email from Nana

Dear Piyaseeli & Wedi & all the Organisers

Many thanks for the very detailed minutes of the Organisers 'Post- Event' Meeting. I am delighted to note that some of the money left over would be sent to the Alumni Fund and Medical Student Scholarship Fund.This is wonderful news indeed.

I would be grateful if you would kindly let us know the contact details of those in charge of the Student Scholarship Fund & Alumni Fund. I am fully aware of the existence of a 'Medical Students Financial Assistance Scheme' held at Colombo University and I have kept in touch with the chair person of this Fund.We have raised nearly 6 lakhs of rupees ( thanks to the collective donations made by our Group mostly from UK but well supported by some of our batch mates from USA & Australia). This will go for supporting 2 needy Colombo medical students for 5 years ( & recurring).

Some of you may be aware of our efforts to establish a 'Colombo Medical College Alumni Association' following the 'Presentation ' made to the Dean & Senior Academic Staff in Colombo on the 1st of July. The presentation was made possible thanks to the valiant efforts by Nalini as our 'local rep' in Colombo. As far as we are aware, we have so far not been able to establish a Colombo Medical College Alumni Association but the present Dean Harsha Senevirathna is supporting us in our efforts & have assured me that he is working on it.

We are also not aware of any existing Colombo Medical College Alumni Fund but this is also to be established. We are working on a consensus to determine the aims & objectives, with clear guidelines for its administrative accountability, transparency and agreed aims & objectives.

If the Alumni Fund is already established, all the Alumni (not only our batch mates) could make their contributions for the welfare & betterment of the Colombo Medical Faculty, its Students & the Educational & other essential needs. We also do not have to proceed any further with our efforts.

Your comments are gratefully appreciated.

Nana

When Jayalath sent us a detailed statement of accounts, I sent a response to Jayalath & the Organisers (via the Blog Master but unsure if you had seen it. (I will attach a copy of my response dated 6.10.10 for your perusal but you can delete it if you have already seen it

(This is what I said on 6th October)

Dear Jayalath

Thanks for the detailed audited statements of accounts of the 2 ReUniuons held in 2005 & 2010.

This is very professional & indicates that you have missed your vocation- a chartered accountant. I know you are a very wealthy medical mudalali but you can still change?

The detailed statements provided confirms our strong belief -the extent of your combined efforts and valuable time put in by all the members of the organising committee to make the event a great success as it was.

Getting the projected estimated costs to be so close to the actual final budget is to be greatly appreciated & deserve our congratulations.

Few personal comments:

1. As recently commented by me, the experienced organisers can organise the next Get Together in couple of years rather than wait for another 5 long uncertain years.

2. Make it less expensive ( cost of Rs 350,000.00 approx is very expensive and I ma so grateful for all your combined efforts in raising the amount

3. Decision to charge Rs 1000.00/head as registration fees was very wise ( otherwise you would have run it at a loss)

4. I can see only Devi making an individual contribution of Rs 20,000.00 towards the costs. Well appreciated but why?

Excellent work. Congratulations once again on a job well done.

Nana

C.S.Nanayakkara

sena nanayakkara

Dear Philip Pleasse forward the above document to the Blog Thanks Piyaseeli

Meeting of the Kandy organizers of the Batch reunion held in July 2010

Meeting of the Kandy organizers of the Batch reunion held in July 2010

Dear All

Kapu , Jayalath and us ( the Wedis) met at Jayalath’s residence on the 14^th of October . The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss the course of action to be taken with the left over money from the batch reunion.

The following is a summary of the discussion that took place.

Kapu read out a few cards of appreciation sent by batch mates and thanked all the organizers and Participants, without whom the occasion would not have been a success .He also thanked us for the secretarial work done getting through loads of paper work.

In this regard a special thanks goes to

Philip for setting up the blog, being the chief communicator which he performs so efficiently even now. He was behind the organization of the event of “remembering our departed batch mates” as well as coordinating many other activities.

This he did despite having to manage his wife’s illness that came on just before the Reunion, thankfully her recovery was uneventful.

Nalini for organizing a very fruitful clinical sessions, and being the chief organizer for the Alumni Scholarship programme for medical students ,coordinating and organizing the donations of money books, and equipment much needed by the various departments of the Colombo Medical faculty. Well done Nala!!

The presence of most of the faculty teachers at the handing over ceremony spoke volumes as to how much the donation was appreciated.

