Casa de Lawrence: Serendipitous island living

I adore visiting my in-laws in Sri Lanka. They're wonderful, fun, and so very gracious. And the food is wondrous, from simple curd (naked, no-frills yoghurt) to complex pastries and curries. I am going to be so HUGE by the time we leave here....

While here, we're residing at Casa de Lawrence, the home of my husband's adorable sister #1 of 2, her lovely hubby and their yummy little triplets. This is what I gaze upon in the garden while sipping my morning tea -

The guest bathroom has a fabulous feature I have seen in none other. My clever brother-in-law had granite tiles installed into the concrete, and voila! Non-slip surface plus a pedicure spa like no other! This stuff is amazing - I want to take a couple of the tiles back with me to re-do our shower in Arizona. The spousal unit, however, is not in agreement, muttering something about carting 40 pounds of granite in suitcases across the Pacific. Little does he know the humiliation of taking my cracked heels for a pedicure back home - the pedicure lady actually calls her colleagues to check out how awful my heels are. No, I do not speak Vietnamese, but I'm SURE that's what they're commenting on in horror. Some things don't need translating.

Shopping in Colombo is gratifying because the currency exchange is easy to figure out - 'tis 100:1. Hence the logic in the name of this store:
More updates on our travels in Serendip (ancient name for Sri Lanka) to come.