TNL OnStage band category winners were ‘Nemisis’ while the solo category was won by ‘Indumini’.

More info : TNL OnStage, TNL Rocks, Rock.lk

Hike to Handun Ella

2008-11-30T19:40:00.026+05:30

Ranga was telling me about this place at Kithulgala where they have some estate type of property, in his blog he has posted many pictures of eye-catching waterfalls and stuff. We were planning on this trip to Kithulgala for quite some time; finally we made a decision to go there on 29th November, but I was planning to attend TNL OnStage finals on that evening, so we planned the trip to be back in Colombo by 7pm.

We started the trip early as 6.30am, I picked up Lahiru, Dilina and Dharshana on the way to Ranga’s place. Parked the car at his place and all of us got into his van and we were on our way to Kithulgala. About one hour later we stopped at this hotel called ‘Weerasiri’ at Puwakpitiya for breakfast and there was this buffet for only 120 bucks. Now folks, that’s a quite decent place to have the breakfast for a good price. Without wasting much time there we continued our journey again. By the time we arrived at Kithulgala it was almost 10am. Got down from the van and the guys were ready to roll :). Ranga told us there is a footpath through the jungle which leads to this waterfall, since it was raining time-to-time, there would be loads of leeches on that route, to avoid all that trouble we decided to go with the water stream which leads to up to the waterfall. The route was very long but it was just AMAZING.

(Going through the water stream)

After about one hour we were near one of the small type of waterfall, as we couldn’t continue going though the water stream anymore we stopped there for a while and had some snacks.

(Having a snack and finally reaching the 'Handun Ella' waterfall)

Then the bad part; we had to take the jungle route to go to the waterfall from that point :( and yes there were dozens of leeches waiting for us on the way. Quickly all of us went through the jungle footpath and we were at the waterfall removing all the blood suckers from our bodies. After that we jumped in to the water and it was good fun. The waterfall was amazing and there was a little cave kinda place which we could swim and go. The whole thing was superb and the reason why it’s still not polluted is; there is no easy way to reach the place.

After spending some time in the water we were hungry and came back for lunch. This time we had to take the jungle route :( yup it’s the leeches and it was raining too :( Just after having lunch we were on our way back to Colombo. Everything except the rain and leeches was great.

Mafia at Sigiriya & Dambulla

2008-11-15T22:42:00.022+05:30

We have talked much about going to Sigiriya but we couldn’t go there since me and Udara were busy. Natty was a bit upset about not taking her to Sigiriya and finally Udara and I agreed to take her there. The day we chose was Saturday the 15th November. Initially we were planning to stay the entire weekend and I was going to make a booking at Cinnamon Lodge but later I was informed that I have to be in Colombo by 10am on Sunday so we changed our plans to a one day trip. On Friday the 14th November, Udara and I discussed the time we should leave and we agreed on leaving Colombo by 4.30am, the next thing Udara told me was that he is going out on that night and I told him not to get late since we had to wake up early. Natty also told me that she is also going out and what the hell I also went out ;).

I managed to come back home by 1.30am and as I stepped in to my place I saw a text message from Udara saying “Call me at 4.30!” I went to take a nap but something was bothering in my head so didn’t sleep at all. Around 2.30 I got a text message, this time it was Natty, she was saying that she is going to D’s from Sugar, yeah whatever!

Called Udara and woke him up at 4.30, then directly called Natty and it was the time she got to her place, GREAT! Somehow Myself and Udara went to Natty’s place by 5am and we were on our way to Sigiriya by 5.15am. When we reached Ambeypussa we were hungry and we stopped there had the breakfast buffet for a decent price. By the time we arrived at Sigiriya it was around 8.30am.

Right at the entrance of Sigiriya there was a wired guy who turned out to be some tour guide, and we asked him about the price of tickets for foreigners, and the price for them was 2700 bucks where as for me and Udara it was just 40 bucks each. No wonder why Sigiriya is called the 8th wonder of the world…! Udara tried to play his little trick to get Natty a ticket of 40 bucks but it got failed, so there goes 2700 bucks :(. There isn’t much to see at Sigiriya apart from some paintings.

