Kingsbury Hotel, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Monday morning 2/10/14
We're pretty much packed and ready to check out, but we have a late checkout, and about an hour before we're off tomeet with Mr. Amarasuriya and the Sri Lanka Council for the Blind.
I didn't know I'd reserved a room on the executive floor, but we sure have enjoyed the perks. Best one is the hospitality suite which serves up a breakfast buffet with eggs cooked to order; a happy hour buffet that's substantial enough to make dinner and includes wine and other alcoholic drinks; and coffee, tea and snacks anytime. The suite is just a couple doors down from our room. Except for our one decadent room service breakfast of Sri Lankan fish curry and soaked salmon eggs beredict (both so good we left the dishes clean), we've been enjoying the buffet breakfasts.
The croissants are my favorite. They're crispy and flaky on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth buttery on he inside. They are even better than the ones I remember relishing in St. Martin when Andy and I honeymooned there.
Those St, Martin croissants had to be pretty good for me to remember and hold them up as the gold standard for all croissants for three decades. Well, sorry, St. Martin Croissants, but you are now displaced by Sri Lankan Kingsbury Hotel Croissants.
Mayu and I had a fabulous day yesterday, starting off with a relaxed morning by the pool and then hiring a driver to take us to Negombo to meet Prabhu at the Jetwing Blu Holel. Not as classy as the Kingsbury but open and spacious, and right on the beach. We could walk from Prabhu's room out on to the sand a few feet away. It was lovely catching some beach sun and then just sitting out under the coconut palms. Hotel staff climbed some palms to cut the coconuts while we were there..
I didn't do much beach walking, because my wacko balance kicked in and it was a real sruggle to walk on loose soft sand without keeling over, Mayu really wanted to get in a good walk, so I told her to go, and worked on my tan instead. If I were staying longer, I would force myself to get used to it and strengthen my balancer, but since I was only there for a few hours, I let it go.
It was a bit sad for me, though. I remembered the Hawaiian vacation Andy and I took shortly after my brain tumor surgery, and how shocked and dismayed we both were to discover how fragile my balance is. I was keeling over on anything that was not flat and level. It was a lot worse back then than it is now, because I've worked hard on shoring up my proprioceptor balance sense, which is all I have now. Between the Usher Syndrome and the brain tumor I have no significant vestibular balance function anymore, and with the tunnel vision and blindness, I have no visual horizon to ancho to, either.
This brings me to something I haven't written about yet, because it's hard. It's hard to feel so broken, hard to need so much help, and even now it's sometimes still a hard grieving for that "abled" life I used to have. My life is harder and everything takes longer now.
Just to get down to the lobby from my hotel room is hard work. I can find the elevator, and with a few tries I can figure out which button to push … and with practice and familiarity I could learn to move around the entire hotel smoothly and gracefully.
But that's the thing about "being disabled." You need more time to do everything, and most of the time the rest of the world is too busy, too impatient and not willing to give it to you.
On the other hand, if I were fully hearing and sighted, I wouldn't be on this adventure. Things are harder, yes, and often downright scary, but they're not worse. They're just harder. And most of the time, still better anyway.
And that's OK.
Monday morning 2/10/14
We're pretty much packed and ready to check out, but we have a late checkout, and about an hour before we're off tomeet with Mr. Amarasuriya and the Sri Lanka Council for the Blind.
I didn't know I'd reserved a room on the executive floor, but we sure have enjoyed the perks. Best one is the hospitality suite which serves up a breakfast buffet with eggs cooked to order; a happy hour buffet that's substantial enough to make dinner and includes wine and other alcoholic drinks; and coffee, tea and snacks anytime. The suite is just a couple doors down from our room. Except for our one decadent room service breakfast of Sri Lankan fish curry and soaked salmon eggs beredict (both so good we left the dishes clean), we've been enjoying the buffet breakfasts.
The croissants are my favorite. They're crispy and flaky on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth buttery on he inside. They are even better than the ones I remember relishing in St. Martin when Andy and I honeymooned there.
Those St, Martin croissants had to be pretty good for me to remember and hold them up as the gold standard for all croissants for three decades. Well, sorry, St. Martin Croissants, but you are now displaced by Sri Lankan Kingsbury Hotel Croissants.
Mayu and I had a fabulous day yesterday, starting off with a relaxed morning by the pool and then hiring a driver to take us to Negombo to meet Prabhu at the Jetwing Blu Holel. Not as classy as the Kingsbury but open and spacious, and right on the beach. We could walk from Prabhu's room out on to the sand a few feet away. It was lovely catching some beach sun and then just sitting out under the coconut palms. Hotel staff climbed some palms to cut the coconuts while we were there..
I didn't do much beach walking, because my wacko balance kicked in and it was a real sruggle to walk on loose soft sand without keeling over, Mayu really wanted to get in a good walk, so I told her to go, and worked on my tan instead. If I were staying longer, I would force myself to get used to it and strengthen my balancer, but since I was only there for a few hours, I let it go.
It was a bit sad for me, though. I remembered the Hawaiian vacation Andy and I took shortly after my brain tumor surgery, and how shocked and dismayed we both were to discover how fragile my balance is. I was keeling over on anything that was not flat and level. It was a lot worse back then than it is now, because I've worked hard on shoring up my proprioceptor balance sense, which is all I have now. Between the Usher Syndrome and the brain tumor I have no significant vestibular balance function anymore, and with the tunnel vision and blindness, I have no visual horizon to ancho to, either.
This brings me to something I haven't written about yet, because it's hard. It's hard to feel so broken, hard to need so much help, and even now it's sometimes still a hard grieving for that "abled" life I used to have. My life is harder and everything takes longer now.
Just to get down to the lobby from my hotel room is hard work. I can find the elevator, and with a few tries I can figure out which button to push … and with practice and familiarity I could learn to move around the entire hotel smoothly and gracefully.
But that's the thing about "being disabled." You need more time to do everything, and most of the time the rest of the world is too busy, too impatient and not willing to give it to you.
On the other hand, if I were fully hearing and sighted, I wouldn't be on this adventure. Things are harder, yes, and often downright scary, but they're not worse. They're just harder. And most of the time, still better anyway.
And that's OK.
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