October 31st, 2021
Last Sunday we ended our quarantine and moved to a suit that Natalia had found in Airbnb. It was not what we expected; on line the pictures looked nice but the real place was not. Thankfully, the owner and AirbnB agreed to reimburse us the money, so on Friday we moved to another place. We both like it and are happy to stay until we find a permanent apartment or house sometimes in January — when our container arrives. The building has a nice gym and an outside swimming pool that I plan to enjoy today; it’s hot.
I write “move” as if we were moving furniture. We are not but Natalia is traveling with 4 large suitcase plus her carry-on and a backpack (hard to believe). I have one Patagonia duffel bag and my carry-on. We also have a couple of bags with groceries we bought. Moving was therefore not as simple. The first taxi, in fact, didn’t want to take us. We had to offer double the price to the second one for the driver to take us to the new place, less than one kilometer away.
I like the neighborhood where we are, Khlong Toei Nuea. There are several cafes and restaurants close-by and an station for the BTS (the train) is just a few meters away. The restaurants are not supposed to serve alcohol these days, but we discovered that around here they do; they just don’t use wine glasses (the two glasses in the picture contain Sauvignon Blanc). Yesterday though we preferred to stay home and had red wine in proper wine glasses; I cooked for the first time in weeks.
So far all is good. This week, other than teaching and doing some work, I need to find an orthopedic doctor. I have a mild version of Dupuytren’s Contracture. It is just affecting my right little finger but it has gotten to a point where a scalpel is needed. I just need to know that I can be fully recovered from surgery before Christmas when I will need my two hands to sail Antares.
This is is an addendum to the post this morning. We went to a “weekend market” some 10 BTS stations from here. You can find anything you want there, from plants to animals, jewelry, clothes, shoes, handcrafts, pots and pans, dishes and silverware. I bought a leather bag — for less than USD 100 — that I plan to use as a complement to my carry-on when I go to the boat (see pic). Just enough for some clothes and Antares’ electronics. We also enjoyed some street food and a cold local beer hidden in a plastic bag. When we came back it was +30 C and humid. As planned, we went to the pool. Now we have torrential rain outside and I am about to poor myself a gin and tonic. Our plans to go out for dinner (Japanese) might have to be cancelled.
Sailing to the Pacific 