4th February, 2026
Well, what a day!! First up, a bit of background. Sri Lanka gained independence from the British Empire on 4th February, 1948 having been a part of it since 14th February, 1815. At independence, Ceylon, as it was then, had dominion status and King George VI and later Queen Elizabeth II were the heads of state as King and later Queen of Ceylon. In 1972, Ceylon became the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka. This was achieved under Mrs Bandaranaike, the first ever female prime minister of any country.
There have been some very tough economic times in the last few years including reneging on the sovereign debt with the President fleeing the country and much storming of official residences etc. Things seem to have settled down a bit now, but the country is still on the road to recovery.
So, what happened here at Club Palm Bay? Well, it started at breakfast with our good friend, Roshan, rather formally inviting us, as honoured guests, to attend the ceremony to mark the date. We quickly dashed back to our room to change into something more in line with the formality of the occasion (unlike many others, I regret to say!) and made our way, as requested to Reception at the appointed hour. This was so that we could be part of the procession or Perahera. Regarding the latter, the most famous of these is the Esala Perahera in Kandy to mark the Festival of the Tooth (Buddha’s), which I had the honour to see in 1980.
Naturally enough, we didn’t start on time, but this did not stop Val looking fabulous!
Finally everyone was in place.
The link below will (I hope) take you to a video of the event. Watch out for the sound bite from yours truly, which looks like I have been paid by the Sri Lankan Tourist Board).
https://youtu.be/VA9Qql-x4CE?si=GNBxfiiMkxT56lIV
OK, that should do it! More soon.
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