By Jeff Parsonson
One day a few years ago, I received a phone call, asking me if I would like to come to Portsmouth to receive the Pingat Jasa Malaysia medal (Malaysian Service Medal). I was very surprised.
I told them I would be delighted. The presentation took place in 2010. On the day there were some 400 veterans to be presented by Brigadier General Othman bin Jamal, on behalf of the Malaysian Embassy. [Read more…] about My Pingat Jasa Malaysia (Malaysian Service Medal)
We visited Osborne House on the Isle of Wight yesterday. I had a discovery.
In Queen Victoria’s bedroom, I saw her famous bed.
According to Stephen Regan from the Open University, at the end of her life, the Queen was nursed in this bedroom by her personal physician, Dr James Reid. [Read more…] about Queen Victoria’s Bed Cover From China
Tourists know Kandy for the Temple of the Tooth. They are bussed in during the late afternoon and dine in a hotel. The next morning they are conducted around the Temple of the Tooth after leaving their shoes at the gate. Then they are back on the bus and off to Nurawa Eliya and the tea plantations.
Tourists don’t see Kandy City, nor do they see the Tooth. It is too sacred. [Read more…] about A Temple For A Tooth?
Not as big an event as in Glasgow but Hillwood College Sports Day for the Nursery and Playgroup was great fun.
We knew we were to be invited but when the invitation came it specified us as “special guests” and that, before the prizes were distributed the special guests would make a speech. We thought we had better try to speak in Sinhala. How would you do it? [Read more…] about Commonwealth Games In Kandy
Anuradhapura is about 100 miles from Kandy. On our travels, Bernard, our driver, advised us that we passed through the best area in Sri Lanka for mango.
He sampled a few before advising us which to buy at 12p each. The farmers are keen to sell at the roadside stalls. If they sell wholesale they get only 2.5p each. Six weeks later the season was almost over and the price was 25p each. Never mind, they are still very good. [Read more…] about Life On The Road
The ubiquitous tuk-tuk makes Asia work. Just a motorised Rickshaw, a driver, a bench seat for 2 passengers and an engine. No doors, no safety belts, no baggage space, no in car entertainments but what a lot of fun.
The warm air blows around you, when stuck in traffic you can strike up a conversation with the people in the tuk tuk alongside you. [Read more…] about Tuk-tuk: My Transport Of Delight
I expect many of you will have seen the fantastic work that has been undertaken on our war memorial over the last few weeks?
Stonemason Jon, of Blackmore and Moody has indeed done a good job. It is now possible to easily read the names of those brave men, and of course, that of Margaret Caswell, the only women whose name appears on the memorial. [Read more…] about Chandler’s Ford War Memorial Research: Part 3
No, not Orlando Gibbons’ anthem of John the Baptist, but another John who served his community in Sri Lanka for 15 years and what happened to him next.
Who was John?
Three cities, Kandy, Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa form the three angles of the Cutural Triangle.
Kandy has Temple of The Tooth, Anuradhapura is the site of an ancient kingdom dating back to 600 BC and is the site of arrival of Buddhism about 200 years BC. [Read more…] about The Cultural Triangle Of Sri Lanka
Have you noticed the refreshing new look of the Chandler’s Ford War Memorial? It is improving each day I see it.
Jon Tann from Blackwell and Moody Ltd in Winchester is renovating the war memorial.
In the past few weeks, you would have seen Jon kneeling, crouching, stooping by the war memorial on Hursley Road, outside St. Boniface Church. [Read more…] about Renovating Chandler’s Ford War Memorial
“…That there’s some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England…”
(Poem by Rupert Brooke)
A heavy tropical rainfall had snarled-up the traffic on the road so my driver took an unfamiliar detour. The narrow road twisted and turned alongside the river and was hemmed in by jungle trees and elephant grass. [Read more…] about There’s Some Corner Of A Foreign Field
Yesterday morning my mum told me about a major crisis happening in the Middle East, and during breakfast the radio switched to the news. I was expecting news on the Middle East conflict. But, the main news story was…
Germany beating Brazil 7-1 in the World Cup. [Read more…] about What News Is The Most Important?
This was a big wedding even by Sri Lankan standards.
Some 480 guest met to celebrate the nuptials of Pavithi Weerasinghe with Udara Rajanayake, both physics graduates from the University of Peradeniya. [Read more…] about Sri Lankan Wedding
While in Sri Lanka, quite by chance we came across a party of ex-pats calling themselves the ‘Discovery’ group. They meet once a month and go off to explore a hidden part of Sri Lanka. Hidden to tourists and even most Sri Lankans that is.
Today a convoy of 6 vehicles left Kandy for the south and we soon turned off the main road to an un-named village in the jungle.
What does community mean to you? A trip to Pirbright village in Surrey revealed a connected community.
At the Pirbright Scarecrow Festival last weekend, the Pirbright Historians had a brilliant display of local family history and the Pirbright history during WW1. [Read more…] about The Pirbright Historians
I had never seen so many scarecrows in my life. I had a tour of medieval and modern history through scarecrows in Pirbright village in Surrey last weekend.
The scarecrows in the Pirbright Church (St Michael & All Angels) portraying the murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket were so real that the atmosphere was rather eerie. [Read more…] about Pirbright Scarecrow Festival Highlights
Mum and I were in the car yesterday listening to Shakespeare (we were going somewhere, we weren’t just sitting in the car), and she asked “What episode of history is this play based on?”
This led me to think of a TV show where every episode is based off an important event in history. So here we go… [Read more…] about History: The TV Show
Sunday morning in Kandy, Sri Lanka, time to walk out around the lake looking smart, long trousers of course; only tourists wear shorts. On an energetic day we walk to town but this means braving ‘The Tunnel’.
The tunnel is dark, damp and has deep drainage channels on both sides. Water drips from the roof and there is barely room for pedestrians and cars. [Read more…] about Kandy Lake vs Chandler’s Ford Lakes
During my time at Southampton General Hospital we always had a junior doctor from Sri Lanka in training. Some of them worked with me and many became friends.
After retirement my wife and I decided to go and live in another culture for a while; Sri Lanka was the obvious choice. What was it like? What happened to us? What are the differences compared with Chandler’s Ford? Here are a series of blog posts for anyone interested. [Read more…] about Dispatches From Sri Lanka
Two years ago there was a Scarecrow Festival in Chandler’s Ford, at St. Boniface church.
I always thought scarecrows only existed in children’s stories or places like Midsomer where DCI Tom Barnaby (or DCI John Barnaby) ran around solving triple murders in the quaint English village. I’m not sure why, but I’m pretty scared of scarecrows. [Read more…] about Pirbright Scarecrow Festival