(Sigiriya paintings)

(Sigiriya paintings)

By 1.00pm we got down from Sigiriya and we headed to “Vil Uyana”, now this place is truly awesome..!

(Vil Uyana - The Entrance)

(Vil Uyana - The pool)

(Vil Uyana - A place to chill)

After having lunch at “Vil Uyana” we went to Dambulla Temple, and there is the 9th wonder of the world, they charge 1100 bucks as the ticket price for foreigners, and for locals it’s free. Where else on earth would they issue a ticket to see a damn temple?? I think this whole thing is a bloody MAFIA

2008 Formula 1 finals

2008-11-03T18:14:00.039+05:30

Well it was thrilling till the last movement. I was hoping that the history would not repeat this time for Hamilton. My heart stopped at the final lap when Vettel overtook Hamilton, but thanks to Gloak and Team Toyota for their stupid decision, my heart started functioning again.

(Lewis Hamilton, the champion of the 2008 Formula One season)

I love Ferrari but in this particular season I’m a little more Hamilton Fan :) (Come on you have to pick a side rite?). It’s no doubt that all Formula 1 fans have felt the excitement of yesterday’s race. And before I go any further respect all the other drivers and teams.

Now this is what Nadike had to write on my Facebook wall..

"F1 F1 F1
F1 rocks the world
well not as much as football
but still it rocks the world

Massa Massa Massa
he is the world champion
well not in the stupid records
but in peoples' hearts
Hamilton Hamilton Hamilton
boy almost screwed it up boy needed his mummy
when Sebastian Vettel overtook him
in last minute of the game

Champion champion champion
boy made it somehow
Massa entered to the flag as the champion
and left as the runner up
how the hell Lewis did it?
well he did nothing
unless Toyota and their stupid driver Timo Glock
and also his stupid dry tires,
Massa would be the champion
champion champion champion.

F1 F1 F1
Massa Massa Massa
Ferrari Ferrari Ferrari
Rocking Rocking Rocking"

Ok, I know that there is “some” truth in it, but here goes my comments.

“not as much as football" - Get a life dude.
“not in the stupid records” - Now that’s what mater because just refresh your memory on the 2007 Formula 1 season.
“almost” - That word almost, its either you win or its nothing; No almost!!
“when Sebastian Vettel overtook him” - Even I felt butterflies in my stomach to be honest, but didn’t you see how Massa cried at the end? Oh I forgot he covered his face :D
"Massa entered to the flag as the champion" - Respect but, its like winning a battle but losing the war.
“how the hell Lewis did it?” - That’s not even a question, check how Massa got in to 2nd position and how Kimi swept back to 3rd in Shanghai. Oops…
“also his stupid dry tires” - Decisions made by Toyota are not what Hamilton or Massa could control.
“Massa would be the champion” - Again refresh your memory on last Formula 1 finals.
“Massa Massa Massa” - Conclusion: Massa is good but Hamilton is a little better.

Now Massa/Ferrari fans please accept the defeat and don’t tell me that Ferrari won the Constructors championship, that ain’t news for me.

A different Halloween

2008-11-02T21:22:00.010+05:30

We were planning on going to Shine for some Halloween party which Udara told me, Thursday morning he called me and said we'll go to Natty's place by 8pm Friday, what 8pm??? isn't is too early? I asked him, he said we'll be celebrating Dinendre's birthday also so he thought it would not be that early.

Finished my work and came home went to take a hair cut, had a shower and saw about 2 or 3 missed calls from Udara and Dinendre. I called both of them and told that I’ll pick them by 7.45 ish. Then Dinendre called me up once again and said that he'll be going to Natty's place directly and he asked me to pick Udara and come there. So, I picked up Udara and one of his friends and on our way to Natty's place we stopped at Pillawoos and bought Cheese Chicken Kottu.

