It’s an odd sensation to be home these days. Back in college and actually until last December I used to come down with one aim in mind, party, party and more party. Drink until the wee hours of the morning, club hop till my legs felt like dropping off and trying to chat up as many girls as possible. Somewhere along the line however that changed, I guess that chat I had with Bounty on the way to the airport last time I was here wasn’t bullshit. Case in point, this holiday I’ve been out a grand total of twice, not counting 31st night or a night at Buba, both times to Onyx. Well there was the night of Flygirl’s birthday which went on until around 5 in the morning, but that was relatively speaking a pretty chilled out night and it was a special occasion (which doesn’t really count).

I think the calming down is both a mental and physical thing. For one thing I’m unable to stay up until 6am, eat breakfast at Holiday Inn and still function as a somewhat normal human being the next day. I generally need at least 3-4 days to recover from a session like that, time that I can ill afford to spare. On the mental front I came to the realization today that I actually like hanging out with my family. I’ve always had issues with the fam, I guess it’s because I grew up with my maternal grandparents and that was a clash of cultures, especially in ‘modern’ Sri Lanka that was not going to go down well. The impatience and intolerance on both sides has however dissipated with time and now I just enjoy hanging out with them and talking. I even hang out with my paternal grandparents, to whom I had an emotion close to hate for taking something so important out of my life through their indifference. I guess its just time to let go and appreciate the good in people, despite whatever they did to you in the past. I guess it’s called growing up (something for the record I never thought I would do). Now I just have to figure out how to avoid becoming a square. 

Anyways family aside, the trip to Hikks, which was pretty much virgin territory for me since I was a kid, was awesome. There’s something so perfect about lying on a beach, staring up at a moon with Late Night Alumni’s Empty Streets thrumming in your ears. That is until the rest of the joker crew decides to turn up, throw sand at me, poke me and yell at me until I’m ‘sociable’ again. That and a stray dog attempting to nose my crotch got me up quick time as well. We then proceeded to head down to Mambo’s which was another world to me, I loved the fact they had trance music, and good trance music, playing. It would be nice to go rock out there someday before I get grey hairs and can’t move a foot without wincing. The beach boys could do with some less attitude though, one of the bartenders was a real dick, stole my drink before I finished and then gave me a gal look when I politely requested for it back.

All in all a good trip, heading down to Unawatune for the long weekend and then hopefully into the hill country the next weekend, if the last trip does go down this would probably go down as one of my better Sri Lankan experiences.  All in all this time down feels more like being home than ever before, which is going to make getting on that plane all the more difficult. What is however keeping me floating is that not only will I be back in August for Uncle’s wedding, but end of 2008, mid 2009 I shall be back here for good. 

There I said it, I’m coming back for good, come rain, shine or high water, Sri Lanka is home and always will be.

Bugger what everyone else thinks.