We watched a little bit of tv this morning – to see what we get and to see how we can improve reception. Because the antenna doesn’t reach to where it’s supposed to, Fahim decides to take it apart and see what he can do. We have some leftover wire that he had to buy to get the stove’s ground wire to the outlet. Seriously, who in their right mind would make a stove that had a ground wire shorter than the length of the regular plug? And why would you not put it on the same plug? Seriously, ya gotta see the way we have it set up. In fact, I’m gonna take a pic for you. This is a master of Sri Lankan engineering.
When you look at it, the green wire is the ground wire that’s attached to the stove as it came out of the factory. The blue wire is the extension. And yes, it’s going into the ground hole on the plug.
Something else you should know about electrical outlets here. In fact, a couple of things you ought to know, especially if you plan on travelling or living in this part of the world. One. Most rooms have one outlet – unless, as is the case of the kitchen, there’s one plug for 5 amps and the one on the right is for 15 amps. (Or volts? Oh, heck, it’s been decades since I studied electricity in physics, so cut me some slack.) The plugs are slightly different sizes – the five amp one is smaller than the fifteen amp one. It’s expected that you will buy your own extension cords with multiple outlets that you can plug everything into. This is normal here. Four or five outlets in one room? That just doesn’t happen. Period.
Second. If you have to plug something in that doesn’t have a ground plug, you have to stick a pen or something like that into the ground hole to open up the other two holes. It’s some kind of safety device. Sticking anything in the ground hole scares me. Yeah, I know, I’m a wuss, but I’m also scared of gas stoves. And yet I manage to function.
Back to television. We have eleven stations at the moment, some come in pretty good, others don’t. But the stations that have 24 with Kiefer Sutherland come in clear. One station has it in English, the other has it dubbed in Sinhalese. I would rather watch in English. What can I say?
We have two English channels, and a third that has Tamil and English at different times of the day, or something like this, and I believe the rest are in Sinhalese. We do get CNN – or at least excerpts – so unbelievably, I can keep up on current news in North America. Another English channel has Asian news – in English. It’s kinda interesting. I’m gonna wind up learning about all sorts of things I had no idea about.
And today, I did a load of laundry, that never ending laundry. And I scrubbed floors and cleaned the bathroom and things like that. If it’s not one thing, it’s another. And now, it’s time to make some lunch. I’m hungry.
Today, we’re having thalapath. Big shocker. Thalapath Coconut Curry and Vegetable Curry with Red Rice. Recipes as given previously.
The website now has how Fahim and I met and answers to some FAQ. Check it out – a lot of questions are answered.
I’ll post more there when I have time. But at least you now know how we met, and that oughta hold you for a little bit.
Back to the antenna. With this fancy dancy antenna, we get fifteen stations. Okay, so not get them great, but get them. Cool.
The mossies started biting, so I grabbed the citronella oil and applied it to my exposed flesh, and the mossies left me alone for a couple of hours, and they started biting again, so I reapplied, and they left me alone again.