Finally we arrived at Natty’s place around 8.30pm, soon Dinendre and others joined us there. And we started the party (well this meant to be the warm up kinda thing) what a surprise 2 of our people were in deep trouble even before the midnight.. Damn…!! (I do not wish to go into detail here as this is opened to the public, use your own imagination to get a picture of what I’m saying)

Yes, the Halloween began when the owners of the Natty’s apartment came, and they kinda asked us to leave the place :(. We somehow managed to stay quiet and hanged there till about 2 in the morning. We left the apartment around that time and I headed home to bring some “stuff”, during that time Wehitha and others has gone to Shine and we were also on our way there, soon we figured out that the party is almost over. Went to Pillawoos had the usual Ice Milo and went to Wellawatta beach and stayed there for about another 2 hours and came back to Natty’s place because we had some “cleaning stuff” to do. Ya I know that’s one wired Halloween.

The neighbors that we never hanged out with

2008-10-13T18:47:00.010+05:30

It was Friday (10th October) Udara called me and said there is some rowing competition on Saturday, since i didn't have any plans i thought of going there. Saturday morning my sis asked me whether i could drop her at the rowing club and i said that i'm also going there around 4pm. What Udara told me the other day turned out to be a rowing competition where my sisters was planning on going.

Me, Udara. Natty, my sister and her friend went there and it was quite boring for us but all the school people seemed to enjoy a lot. After some time my neighbors showed up. Now, me and Udara are neighbors and we know each other for about 20 years, but these kids we knew that they are always there but we never hanged out with them. Had a little chat and they seems to be nice :)

Monsoon Fashion Show and After Party

2008-10-05T21:06:00.032+05:30

The “Monsoon Fashion Show” was held at CASA Colombo on 4th October 2008, we went there around 9.30 or 10.00pm so we have missed a lot from the Fashion Show; however we weren't there to see the Fashion show. It's the after party that we all were targeting (btw the models were great as usual)

At CASA I met my good old friend Maneesh, I went to his place on Friday (3rd October) and told him about the happenings and he said he might come. Around 10.30pm the Fashion Show got ended and we all were waiting for the Party but what a surprise all the people were leaving the place one by one. Me, Dinendre and Natty waited till Udara comes. At this time I called Maneesh and asked what he is doing, he said that he already left CASA and heading to Zanziba or somewhere else. Dinendre also suggested that we go to Zanziba once Udara comes. But before Udara, Sandun and Damien joined us at CASA. Udara called me and I told him not to come inside as we are leaving, but he came inside and hanged there for around 30 minutes. While we were planning to go to Zanziba, Sandun popped in the middle and said that he heard people saying that all are going to Sugar and asked us whether we all go there and we were all ok with it.

We went to Sugar around 11.30pm and by the time we got in the place was almost empty but all the tables were reserved. We ignored the reserved signs and sat and started chillin :). Lot of people came in after we went there and it was quite happening after that. But what a surprise we had to leave the place for some stupid reason.

We went to Zanziba around 1.00am and as usual it was over crowded but the good thing there is that’s where all the young people gather. We chilled till 3 or 4 in the morning and then Me, Udara, Dinendre and Natty left the place just before another fight is about to happen: D

4 days of good fun

2008-09-22T16:51:00.049+05:30

It all started on Thursday (18th September), Udara called me and asked what’s happening? I said there is nothing much and he said if you are free lets go somewhere, and I was in. So Udara and Natty came to pick me up from my place, I got in to the car and on our way I asked where we are going to? He replied saying that he wanted to take Natty to Kelaniya temple but I suggested that we go to Mount beach. Then we decided to go to Kelaniya temple first and go to Mount.

I don’t remember whether I have been to Kelaniya temple before (anyway I don’t like temples :D). Truly there isn't much to see there, we only stayed there for about 20-30 minutes and we were on our way back. Since Mount seems a bit far we thought of stopping at Hilton, went to Curry Leaf but the only option we had was the buffet. And then we went to Sea Spray at Galle Face Hotel, again the only option there was the buffet. Then we switched to 'Watch the Sun Set' at Galle Face Hotel and all of us had club sandwiches. After that Udara asked me whether is everything ready for the Kandy trip this weekend, i have totally forgotten about it but as i have promised earlier I said things are ok with that. We left the place around 11pm on that night.

