Fundamentally Pre

Colombo Night Races

2011-12-27T01:48:00.000-08:00

The Colombo Night Races were held on the night of the 17th December. Just wanted to share some pics I took.

This Album is the Non-Race pics
https://plus.google.com/photos/112145825437414596051/albums/5687628303329207185

Few pics of note, some new cars in the country

The First Land Rover Evoque in Sri Lanka

The new Audi A6 was the
official Safety car

Porsche Carrera - Unwashed.
I had a zoom lens, hence couldn't
fit the frame properly

Lewis Hamilton's F1 car
from an earlier season

Most of the Race pictures are in this album

https://plus.google.com/photos/112145825437414596051/albums/5687645150625473761

Errr... WTF?

Had to go Retro for at least on pic :)

And into the wall she goes!
Look for the impact clip on youtube

The Motards were quick!

So were these boys!

Rohan de Silva was smoking! Literally!

And the SL-GT and GT4 pics in here. These were the adrenaline pumpers!

https://plus.google.com/photos/112145825437414596051/albums/5688188628944471409

Dilantha's Porsche rubbing its chin
on the pavement under hard braking.

The Dilango Racing 350Z!

Lambo Gallardo in Sri Lanka!

350Z's Brembos glowing under braking

Fights all thru SL GT

Someone else was smoking too!

Darin in the STi 10

Ashan hits the brakes.
Love the detail from the 70-200 f2.8 :)

Mr Nigel Perera
and his new sponsers

The Proton Persona

2011-11-23T22:20:00.001-08:00

Few months ago, dad wanted a change, the Gen2 was over 5 years old, passing 40,000kms, and while the initial devaluation was quite steep, was holding value for some time. So he got a trade in offer from the agents, and swapped the car for a new Persona. Its coming close on 3000kms now, and while dad has done most of the driving, I've done enough that I thought I'd put up an opinion.

Initial impressions, I like the car. Quite solid. Nice feel. A little less imaginative in the cabin than the Gen2, but pretty nice. Looks wise, it works just fine. Nice touches like cell phone holders. They had included a proper glove box in this, which was good :)

Now, this particular car was a lower grade than the Gen2, which was full spec. So no leather seats, no cruise control, etc.

Notable, this car has the newer engine over the old Gen2, the one were the cam profile switching actually works, unlike the old one where the campro was just a name. This is the 1.6l, disks all round.

My feeling, this car is good. Quite comfortable, less sporty on the suspension than the Gen2, but quite good. Body roll is not too bad, but it doesn't like quick direction changes. It does hold the road quite well on a sweeping corner, but switching sides is not done confidently.

Brakes are somewhat mushy. Probalby equal to the Gen2. Probably taken from the Gen2.

Steering is still ESP, but its a lot tighter than the Gen2. One of my main complaints on the Gen2 was lack of steering feel, this at least does help with the illusion of steering feel a little. Dad doesn't like it tho :)

Other major complaint on the Gen2, gearbox. This is a much, much better autobox. Also they seem to have done away with that daft drive-by-wire throttle control, which is good.

I think this car is a little heavier than the Gen2, but since the engine is the same, its a little underpowered. The GB is good, so the initial bite and starting to move part is a lot better than the Gen2, but it can't keep on going from there. Or it might just be that they are going for a smoother acceleration pattern rather than savage acceleration. So it takes some time to get to a nice cruise speed, but is a very nice cruiser once it gets there. Sporty overtaking is not its forte, but it is a very relaxing drive. In no hurry, just smooth.

Now to that bit that all the non-enthusiasts want to know. Close to 3000km, fuel consumption shows 8.2l per 100km. Its done one trip outstation, probably covered 500km. Also that was to Nuwara Eliya District, not town, so lots of low range climibing on slow, twisty, potholed roads involved.

For those bad at maths, that means its doing better than 12. The Gen2 did slightly less than 10, over 9.5.

And it has winker mirrors.

Crazy times in the Lion City

2010-08-11T02:13:00.000-07:00

To my utter shock (and it was quite a disorienting feeling) I actually won the first prize (Or was it second? Who cares?) at the Office Dinner Dance raffle draw, a return air ticket to the Singha Pura, the Lion City (More commonly known as Singapore). It did, however, come with conditions, the most relevant one said "Must be claimed in 4 weeks" or some cock like that. That wasn't happening in the middle of a busy time at office and during the Christmas season! Besides, my passport had expired.
But this is Sri Lanka and times are flexible things. After fuddling around, I asked if they could set up the trip in April (wanted to catch a long weekend so I wouldn't need to take time off from work). Further fuddling (Renewed the passport) and fuddling onwards, the office travel co-ordinators (who kindly took care of the details with the travel agency ppl) calls me up on Friday. I had asked for the tickets to be arranged in such a way so I could leave Friday night or Saturday early morning and come back on Monday evening (long weekend so Monday was an off-day) so I could come back for work on Tuesday. And on the said Friday, when I had given up hope of going, they called and said there is a ticket available on a flight leaving at midnight on Cathay, do I want it? After picking my jaw up off the floor, I decided to go for it.Had a few issues, like packing and figuring out lodging, but luckily I was in contact with my buddy Dilesh, who is a student at the NUS and said I could stay with him in his flat. Thanks to the wonders of the internet I was able to get the info out to him that I was coming after all, and get the address from him, and bothered Nadisha into going home an hour earlier than than the shuttles and giving me a ride home in order to get packed. Of course, fun things happen when you pack in a hurry, which meant I went to Singapore with my laptop and phone, but without my laptop and phone charger :Major FacePalm: Also, even tho I asked for my phone to have sms roaming turned on when I went, it never worked all the while I was there. But I remembered all my camera gear, which was very important! Specially coz it took up most of my hand luggage space. If anyone thought I was travelling to Singapore without my photogear, they are flat out crazy.

I was somewhat sleep deprived, since I had to be at the airport by about 9 to make the midnight flight (security) and the flight got delayed somewhat (apparently not just a Sri Lankan Airlines problem) and I was somewhat unsuccessful trying to sleep on the plane despite trying (Economy class sucks). But the food was good and I think I managed about an hour of sleep in the three hour flight. And watched some old episodes of Top Gear on the in-flight entertainment.
Anyhoo, landed, got my bags, called Dilesh from a payphone, found a taxi and headed off. The taxi dude apparently wasn't familiar with the area we were headed too. Google maps to the rescue fortunately! Got there with minimum fuss, and apparently Dilesh sleeps late on weekends coz he hadn't had breakfast. Which was lucky for me coz it meant I had company for breakfast.

I had a plan for this trip. Day one, zoo. Day two, Jurong Bird Park. Day three, shopping and head back home. However, this not bringing my phone charger (which was plugged into a power outlet at office) changed plans a bit. Decided to go and buy a phone first (on my budgeted todo list) and then head to the zoo. So got directions and how to use Singapores public transport system from Dilesh (who very fortuneately had a spare swipe card that let me use the system) and went up to the harbourfront station to make sure I got the hang of it.

So off I went to the specified station and found the famous Mustafa's looking for a phone. Not an experience I wanna repeat. The most "don't care" sales staff ever. Obviously don't work for commission. But somehow picked up a LG GW620. Not sure if its supposed to not have a CD, but mine came with a CD from some kinda Singaporean teeny bopper pop duo. Also didn't realise that the thing came with a 2Gb memory card and that damn fool salesman didn't tell me so I ended up buying another 8gb mem card.
Anyway, trying to come outta there, I got lost. I'm pretty sure I went under the street to the building on the other side of the road and came out that way. While wandering around trying to find the train station, I found another funky mall, advertised as the first eco mall or something. So since it was there and it was lunch, thought I'd get something to eat. It was ... interesting. There were lots of unidentified meats. Language barrier was a bit of an issue :) But finally settled one some duck rice thing. The conclusion is that chicken tastes better.
Anyway, found the station again, and proceeded upto Ang Mo Kio, where I was supposed to catch a bus to the zoo. Luckily, as I exited the station, I found a zoo arranged shuttle that carts people to the zoo from the station, and was about to leave, so I caught that.
Singapore Zoo is a funky place. Thanks to my jaunt around Mustafa's I didn't really get the time to do the full tour, so I really need to go back. Also the fact that I obsessed at the white tiger enclosure and spent an hour at the Elephant show didn't help. Also just missed the Polar Bear show, got there just as it was wrapping up. :( But still, got a few nice photos. That Lion cage was crazy, there is a place that people can view the Lions from that is basically just a glass seperating the cats from the people. Which doesn't look particularly thick. I shudder to think what will happen if a 500lbs lion decided to test its strenght on it! Quite possible if people keep using pocket p&s cameras in there, which was flashing away. Nobody is gonna get a good pic, coz of the flash reflecting off the glass. Hopefully the Lions will ignore it as if it was lightning or something.
Of note, white tigers are a dream to photograph. Even in dim light they light up so well :) The pic on the left was quite late in the evening. Kitty cats they are not tho, they have mauled a zoo-keeper to death after the man fell into the enclosure. See the wikipedia.
It was somewhat after dark when I found my way back into the campus. Missed the stop and got down at the next one, but found my way back ok. Was a bit worried there, since I didn't have a working phone. Wasn't very sure I was in the right place until I saw the stone rhinos at the resteraunt. Or were they hippos?

