Tuna
Sunday 11 August 2013
Let me clarify The Albatross’ blog yesterday and the correct meaning of ‘thrashing’ at pool. He won one game, I won the first game but somehow he has forgotten to mention that. I was taking pity on him, so let him win a game. We promptly stopped playing pool once he won. Hmmm.
Hoppers for breaky with delicious caramelised onions. I could get used it!
After breaky we went for a walk along the beach, our pathetic effort at exercise. There was a group of about 18 blokes pulling in a huge fishing net. So we stopped, sat in the shade and watched them for about 1 hour (after our exhausting walk of 20mins). They eventually pulled the net all the way in for about 2 decent size fish and half a dozen little-medium fish and a whole pile of stuff they didn’t keep, lots of little stingrays, bottom feeders like flounder and tiny sardine size fish. The latter was instantly snaffled up by the pack of crows that materialised out of nowhere.
Then we were off on a short excursion. We were headed out to a spot that has great views over the lagoon and bay, Marble Beach at China Bay. First you have to drive past about 3 different army barracks and a huge air force base. The road narrows to barely wider that a car, but is still two way. So it was a slow manoeuvre down the road dodging tuk-tuks, cars, scooters and huge buses going in both directions. Somehow we made it near-ish to the beach, but still couldn’t see it. After not moving for 15 minutes we decided to do a U-turn (possibly at the only spot on the entire road) and head back. A quick stop at the new bridge that connects the lagoon around and it got rid of the car ferry. It was opened in October 2009, so only a few months after the end of the war.
By now it was lunch time and we headed into town. We had another lovely rice, chicken and curry dish which we ate with our right hand again. We are getting better at it, learning how to make the rice clump together enough. The hard part this time was the roasted chicken drumstick and only using your right hand to pick the meat off it and not able to just pick it up and eat it directly off the bone. We got there and didn’t make too much of a mess.
We went for a walk just down the road to a Commonwealth war cemetery. Trincomalee got bombed by the Japanese on 9 April 1942 and Colombo on 5 April 1942; it’s only direct exposures to WWII. The Japanese sank about a dozen boats at Trincomalee.
So feeling hot and sweaty, we went for another dip in the pool. Huge black clouds started forming over the hotel. It is now bucketing down rain with lots of thunder and lightning (ooh baby it’s frightening), cooling everything down.
A rather pleasant day.