On Friday again, Udara called me and asked what’s happening I gave the same answer as the previous day. And he said lets go out, and being the guy who is ready always, I said ok for that as well. Went to Natty's place stayed there till the midnight with some friends of Udara and we went to Blue Elephant at Hilton. The DJ and the crowed was not the best, but yeah we had to stay till 3 in the morning. And then we came home because we had to go to Kandy. Didn't sleep at that night and I called Udara around 7.30am, we started the journey around 9.30am. By the time we reached Kandy it was lunch time. We stopped at Dine More and had lunch and went to Udara's house at Kandy. Slept there for more than 3 hours and then we went to the 'Dalada Maligawa'(Temple of Tooth) and after that we enjoyed the evening view by the Kandy Lake.

(Kandy Lake view)

We went back to Udara's place and we were listening to some good old music. It was very much relaxing, and then again we went to Kandy town to have the Dinner. We were looking for an Indian restaurant but there wasn't a good place around so we ended up going to KFC.

(Elephant bath at Pinnawala)

On Sunday morning we were up early and we headed to Pinnawala because Natty wanted to see the Elephants :D. There was nothing much with the elephant bath but there was an Herbal Garden and the products that they showed us were impressive. We came back to Colombo safely and picked up lunch packs from ‘Hijra’ (next to ‘Pillawoos’) and had it at Natty's apartment.

A totally unplanned trip ended up really well..

2008-09-15T16:15:00.040+05:30

I was planning to go to the “Leisure World” with some friends from work but Friday night it got cancelled because couple of people was sick. And then I called up Udara to see what’s happening and he said lets go Down South.. and it happened.

After that phone call I received a text message from him saying there are some more people joining and he has made some arrangements and he said that he'll call me in the morning as he is going out on that night.

Saturday morning I wake up around 9am and Udara called up and said all the others are in really bad condition so we'll go with his Colombian friend Nathalia. I went to pick them up from her apartment and we headed towards Galle.

We had no plan what so ever till I asked Udara where are we exactly going to. Then he said we’ll go to Unawatuna beach, and I also suggested going on a boat ride on the “Madu Ganga” and all of us was ok with that plan. All 3 of us hasn’t had breakfast so we stopped somewhere after Panadura to take a snack. The things were on display wasn’t very impressive but we ordered a plate of short eats. Had a bite and it was superb, fresh and warm.

After having the breakfast we stopped at Kalutara temple because Natty said she wanted to go inside and see what’s in there. Parked my car near some market and we went in. I remember going there once when I was a kid (I hate going to temples btw). According to Natty the temple is “soooo pretty”, probably because she hasn’t seen one before and she was still drunk from the last night so that doesn’t count anyway.

Near Aluthgama we stopped once more to have a King Coconut (as Udara describes it’s the best for a hangover). After that we were at Bentota and Udara said let’s check out the Bentota Beach Hotel, so we went in and there we decided that we are going to stay there as it was all right. Made the bookings and straight to the lunch buffet oh yeah!! The food was ok but there wasn’t much for the dessert unfortunately. Had a nap for about 30 minutes and went on Jet Skiing. It was fun but at the same time it was bit too expensive for another couple of rounds. After that we went to the beach and we were there for maximum of another 30 minutes and went to the pool but there also we couldn’t stay for a long because had wanted to go on that boat ride in “Madu Ganga” it was about 5pm that we went there and the scenery was so beautiful in the evening.

(Madu Ganga view)

(Fisherman at Madu Ganga)

After that we came back to the hotel and went for Dinner, for dinner we had Mongolian rice and it was excellent. We had to select what we want and hand over the stuff to the chef, where they cook it and give it in few minutes. And this cooking thing got attracted too many people and there was a bit of a line there.

Cooking Mongolian Rice at Bentota Beach Hotel

After dinner we went to have a nap again and went back there expecting some action in the DJ, but nobody was there on the floor but the DJ keep playing the songs. After few moments something unexpected happened, two foreign ladies came to the dance floor and one of them danced like the way in “You Got Served” movie. Damn she got all those moves :). Nothing much happened at the DJ apart from that so we went to sleep.

On Sunday morning we went to see the Turtles somewhere in Kosgoda, and headed back to Colombo, dropped Natty at her apartments and me and Udara came back home.

The whole trip was unplanned but it was so excellent since we were able to do lot of activities.

