Bill and Wendy's ickcillint adventures

On February 4th, The President of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa visited Jaffna for the Independence Day Celebration and to ribbon cut a new building site for a 15 story hotel. Police and military swarmed Jaffna for three days. Of particular note, there was a goon squad making its mark all over town. There were about a dozen of these men in black. They rode huge black motorbikes with tires suited for a bush quad. They wore black bullet proof vests, black padded pants that looked like armour, black army boots, black motorcycle helmets with black balaclava ski masks. Their hands were encased in black leather gloves. To top off the ensemble of ridiculous, they wore large black ski goggles. They looked like caricatures from Batman. To top it all off, they roared about the streets of Jaffna, like a gang of Hell's Angels. One of these super heroes even performed a wheelie in the street to impress us all. It was a joke. Does this squad accompany the president wherever he goes? ...

Marcia and I contrived to get Bill a Birthday present. I must backtrack a bit on this story to give you the whole story. Large rats live in the house with us. These rats slink into the house through holes in the sink drain and in the bathroom grey water drain. Bill has managed to exterminate three of them so far, but it is a grisly job. Mouse traps sold here are sticky 12"x12" pads sodden with glue. The rats, trapped in the glue, remain there until Bill beats them to death with a broom. It is very gross, especially, when we have been in Colombo all week and the rat is decomposing into the glue. So, Marcia and I decided to secure a cat to mouse in the house in order to spare Bill more killing. We decided to get him a killer cat. Marcia put the word out onto the street; Wendy and Bill need a cat. Within a week, we got the call; Marcia's French teacher, Gerard had us a cat. One lunch hour last week, we both cycled over to meet Killer. Judge in our mail box...

Bill turns seventy years of age on the 23 rd of this month. It is kind of freaks me out. My husband is seventy. I know it freaks him out even more than me. So, to cheer him up, Marcia (another VSO who lives upstairs) and I schemed to throw a big surprise party. The weekend of Feb 4 th was a long weekend holiday in Sri Lanka; a perfect weekend to plan a party allowing our VSO colleagues from Colombo and Batticaloa to travel up for the party. We had a good showing and Bill was absolutely surprised and shocked that people were here for his birthday. He just thought that people were taking the long weekend opportunity to come up and see Jaffna, now that the road is open. Now those of you who know Bill well know that he is a snoopy as they come. Nothing gets past his nose. I take something outside to the garbage bin; "What is that you have got there?" I put something into a drawer; "What did you just put away?" I come munching out of the kitchen; "Wh...