Camouflage

Now that I'm no longer on holiday and Britain's mini heat wave is over I am trying to get myself back into covering up and breaking away from short, light, bright things. I absolutely adore this field print top from Zara, the colours are perfect for the end of summer and it is in a lovely silky fabric. I paired it with a pair of Miu Miu jeans that were an amazing find on clearance at TKMaxx a few years ago. When I got back to my parent's it suddenly struck me that i would be perfectly camouflaged on the recently harvested fields on our farm so I persuaded my mum to take a few pics.

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And When the Day Comes it Will Have All Been Fun...

What a great weekend this has been. Saw two artists that I absolutely adore live; Perfume Genius on Thursday and The XX on Monday, in between basked in the sunshine in the Kent countryside. If you don't know Perfume Genius then you should, he has a beautiful soft voice and sings amazingly written haunting songs. But I'm afraid you can't. I liked him first and he is already becoming far too popular - I missed out in his London gig this winter because too many people share my view on him. Yes, I am one of those people who listens to independent music and gets upset when it achieves greater success. I know it's selfish but I don't want to loose the privilege of intimate gigs and cheap seats (his gig was at The Union Chapel in Islington). No one will care when I say "I liked them first". The XX on the other hand need no introduction. Despite a sound that is very different to the majority of chart music they have become extremely popular, particularly since winning a Mercury Award for their album 'XX'. I was be lucky to get tickets for their gig for their new album 'Coexist' at The Empire Shepherds Bush since it sold out in minutes. In fact, after refreshing the page incessantly for about an hour before tickets were released I missed out on getting standing tickets in the time it took to enter my credit card details!

Perfume Genius at the Union Chapel

The Adventure Continued: Colombo, Baby Elephants and Kandy

Traffic speeding by below the apartment

After the beach we headed to Colombo for a day or so. The heat there was astonishing as the sun beat down and reflected off the buildings. It is not a beautiful city but it was still interesting to wander round. We visited a fascinating Buddhist temple that seemed almost like a museum, with shelves filled with jewellery or watches or coins or some other valuable that had been donated over the years. We were staying in an apartment block in what seemed to be the city's equivalent of South Kensington, sandwiched between the presidents house and expensive hotels. One of my favourite places was the Galle Face Hotel, which exuded old-world, colonial charm and is a perfect spot for a couple of (very reasonable) cocktails with the sea lapping at your side. It is one of the oldest hotels of its kind, predating Raffles in Singapore and has hosted many famous people over the years such as the writer Chekhov.

Bath time for the young elephant at the temple

Faces of Sri Lanka

East meets West, my friends and I, drivers, security and plantation superintendent all take in the view

 Sri Lanka is a country that has faced much hardship in recent years, struck first by civil war and then the devastating tsunami, but this does not seem to show on the faces of its people. We were stuck by the warmth and optimism of the people there. From the smiling face of the man who met us at the airport onwards we ...

Everywhere we went we took photos of Anoura so he would be able to show his wife and children

The Wanderer Returns

The holiday was typified by amazing views such as this one over the sea from our apartment in Colombo

Yet another sudden absence, just when I thought I was getting the hang of this blogging lark I get out-of-sync again. At least this time I have a good reason, at the end of August I went to Sri Lanka on what was probably one of the most wonderful holidays I have been on.

And the other direction

I decided to visit the country as one of my friends' family is from there, although he grew up in England, and another has recently moved there for work. I have to admit that before deciding to go there it was a place I knew virtually nothing about other than flickers from the coverage of the civil war and the tsunami a few years a ago. However, as soon as I had got up the Wikipedia page that mentioned its status as a place of leading biodiversity and seen a few pictures I knew I had to go.