Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Ayuboyan, (which means 'hello and welcome' in Sinhalese). I'm in Sri Lanka with my family and in-laws having arrived here safe and sound early on Friday morning for the start of our big adventure family holiday!
It's been a very family orientated kind of week. The day before leaving Bahrain we were treated to Hannah's first stage performance! Little Gems had a festive programme arranged for three of their classes and all the doting mums, dads, grannies and granddads were invited along.
We had our own drama the night before when we went to see the panto 'Jack & the Beanstalk' at the Dilly and by the interval Hannah was fading fast and had a light fever.
It was a good show and so her granny and grandad stayed to see the rest whilst I took Hannah and Wendy home.
My Aussie father-in-law Terry loved it. He'd never seen a pantomime before and very much enjoyed the audience interaction and even the corny jokes.
Hannah got through the night dosed up on Calpol but awoke feeling unwell. We decided to keep her home from school but she'd practiced so hard and was desperate to do the show.
Luckily by late afternoon she had perked up and was ready to tread the boards. It was a lovely event and all the kids performed beautifully. They were dressed up as reindeers, elves, stars and our Hannah was adorable as a snowflake.
It was so wonderful that she was able to participate as the next day was her last day ever at Little Gems. It was a lovely finish to Hannah's two years there, where she has met lots of friends and had a great start to her education as well, thanks to all the wonderful teachers and staff. In the New Year she's off to 'big school' at St Christopher's.
On Thursday night we flew on Sri Lankan Airlines (leaving a horribly-congested Bahrain Airport) at around 9.30pm and landed in Colombo about five hours later which, because of the time difference made it 5-ish in the morning.
We made our way through the airport to meet our guide for the holiday whose name is Rex.
This brought a smile to our weary faces and we joked that he was named after the famous German police dog detective! We all felt very tired after flying through the night; trying to sleep on a plane is very hard unless you are in first or business class ... and we weren't. The service on board, however, was pretty good and we felt well looked after.
The first item on our itinerary was to go and see the Elephant Orphanage in Pinawella. We arrived after a two-hour drive, and talking of driving; the drivers constantly use horns and there is just so much traffic. But we haven't seen an accident yet. Whilst on the way to Bahrain Airport we saw two, albeit minor ones!
Watching the elephant was simply awe-inspiring; just the sheer size of these animals and how gracefully they move.
Then, it was back to our old but very comfy 12-seater minibus to continue our journey to our first night-stop at the Kandalama Hotel. The Kandalama Heritance Hotel is very unique as it's built into the rock and its designer made it an eco-friendly place to stay.
On arrival we were told to make sure to keep our rooms and balcony windows closed because the monkeys have a tendency to be rather sociable and curious! There are certainly plenty of them about.
Since we arrived it has hardly stopped raining. But that did not deter the Krazy Gang from having a swim in the hotel pool.
There are in fact three pools and we have already visited each one. The staff looked as though they thought that they have lunatics staying with them.
The following morning we found some unwelcome visitors after returning to our room after breakfast. I had not locked the balcony window and there sitting happily munching into our oranges, nuts and apples were at least half a dozen monkeys!
We chased them out and had a good laugh over it until we realised that they had also taken Hannah's Advent calendar that we'd brought with us and which she had meticulously opened one flap a day to eat the chocolate underneath.
I said: "I hope they had eaten them in the proper sequence," which didn't go down too well with my little girl.
After tidying up the place we put on our tourist hats to have a look around. We visited an ancient fortified rock called Sigiriya which has an amazing history and rounded off our day with an elephant ride, also in the rain. When we got back to the hotel we decided to have yet another swim - well, why not? We were already soaked!
Now it's off to dinner and some delicious Sri Lankan food. I can't wait for tomorrow, I love being on holiday!
Keep Happy and Healthy,
All my love
Krazy Kevin
