Uncertain times in an isolated city

In early 2020, I was in Sri Lanka with family enjoying all the comforts I can ask for. Not to say, while it was the west coast season, I also explored few shipwrecks in the coast of Colombo and Galle. One of the dive buddies I dived with in Colombo was Simon Lorenz; I only realized later that he is a renowned Underwater photographer. He was kind enough to give me some valuable advises during dives.

While I was in Sri Lanka, one of my friends back in Australia, Kin, called and asked me to bring some groceries like rice etc. on my way back. This was a complete joke for me. Who is going to bring such rations from Sri Lanka to Australia! Then I left to Perth in mid-March and realized how true the advice given. Australia was in complete jeopardy and super market aisles were just deserted. Nothing to buy! It was the time I realized the seriousness of Corona outbreak. Within a couple of days all the airports of Australia were shut, followed by Sri Lanka. Now I am stranded in Perth, most isolated city in the world!

Before leave Sri Lanka I promised my family that I would see them every other month and stop this nomadic life for good by end of the year. Fulfilling that promise was impossible with the Covid-19 restrictions around international flying throughout the globe. Especially, Australia enforced a law, restricting international travels, which was the only democratic country to impose such a law. My mind started to go a rollercoaster ride. One day I am good and next day I am so down, even the best coffee or beer couldn’t fix. 

Western Australia is not a good place for me to get stranded in many ways. I didn’t have many friends or family. It’s not a big city like Sydney (or even Melbourne), where you have many things to do, but beaches and outdoors. There is a sunny side of the story. Since it’s an isolated place, managing of virus spreading was quite successful (as this writing). This gave me enough freedom to go out. Most importantly, my client wanted my consulting service to continue. Therefore, income source was there, which is a great relief. 

I also thought of using the time wisely, even in tough circumstance. Therefore, I started learning everything I was curious about, from forex trading to Yoga and what not. Started reading all the books from the best seller list, those I could find from library. Visited museums again and again. 

I was tired of my own cooking some days and used to visit a Pasta place, ironically, ran by an Indian couple. They used to make especial one for me with many spices, a lot of them! Pasta – a south Asian style!

I became a frequent visitor in few coffee shops. In my local coffee shop I used to spend a lot of time, I met a mother and a son who became friends with me. Mothers’ name is Anna and son is Antonio. Antonio was my elder daughter’s age and he plays soccer. They usually visited the coffee shop on their way back from practices. He used to show me some pictures of his soccer moments and I showed my family photos back in Sri Lanka. Both mum and son was having an empathy on my situation. 

Beach became my other place of refuge in summer. Whether I plunge into water or just spend time onshore, salty air and easy going beach dwellers made me feel better. As I mentioned in my previous article in diving in cold waters, you cant just jump into the Indian ocean around Western Australia. Dangerous shark encounters were so frequent. Unfortunately, some were fatal. So its a matter of learning the shark sightings before heading to the beach if you wish to get wet.

Some evenings I spent hours and hours looking at the Sunset above the Indian Ocean from Hillarys Harbor. I was emotionally contemplating my home is just other side of this mass of water. Then I was thinking something crazy. Perhaps I can sail back to Sri Lanka in a boat! How much it will cost to jump into a team of adventurers who would sail towards south Asia. It shouldn’t be hard finding a gang with such a crazy plan in Western Australia. If I do that, I will be the first person to enter Sri Lanka illegally from Australia in a boat! In addition, J. P Obeysekera’s (Siva Obeysekera’s husband) adventurous flight came to my mind. When passenger flights came to halt due to outbreak of World War II, he did a solo flight from London to Sri Lanka. Then I realized I don’t have courage, grit, wealth and anything J P Obeysekera had in 1948, though we share the same surname for some stupid reason and I am nobody!

One guy I spent more time with is Murali who recently migrated to Perth and happened to work with me. Soon we became close friends. His sense of humor is remarkable. Most importantly his family, wife and son, too became close with me making it inviting to visit his place and have fun-filled time. They not only welcome me but soon considered me part of family. 

When his wife and son coming from India to join him, I asked you should be happy and excited to have them with you isn’t it.

Murali: Yep, Kind of..

Me: Isn’t it excited man. you were alone all this time

Murali: You should understand Sume… Not that exciting since its same wife and same son.. 

So, I am not telling he is full of humor without a reason.

Other one is Kuldeep, who is an Indian-Australian who is one of my flat mates. He is a good companion and got many stories to share with me. His biggest issue in the pandemic times too was the travel ban since he used to travel to Thailand a couple of times a year. That is his way of rejuvenation in life. He is passionate about perfumes! He knows a lot about it and maintain a massive collection of expensive perfumes. If he says about any interesting incident of his life, say dating a girl, he relates it with the perfume he was wearing. Quite unorthodox, isn’t it? Kuldeep’s passion actually infected to me too! Guess what, I ended up having few expensive perfumes from Giorgio Armani, Dolce and Gabbana etc. Perhaps, his passion flooded into me, but no other way around. He never join me in plunging into ocean!

I call my shared accommodation, a crazy place. People in this place belong to many different time zones. When I get up in the morning, I can see a guy just finishing his dinner after spending entire night playing computer games. There is another lady who wakes up at noon and start preparing the breakfast. I am actually thinking why I am not moving out of this mess.

Probably, part of me enjoyed the freedom came bundled with craziness. Rule of thumb in this house is, you don’t need to worry about others. No laws! Mates come at any time – go at any time – make noise even in the middle of the night – you hear others response saying f*ck off. Good thing about this place is I could wear my sarong and do whatever I want. Fry dry fish and make entire premises smelly. Thanks god – no law!

Anyway, this craziness wasn’t without any heaty situation in-between mates. One South American guy started to steal the stuff, actually beer, to be exact. First I ignored missing a beer or two occasionally. I learned this has been happening to others as well. One day, I came after something and really wanted to have a beer and found all in my shelf was gone. I was bloody angry and screamed at everybody in my best Mariyakade language (මරියකඩේ බාසාවෙන්), in English of course. Following day, as a revenge, Kuldeep had thrown some drinks from that South American bastard. Obviously, he thought its me. Then he got angry and openly threatened all. Anyway, it was evident, he was targeting me. What I learned later on was, he is highly addicted to alcohol and unpredictable once boozed. Then came the times I sleep, keeping my diving knife under my pillow. 

Now I am stranded in a faraway country; plus.. Got an in-house enemy to survive from!