I think I'll cover the next day in another post, this is getting too long. So until whenever I feel like blogging again, the end.

Random thoughts on Style

2009-12-21T06:50:00.000-08:00

One of those oft cliched phrases you hear in photography is “You must find your own style”. Its not something I've generally paid attention to. It sounds like something that applies to serious photographers, people who find Art in photography. Personally, I don't pretend to understand Art. Its too obscure, and isn't logical. Guess its the tech-rat in me. How people can look at a canvas that has what looks like the artist just took a few buckets of paint and threw the paint on and make declarations of how artful the work is always puzzles me. Likewise some photographs.

So how does one develop a sense of artistic style without a proper understanding of what artistic style is? I preferred to think of myself as a happy snapper. I take photographs, not develop art. Weirdly, that is a style. Its not my style to set up studios, place lights and try product photography. I don't like tons of post processing. A friend of mine has a style that leaves his pictures with very warm tones. He makes it look good, but its not really for me. Besides, its easy to overdo and leave your pictures looking very yellow. I rarely make my photographs sepia, or black and white. Rarely use the vignette effect for art.

But out of these don't, I realized, I was developing my own style. I look through my pictures and realize, my favorites involve movement. I tend to spend more time and and effort on pictures of movement. Fixed poses, group shots, profiles... these are things I don't spend a lot of time or care on. To capture movement, I often spend long moments peering through the viewfinder, trying to find the perfect moment to click to capture a picture that will either freeze the movement, but still convey the sense of movement, so go with a slower shutter speed and try motion blur, like water cascading over rocks. Whatever the technique, its all about the movement. Its also more of a challenge, since you have to grab the right moment, not spend half an hour setting up and capturing one frame. From there, my interests start making more sense. Motor-sports photography is about capturing movement. Wildlife, can go many ways, but my favorites involve animals in motion. Events, I'm not much into people posing. Which becomes apparent when half my pictures from a wedding turn out to be pictures of people on the dance floor. Parties, sports, catwalk fashion, performances, in general, things in motion. Explains my boredom with landscapes and arty wide angles, I guess. Why I like to be in close covering the event, rather than far back taking details or abstracts.

Limitation? Possibly. Its also a good explanation of why I like working with guys like Charli and Chamil. But then, by definition, style is a limitation. Its a boundary by which you define yourself. This is my style.

Living with the Atom™

2009-10-27T09:36:00.000-07:00

Post apocalyptic connotations aside, it might actually seem like a doomsday scenario. The Intel Atom is its low budget, low power consumption series of processors for net books, and due to circumstances, I took the plunge into mobile tech and bought one.

Scenario : Home PC mobo burnout. Quite annoying. Also, 18-55 kit lens on my 450D is bust, and I wanted to replace it with a 17-40mm f4L. Also was planning on getting a new phone, keeping an eye on a Google Android powered phone with a full sized slide out keyboard. Also get a 23 inch LCD monitor to help with the graphics work and reduce power consumption at home. That's quite a strain on the old budget. Which isn't even getting incremented. But I digress...

So, compromises in order. Compromise one, chuck away the old machine and go for the laptop. I could have gone for the Atom powered desktop (the so called Nettops) at a much lower cost, but went for the netbook instead. Mobility being the key. Also, might give up on the 17-40 L idea and compromise by getting a Tamron AF 17-50mm f2.8. Kills me to give up on the L, but unless I can get a major raise, its not happening. Also wait for the newly announced Motorola Droid. 3.7 inch touch screen, fully slide out QWERTY keyboard and Android 2.0 OS. The phone is still serviceable so it can stay in service a while more until the finances stabilize, and until this hits the markets.

But anyway, Back to the Atom™. I decided to save a few bucks by going for an el cheapo Chinese no-brand model. Well maybe it has a brand, but the lit is in Chinese, so who can say? Headline specs, Intel Atom™ N280 processor, 1 GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 10.2 inch screen at 1024x600, WiFi, on board SD card reader, RJ-45 connector, two USB ports, webcam and mic. All for 45,990! (sarcasm, in case you didn't get it). No Optical device tho.
The main reason I went for this was that I was able to get a USB adapter that lets me keep using my SATA HDDs and IDE DVD-RW with it. Not having that was a deal breaker. I wanted plenty of HDD space! Gonna have to buy a couple more HDDs (Ahhh, more strain on the budget. Excellent. But need it to store my photos)

It really is a funky little thing. 1.26 KG with the battery, and the batt is most of that. Without the batt it weighs next to nothing. About 2.5 hours battery life on a full charge. Not spectacular, but usable. Beautifully clear monitor. Even if screen real estate is sorta at a premium and its not really a multitasking workspace. But then, its not really a heavy multi tasking processor, so ... Touch pad is something new to me. A little annoying with its limited size, but usable. Very nice tactile keyboard, but a little small. Also some of the control keys are all over the place so that make touch typing difficult, but its quite comfortable to type on. I've typed this entire post on it so far, after all :). But I knew this would be a problem so I gotta full sized USB keyboard and mouse. And made sure to get a keyboard with a USB hub in it so I can connect two more devices to it. This two USB port limitation is somewhat of a pain.
WiFi is a little on the weak side. I'm within two feet of my wireless router at home, but still not getting a full strength signal. Still to hit some of the free WiFi spots in Colombo and see the connectivity.

Performance is not bad. I know not to expect instant performance. But it quite happily runs Office, Firefox, ACDSee, and Lightroom, which is the most important thing. On XP with Service Pack three and .NET framework. The .NET framework slowed things down immediately, but I needed it to install Paint.NET. In these budget conscious times, best to stick with the freeware as much as possible. I will be looking to upgrade to Windows 7 and Lightroom 3 Beta, but lets see. Like I said, its not earth shattering, but quite reasonable. Boots up pretty quickly, under a minute I'd say. Which is a lot better than my office PC :) Very few issues so far. Quite happily connects to my 19inch LCD at work at 1440x900. Fits quite comfortably in my camera bag. The only real loss is in the gaming department, no more NFS, but older games run fine. I've got Alpha Centauri, Alien Crossfire running quite comfortably. Will probably install Zeus sometime.

So in summary, I'd say I'm quite happy living with the Atom™. :)

Randon ranting

2009-08-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

http://hnlk.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/sights-unseemly/

Good read, this. :) Strikes many chords ... :)

BasketBawful

2009-08-13T23:44:00.000-07:00

I'm actually working on another trip report, but I came across this on one of my must read blogs and almost choked laughing. Maybe I just have a weird sense of humour, but this just cracked me up. Check it out.
http://basketbawful.blogspot.com/2006/03/gatorade-conspiracy.html
And a followup:
http://basketbawful.blogspot.com/2006/04/gatorade-conspiracy-part-ii-cover-up.html

Yes, its old. Yes, its immature childish toilet humour. And its just flat out hilarious.

