MORE PIX AND INFO ON OUR TRIP

During our trip to Singapore we made a five day visit to Bali, Indonesia, and a ten day trip to Phuket, Thailand. We stayed in a fancy hotel for three days and went elephant riding. I would like to try this during high traffic hours on 10/202, a nearby highway. I thing I would make better speed. There are two negatives to this: 1. an elephant will eat two tons of food a day (I do not know how much that is a mile). 2. Elephant exhaust will stop a car following you and create an environmental hazard.

For five days we sailed the northern part of the Malacca Straights, on the east side on Phuket Is and south. This was nothing like anything we had explored before. The Islands come straight up out of the sea. Some are large and others just a few yards in diameter. If you saw James Bond’s GOLDFINGER, you would have a good idea of what they looked like as this movie was filmed in this area.

Most of the larger islands had pristine beaches. One we stopped at had a cave which led to an inside bay and beach. Part of the bay was filled with mangrove trees.

Our charter, a fifty-five foot Swan, was led by Captain Horst (Austrian) and his crew and cook, Nam. The food was always excellent and in the evenings we could go ashore and eat if we so desired. Our Captain had a very colorful background (I would like to go back and spend another two weeks with him. I know he is source material for a new book!)

We are preparing to go to Houston to see Judy’s father who is 99. It is time for him to into a Hospice situation. See you all next Monday. PLEASE COMMENT BELOW IF YOU WANT MORE PICTURES. IF YOU DON’T I HAVE SOME 2,000 MORE I CAN PRINT. B E W A R E

CHRISTMAS IN SINGAPORE

We are finally back from Singapore where we had a great Christmas with our daughter and her family. Singapore is mostly city with a huge population. It is clean and well ordered. Very seldom did we see police. Christmas there was very strange. The Christian churches had services like in the US except being in seven or eight languages. Even the other religions celebrated Christmas (commercialism). It was said by one Chinese lady said that Santa is like the jolly Buddha, except he has a beard. Every night for weeks before Christmas the downtown streets were full of thousands of people. They did not seem to be buying much but having a great party. At one place they had a snow machine so the children could see, and feel, snow. There were choirs singing and drummers drumming. You could buy satay, or fried meat, on a stick. Enrique liked the crab claw on a stick; the children liked the chicken on a stick. I liked the crab claw also. We went to St. Andrew Cathedral, which was jammed packed, for lessons and carols and the Christmas Mass. The service was straight Anglican, but the sermon was long – very long. I watch the preacher turn over pages, if he writes his sermons, and can sometimes tell when he is finished. After 20 minutes he had gone through his stack. “Praise God” I thought, “he’s finished!” He turned over his stack of typewritten sheets and said, “Now for my next point.” Do not misunderstand me. His sermon was theologically correct, but would have been better if he had published as a theological treatise. I was very thankful they gave us a hand full of printed material, including a small book on Jesus. This made good reading as he passed through the stack of sermon pages a second time. Then, having used all the written papers, he said “Now I will conclude with my third point.” I do not know what his third point was as I fell asleep. The children’s choir was extremely good and overall, Judy and I enjoyed the service. I hope you all had a blessed Christmas and are looking forward to a really good new year 2010. Ames and Judy Swartsfager

MERRY CHRISTMAS from Singapore

We are now in Singapore and having a great time with Alaina and her family. We just got back from a week in Bali -Judy and Alaina had to pry me out. I want to live there. The place I liked the best was Ubud. This is a very old town and once the residence of the King. We stayed in a bungalow hotel next to one of the temples. It was so serene there. Just outside of town is where the artist community -artists,writers etc- have gathered from all over the world. Thus, I send you a blessed Christmas wish from way over here and if Judy isn't careful, I'll slip away to Bali.

Preparing to Travel

Thanksgiving is almost here and we have a lot of things to do. We are leaving for Singapore in December. Both Judy and I are somewhat anxious to get ready for this trip. Why we are worried is unclear to us. We are looking forward to seeing our daughter, Alaina, and her husband, Enrique. Of course, we can hardly wait to see Rachael and Austin, our grandchildren. So you will forgive me is I am spotty in keeping up my blog. I hope to be able continue it on the trip and send photos also. HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!

I FEEL CURSED!!

I cannot seem to keep my mind focused on one thing anymore. I had planned to write for three hours, practice banjo and guitar one hour, and work on making my scale model boats for three hours everyday. Organized and brain tickling, right. Instead I am writing music again. I like to write music, but it wasn’t in my plans. So far in the last two weeks I have written two anthems for the church choir. But even that gets disturbed by other things. On Mondays I participate in Adventures in living (a group of seniors who interact with 4th, 5th, and 6th graders for two hours.) This is too much fun to give up. On Tuesday mornings I have coffee and gab with a few men from church. On Wednesdays I have the 7 am service at church which is followed by breakfast. And one Friday a month I go to the Granby Men’s breakfast. And in between all this I have doctor’s visits. I have not written. I have not practiced. I have not worked on my scale models. The one thing I have not done is painting. Judy, my wife, says if she catches me with a paint brush in my hand I had better be painting the house.

WHAT IS MY PLATFORM?an essay

Last Saturday (Oct.17, 2009) I attended the Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association (CAPA) and listened to Adele Annesi explain the meaning of “Platform” and ask what our personal platform is. A platform is a short summary of what you stand for. The life position you want to be found in your writing. A short tag line that explains you and your substance (I know I am not quoting her correctly, but that was the gist of it). I started to think about my own life and what I stand for. It is easy to say I stand for Jesus since I am an Episcopal priest, although I am a bit of a maverick. But within this framework, I am many other realities. My life seems to take a shotgun approach to the world. I am a writer and I love to communicate. I also love to adventure and see new places. I am a sailor, and even though I can no longer sail and cruise the seas, this is also part of who I am. I make scale models of old sailing ships and workboats. I used to be an artist and would like to paint again, but all these other things get in my way. I am a romantic and would like everyone to know about the trials and songs of the old sailorman under sail. This is why I love to sing and play these old songs with my wife. Over all of this, and perhaps the most important, I am a family man, and love my family and would like everyone to have the support and love I feel from my wife and daughters. They have a lot of patience with my activities even though I have dragged them all over Central America. So what is my platform, my tag line? I want the “real thing” like Coca Cola but I am not sure what that is. I seem to want to share who I am, which is why I wrote Between the Devil and the Deep... I also am writing a book fictionalizing two years of my life in a ghetto. Down Island, another of my books is about sailing in the Caribbean. You can read it on my blog site (http://swartsfager-books.blogspot.com). Tenderfoot Dude, a pre-teen book about my adventures as a cowboy is written, but not published. Could it be, as Popeye says, “I yam who I yam?” I do not know as yet. But I am working on focusing and discovering what it really is. What an adventure!

THERE IS ANOTHER POST COMING SOON.