Shared Memoir of Love and Adventure (eBook)

Bill and Jeannette Thomson (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
276 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
979-8-3509-2856-3 (ISBN)

Infos

Bill was a geopolitical analyst and international economist experienced in development and capital markets issues, with a longstanding and deep interest in Asian economic developments. He started off in Seattle working as an engineer for Boeing and worked for NASA on the Apollo project sending the first man to the moon. He relocated to Manila in the Philippines whilst working for the Asian Development Bank. Soon after, he met Jeannette and the rest as they say is history... Bill and Jeannette are 'Opposite Ends of the Spectrum', totally different from each other in opinions, styles, preferences. He took pride in being politically incorrect, Jeannette is the practical, sensible one. They have laughed at each other since the day they met in the mid 80s. Travelling became one of their obsessions; from the mountains of Nepal, Jeannette explored Mt Everest by flying the deathifying Russian aeroplanes. Food is love, they both enjoy eating exotic foods which means she cooks amazing East meets West gorgeous dishes: Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Chinese inspired cuisines and Bill eats them. Despite their 20 year age difference, they were happily married for thirty seven years. Laughter, exotic foods, travelling, quirky children kept them together.

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The book is A Memoir About:AdventureExhilarating journeys where travel and adventure intertwine. Awe-inspiring destinations, daring escapades, and transformative experiences that will leave you yearning for your own extraordinary odyssey. LoveThe quest for love transcends borders. Follow Bill's serendipitous journey across continents, revealing the remarkable tale of finding love on the other side of the globe. FamilyDelve into the vibrant tapestry of Bill's multicultural family. Witness the rich blend of traditions, languages, and identities, celebrating the power of diversity and unconditional love.

Textauszug

Bill in Business

Memories of his friend Philip Mappin
This American Life

I first met Bill on 20th March 1973, when I was working at the Australian Embassy in Washington. I decided to complete a Master’s Degree at George Washington University (GWU) as a way of bolstering my chances of landing a better job; my sights were set on the IMF (International Monetary Fund) or the World Bank. As it turned out, both institutions worked on a quota system and British citizens were already at capacity. Even with an advanced degree, my chances for employment were not good. I think, in those days, a three credit course at GWU cost about $275.00 and a Master’s Degree required 36 credits. I was paying for this out of my meagre salary.

One of the courses I selected was on international trade and was taught by a Professor Dunn, who certainly loved to talk. On one particular evening, I stood up to ask a question and to clarify a point. My British accent was noticed by a man near the back of the room. When the class was over, he came up to me, put out his hand and said, also in a British accent, “Hi, I’m Bill Thomson, what part of England are you from?” As I recall, we went out for a drink and he told me about himself. He had been recruited by Boeing Aircraft after he graduated from Manchester University in 1961 with an honours degree in mathematics.

He went to work in Seattle, where he met his first wife, Mary. After their marriage, they eventually moved east. Mary went to work for the IMF and Bill began working as a stockbroker at the regional firm of Legg Mason Wood Walker. Bill loved to work with numbers, so all things financial were in his bailiwick. He told me that in the week previous to our first meeting, his wife, Mary, had given birth to his firstborn, a boy named Craig.

Bill and I continued our relationship by meeting each week for a drink and a chat. I introduced him to a small hole in the wall type pub, which he loved, called The Lord Telford. It was on Connecticut Ave; to get to it, you had to go through a pizza parlour and down the back stairs. It was tiny, but it had that British pub feel. You were shoulder to shoulder with people, many of whom were expats; Bill loved to chat and debate with these people on any subject whatsoever. Bill and I always drank the British beer they sold for $1.00 a pint!

As it turned out, Bill had just taken up the game of golf. The IMF, where Bill’s wife worked, had a golf course called Bretton Woods. It was just outside Washington DC’s Beltway, just past the town of Potomac, Maryland. Bill could play there for next to nothing and take me as his guest for $7.50. This doesn’t sound like much today, but it was twice what municipal courses charged 50 years ago, and I was only making $23 a day (tax free.) The good news was that you could play all day for the $7.50 charge. And so it happened that just about every Saturday for almost six years, from 1973 to 1979, when the weather was halfway decent, we would find ourselves out at Bretton Woods golfing.

We sometimes played in the snow and then we had to use yellow, red or pink balls! We played so much - and I haven’t played there in 30 years - that I can still remember every hole! Our routine was to get there early and play 18. There was then a pause for us to catch our breath and have lunch. Lunch usually included a pitcher of beer, which smoothed out our swings on the second 18. It would then be about 4.30 and, after another pitcher of beer, we would play holes 1, 2, 16, 17 and 18 with any three clubs of our choice. The purpose of this was to increase our creativeness. It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you have to. Sometimes a dollar or two changed hands if some of our Australian or Kiwi friends played along. They loved to have a bit of a gamble.