Yala Trip report July 2009

2009-07-16T04:32:00.000-07:00

Yala Trip report July 2009

It took 4 years to return to Yala after the memorable Tsunami trip, but this time, just six short months after that, I found myself heading jungle-wards once more. This time, with the family - assorted cousins down on SL for the sister's wedding, Aunts, Uncles, Grandmas, etc. Two vehicles needed. Some of us piled into the van for hire, some into Uncle Tissa's Pajero.
We were supposed to start at 4am, but in typical fashion, left the house only at 4:30. After stopping at Silver Ray for a breather and refreshments (we had made good time) we had to go thru the Great Roast Paan saga. This consisted of stopping at every eatery and bake house looking joint looking for Roast Paan for Gamunu Maami to have his Haal massa Seeni Sambol with. I think we were well past Pelmadulla when we finally found some. Anyhoo, we had planned to get to Uda Walawe by lunch and see the feeding of the Baby Elephants at the Elephant Transit home at noon, but we got there so early that we just barely missed the morning feeding at 9am! So we toured the area, checked the Lock Gates at the Dam, checked out the temple (still under construction) had some snacks and generally chilled until the next feeding time at noon. I got a couple of good pictures of an Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis indicus) perched on a fencepost. The Uda Walawe elephant transit home is an interesting place. It has this museum with some gorgeous pictures of wildlife on the walls and a mini cinema that shows documentaries every so often. Plus of course, the obligatory elephant stuff to see, including the huge elephant skull. Of course, the highlight is the feeding of the elephants. Its interesting to see how the elephants are trained to come get the milk. Oddly there was a baby wild boar wandering around the feeding enclosure, apparently with something wrong with it coz it didn't walk straight, and kept staggering around like it was drunk. Some of the older elephants didn't like it and kept chasing it around the enclosure. From there, we headed to the Uda Walawe Safari Village for lunch, which was pre ordered. Odd thing was, we couldn't eat the ordered packets there, coz while the cost of the packets was 250 each, staying there to eat it would raise it to 800 per head! We took the packets and left! I'm not sure how it was managed but we stopped at a house of a road side fruit seller on the road besides the electric fence and eat there. Setting out from there, everybody, full of lunch, and drowsing the heat (a/c in the van was intermittent, at best) promptly went to sleep. I only woke up in Tissamaharama where we were stopped for fuel. From here we headed straight for the Yala Village hotel.
We were a bit unlucky, in that the extremely dry weather had dried up most of the lake and the closure of the park for long periods had meant that the hotel was in a somewhat shabby state, but hopefully, the influx of tourism from the park reopening will mean the hotel can come back up to its full glory once the funds start coming in. The Yala Village is really quite an interesting concept. The guests are pretty much IN the jungle. The rooms are detached cabins on stilts away from the main reception and dining area, and guests are advised not to wander the grounds alone, specially at night due to wildlife. Sound advise, since the water collecting from the air conditioning unit in our room pools in the play underneath the room and wild boar come there to soak. This family of wild boar roam the hotel grounds freely and were having a drink at the hotel pond when we arrived, causing some excitement among the cousins. There is also an elephant that wanders the gounds, a huge male. We caught sight of it as we came back from Safaring, and it had apparently gone past the Grandmas' room while they were on the balcony! Its not reputed to be friendly. If we needed any further hints that we were in the jungle, we got it when my dad went to take a shower and found it occupied by a pencil thin snake about two and a half feet long. All the while my mum kept calling the reception with a constant stream of complaints (burnt out bulbs, missing towels, snakes etc) I'm sure they were glad to see the back of us when we left, business or no business :) The catering dept, however, kept a high standard of excellence right through our stay. So much so that I overate and ultimately couldn't have the last breakfast due to being sick and suffering a loss of appetite after eating so much! I also got some strange health issues whenever I got into an A/C environment, like the room or even the vehicle. Specifically, I couldn't breathe. Wierd sorta thing. Like being too full of food and no room to breathe.
Anyway, Safari was set for 5:30am, and everyone was set on time, we had hired a safari jeep and split the crowd between that and the pajero. This was a bad time of year for safari. It was incredibly dry and dusty, all the watering holes had dried into tiny slivers of water and patches of mud, and animals and birds just weren't there. Quite a contrast to six months ago. Doubly annoying was the fact that we were trailing the pajero in an open safari jeep, and the tracker was in the pajero, and Uncle Tissa was hammering around Yala like he was on some sorta rally. Kinda hard to take pics when you just zoom around without stopping. However, I did manage to take a few shots, including an enormous concentration of crocs at one of the few large waterholes left. There was one huge croc in particular, sitting around with its jaws gaping open with blood stained teeth. There was also a stranded buffalo and a calf in an island surrounded by crocs. Could have done some nice National Geographic style shooting if we stayed. Only managed the pic on the below. As it was a croc launched an unsuccessful attack on a flock of Pelicans while we watched. After poppsing out of the park for lunch at the hotel, we headed back in for round two, scoring some points over correctly identifing a bird near the crocs as a Lesser Adjutant, while Uncle Tissa got it wrong. Boo ya! Victory dance! The days highlight however, came as the sun was going down and we were preparing to leave the park. News of a leopard sighting caused us to rush to Pidurangala where we saw a leopard, extremely far off, almost out of sight, but I was able to finally spot it with the aid of the trusty 55-250mm. The leopard was pretty close to the coast, Which was sorta puzzling. I'd have expected them to be more in the heavily wooded interior. Anyway, with the leopard moving into hiding and a long line of vehicles forming, we cleared the area to resume the hunt, and .... promptly spotted another leopard on the other side of Pidurangala. This one was my sighting, as in, I saw it first, and got the jeep to stop. It was sitting on the peak of the rock, sillouetted against the sky, and obligingly got up and moved around. It too was at least a kilometer away, but thanks to the 12mpx and 250mm, I got some really jazzy shots. Not the quality to print and publish, but certainly good enough for us to see. Finally it moved to a position that left just the head showing and we decided to move. The driver put the vehicle in gear, started moving the vehicle .... and a bear popped out from behind some shrubbery at the lower part of the Pidurangala rock. I almost forgot to keep quiet in my excitement (First to spot it again :) ) and stopped the jeep. I got a series of shots, but another jeep rushing up scared it into moving back into the shrubbery. The parents in Uncle Tissa's jeep missed this one, coz they had already left after seeing the second leopard. We raced a round the park for a little longer in a futile attempt to see something else, but nothing came of it. However, after dropping off the tracker at the Park office, while heading back the last km to the hotel, my cousin spotted another leopard, this one about 10 meters away from the edge of the road. It was way too dark for photography, but I did manage a grainy image that needs a helluva lot of boosting, but manages to show the cat. There was also that Elephant I mentioned above wandering around the grounds of the hotel when we got back. It managed to scare the bejeezuz out of the van driver. This was a really massive male.

This was the end of the Safari portion. Praying that another tsunami wouldn't sweep us away, we headed off back to Colombo via the Galle Road next morning (after a sizable breakfast, which once again, I couldn't eat properly due to being sick). Again the Air conditioning on the van was acting very intermittently, so we fell asleep for most of that journey. Lunch break was at Weligama, at Barberyn Beach Hotel. Quite a fast run to get there for lunch! After wasting considerable time there, we hit the road again, heading to Barberyn Reef Hotel, Beruwala for tea, and a bit of splashing in the ocean. From here on, we just puttered on homewards, arriving after 7pm and worn out with all the traveling.

Wrap up : Family is fun to travel with, but not safari with. Didn't stop enough for pics, too much noise, and no interest in the uncommon. I much prefer safari adventures with Nilu, Ruwan and crowd, even if they do stop for too long for my tastes. Its a lot better than not stopping and rally racing around Yala! Yala Village Hotel needs quite a bit of work, tho I expect they will find it easier to operate now that tourism is coming back to the area and bringing in the revenue. They are quite actively promoting the place, even online. It definitely has huge amounts of potential if done right. Good enough that I would go and stay there again, and see if they have made progress. I'll give it 4 stars from 5, mostly on its excellent catering, and the fact that most of what needs fixing are minor niggles, which I'm sure will be attended to. Pictures I'll put up later. :)

The Sri Lankan Crimson-backed Flameback woodpecker.

2009-05-30T11:08:00.000-07:00

I’ve always loved woodpeckers, must be that childhood influence of Woody Woodpecker cartoons, so my childlike delight on coming across this fine specimen of a Crimson-Backed Flameback at office when I just happened to have my camera was quite understandable. The jungles of Malabe do have the advantage of having a lot of bird life.
It was quite interesting how I saw this one. I was just at this desk and looked up, out the window, and it occurred to me that that dark lump in the tree wasn’t something that was there before. I took a closer look, and viola, Flameback. Luckily my office colleagues are used to me running around with a camera, so no one looked twice as I grabbed the cam and ran out to the balcony.

Quite interesting fellows these. They specially look like Woody coz of the gorgeous red plume of feathers on their heads. This chap's plume is quite muted, makes me think its not quite a mature specimen. Possibly an immature male or a female, judging but the wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_flameback. (That article features a picture of the only other time I saw a Flameback. Crappy picture of one on my back wall years ago with a really old fuji digicam. But you can clearly see the spectacular plume of red feathers on that ones head). As noted in the article, it supports itself on its tail feathers, behavior which can be seen in the picture below.

