July 29, 2007
Dear Friends and family,
Sorry about the lack of news lately, and also that we are sending a newsletter instead of writing to you personally. If you give us an answer we promise to write back personally.
We're thoroughly ensconced in Bangkok now, and just started our second year here and meanwhile we have a weekend life in Singapore where Wings is moored.
My Bangkok job has changed since last year with more focus on one banking project and less involvement with a couple of others, one of which is stalled and one which is slow to start. That is good since the third one, which now takes all my time, has heated up quite a bit. I went there to manage a small team of five programmers, and somehow inherited 20 others. This is a great team of mixed nationalities and I'd match them against any team anywhere, they are good, but the project was in trouble when I got there and isn't in much better shape yet; anyhow we're working on it. My team and I have our work cut out for us, and we're all putting in some long hours, but the teamwork is great, and the work is fun, mostly (well, you know, jobs are still jobs). The company says they want me for another year. We're talking.
Judy's job has changed some also. She still does transcriptions from home of audio recordings sent to her from overseas, but now it's less court cases and more financial seminars. She gets exposed to some interesting discussions on global and Asian economic conditions and trends, and other topics. That makes them more interesting but I guess the downside is that she usually gets them with a deadline. It's not uncommon for Judy to be pounding away on her computer at 11:00 at night doing a transcription due the next morning while I pound away on mine doing some status report or project plan. I don't think she would call it fun, but for both of us, we are glad to be working even while we are looking to the future when we are back cruising on the high seas.
What about living in Bangkok? Everyone talks about the weather, here is a story about the weather in Bangkok.
Short Story: The Rain Comes Down in Bangkok
Thunder like train wrecks. It woke me up. Now it is moving away and the rain is coming down. No wind this time, just a steady waterfall of rain which I can hear hitting the street outside our apartment in Bangkok.
This is the rainy season in Bangkok Thailand. We carry umbrellas every day when we go out, or if we forget, we'll often be forced to shelter in a doorway or a shopping mall.
I even carry an umbrella while riding on the back seat of a motorcycle taxi and put it up if there is rain, but I make the driver go a little slower.
Now fifteen minutes later the rain too has moved on, the thunder is distant, the sun is coming out, and the city has a wet concrete smell to it, not quite fresh, but a little cleaner than before.
We don't mind the rain though because it cools the air. We've gotten good at predicting when the rain is about to fall; the air gets cool. Even if the rain isn't imminent, the temperatures in Bangkok in July have been much more tolerable than they were in April before the rainy season started.
In fact it is quite pleasant.
When I come home from work in the late afternoon and I’m waiting on the elevated platform for the Sky Train, it feels good to lean on the railing in the cool evening breeze and look over the city. Below me there are street stalls dishing up spicy Thai food and in the distance the workers shutting down the job sites of new condo blocks. I enjoy a few moments of peace waiting for the train to come.
When we are both working pretty hard, long hours, etc, a few moments of peace in the cool breeze brought by the rain is appreciated.
Story from Singapore: My House Has A Spinnaker On the Floor
(posted on our blog on http://wingssail.blogspot.com/ on July 21)
Like all good for’d hands Marco gets a little bossy now and then; when he yells to “Slack the blue halyard” sometimes it seems unnecessarily loud and commanding.
But we put up with it because we expect the for’d hand to have a bit of swagger. How could he be otherwise when his only domain is that constantly moving pointy end and he has to be the athlete on cat’s feet doing his magic under the very eyes of the whole crew? When your bowman gets to know his part of the boat and his confidence starts to grow he forgets how he might sound; he just gets into it; he tells us what he wants, and we do it; the blue halyard gets slacked.
And in fact we love it as the teacher always loves it when the student begins to surpass.
We are watching our crew grow bolder and become more confident. Pierre has to teach a new tailer each week it seems and he has the pattern down. Jennifer rules her pit and her hands fly over the sheet stoppers like the artist’s fingers over the keys of a well known piano. After the practice today I was saying, “Not too bad, just one small hole in the kite to repair” and Tobias dug his hand in his pocket and out came a zipper pull and he said, “Not quite, here is another repair for you.” I showed him how it goes back on the zipper of the number#3 bag and I know a little more of the mystery died away for him. Bob has even brought his own personal tactical computer and together he and I drilled holes and to mount it on Wings. You know they are feeling at home when they want to drill holes in your house.
This is the way the members of our new crew come to know Wings; not as we know her but a maybe a little better than before, and this is the way they become part of our family.
Tonight the crew has gone home and I wiggle my toes in the cool nylon of our spinnaker which is stretched out on the cabin floor drying out. Most people wouldn’t want their house to be the inside of a racing boat with all of its untidy clutter but as I reflect on a good day’s sailing and where we are now with this crew and I look across the cabin at Judy curled up on the settee with a cross-word puzzle and there is music on the stereo and some rum in a glass by her side, I have a warm and comfortable feeling.
All in all this feels pretty good, the Bangkok part and the Singapore part.
Fred & Judy, Bangkok