Bill was there at Bretton Woods to witness and sign my card on two memorable golfing occasions for me. The first was my one and only hole in one on the second hole. It is a short hole of about 120 yards over a pond. I thought I had hit it fat and into the water as I had a hangover from the previous night and could not keep my lead down! Somehow, the ball struggled over the water, moved towards the hole and disappeared. Bill exclaimed, ‘You’ve holed it! A hole in one!’ I said, ‘No, it can’t be, it’s in the bunker.’ But Bill was right. When we walked up it was in the hole.

The second occasion was the one and only time I broke 80 at Bretton Woods. It was July 4th 1977, as I recall, and we were paired with the Bolivian Ambassador and his wife for the first 9 holes. I was playing especially well for some reason. It was a gorgeous day, and I had managed a rare birdie at the 7th hole, sinking a putt from across the green. But I knew and dreaded the 9th hole, which was a par 3 over a lake and had ruined many of my previous rounds. Sure enough, I hit it in the lake and then on the second shot over the back and took 6! How disappointing. But Bill, ever the optimist, told me that it was just one hole - I was playing well and still had a low score for the front 9.

For the second 9 it was just the two of us and I hit a huge drive on 10 and managed to birdie that hole, sinking another longish putt. I played the next few holes well, but I came to the 17th needing to play the last two holes, one under par for a 79. On 17, I hit it close and made another birdie. Three in one round - I had never done that before and on eighteen I had to sink a 3 foot putt for par for my 79. I used all the holes, but it went in. High five from Bill, the great encourager, and somewhere in my pessimisms I complete with his WRThomson signature.

The other good thing that happened to me, in addition to meeting Bill, in 1973 was that I landed a better job at the British Embassy and so my pay went from $3 per hour, tax free to $4. The Embassy had a duty - free bar on the premises called ‘The Bull & Bush’ where drinks were 25 cents. A bottle of Johnnie Walker Red cost $1.75 and the best cigarettes $2.75 a carton! On Fridays, Bill would come up from the Treasury and we would have a few. He loved to talk to the patrons about politics and economics and the relative benefits of living here in the U.S. By the time the place closed at 8 we had had our fill and went home to get ready for an early start at Bretton Woods the next day.

I took Bill to the annual Music Hall Variety shows put on by the Embassy staff in the Rotunda. Bill loved the old music hall songs and jokes and all the crazy antics that those shows produced. It reminded him of the Old Country. Years later, I remember him telling me he had been Master of Ceremonies for music hall shows put on when he was with the Asian Development Bank in Manila. ‘Those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end,’ but sadly they did. Sometime in 1974, Bill was forced to leave the brokerage business, due to the terrible bear market which took the Dow Jones Industrial Average from 1053 to 574 in 20 months, a precipitous decline. This income dried up. He had a friend, as I recall, at the Treasury who urged him to come and work there, which he decided to do.

He started as a GS11, and rose quickly from there. GS11 is the 11th paygrade in the General Schedule (GS) payscale, the payscale used to determine the salaries of most civilian government employees. The GS11 pay grade is generally held by white-collar employees in mid-level positions. There is a government pay scale that goes from 1 to 15 and I want to show that Bill went in at a good level to start at age 35. It was great, he said, to be getting a regular salary and not working on commissions which could dry up. When Bill left the brokerage business, he handed his clients over to his friend at the firm, Emmanuel Friedman. Manny, as he was known, had been in the business longer than Bill and had a larger book of clients to draw upon in the lean times of 1974.

Bill retained a few of his better clients and worked for them as a portfolio manager. Although the trades now went through Manny, Bill was compensated somehow. Even though Bill had only been in the business for a short time, some of his clients wanted to keep him on for his stock - picking abilities. Manny had a large Jewish clientele and when gaming was approved in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1976 he made a lot of money for them in the gambling stocks. When Bill left, my very small account was handed over to Manny and although I didn’t have much money to invest, I still kept in touch with him and went round to his office at lunchtimes.

Sometimes Bill was there and the three of us would grab a quick sandwich before we all had to get back to our respective offices. My goal at the time was to get a green card and become a permanent resident so that I could work outside the Embassy and make some real money. Manny introduced me to a good immigration lawyer and after a lot of red tape, form - filling and fees I had my coveted green card. I went to work for a firm that had sponsored me in Alexandra, Virginia, just over the river from Washington D.C.

In the summer of 1978, Bill, Manny and I took our first trip to Atlantic City together. Bill was driving, Manny was in the front passenger seat and I was in the back. I remember that when we first saw the lights of Atlantic City from a distance, while we were driving in on the Expressway, Manny started rocking back and forth in his seat shouting, ‘We’re going to be rich!’ It didn’t quite sound out that way. At the time, only one casino was open. There would be a dozen.

We stayed in an old three bedroom house on Granary Avenue that was owned by a friend of Manny’s. The lad paid $10,000 for it the year before....

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.12.2023
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Biografien / Erfahrungsberichte
• ISBN-13: 979-8-3509-2856-3 / 9798350928563