Now the technical details, the Sri Lankan Crimson-backed Flameback (Chrysocolaptes lucidus stricklandi) is sometimes considered a Greater Flameback subspecies, sometimes considered a distinct species. Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flameback for a description of the genus.

Restaurant Guide

2009-05-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

Possibly the greatest resource ever.
http://www.lankarestaurants.com/index.php

Well, ok, I might be a little over enthusiastic, but I like to eat, and this thing is damn good. Most of the restaurants are graded, given average pricing, and have a little write up included. They also have a section listing the currently running promotions at the restaurants. Well worth a shout out.

How Sharp do you want it?

2009-03-23T22:44:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to vent about something that was bugging me. Was following a thread on a forum recently where a guy wanted to buy a new SLR camera, and there was the usual brand debate going on. I have started avoiding these generally, mostly coz it degenerates into fanboy arguements, and also because, to successfully engage in a brand debate, you have to know both sides of the coin. Now I chose to become a Canon user due to various reasons that made it the right choice for me. Might not apply to others, so I don't attempt to force the brand down anyones throat. If someone wants to know something about a Canon, I'll help if I can, if they want to know about a competeing brand like Nikon or Sony, I say I don't know about them and stay out of it.Right now, since I have made my choice already, its just not useful for me to keep up with the products of competing brands. Why waste time on things I can't use?
However, this guy got my goat. I mean, he did the posting equivalent of pleading and begging not to buy a Canon on the basis that he hadn't enjoyed his user experience, and claiming it was impossible to get sharp telephoto pictures unless you buy the expensive L series lens that Canon offers.
Now, even my last post was an enthusiastic post on the virtues of the L series, but this is taking it a little too far. Plently of people take really good, sharp telephoto pics with non-L glass. Heck people take good sharp telephoto pics with Point and Shoot consumer cameras.
This Bee Eater was taken with a Canon Powershot S2 IS p&s.

This dragonfly was taken with the same camera.

I don't know by what measure you can't call them sharp, and this is just my stuff, there are plenty of people out there who take much better pics than I do.
However, the bone is that Canons cheaper telephoto range doesn't do the job. Alright, I recently bought a budget Canon telephoto lens. The EF-S 55-250mm IS. I took this picture of a squirrel on a tree in my front yard while sitting on my keister on my front porch, pairing my 450D and the 55-250mm. Handheld. Fully extended to its maximum 250mm. There really isn't much in the currently in-production range of Canon telephoto lens that you can get cheaper than this one. You be the judge if it gets the job done.

I dunno what that guy was smoking, but I absolutely love this lens. I took it on safari within a week of getting my hands on it and I've been smitten ever since. If you want to know why, check out these results at my multiply album of the pics taken on that trip

Its not that I'm knocking on the L range or saying its not necessary. But I did consider the excellent EF 70-200mm F4L when deciding on a telephoto, and the 55-250 won out, for several reasons. L lens have their place in the world, and they are definitely on my wish list, but to blithely dismiss the non-L glass as useless is just wrong. Even the pro's of pros will tell you, you don't need pro equipment to get good pictures in good conditions. Under ideal conditions, even a phone camera will deliver unbelievable results. Pro gear start showing their worth when the conditions start getting bad, when you need that reliability to make sure you can get the shots that put the food on your table even when the conditions aren't great for photography. But in normal conditions?

Well, we'll see. I am planning on getting a third party 500mm f8 manual focus lens. If it delivers then, it really will prove my point. At under $90, this is very much el cheapo. If it doesn't, I'll use it as a paperweight :)

The call of the "L"

2009-01-27T21:00:00.001-08:00

"L"coholic?
Originally uploaded by Preveen

Among Canon fans, the "L" series represents a pinnacle. As good as it gets. To have that red band on the lens is making a statement. "L" series lens are made for the pros, who demand the best, and need their gear to work in extreme conditions and still produce outstanding quality.
Recently, one of my friends acquired an "L" lens, the EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS (or as it is referred to around office "The Bazooka"). I was playing around with it and got this shot at the full 400mm end. The longest lens I own is a EF-S 55-250mm and the comparison of results, well, lets just say I'm hearing the call of the "L"!

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X RS

2008-08-29T12:37:00.001-07:00

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X RS
Originally uploaded by Preveen

Tricks of light and shadow :) Despite it looking like Dinesh Deheragoda's new Mitsubhishi Lancer Evolution X RS is flying by at a good rate of speed, its actually moving pretty slowly on first gear. Low ISO, small aperture and slow shutter speed, used with a panning motion allowed this shot. A little bit of color burn to make the background darker to wrap things up. This was taken during a shoot of the Evo X to show its new sponsor colours.

Nuwara Eliya - March 2008

2008-04-21T05:16:00.000-07:00

March provided a nice long 4 day weekend (rare even in the holiday country of SL) and we decided to get away from the hot, sticky and unseasonably wet weather in Colombo and head for the cooler climes in the interior of the island. The idea was to leave on Thursday, have a walk around the Horton Plains on Friday and return to muggy old Colombo on Saturday, leaving Sunday to recover from the vacation before heading to work. Must have been the wisdom of experience, leaving a vacation day to recover from the vacation.

The numbers were down this time, just Ruwan, Nilu and me heading out, and we started out from Colombo in the intrepid Aggie (Nilu’s car, I have no idea why its thus named). We were actually on time (which must be why it rained so much) and headed off towards the first stop at Lyons in Hanwella for breakfast (Strictly speaking the first stop was the ATMs, but lets skip that detail). I was due a number of brain-farts on this trip, and the first was missing Lyons, definitely a first. Luckily, Nilu saw us passing said eatery while we were driving along, so we were able to put a u-turn and have breakfast. Lyons has quite a good breakfast buffet going, and after a rather hefty breakfast we were ready to head out again. Heading out again, time for brain-fart number two as I took the Ratnapura Road from Avissawella, rather than the Hatton road. We were well into Kuruwita before I realized we were going the wrong way. Thank goodness we didn’t aim for Kithulgala for breakfast. Anyway, after a quick discussion, we decided to keep going and head into NE via Balangoda (remembered my mum making a similar goof while taking some people upcountry while I was younger and they took that route). What the heck, we had been on the Hatton Road already and were in no particular hurry so we would take the scenic route. (ahem)

Traffic was annoying at Ratnapura, but the road opens up into a lovely ribbon of smooth tarmac from there on (the road from Avissawella to Ratnapura is pretty good too, but traffic is heavier). Keeping a sharp eye for cops, we were moved on quite briskly. Stopping at Silver Ray for refreshments, and a call home to check directions, we headed on towards Balangoda. A quick stop at the Cargills, and we moved towards Haputale, were there is a short-cut to Nuwara Eliya, rather than going towards Bandarawela and then turning back. I had noticed Aggie giving some trouble coming up to Ratnapura, but the climb towards Balangoda confirmed that we were having clutch slippage. The slow going and steep climbing from Haputale probably didn’t help the problem. However, she managed to hold up until Nuwara Eliya. I had been hoping to hit a good road, as the road from Haputale was rather rough, but the so called A5 (I believe it goes from Kandy to Badulla thru NE) proved to be a massive disappointment. Especially with an ailing clutch. There quite a long stretch of B road before that what was better maintained.

Anyway, we headed into the Hotel without further mishap, tho the climb up the drive of the hotel caused a few flutters. A bit of a steep climb just off the Park Road. The location was pretty good, and we could see the people in the Victoria Park from the garden. We decided to have a stroll in the park after freshening up and having lunch. Lunch being the term chosen for a meal at 4pm. The park entrance was less than a 5 minute walk from the hotel, so after lunch, we headed off on foot. Being warned that the weather had been uncooperative recently we stopped at a shop near the park entrance and bought raincoats, and headed on into the park.

Victoria Park in Nuwara Eliya is pretty small as our parks go. It is possible to see every bit of the place in a couple of hours or so, but it is a nice relaxing spot, and there was plenty of bird life around too. Nothing spectacular, but we were able to get some nice pictures of Oriental Magpie-Robins, Red-vented Bulbuls, Bitterns and Indian Pond Herons. However, the light faded fairly early, so we headed back to the hotel.

There was a nice fire going in the common room, so we relaxed and took a few pics. Since we couldn't make it to Horton Plains with Aggies clutch, we arranged for a van the next day. Wise move on the whole, since going there with a healthy clutch would have probably meant coming back with a broken one anyway. :) That road is pretty rough.