Re-United

2008-09-15T15:55:00.012+05:30

(Me, Lahiru and Nuvina)

It has been years since Myself, Lahiru and Nuvina got together. Normally during University days we get together at the end of every semester to study for exams (These are called 'Kuppi' in University language). And Yesterday (14th September) we met up at Lahiru's place to play the guitar.

When there is absolutely nowhere else to go..

2008-08-18T19:23:00.031+05:30

If you happen to organize a day outing (in a short notice) where would you chose to go? Well if I was given that opportunity I would select a wonderful beach somewhere in down south. But I didn't get the chance on deciding, it was definitely an idea of someone else..

I can't even remember when we started planning this but somehow it happened. Yup it was the Zoo that we ended up going to.

After getting fed up at the Zoo we had this idea of watching a movie. I saw the trailer of this Sinhalese movie called "Aba" when i went to watch Hancock at Savoy sometime back. The trailer of "Aba" was seriously good so i gave the idea of going to see that in the afternoon. And yeah we went to see the movie.

(Saumya, Sahan, Me, Hemendra, Pradeepa, Hasanthika, Yashogie, Mayanthi and Hasini)

There was a huge queue at the entrance of the cinema theater, but we weren't too late. Watched the movie and its good (At least the only good thing happened on that day).

Colombo Motor Show 2008

2008-08-17T21:10:00.030+05:30

Colombo Motor Show 2008 held at BMICH from 15th to 17th August. Most of the vehicles were there in the Ceylico Motor Show also. However, the place was a packed with people. I took couple of photos of some eye catching rides.

Audi TT

Mazda RX-8 Modified

Modified Yellow car

Hummer H2

I was actually disappointed because there weren't much good cars this time. Hope there will be lot more good cars next time.

Happy Birthday TNL

2008-07-23T09:18:00.017+05:30

It’s the 15th year anniversary of the local radio station TNL.

101.7 TNL Rocks is my favorite radio station. My car radio is basically locked on to that frequency :)

TNL Website : http://www.tnlrocks.com/

Ceylinco Motor Show 2008

2008-07-20T12:59:00.001+05:30

The Ceylinco Motor Show 2008 was held at BMICH from 18th to 20th July. I managed to go there on 20th. The motor show was not very big but it had some good exhibits.

Nissan 350Z Convertible

Mitsubishi Evolution X

Hummer H2

Mazda RX-8 Tail Light

There was a local Super Car meet up organized by AutoLanka on 17th July about 50 cars showed up on that day. Too bad I couldn't take any photos of that event.
At the Ceylinco Motor Show AutoLanka has set up a stall and many thanks for team AutoLanka for the bumper stickers :)

Summer Foam Party

2008-07-20T09:40:00.000+05:30

The Summer Foam Party rocked Tramps at Galadari on 19th through out the entire night. But too bad for us we missed half of the fun :(

The photos I took are not very clear but I have a video which is somewhat clear.

Summer Foam Party Video

On our way back home we stopped at the legendary Pillawoos and had Cheese Chicken Kottu and Ice Milo.

Ambalangoda - Ocean Reef

2008-06-29T21:19:00.001+05:30

“Ocean Reef” at Ambalangoda is a cool place to have a swim in the sea. It wasn't much crowded though it was a weekend. The place is owned by a relative of my good friend Dinuka (better known as “Aliya”).

Sea view at Ocean Reef

There was a man who came selling some handicraft items. Those were mainly necklaces made of polished coconut shells. Pretty impressive piece if art I would say. I brought one for a very cheap price. (Later I gave to my sis and she loved it)

Handicrafts made of polished coconut shells

After enjoying the swim we were planning to go on a boat ride at “Madu Ganga”. But unfortunately we didn’t have that much time left so we ended up watching some nearby river to “Madu Ganga”. It was a nice scenery which makes your mid get relaxed, everything was calm and very quite out there.

River view

On our way back to Colombo we stopped at “Induruwa” and again we headed to the beach. There was big rock by the coast and we spend a movement there enjoying the view.

Rock view - 1, at "Induruwa"

Rock view - 2, at "Induruwa"