We thank all those who silently contributed both in kind and money for the welfare of the institution that nurtured all of us in this noble profession. We all can be truly proud of you all & hope we can continue to help in the future

Durmila for keeping in touch with JKH and getting hotel accommodation for a relative low rate, facilitating transport through Walkers tour buses, In addition to hosting all the Colombo meetings.

Gerry for organizing the concert, much looked forward to by all and keeping us all in fits of laughter and making the clinical sessions all the more hilarious.

Lucien Heather & Travis for their parts in the concert, Anula, Palitha, and Pearl for their interesting papers at the clinical sessions.

Ranjan for printing of the Souvenirs and organizing the transport to and fro from Colombo

Nana for organizing the participation of batch mates from UK and the “ mostly U.K” donation which included a few from U.S.A for scholarships to medical students. Also for that interesting paper which was an eye opener to all. His penchant for constructive criticism is appreciated.

Buddy Reid for organizing the “Australian 11” donation to the medical faculty and for the display of his musical talents at various events

Nihal Gunaratne who made the network connections to the computers at the faculty

Tissa Kappagoda for editing and printing the book on Anecdotes ,presenting an interesting paper at the clinical sessions and advising us on many matters

Jayalath stated that a sum of rs 70,450.27 is now in our Bank account.

Expenditure was high because the rates for printing souvenirs, group photographs, and the band was almost double this time.

More than 90%of the money collected at registration was spent on the photographs.

Devi Jesudason who donated a sum of rs 20000/= requested that the money be used for one of two purposes.

1. to be used if there was a shortfall

2. to be given for the medical students scholarship fund of the faculty.

A big thank you and a salute to all those who raised funds for the event

Rohantha for raising a major part of funding

Nihal Tenabadu, for raising a substantial amount of funds.

Buddhadasa for raising funds from ads for the souvenir and more

Jayalath raising funds with souvenir advertisement, also for doing a very professional job as the Treasurer and hosting the meeting of 14th

We decided to donate a sum of rs 60,000/= of the money remaining to the medical students scholarship fund . The balance of money will remain in the account . We however feel that retaining the account is a good idea as it gives an opportunity for us to contribute towards the Alumni scholarship fund.

Finally the last but not the least a big thank you and salutations to Kapu , our President who is greatly gifted in organizing and getting things done( he is not exactly a slave driver !!! you know ).Besides both of you hosted the meetings and we enjoyed the informal chats . wishing you and Kanthi who has given us her unstinted support ,Good health, happiness and lots of laughter .Ayu-bo wewa

The organizing committee takes this opportunity to thank all other batch mates who have helped us in numerous ways and apologizes for any oversight in omitting their names.

We thank and salute all our participants once again

Let us keep in touch via email , even snail mail, meet as often as we can, even though it may be small groups, relax, enjoy and laugh . After all laughter is the best medicine.

Cheers

Organizing Committee

Landscapes of 'The Pearl of the Indian Ocean' - Sri Lanka

Please click on the following web address to see pictures of some landscapes of Sri Lanka. All pictures were taken by me. Copy and paste the web address in blue on to the address bar of your browser. Click on the pictures to see an enlarged image. See the 'older posts' by clicking on title 'older posts' in the bottom right hand corner of each web page. Please bookmark this page for easier viewing later.
Philip

http://imagessrilanka.blogspot.com/

'To Sir, with love'

From a booklet 'To Sir, with love' - a 'tribute' to a clinical teacher, presented to him by his students, in the 1990s.

Words used in English

Interesting History


They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & Sold to the tannery.......if you had to do this to survive you were "Piss Poor"

But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot......they "didn't have a pot to piss in" & were the lowest of the low

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s:

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June.. However, since they were starting to smell . ..... .
Brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it.. Hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!"

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof...Hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed.

Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying, "Dirt poor." The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until,
when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way.
Hence: a thresh hold.

(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old. Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, "bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would Sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days.
Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive... So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell.
Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.

And that's the truth....Now, whoever said History was boring!!!

So...get out there and educate someone! ~~~ Share these facts with a friend.

New blog - images of Sri Lanka. blogspot.com

I have started a second blog to display scenic sights of Sri Lanka. You could view it by clicking on the web address below. Hope you enjoy watching it. I hope to add more pictures frequently.

http://imagessrilanka.blogspot.com/

Please pass it on to friends, especially Sri Lankans.

PGV

Images of Sri Lanka on blogspot.com

imagessrilanka.blogspot.com

This blog will display some of the scenic spots in present day Sri Lanka. The photographs were all taken by the owner of this blog and are his property.

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Complete set of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 45 volumes.
Excellent condition, £200 or best offer.
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