We were up bright and early for the trip to the Plains. We were there pretty early, which was necessary to beat the rush. Which was crazy for that time of year! It was damn cold, misty, rainy, but we headed on since we expected it to clear when the sun came up. Unfortunately, it never did. On the way to the start of the foot trail, we made a brief stop to take pictures of a tame Sambur, who came right up the vehicle and poked his nose in the window. I guess he was used to getting handouts from travelers. It was raining fairly steadily at the the start of the trail into the park, so we hung out for a while at the Farr Inn, and had some coffee. It seemed like the rain was easing so we actually set out to on the trail clad in raincoats, but by the time we got to where the path divides to head off towards the lesser Worlds End, it was fairly obvious that the rain wasn't letting up. Since the whole point was to take pictures, and we can't do that in the rain without getting the cameras wet, we gave it up and headed back to the van. We then decided to make some use of the trip by trying a visit to Hakkgala Gardens. It was dry when we got there, but no sooner than we approached the ticket outfit, it started raining furiously. Obviously, the Gods were trying to tell us something :) The new raincoats certainly saw some good use. Well, it was kinda disappointing to keep getting thwarted like this, even tho walking isn't one of my favorite activities.

We got back to the hotel, and had a late lunch in the bower outside the hotel. There were plenty of birds around so we spent the rest of the day relaxing on the grounds and taking pictures. What I like to call the "Birds and Bees" photo session. :) In particular, I got some great shots of a Ceylon Hill White-eye, and finally a decent shot of a Red-vented Bulbul. There was also a nice little Grey Wagtail in the harvested vegetable beds. I got a rather long shot of an Ashy Woodswallow too.

We headed into town for a bit before heading over to the Grand Hotel for dinner. The food was great, and the whole place has a certain ambiance about it. It is a great photography site. Must make a more leisurely visit sometime to take some pics.

The next morning we headed out towards the Galway National Park. This is a new place, pretty small for a national park, surrounded by the town. It is mostly a bird place, which the odd reptile and other small creature about. It features about 2km of trails in in, and its a nice place to walk around in. Its pretty heavily wooded, and while we could hear the bird life, spotting it was a bit difficult. Besides, the light wasn't great, and the S2 was a bit out of its league unless we found a clearing. I did, however, find some interesting shots to take.

And so, after that, we headed back to the city, this time taking the A5 through Kandy. The Ramboda Falls and the tunnel at the Ramboda Pass provided the highlights on this road trip, which was notable for its great driving road. I couldn't play around too much with a car with a slipping clutch, but the fact that is such a great road at least made the driving easy. Stops at the Labookellie Tea Center and at the Royal Mall at Kandy for lunch, and we finally managed to get in to Colombo late on Saturday.

More on the Fishing hut

2008-04-07T21:25:00.000-07:00

A colleague of mine has also visited the fishing hut and sampled it charms. They have obviously had a more adventurous time than we had! The weather has cooperated better too. Details of their trip along with pics can be found at http://www.lakdasun.com/attractions/attraction_02.htm

Sri Lanka Hill White-eye

2008-04-05T04:25:00.001-07:00

Sri Lanka White-eye
Originally uploaded by Preveen

A pair of these birds kept flitting around the bower that was set up for visitors to relax at the Trevene Hotel in Nuwara Eliya. Very hard to capture as they don't stay still very long and the light filtering through the bower wasn't great for photography either. This one, however, settled literally a couple of feet away from me and stayed long enough for me to get a couple of frames.

The Family meets.

2007-12-17T10:45:00.000-08:00

Time for that break in the trend I mentioned in the last post. No, this is not some kinda Mafia meeting.

Twas time for the Rodrigo's to meet, and this time, I thought I'd take my camera along. The family has a long history. In 1838, the head of the family, Johannes Rodrigo, founded the Rodrigo-Family Friend-in-Need Society. Currently in its 184th year, it is one of the oldest registered societies in Sri Lanka. The society engages in various charitable deeds, offers books and scholarships to those engaged in their educational activities, and has a general meeting twice a year.

Proceedings kick off early morning (8:45 this time) at the Rodrigo Burial Grounds. as is normally the case, the chief incumbent of the Panadura Ran Koth Viharaya comes and delivers a sermon and conducts a blessing. Rather gloomy sermon this year, on waste and death. Maybe subjects weighing on the loku hamuduruwo's mind. The younger Rodrigo's then receive tokens for books, part of the educational initiatives. The proceedings then shift over the the Maha Seeya's house in Naluruwa (The former residence of Johannes Rodrigo), where the meeting is held, books and scholarships are distributed, generally a speech is made by a guest speaker, and then we break for lunch. This signals the close of proceedings.

I didn't pull out the cam during the meeting, but took a few pics of the Burial Grounds and the gathering. Sorta a tribute to the history of the family.

Monument erected in memory of Johannes Rodrigo. His brothers lie next to him. 4 of them, I believe.

Headstone on the grave of Johannes Rodrigo aka Maha Seeya, founder president of the Rodrigo Family Friend in Need Society.

Monument where the ashes of John Rodrigo, my great grandfather are interred. Also the ashes of Wilmot Rodrigo, my grandfather. Should also include my ashes, come time for me to go to my final rest.

Inscription on the monument to John Rodrigo and his wife.

Inscription in memory of my grandfather.

Grave of Patrick and Chitrangani Rodrigo.

Other monuments erected in memory of Rodrigos long gone from among us.

Rodrigos at the burial grounds, just after the sermon.

Just before leaving the burial grounds. Thats my mother on the left. My father in front of her, leaning over a little, next to Uncle Drupatha in the white shirt.

Meeting underway back at Naluruwa. Took this pic with my phone, hence the quality. The Head table, consisting of Devasiri Mama (Vice Pres) on the left, my father (also VP), Mala Nanda (Pres) and Sepalika Nanda (Sec).

Fishing Hut

2007-10-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

This is turning into a trip blog, rather than a photo one :) Who am I to break a trend? Trend breaking shortly, for now, the trip.

Background on the location:
"Set deep inside evergreen forests within a large tea plantation at the foot of the sacred mountain of Adam's Peak, Two simple log huts have been constructed in a secluded location overhanging the Butulu Oya. Originally built in 1932 by British planters, the huts were rebuilt by the estate in recent times to continue the tradition and allow others to enjoy the superb location."

CTO this time was Mr Ruwan Rajapakshe. Joining in was Nilu, Hiranya, Gamindu, Buddhika and Kusal. Yours truly decided to handle the driving, so I went along and picked up a 4wd Toyota Townace from Mal-Key Rent-a-Car. It certainly lived up to that Toyota rep for soft rides and no steering feel. :D But I suppose that’s a good thing when facing long distance driving. It did however, have a better turning circle than my car, of which I am insanely jealous. A freaking 4wd van having a better turning circle than a two door hatchback!

Anyway, Saturday Morning, all siddhalepa’ed and panadol’ed up (I was having some kinda weird muscle pain in my right side lower ribs), I left home at 7 to pick up the crew. I had told Ruwan that picking up Buddhi in 15 mins from his place was going to be stretching it, and I was right. It took about 45 mins to get to Buddhi’s :D Anyway, but the time we picked up everyone, and finished with some last minute shopping, it was well after 9. Anyhoo, we proceeded on up to Avissawella, (And the pee break at Avissawella Rest House cost 30 bucks per person!) and from there onto the Hatton Road. We passed Kitulgala Rest House around 11:30 and decided it was too early for lunch and proceeded on the Ginigathhena Road. At the Norton Bridge turn off, we decided to find a spot for lunch. This led to a 4km drive the wrong way to find a joint called the Tea Cup. I’m sure everyone who has taken the Thalawakelle road must be familiar with the enormous yellow tea cup signaling this spot. It’s a pretty pleasant stop, tho they didn’t have lunch, and we substituted on Chinese rolls and Patties. Picked up a nice shot of a Great Tit and a somewhat blurred sparrow while there.

Continuing on our merry way, over dams and bridges on twisty mountain roads, we finally got to the Moussakelle Reservoir. Beautiful area, but no photography allowed near the dam, due to security reasons. Well, we proceeded on along the reservoir banks, punctuated by stops for photos and cries of “Its beautiful” (and stuff to that effect) from the back of the van. Had to put my foot down after sometime (Literally, on the gas pedal) as it was getting late, and I didn’t fancy driving those unfamiliar roads in the dark. Good thing too, coz the last 10 or so km was pretty hard going! Also passed a lovely waterfall, which the board identified as Mohini Falls. The views were damn spectacular!

