An eventful day

With the realisation that it was one of the volunteers birthday on 2nd may as well as the very rare albino turtles birthday on 3rd may and my last day on the 2ndmay we decided to have a party. At no notice whatsoever the son of owner of the project managed to arrange some entertainment .a group of guys who could do dance, mask dancing and fire eating..the cost between 5 of us was only £20 each..for a half hour show
Before starting at the project we took a tuk tuk ride to the supermarket for drinks snacks, banners, balloons 🎈 streamers
and to the off licence to get alcohol which cannot be bought in a supermarket
On the way we.passed a herd of cows sitting at the side of the road ...quite normal for sri lanka, they sometimes wander across the road
Activities at the project were hard today as following on from the usual burying of the eggs , there is restoration building work so.we were involved in shifting bricks and carrying buckets of cement. The so called cement was like soup...it was soo watery .To create new posts to hold up a roof they are using drain pipes with an iron bar inside and concrete poured inside the drainpipes. It's seriously basic! There is an expectation that we will shift all manner of materials and health and safety simply doesn't exist..as there was a serious suggestion one of us uses the electric drill to break up some concrete, bearing in mind the day before the electric lights had spontaneously sparked , giving off sparks and blown !
In the afternoon we decorated the albino turtles tank ..its a favourite at the sanctuary and due to being albino wouldn't survive in the wild.
The toddler of a family decided to put fingers in the tank and got nipped by the turtle...hysterical child followed ..and yet again I found myself supplying cosmopore ..but gave to the mother to put on as child went crazy when I approached..same child later released turtles into the sea ...but kept wanting one when it saw them running.

After dinner at 7pm.we were ready for our party..5 .volunteers
plus the owners and their son
A private and v special show out on the front lawn ...for about half an hour after which I decided to have a go on the bongo drums as sober as ever...just saying
When it was over we had music from a wi fi speaker playing loudly till 11ish ...nobody cared
We (I) arranged a cake for the volunteer and she decided it was her best ever birthday
Then the owner got a call to say 2 turtles were on the beach laying their eggs
We went across to the beach in silence and the pitch black as lights are likely to spook the turtle and she would return to the sea
The 1st turtle was struggling to find dry sand to start making a hole ..but the 2nd had begun.to lay her eggs ....150 in total. It was an incredible experience and made me realise that when we were in Borneo we didn't have as close an encounter watching the mother turtle.
Once she has laid her eggs she covers them over and returns to the sea within 2 to 4hrs
We returned to the accommodation and after tidying up called it a night

In one epic and momentous moment I emailed the NMC today to relinquish my registration with effect from.11th May 2025...44yrs after starting at Mauldeth House ..at which point I'd no idea that 44yrs later I'd be on a round the world trip and emailing to say ...its time cancel my registration . ..not an easy thing to let go of as its not been just a job but has been who you are as a person. Has probably helped to be away to actually take the plunge ,though I'd not have achieved enough hours for revalidation in August with all the time I've had off in the last 3yrs ( 6months post surgery, 3months post mum's departure and retirement August 2024. - and was only doing 17hrs a week whn in ....and then holidays..) so time to park the Nursing career and on to the next chapter..Læs mere