Memories of my life and my subsequent journey as a vegan

August 15, 2009

Re:"added new pics to my posts!"-Links on my last posting now working!

The links on my last posting called " added new pics to my posts!" were not working earlier.

Try them now they are working!

Added new pics to my posts!

Just a note: I've added some pictures to some of my older postings. Unfortunately, I'm posting the pics a little late.

Please click on the links below for the pics, and also be sure to click on the pics themselves for a clearer view:


  • from USA to Sri Lanka-1970



  • my childhood in sri lanka in the seventies



  • my childhood attraction to miniatures



  • >my ninth birthday party also in sri lanka



  • >journey from kandy to a south pacific island



  • August 14, 2009

    Welcome to Fiji - a different world

    Coming from Sri Lanka to Fiji in the mid seventies I found it was like a different world. There were many things that were new to me. Differences ran across the board from food, the house we lived in, roads, stores, school, clothes, language and the culture.

    The first thing I noticed was the food. Our Dad was eagerly waiting to welcome us. He had stocked the fridge and kitchen full of goodies that were not available back in Sri Lanka at that time due to severe economic restrictions. Amongst the goodies that we now take for granted were, apples, oranges, Kraft cheddar cheese, Cabin crackers, Cadbury chocolate bars,Tang, sliced bread, instant Nescafe coffee, sliced ham, frankfurters,lamb, hotdog buns and ice cream.

    The fruits were Australian, the apples were bright red and the huge oranges which were bright orange. Apples were non existant at that time in Sri Lanka. The closest I had had to an apple was something called 'pears' that was a kind of pear only found in Nuwara Eliya. Even the oranges were different to the local Sri Lankan oranges which only turned greenish yellow when ripe. They also had something called Tang which was the orange crystals that you dissolved to make a drink.

    The cabin crackers came in a big square tin and were similar to cream crackers but were slightly sweet. The Cadbury chocolate was way creamier than the Kandos chocolate that seemed to be the only choice available in Sri Lanka back then. Tang was the orange crystal drink that you made with water. The sliced bread was cut into neat, even slices and so clean although rather soft. We were finally able to enjoy bread again after suffering the 'gullo (weevil) bread' of Sri Lanka. Nescafe coffee was also a pleasure to drink, the Sri Lankan coffee always had too many 'rodu' (bits of coffee grind) in it. Sliced ham, frankfurters and hotdogs were not available to us while we were back in Sri Lanka. We finally got the chance to enjoy ice cream everyday right at home. The ice cream was imported from New Zealand and was sold in plastic tubs. It came in many different flavors. Lamb chops were a common food item from New Zealand and oh so delicious although I have since given it up.

    Journey from Kandy to a South Pacific Island

    Just a few months before my tenth birthday, my younger brother, myself and my Mom left Sri Lanka to join our Dad who had taken up a new job at a university in the Fiji Islands.We left Sri Lanka in December soon after we got our school holidays.

    This picture in my school uniform was takenin 1976, for my new passport, a few months before we left Sri Lanka. However, my brother and I were allowed to travel on our Mom's passport as accompanying children. So we ended up not needing our own passports.

    We flew out of Colombo's Katunayake Airport on Suisse Air. I used to dream about what it was like to fly on an aeroplane and now I was actually flying, I was very excited. On the same flight were a family whose Dad had also taught at University of Peradeniya and who were now migrating to Australia.

    During the flight people around us were speaking in English. Until that time, my brother and I didn't get a chance to speak English. Although my Mom did read English books to us out loud .
    So while my brother and I could understand the language we were reticent to speak it. So I listened attentively to the people talking around me including kids. What struck me was how the native speakers around us on the flight pronounced the words differently to how Sri Lankans spoke it. One word in particular was the word 'Air' as in Suisse Air.

    Seated next to us on the flight was a young Sri Lankan lady who had a bad cold, however she had forgotten her handkerchief. So my Mom gave her some blue pin striped scrap material from a sailor dress that she had been sewing for me. This young woman was on her way to Melbourne to join her husband there.

    On that flight from Colombo to Singapore they served us lobster for lunch which was quite a treat.I don't think you can get that kind of food in economy class any more. Since we were kids travelling, they gave my brother and I both coloring books and crayons as well as a book with scenery onto which you could transfer pictures of figures etc. The picture transfers could be rub bed off onto the scenes in the book.They also gave us little bars of Swiss chocolates and postcards.

    At that time they were building a new terminal at the Singapore Aiport, so we were transported from the plane to the terminal by bus. While we were on the bus they made an announcement saying that someone had left their bag on the plane and even mentioned the passenger's name. It turned out later that it was one of our carry on bags. However, at the time my Mom did not pay any attention since the name they announced was her maiden name.Once we were in the terminal we discovered the bag was missing and contacted the airport staff. Then my Mom was given a pictorial list of bags and told to select our bag from it. To my amazement there was a bag that looked exactly like our missing bag. Since we correctly identified the missing bag they gave it back to us.

    The next leg of our journey was a flight on CP Air (Canadian Pacific Air) from Singapore to Sydney, Australia. I remember they served us breakfast before we landed. I vaguely seem to recall marmalade and some sort of bread. After a short stopover we boarded our flight to Fiji which if I remember correctly was on Air Pacific and landed at Nadi, Fiji. From Nadi we had to take an internal flight of about 45 minutes duration, on a smaller Air Pacific plane to Suva. Suva was our final destination and is the the capital city of Fiji. At Nadi Airport we passed by a little snack shop. I remember they had cheese sandwiches and a spinning orange juice machine with an orange fixed at the top. This was a novelty to me coming from mid 70's Sri Lanka.

    On board that flight my Mom was sitting next to a Tongan man wearing a mat with frizzy hair. Tonga was a smaller island nation neighboring Fiji and the national costume for men was a sulu (which was similar to a skirt) over which a woven pandanus mat was worn. The sulu was also the national costume in Fiji and was worn all over the South Pacific.

    During the flight, my Mom had seen smoke rising from the ground and she was kind of concerned. She asked the Tongan man if they were from live volcanoes. To her relief he said, "No there are no volcanoes in Fiji". I seem to recall that the airhostesses had red hibiscus flowers stuck behind their ears. Maybe I'm confusing it with the Air Pacific brochures at the time which all had them with hibiscuses behind their ears. The flight was short so no meal was served, instead the air hostesses came around with baskets of wrapped sweets.


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