They really could improve on the signs leading upto the Fishing Hut, as the last bit was confusing. After puttering around a while in the car park, a couple of guys who work there came and said we should stop at the other car park and come down that way. After nearly going down the wrong path, we finally made our way what was to be home for the next couple of days.

Fishing Hut is a real back to basics kinda place. Fortunately they have somewhat modern toilets, since they tap into natural springs to get running water, but that’s the only modern convenience, but its damn cold! No electricity, so after dark activities only by petro-max lamps and Kerosene lamps.

We were all tired after the long journey, and it was rather rainy outside, we stayed put while the cook made us dinner. One thing, dude is a damn good cook! After dinner, we had a bit of a singing session, with Kusal and Buddhi taking turns on the guitar.

I was up unusually early the next morning, which I suspect was mostly coz I had trouble sleeping. Must have woken up a dozen times during the night. No idea why, except that I didn’t wear any socks when I first went to sleep. That was a bad move. Hopped out of bed as soon as I saw light coming in the window. It was actually later than I thought tho, coz the rain still lingered and made things fairly dark. Took a few pics while the rest of the party went through their routines. The water the cook heated for us to bathe was a godsend! :D I also got some pictures of a white-eye, none of which turned out well. Looks like a White-Eye, but its gray backed, whereas white-eyes tend to be yellowish-greenish. I’ve no idea what it is!

After breakfast, we went to town for some supplies and stuff. Lotsa photo stops along the way, but we got back sometime near two. The others went exploring while the cook made lunch, while I decided to stick by the hut, and take a few pics. The ladies decided they wanted river rocks and then eventually jumped in to the river too. Lunch happened after 3! This followed by a nap. I was tired from the driving and recovering from some kind of muscle strain, after all!

As darkness fell, the guitar was broken out again, and we had a small campfire. The fire started off inside, went outside, and was rained out around 10. The damn smoke kept following me around and made dinner a choked out experience! Back inside, we continued the singing session while the rain came down.

Late into the night, we had the infamous “Buddhi’s new yahoo profile pic” photo session, and shortly after that we broke up for the night.

The rain had really come down during the night, as evidenced by the river. The others decided to walk up the trail to Adams Peak, supposedly a two and a half hour hike from the spot. Not having rain gear, and not relishing the idea of walking in that oxygen starved atmosphere, I stayed back, and packed up for the trip back to Colombo and took a nice nap. It was nearly 1 when our intrepid explorers got back, and Kusal and Buddhi decided to test the waters since the water level had gone down again.

I was fairly keen to get away, since it was a long drive back, and surprisingly, we managed to get out of there by two. Inevitably, progress was slowed by more stopping for pics, but eventually we got back to Colombo in one piece. By the time I dropped everyone off and got home, it was after 9.

All in all a nice trip. Need a little more planning the next time, especially for walking, and evening activities. Take some cards and games of that sort. We were very unlucky about the weather, which was unusually rainy for that time of year. What to do? IMO, it’s a nice place to relax, and its supposed to be a great birding spot, tho we saw very little evidence of that. Maybe we should try it again when its dry, its certainly a nice spot to get away for a few days.

Support trip to Kotmale

2007-08-21T02:58:00.000-07:00

Ideas of a support division trip had been tossed around for some time, and it was finally set for the weekend of 18th-19th August, 2007. 17 guys confirmed participation and the plan was to meet up at office for a 6:30am start. Managed to get picked up on the way as the bus was coming that way, and got to office around …. Seven. This generated some interesting comments on the organizing (A frequently recurring theme on this trip).

Finally getting started around eight from office, (the boss had overslept) we proceeded up to Jinadasa’s at Warakapola engaging in an orgy of jokes, story telling, mud slinging and more comments about the organizing from people who got picked up after we left office. Dropping of Munchie on the way (he hitched a ride home from office), we had breakfast at Jinadasa’s shop, which has really expanded its premises. They’ve built a restaurant in back.

From there we proceeded upwards to the center of the Island, with frequent stops at supermarkets in order to keep the drunkards going. In the process, I was driven out of my seat so they could enjoy their drinks in the back. I gather they went through two bottles on the way up.

Passing through Gampola I got lucky getting in a couple of good shots of the Ambuluwawa. Looks spectacular. Looks vertigo inducing. I can safely declare I am never going to climb that thing.

One tire change later, we finally reached the Kotmale Holiday Resort at approx 1:30. The boys were not very favorably impressed. Personally, I thought it looked ok, a bit rustic, but ok. I mean, what were they expecting for the price, the Hilton? After a quick discussion, it was decided that we would have lunch, before resting for the evening activities. No one was impressed with the lunch though. Even at that price they could have come up with something better than that!

Couple of hours later, 7 survivors headed out to partake in some physical activity, while the others recovered from the alcohol intake. Surprisingly, even the boss joined us, alcohol intake and all. Either he hadn’t had a lot, or he has more tolerance than I would have given him credit for. Anyhoo, we picked up whatever sporting implements were available, and headed out to the “sports complex” which consisted of a tennis court with a net, a tennis court without a net, and a volleyball/netball court without a net. I think there was also a badminton court without a net. And a large building we assume housed the squash courts, though no one checked, since they didn’t give us the stuff to play that. So, 7 of us to play cricket, with the pitch being the tennis court without the net. No one wanted to be running around retrieving balls all afternoon and the tennis courts had a high mesh fence around it. I surprisingly did a lot better than normal, managing a decent batting performance and hold a difficult running catch. Must have been the Mojaves. Didn’t bother bowling, no use overworking Lady Luck. :D In the meantime, Ravi got a full toss right one the kisser from Mythree. He had to endure quite a few jokes on the reaction he would get from his significant other if he came back with a split lip. :) But he got over it ok. Others waking up from their “rests” trickled in to join us, making it difficult to play. I mean, where can u hit the ball when there are 6 guys fielding in a tennis court? Besides, Thilina decided to show up wearing his swim shorts, which left nothing to the imagination. That’s not a sight you want in front of you when batting! I swear that bugger must be gay; he keeps rubbing up on Roshan in a very odd way, specially considering he’s married with one on the way. Suspicious. Anyway, a very entertaining session came to an end after we managed to split 4 tennis balls (Including one that lasted two deliveries, must be a record), and we decided to head for the pool.

At the pool, several people changed their mind about swimming being a good idea after checking out the water, yours truly included. However a few brave souls decided to give it a go.

We left the poolside to get ready for dinner as the light was fading, in order to get dinner The arrangement of the cottages meant that it was a little inconvenient for everyone to get together, so while 12 guys got ready using 4 bathrooms, there was an impromptu entertainment session in our room. That needs video to be appreciated. After this fun time, we went on down to the other cottage to find the others playing cards. After them getting envious of the singing sessions and us getting jealous of the cards, we went down to dinner.

The dinner was ok, a definite improvement over lunch. They also had a band downstairs and some guys decided to go dance. Apparently they created quite an impression, judging by the sounds, though I missed most of it as I was busy with dinner. I caught the tail end of it though.

The proceedings then shifted to our cottage for the booze session, getting a picture of Chathura watering a tree on the way.

The boozing went on till three in the morning, though I got bored with proceeding around midnight when the guys decided to sing slow songs. I’d been up since 5 am, after 4 hours sleep, and slow songs don’t help u stay awake! So I decided to go catch some sleep. Somewhere in the middle of all this, Sanjaya was also awarded the title “CTO”, Chief Trip Organizer.

Predictably, they decided to finish and then wake up every one who had gone to sleep. At 3 in the morning. After chasing them out, they went around the other cottages, woke up the others who were sleeping, and came back to wake me up again. Only I hadn’t fallen asleep again, so I chased them away with a belt. Them drunk boys ain’t exactly quiet in their approach.

Anyhoo, after that interruption, I was the first awake, at the advanced hour of 7 am. Since everyone else was asleep I wandered around taking a few pics.

The White Rumped Munia shot came out really well :)

After the tea came at 8, I wandered around waking people up and getting a few pics in the process. After finally waking everyone up, we just made the restaurant in time for breakfast.

One unmemorable breakfast later, we decided to head out to see the Dam and the Kotmale Mahaweli Maha Seya at around 11. The group once again split up to dress and address their hangovers, while a few of us played cards.

