February 9, 2023
I am writing from Suvarnabhumi international airport while waiting for my flight to Paris; it’s delayed. Almost one month has elapsed since I came back from Ecuador and, other than a short trip to Hua Hin (see last post), I’ve stayed put in Bangkok. My mobility has been even more limited; I haven’t left the confines of the neighborhood where we live. This was good for work, Woland, and our routine. Get up between 6 and 6:30, walk Woland (we alternate days with Natalia), prepare a French press, drink coffee while talking on the phone with parents and/or children, feed Woland, work, take Woland to the dog park and play with the balls, go to the gym, work, walk Woland, have a drink, prepare and eat dinner with Natalia usually with a couple of glasses of wine, read or watch a movie if I don’t have meetings, sleep. I spend most of my time in the apartment and I don’t see or interact with many people.
Two weeks ago there was a change. I had my annual health checkup; blood tests and many others including eyes, bones, liver, and heart. I guess my age is catching up with me for the results were not stellar. I feel and look healthy, I workout every day and run every other day, I am definitely not overweight, yet I have been losing bone density in my hips, my cholesterol is up the roof, and my liver, while still in the “normal” range, is getting close to the limits of the statistical distribution. And so it happens that for the first time in my life I’m on a diet. Massive reduction in alcohol consumption, no red meat or dairy products, no white rice or pasta, no baked or fried food, no Thai food, no French food. I have been surviving on brown rice, chicken, fish, and farro with 0% milk (that I need for my bones). Even expressos are not good for me, so here I am at the airport, sitting at a café instead of a bar, drinking an americano. Because I have very little fat in my body, the doctor thinks there is something genetic behind the high-levels of bad cholesterol, and put me on meds to help bring it down. All very frustrating.
I’ll be in Paris just for the weekend visiting Sofia. From there I go to Egypt for work, coming back on the 15th to take a plane to Bogota on the 16th, and connect to Cartagena on the 17th. My hope is that when I get there, BEHEMOTH will have her diesel and generator back. Over the last few weeks several jobs have been completed under Hector’s supervision; hiring him was one of the best decisions I’ve made. All the standing rigging was washed (it was full of ferro-dust from the boat yard); winches were disassembled, cleaned, and greased; the two bilges were cleaned and painted (no more standing oil); the head’s hoses and pumps were replaced; and all cushions were upholstered. The same guys who did the cushions are now making a new dodger and a technician is working on the fridge and freezer that were not cooling or freezing. The main purpose of what is going to be a short trip, is doing a proper sea trial with BEHEMOTH and making sure she is ready to sail to Panama and cross the channel. I also plan to spend a couple of days in Quito visiting my parents. The expected return date to Bangkok is February the 29th.
There are two movies and a book I wanted to recommend. One of the movies is Unami, with Gérard Depardieu — a controversial figure but an iconic actor. He plays a famous and wealthy French chef whose personal life is falling apart. His wife is having an affair, the two children – half-brothers – are unhappy with their lives, he is overweight, and with a cholesterol higher than mine almost dies of a heart attack. He decides then to change course and starts looking for a Japanese chef he had met in his youth; he remembers the taste of a recipe the chef had prepared during a culinary contest (Depardieu won the contest the Japanese came second) and wants to discover the secret. This quest will change his life.
The other movie is The Théorème de Marguerite. The script was written by Anna Novion and the two main actors are Ella Rumpf (Marguerite) and Jean-Pierre Darroussin. The movie was part of the special screening sessions in the Cannes Festival this year. Marguerite is a gifted mathematician working on his PhD thesis at a prestigious French university, trying to proof Goldbach conjecture. While in a seminar where she is presenting her work, another PhD candidate (Jean-Pierre) points to a major mistake. She quits, starts living in the underground, but can’t stop working on the proof. Won’t tell you more.
As for the book, it is the second I read from the young Chilean writer Benjamin Labatut. The title in espanish is Un Verdor Terrible, but it was published in English by Pushkin Press as When We Cease to Understand the World. The book was nominated for the 2021 International Booker Prize. The characters of the book are real-life mathematicians/physicists, including the famous, Nobel-prize winner, Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger – of the Schrödinger’s cat. The first book I read, and recommended, was The Maniac, about another famous mathematician, John Von Newman.
Sailing to the Pacific 