Hey everybody,

I'm still in Hikkaduwa and I'm still enjoying it. Last Monday I was reading when I got a visit from Daphne & Nick, so nice ... they also fell in love with my guest house but unfortunately there's no room left. At night Stephanie & I went for a beer at Budd's while we were waiting for the boys, they came back from surfing and were still taking a shower. It's happy hour from 5 pm to 7 pm, the beer is at 1,3€ for 600ml!! The boys arrived, the new Australian neighbors arrived, Steve and Cindy (also staying at our guest house) arrived and you can imagine, we had a great evening. We had dinner there and a few more beers ... we ended up in the garden of the guest house, Luca playing on his guitar, Luca singing ... and Dylan and I trying to be the backing vocals... a great evening!

The next day I went surfing again with Daphne ... well, I tried ... I still suck at it but we had fun. At night we had some take out dinner on the porch, having a beer, talking and going to bed early.

Today, Nick and Daphne became my new neighbors ... YEAY ... the Australian couple only stayed for 2 nights so I quickly booked the room for them. The waves were not good today so Dylan and I went on a daytrip to Galle by bus. We saw the making of the moonstone necklace in some government centre, the fisherman on sticks and the city of Galle. When we came back I went for some snorkeling but after doing that in Indonesia, I was kind of disappointed here. In the evening we went for dinner & beer with 5 out of the 8 rooms from Richard's Sons Guest House ... Again, a great evening!

After a day of rest, I went back on my surf board with Daphne. Today Stephanie joined us too .... So the 3 of us did the best we could ...and yes I'm getting better at it!!!! I could stand a few times now. We also had our private teacher today because Dylan came along ... probably to have a good laugh. He took some pictures of us trying to get on the boards ... And he saved my life!!! At one point I got drifted away by the strong current ... it was a bit scary, so he came after me and helped me to get back. But then he tried to make me take the big waves ... yeah right .... So in the end, after saving me, he tried to kill me!?!

It was a rainy afternoon, so we did some reading, some internet, etc. We went for dinner at Ranjiht's place. The food is good there but more important, they have the cheapest beer on the beach! And of course Thursday night is Party night at the Funky De Bar ... It was a G R E A T party, we drank, we ended up drunk, Nick a' Duwa was the DJ, we danced and we went for Kotu at 3 o'clock in the morning.

Day 50: Storm day!!!!! Crazy!!!! The sea is going mad, there's a lot of wind and the roof of the first 2 rooms got blown away (good I'm staying in number 7). In the morning it was scary but also exciting because some waves came up until the garden. There was even water until the front of my room. In the afternoon it was less fun, there was a lot of rain, no electricity > no lights in the room and after a while the battery of my computer was down too ... So I got bored!!! I had to read with candle light.

Day 51: The weather is turning really quickly, the sea is still rough. There's a lot of wind but the sun is shining again. I first went for breakfast with Luca and Stephanie. After that Dylan and I went for a romantic walk on the beach ;-) without the part of holding hands of course. It was actually crazy to see the damage of the storm. At mambo there's like a meter less beach. At Funky de Bar there a palm tree in the sea ... I think we were lucky. I heard that 10 people died in the storm and 30 fishermen were lost in sea. Apparently, this was the worst storm they have had the past 100 years (according to television).
After some laundry (all by myself thanks to Daphne and Nick - they gave me their washing powder), some lunch and some shopping we went for a boat tour on the lagoon. As soon as we were on the boat it started raining, so it took us 15 seconds to realize it would not be fun at all ... we told the guys to turn back. No visit of the lagoon ... so we went for a swim in the rough sea ... sooooo much fun! Daphne and I were checking our Bikini's every 2 seconds because we were scared of losing them in the waves ... the waves were huge and we all ended up in the white wash a few times! After a quick shower, we all came back for happy hour at Budd's. And Saturday night is party night at Mambo's ... whoop whoop!

Sunday: I don't know why, but I'm waking up every morning around 6:30, I turn around in my bed a few times and I'm up at 7. Like a real surf chick, I'm checking out the waves ;-) but it doesn't look good. I went for a Sri Lankan breakfast with Stephanie & Luca and then for a walk on the beach with them (to check out the waves again, but we won't be surfing this morning). Well the good news about not surfing is that the girls can go SHOPPING!!! One of my pants is falling apart so I have to get some new ones. We went to the bank, the pharmacy, the cake shop, we said hey to Bill, went looking for dresses (couldn't find those) and I bought my pants. When we got back, the sky above the sea was absolutely beautiful: the sea had this blue turquoise color, and the sky was dark grey ... we were hoping the clouds were going to India but unfortunately, they came in our direction. It took 5 minutes to be in the storm again. Luca, Steph, Dylan and I went for some lunch and we stayed there the whole afternoon playing cards until it was time to have dinner again. Dylan is being really competitive while playing and damn ... he won the firt round. Funny fact of the day: I found a cockroach in my bathroom, screamed for help and my Hero (duh) Dylan came to catch & burn it. We couldn't find the cockroach anymore so he faked the catching of it and he flushed it down the toilet ... Yeah, right ....like I'm stupid ;-)
Tonight is the last night that my buddies Daphne & Nick are in town. They are going back home after 1 year of travelling. We planned this special evening all together. We went to buy some beers, some Arrack (a local drink), some ice. We all put it in the laundry tub and we had a great evening on the porch of our guesthouse.