Everyone except the boss showed up for the mini-excursion. The CTO wanted to walk, claiming it was a mere three kilometers to the Dam. This proved to be an unpopular suggestion, especially after someone pointed out it would be 6 km to do the round trip. So, off we went by bus. Even the bus was groaning during the climb, and the CTO had to endure many snide comments on walking. It increased when we neared the viewing station for the Dam and found a board saying 1.2 km to the Seya :) Anyway, we decided to head for the Seya first, reaching there at around 12:30.

Apparently they started construction of the Seya around 1983. Construction was then halted in the 90’s and resumed only in 2003. It is still unfinished. It does look magnificent though, the first MahaSeya to be built since the days of the Sinhala Kings. It was truly massive! The structure is hollow, and that enabled us to go right in and walk around inside, where the guys prompt decided to act like a bunch of 10 year olds hearing the echoes inside. Had the cameras doing overtime in that session. We were there nearly an hour we headed out.

A brief look at the Dam, since we were short of time, and we were rolling again. After a couple of our nutcases tried to get shot by the Army by stopping at the gate to the Dam we went on again.

Then someone saw a “sangili palama” and everyone wanted to go down and have a look. Well, everyone expect a couple of sane souls who decided to stay in the bus. I mean, it’s a bridge, what’s to get so excited about? And we were getting late for lunch too! Anyway, most of the others trickled back after a while, but 4 guys decided to prove how much regard they have for their team members by staying down at the bridge for more than ½ an hour while the others waited to go for lunch in the bus. They were greeted by a stream of profanity from yours truly when they finally got back in, but in retrospect, it’s a good thing to know how much these guys, who happened to be team leads or deputies, cared about their teams, and how much they enjoyed keeping everyone waiting for their own enjoyment. Always a good thing to discover these traits before it shows up during work. So much for trust.
We got back shortly afterwards to the Resort, had a pretty decent lunch compared to what they had been giving us all that time and headed to the rooms to rest and pack up to head back home. Getting done with the packing, I discovered the joys of choos gedi again :) I don’t know what they are called in English, but they were plentiful in the estates when we were kids. It’s a sorta pod that grows on a tree. I think it’s the bud the flower blooms from. But in the immature stage they are filled with a slightly smelly liquid, and squirts out when the pod is squeezed. I have no idea why it falls from the trees before it blooms, and I didn’t take any pics coz I was too busy reliving my childhood. :) After squirting a few on some of the guys who were playing cards, it was time to leave. Same guys who kept us waiting on the bridge kept us waiting half an hour again.

It was getting late getting back to Colombo, and we had a tire puncture on the way too, so we stopped at an unknown joint outside Warakapola for dinner a short time after dark. It seems to have been the mission in life of these guys to make me late, as three of the same guys made sure the bus had to go off on two enormous detours to drop them off instead of taking the direct road home. That probably cost me at least another hour. Annoying buggers. It was after 10:30 when I finally got home, brining an end to the travels and the end of this post.

Birds of Panadura

2007-07-22T21:57:00.000-07:00

Mind out of the gutter now :) I went for a birthday party in Panadura, and had the luck to see quite a few garden birds and also the luck to get a few shots off, since I happened to have the cam along. Missed a few too, including a lovely sunbird that wouldn't sit still long enough. Selected the best three subjects for publication.

The first is what I belive is a White-Bellied Drongo. The belly shots are blurred and the wiki doesn't have a photo, but the description tallies.

"One Sri Lankan race, Dicrurus caerulescens leucopygialis, has the white on the underparts restricted to the vent area and undertail coverts."

There are also a large number of these birds at my office at Malabe so I have had plenty of opportunities to study them. Very active and don't stay still for long, which is why I haven't got many pics of them here. Must give it another go. This particular example posed on a branch quite high up, and was quite difficult to get. I'm quite pleased with this shot, which was the only decent one of about 5! Besides, the others came out as silhouettes, as there was a cloudy sky behind presenting a white backdrop.

The second was a Black-Hooded Oriole. What a showoff! :) Gave me plenty of shots, and after I came back and sat down, came back for a repeat performance! I think I'll upload this to the wiki.

"The Black-hooded Oriole, Oriolus xanthornus, is a member of the oriole family of passerine birds and is a resident breeder in tropical southern Asia from India and Sri Lanka east to Indonesia."

"The male is striking, with the typical oriole black and yellow coloration. The plumage is predominantly yellow, with a solid black hood, and black also in the wings and tail centre."

The last is a sunbird of some sort. According to my "Birds of Sri Lanka", it might possibly be a female Long Billed Sunbird, aka Loten's Sunbird, tho Wiki doesn't agree with the description of the female.

According to "Birds of Sri Lanka"

"Female has brown upperparts and light underparts"

I've crossed out the Purple-Rumped Sunbird, since there is a picture of that and the face coloring is different. It's also likely to be the Long-Billed as there was another bird that looked like a male Long-Billed, tho I couldn't get a picture of him. If anyone one can clarify, pls leave a comment. :)

Foxhill Supercross 2007

2007-07-19T22:50:00.000-07:00

Wrote this article some time ago for autoLanka, but it was never used. Thought I'd put it here now. I've already got this on my multiply site at http://preveen.multiply.com/journal/item/6

21^st April was the day the hills at Diyatalawa echoed with the thunder of engines as the annual Foxhill Supercross was run. This is the 15^th time this event has been run, organized by the Sri Lanka Association of Racing Drivers and Riders (SLARDAR) in association with the Military Academy in Diyatalawa. Qualifying the day before had been a fast and furious affair, according to those present trackside, and the day started with much promise for some top class racing.

Team autoLanka set off to Diyatalawa on 20^th Morning (Friday) Meeting up with fellow AL forum members Fuzzo and Madmax at Ambalama in Hanwella, we proceeded rather briskly up to Belihul-Oya Rest house for lunch. Yours truly transferred onto Madmax’s luxury wheels (BMW 320D) and leisurely sauntered along to Bandarawela, taking in the breathtaking scenery and pausing to take photos along the way. In the mean time Fuzzo and his better half, followed by our fearless leader of AL Madz and his better half, had hot-footed it to Diyatalawa like a cat on a hot tin roof. Yours truly puttered in somewhat later and spend the evening enjoying the flora and fauna (including migratory birds) at the picturesque Bandarawela Hotel. As darkness fell, quite a few familiar faces from the local racing scene showed up to enjoy the buffet including Dinesh D, Aravinda P, Dinesh J and from the AL forums KLM and Pilawoos! (note to self- maintain a lower profile. Ppl are recognizing me and asking why I don’t take a lot of pictures of them) Top marks for the buffet by the way. Personally speaking I enjoyed it immensely. Only problem was their idea of a BBQ was to BBQ chicken sausages. It isn’t possible have a BBQ with just chicken sausages, no matter how good they are!

Next morning, determined on an “early” start, Team AL got ready, stepped out …. and were greeted by a large breakfast buffet. The “early” start promptly disappeared, tho we made our way out with plenty of time for the action. Unfortunately, the traffic on the roads leading to Diyatalawa were terrible, aggravated by wanna-be Americans who decided that driving on the wrong side of the road was the way to go. In the mean time, we managed to catch the commentaries on radio, and by the sound of things, we missed at least two races, one of which was a hotly contested Ford Laser event. Advise to future visitors, make sure u leave for the track well in advance of the start time, and behave on the road. After finally getting in to the paddocks (with Madz inexplicably telling an army chap that I was a competitor) we made our way out in front where a bike race was under way.

The weather was gorgeous, bright blue skies and high clouds that bought relief from the sun. The weather gods cooperated until the last race was run and then the rain absolutely poured during the awards ceremony. The spectator areas were jam packed (after that traffic jam, they had to be), The Sunday Observer reported that the crowd was in excess of 30,000. They were treated to some keenly contested races. Dinesh Jayawardena and Aravinda Premadasa provided a closely fought contest in the SL-GT class for 1^st place, Gayan Sandaruwan recovered from a bad first lap to come within a couple of lengths of leading rider Pasindu Peris in the Group MX - Racing Motorcross Bikes class and Dinesh Senenayake took the flag in Jeep event after hounding Osanda who crashed out right through the race and picking up some damage himself. Dinesh Jayawardena provided some entertainment by doing some do-nuts to celebrate his win in the first, and Sajitha Wedisinghe decided to do some of his own. The highlight of the day though, was Gayan Sandaruwan leaping for the sky and performing aerial tricks on his bike in mid race while the crowd loudly cheered each successive jump in front of the grand stand.

