29th January 2012

After finishing a EFR (Emergency First Response) course yesterday and meeting Si off the boat, I finally had chance to collect my new mountain bike, which was kindly put together by Tim, one of the videographers at Deep Down.    

With new lights and only a couple of adjustments I set off home.  Boy, for only having a few weeks off from cycling, the ride home killed me :-D     It’s so nice to have a decent bike to ride.  No excuses for me now, not to go cycling ;-D  (Pics to follow, when the rain stops!!)

So today was the ‘Dive Site Clean Up’  ...basically a dive picking up rubbish that’s in the sea.  The plan was to have ‘Crystal 2’ (Crystal’s medium size boat) but Si received a message first thing, saying that it had broken down.  What a pain! As we were supposed to be meeting other dive schools/boats south of the island and collect all the rubbish collected and bring it all back to the pier but we had to cancel.  Instead we, all 16 volunteers, managed to squeeze onto the course boat ‘Crystal 3’ at very short notice and do a clean up at ‘Twin Peaks’  ...not a great deal of rubbish collected but that’s a good sign. 

 

On our 2^nd dive, we got everyone to do ‘Coral Watch’ as well, which in short, is measuring the darkest, lightest part of the coral, whether it be boulder, branching, plate or sort coral (apart from the tips, as that’s new growth) and recording it on a slate which we then take and enter online global database.

All in all, the day was success and everyone enjoyed their dives.  

 

It was so nice to have so many volunteers and hopefully if they’re out diving again, they just might pick that plastic bag/bottle and stick it in their pocket or, decline a plastic bag from 7-Eleven.   

x

Jenny 

27th January 2012

Wow... The work never stops... Jen has been teaching advanced, then Deep and Nitrox, while I taught advanced...

It is soooo busy that we are both tired and stressed from the amount of work that we still haven't found our feet yet.

I finished a 2 person Chinese advanced last night (completing their Night Dive at Junkyard), while Jen completed her dives this morning, but then she went straight back into teaching in a class.

Today, after dropping Jen down at the dive school at silly oclock for her dives... I went back to the apartment when I had a list of chores. Collect washing, fix shower, find UK adaptor, pick up Xbox, talk to Divemaster trainee protege (I am a DMT's mentor!).... and sort out the ant infestation.

For the past 2 nights when we arrived home, the place was covered in ants... thousands of them!  So, I went searching for this special chalk which they hate... Now, I have drawn all over the floor and outside in the hope that they "don't cross the line"...

Jen finishes in a couple of hours, and is coming straight home on her new mountain bike!! YES IT HAS ARRIVED.... pics to come..!

x

SD

24th January 2012

While Jen and I had 2 days off, we needed to catching up on simple chores that we didn't have time to do... such as washing, shopping, sleeping!!!

Jen started 1 of her students on the advanced course yesterday, and I tagged along for the ride just for the pleasure of diving without having anyone to be responsible for. It was a welcome change. We were also joined by Johannes, a divemaster who hails from Holland. I mention Johannes because it was the 1st anniversary of his father's death and he was quite pensive understandably. But what a great way to have a peaceful, reflective day by doing a couple of chilled dives.

1st dive was Aow Leuk, a bay on the South East of the island. Surprising good visibilty and the student accomplished the Navigation dive fine.

2nd dive was Tanote Bay, a little bit North of the previous site. While visibilty was not so good, the student completed her Peak Performance Buoyancy skills, and then we went for a little bubble... and found 3 beautiful flatworms.. like these:

 

Then, time to head back to the port, where we hung around until it was time for night diving... I tagged along yet again so that I could try out a UV torch that I brought from the UK... it was AMAZING... like being at a full moon party but underwater... All the corals and rocks become glow-in-the-dark...! What a funky way to dive... and now everyone wants to borrow our torches!!

To bed for an early night after a quick bite to eat... cos Jenny is up for early deep dives....

21st January 2012

The last few days have been pretty exhausting.   Having a month off and then coming back and doing a 6 person OW course, has just about finished us off ;-D   

This is the first time that we both had panicked divers, both on the surface and at depth.  One of my students had a problem with a broken mask on dive 2 down at 10 mtrs which was pretty hairy and one who’d worked themselves up so much about mask clearance that she just balled her eye’s out and was convinced she couldn’t do it, so with a little practice just below the surface and trying different techniques, she finally felt comfortable to come down and give it a go. 

My goodness, I felt so proud of her when she cleared her mask first time  ..Si, pretty much had the same issues as well as a guy who had the attention span of a flea.

In the end, they passed... 

After the open water video we got picked up in a taxi and taken to Lung Pae, a lovely restaurant in the hills to join Nathans leaving meal as he’s off to Oz on the 24^th

 

Today, we’ve the day off!! Simon is catching up with UK stuff, and I am going over the Eco documentation to try and get my head round it...

19th January 2012

After leaving the UK on the 14^th to Bangkok and spending a couple of days there shopping, we’re now finally settled in to our new place on Koh Tao. It’s pretty much the same as our old place but with a slightly different layout.  As the say here ‘Same same but different’. We’ll post some photo’s soon as at the moment, it looks as though a bombs hit it :-D

It’s only today that we’ve started back to work, teaching a 12 person Open Water course which we’ll split in half when it comes to the actual dives.   

The morning session went pretty well. We’d finished all the academics complete, equipment set ups were going well when we were told to give up some of our students equipment/tanks as the afternoon boat was short  ...Brilliant!!  NOT!     

So  a day that started off well, progressively got worse.   So not being able to complete set ups, we broke for lunch and met an hour later. Equipment wise, we were still no further ahead, so we walked down to the Regal pool and got our students to do their float and swim test.

Sometime later we eventually got in the pool and started confined.  The students did really well.  Si and I were really concerned about a couple of the girls who’d previously tried to do their OW and couldn’t get past the mask skills but with a little encouragement and a lot of patience they surprised themselves and us, to be honest and did a marvellous job.   

As a few of the guys had bad headaches, were cold and nearly out of air, we decided to call it a day with 90% of the confined skill complete.  We’ll reconvene tomorrow at 8.30am to finish off.

Sun burnt and exhausted, it’s definitely going to be an early night

x

Jenny

18th January 2012 - Thomas Dowling

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEPHEW..

A very happy birthday to my nephew Thomas... We hope he has a great birthday...


x

16th January 2012 - Back in Bangkok

After a month, returning to the UK for Xmas festivities and New Year. we have arrived back in Bangkok.

We managed to catch up with all our family and friends, and it was a good break to have.

Yesterday, we got on our flight for the tedious 11 hour journey to Bangkok. All very uneventful, and we arrived on time, heading straight to our hotel in the middle of the city.

Tired from the journey, we stayed awake to get ourselves into the right time zone, had a quick bite to eat and a meander around the streets, walking past damm Shark Fin restaurants!

I woke at 5am and woke Jen at 9am, to go searching Bangkok for a bicycle. Jen wants one to ride in Koh Tao, and the ones they have on the island are falling to bits..

After catching a Skytrain to a recommended shop, we ended up dissapointed by the staff and their "can't be bothered" attitude and we eventually left about 30mins later. It was a nice part of town though, next to a race course with a golf course in the middle.

We caught a cab to another part of town where there are some tiny bike shops, and Jen eventually found a model that suited her. The sales guy was very helpful, and arranged posting the bike to Koh Tao (800ish km away) for a cost of less than £10.. PERFECT.

Then it was time for a Tuk Tuk... Jen had never experienced a small one before, so we bartered a price of £3 for a ride back to the hotel... which took about an hour!! The driver was constantly chattering to either himself or me... I couldn't tell..!

Time for a break, and then we shall head out for the evening to grab some food before going to the airport very early tomorrow morning.