There were also plenty of spills including Gayan Sandaruwan taking the last jump in the last lap on the last race of the day, only to land on the bike of another rider who had fallen just ahead of him. He was thrown across the finish line with the marshal waving the flag, but there was a report that the race was canceled. He did walk off into the ambulance, but the Sunday Observer mentioned that “there were serious injuries” and reported that his father had said he was bought to Colombo for further examination. There were also several severely damaged cars, and Janaka Dias had a close shave after Rizvi Farouk drifted into his car. Soon after the last race, the heavens opened up, and even though the prize giving had been held in the rain, Team AL could not cover it. However, we had a good days racing, and kudos to SLARDAR and the Military Academy for excellent organization. Pictures for the races from Team autoLanka can be seen at http://www.autolanka.com/gallery/ Confirmation of the results and the points table can be found at the SLARDAR racing website, www.slardarracing.com.

The longest climb

2007-07-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

The adventure began when the G-man called up outta the blue and asked if I wanted to go on a trip. He temptingly dangled lunch at Kandalama Hotel as bait. Its very hard to say no to lunch at Kandalama, even when he mentioned the dreaded word Sigiriya. The sheer mention of the word gives me vertigo.
But anyhoo, chance of a nice trip, meet some new people and take a few pics was interesting, so what the heck, I was in. Details came in slowly. Dambulla and Sigiriya. Great, more climbing.

So, historical background. The rock temple at Dambulla. This from Wiki.
"Dambulla Cave Temple (also known as the Golden Temple of Dambulla) is a world heritage site (1991) in Sri Lanka, situated in the central part of the country."
What the site doesn't mention is there is a lotta steps to climb to get there. Why can't these people install walkways or elevators at these sites!? The altitude change leaves you short of breath anyway.

And Sigiriya the famous "Lion Rock"
"Sigiriya is an archeological site in Central Sri Lanka. It contains the ruins of an ancient palace complex, built during the reign of King Kasyapa (477 – 495 AD). It is one of the seven World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka and is one of its most popular tourist destinations."

The G-man promised an early start with a 6:00 am pickup. Sometime after 6:30, he arrived with a van. Popping on over the Mount Lavinia Hotel to pick up Hermy (newly christened courtesy yours truely) we headed out. The point of the trip was to show Hermy sites of historical interest in SL, as she is interested in this kinda thing. (In case u missed it, shes from America, with a complicated ancestry. So America will suffice :) ) Why G-man didn't think of a tour of Mt. Lavinia Hotel is beyond me. Nice old historical place with lots of stories attached.... I'd have conducted the tour personally if it consisted of visiting the restaurants. :) Oh, well, maybe it wasn't old enough.... But I digress...

Sooo, off we went in the van, bouncing around at what musta been 100kmph (can't see the speedo from the back). In the pic from left to right, Buddhika (G-man) (front row), Coomerene (back row)(hope I got the spelling right), G-man's sis (front row) Thusitha and Hermy in the hat.

Stopped for breakfast at some joint outside Kaduwela. No recommendations from me, service sucked and the food was so-so, tho the toilets were good. Setting was decent too, with a nice large garden to view while eating. Saw a Brown-Headed Barbet, but I had left the camera back in the van.

Resuming our epic adventure, we headed off into the horizon, giving Hermy history, geography and political lessons on the way :) After a confused time at Dambulla trying to find our way to the temple, we stopped at the Golden Temple. Immediately, we were beset on all sides by a bunch of fortune tellers who insisted on calling me "manamala mahathya". Honestly, the nerve! They gave Hermy an interestingly generic fortune, tho we really couldn't keep the translation up with the speed of the flow :)

Very much the Golden Temple as you can see. A looong flight of stairs later, we headed into the famed cave temple. Somewhat out of breath too. However, it was nice and cool in the caves. There are all kinds of restrictions on the photography, like no flash, but I got some dim shots. Going to have a try with a tripod and prolonged exposure if I ever go again.

The place is infested with monkeys. Just like I remembered it from a long time ago. Wanna be players those monkeys, kept going up to the girls and trying to climb on them. Easy to satisfy them, just need to give them a flower. Gave the girls a bit of a fright tho!

Got the team to pose in front of the bell tower. I'm taking the photo, just in case someone thinks of asking.

Came down again after having a refreshing thambili (king coconut for the benefit of internationals) on the way down, we got back to the van to more calls of "manamala mahathaya" from the 2nd shift of fortune tellers. Honestly, these people!
Onward to Kandalama Hotel and lunch! 10km according to the sign posts, but it felt quite longer than that. Wish I thought of taking a few more photos at the Hotel, but it was near 2 and we were worried about missing the buffet, so we rushed right through to the restaurant. Standard at Kandalama, A+, definite recommendation for anyone with pockets deep enough.
The Salad
And the main course.

After all that, I was definitely feeling like not climbing and a relaxing soak in the pool and a nice drive back to Colombo was an idea that was very appealing. However, we had a mission, (show Hermy ancient sites) so off we went.

Sigiriya has this effect of looking more and more forbidding the closer we got to it. Introduced to the delightful new abbreviation, GNT (gaanu naana thana, or place where women bathe) we headed across the moat into Sigiriya. Old king Kashyapa definitely liked his GNTs, with the miniature GNT just after the ramparts, the pictures of the women in the GNT on the frescoes, and the GNTs on the summit with a throne were the pervy old king could sit and check out his NGs. According to some quick net research, he is supposed to have had 500. Oh well, kinda isolated spot, what with the center of everything at Anuradhapura and there was no Internet in those days, so the man had to do something with his time while he waited for invasion. Amazingly I survived the climb while all the while needing to pee. I was tempted to find a corner on the summit but it was very windy up there.

The old Perv's GNT. More extensive than it looks from here.
The Forbidding rock face.
The team setting out. We must be nuts!
The stairway leading through the boulders and on into exhaustion.
The team at the famed Lion Paws at the entrance to the citadel on the summit.

That is definitely my last trip to the summit. if I ever go again, I'm going to explore the lower palace structures and halls. I'm amazed I made it back with my knees intact. Curses on the idiot architects that designed that place! They could have at least had some wider stairs. Feel like a mountain goat on those things. Not the place for a person with feet as big as mine. Also, the wind god must have been offended by Buddhika's hat (which I was wearing) coz he was trying his best to rip it off my head. No jokes, the wind was blowing so hard it pushed me back a couple of times. Batteries ran out on the camera at the Paws, so no more pics :(

It was a relief to come down again, and an even bigger relief to empty the bladder. The van had come to the tourists car park, which was at the base of the rock, sparing us the need to walk further, thanks to Hermy's tourist pass. One souvenir book later, we were on our way home. Stops at Jinadasa's for Aluwa, and Ambepussa Rest House for dinner and we were home sometime just after midnight. Word on the Rest House, its a nice place and the toilets are excellent, but the dinner menu isn't great. Get the feeling they are catering more towards the people who want to stop for a drink and chat than people who want dinner. That seems to have been outsourced to the restaurant by the main road, which I was informed had hoppers. My bad, that.

Intro

2007-07-03T01:46:00.000-07:00

The very first post in a brand new blog. Exciting. All the old stuff has been said before, but this being a public publication, I guess it pays to establish my bona fides.

The name is Preveen. It is derived from a word that, roughly translated from the vernacular, means a noteworthy person. I'll not comment on how accurate my parents were in naming me. :)

I currently work at a large IT firm based outside of Colombo as an application support engineer. What than means is, when other people make mistakes, people call me and yell at me, so I can figure out who is to blame and pass on said shouting to them. Guess its easier than figuring out the correct person to shout at. :)

In addition to all the yelling and getting yelled at, I have a couple of interests to keep me sane (or is that insane?). Photography is my latest hobby, which I might look into developing into a revenue stream in the future. The photography complements several of my other interests. I'm a nature lover, and that is a rich area to explore photography. Also into motorsports, and I've had the opportunity to develop my photography skills shooting pictures in the local motorsports arena. Keen follower of several sports (other than motor related sports) including basketball, cricket and tennis, and play basketball, cricket, badminton, squash and table tennis with various amounts of success and enthusiasm. OK, so I'm not a great sportsman, but a jack of all trades :D I've also been known to dabble in the aquatic sports now and then.

This'll give everyone a nice idea on what to expect on this blog ;) lotsa photos. Lets see what develops!