28th January 2014

I've been busy teaching Open Water  ..I was suppose to start with 4 students but one of them went out drinking and cut his toe open badly so didn't show the next day  ..but the students I was left with (Lucinda, Shannon and Jack) were lovely.  
The confined session went well, even though, Jack was a bit slow with some of the skills, very stiff and just lacked a bit of common sense  ..the dives were hilarious  ..they were all good in the water  ..but at times Jack seemed to have short spells of rigamortis   ...it was like watching someone in a full plaster cast wriggle about  ....so so funny!

With the course finished, we all met up at the Crystal bar for their Open Water video at 7.30pm  When they turned up, they presented me a lovely Thank You card and a bracelet  ...how lovely, I nearly shed a tear.  Tim had done an amazing job with the video which they all brought ...YAY!!!


Away, news on Mr GrassHead  ..he's looking cool ...this is a shot of him taken an hour ago.  His hair is slowly growing. I think I might need to water him a couple of times a day as it's so hot right now.

Sad news, my hammock that Si brought me broke/tore.  Si sat in it and went straight through  ..so today, I was given this beauty

  ...it's so soft comfy and what's really good is that it's meant to be left outside.

We're certainly going to get some good use out of this.

24th January 2014

Wow... I get a day off!!

Well, thats not actually true.... I had a day off from the dive school, which means I could catch up with various things...

Firstly, it was up early with a nice cup of tea, working on a friends website which has been on the backburner... Still working on it but its getting there! Then onto creating a webpage for the dive school. Then concentrate on a bit of UK work before waking Jen up with Eastenders, a cup of tea and a cooked breakfast.

Around midday, Jen and I headed up to the Wild Challenge area to walk the track and take notes on any issues there were still to fix.

 The Licky dogs arrived as usual, and after being slobbered all over for what seemed like an eternity they trotted off along the path.

After negotiating a few obstacles, we came to the barbed wire fence which I had not tested yet, so crawled my way through to check it out.

 Licky Junior stood guard!

And then it was onwards and upwards.

After having a brief rest at the top, we came back down and went back home, where we spent the remainder of the day catching up with Eastenders, watching a movie, and then bed early... Lovely!

23rd January 2014

Another day off for me while Si had to get up for the early boat to complete his Advanced course.

I woke around 9.20am and headed upstairs to prepare some breakfast for myself.  Two sausages, one fried egg and a cup of tea ...Lovely!!

Not too sure on what to do today.  After doing most of the cleaning yesterday, the house is pretty tidy,  so I found myself pottering around and came across one of my Christmas presents from Simon, Mr GrassHead. (he's a pal in a pot!)

I had to soak Mr GrassHead in water for about three minutes then sit him in a little pot filled with water.  I have to keep the pot topped up with water and in a few days, he'll start growing green hair which I can style and cut as I like.   I loved the warning on the box 'Keep away from cows and other hungry herbivores'

Also while pottering I found a photo hanger which Simon still hadn't put up from his birthday last year, so on finding a few photo's and a drawing pin, it's now hanging from the door.

This is our bean plant and another green plant of which I don't know the name of it, but they're coming along very nicely.  We've only had one bean from the plant which was about 3 times as long at the actual plant  ...very odd




Just spoken to Simon.  He's not going to be back until 7.30pm as he promised his students a beer, seeing that it was too rough for them to do the night dive  ..so think I'll just stay at home and chill and have dinner ready for when he returns  ...what an amazing wife I am!!!!  :-)

22nd January 2014

The last 4 days we've both been teaching Open Water.   It's been rather busy since full moons and teaching 21 people in  a classroom was slightly challenging at times, especially when half of them had hardly any sleep in the last 24hr.  I think that every instructor that taught in this period is very pleased it's over.  There were some nightmare students  ..I think I was the luckiest, my guys were good  ..only a couple of late shows, but all in all, pretty good.


Since Rosie left, it's all been a bit quiet.  Seems very odd not to see her everyday.  Today is my first day off since she's left and after doing some household chores I was stuck with what to do  ..so decided to cycle into Sairee to have brunch (egg roll & coffee) and then thought I'd go for a bit of a trek  ....Simon, the night before had suggested that I walked the 'Wild Challenge' an up and coming tough man event through the jungle that Nathan (Eco Nath) has put together with the help of Simon and a few others.    

So after brunch, I cycled back along the main road towards Maehaad , parked my bike at the bottom of "Sunset View' and slowly made my way up the hill  ...boy did my calves hurt!!!

After reaching the top, Sunset View was off to the right and then directly in front of me was some sort of power station ..so after snooping around, I came across this 'No Entry' sign  ...recognizing the poster, print etc, this was going to be my route  ..I just wish Rosie was here, it would have been so much more fun.






Being on my own and not knowing what was ahead was pretty exciting.  Was I going to encounter any snakes, monitor lizards, what would happened if I slipped and knocked myself out  ..no one would know where to find me  .....Listen to me, talk about get carried away  ..the route was fine, small steps had been dug out, a couple of steep bits but nothing life threatening  ..mind you I did fall on my bum on the way down   DOH!!!!

I must say that there were some fabulous views along the way.  It was brilliant to be in the jungle exploring, so good to get away from the noise of everyday life  ..reminded me of walking through the woods at home :-D

Just after passing this sign I heard something in tree's  ...branches breaking and speed gathering something was ahead of me  ..I quickened my pace, then in the corner of my eye caught sight of the  most dangerous dogs on Koh Tao!

If you let them, they'd lick you to death!

One of the cargo nets handmade Simon 

 Sunset View

A welcome stop after my jungle trek

Just one more video....

On Rosie's final full day here, I joined Rosie and Jen on their final dives.

Video here...

https://vimeo.com/84313065

xx

SD

Rosie Diving Video!!

Here is a video of Rosies first ever dives!

Many thanks to Tim Long for taking a very rare day off, and making the video for us.

https://vimeo.com/84302007

x

SD

16th January 2014 - Farewell Rosie!

Simon and I rocked up at Rosie’s around 10am.  All was well, she’d completed most of her packing and as ‘check out’ wasn’t till midday, we sat and drank coffee on the balcony while Simon checked if all flights were running to schedule in Bangkok.  Unfortunately all was good, so no extended holiday for Rosie.  

After checking out, Si rode ahead to the new Eco office and Rosie and I walked to drop off bags etc, by this time we were all pretty hungry, so we went to Café Del Sol, to have a delicious ‘divers breakfast’ (eggs, beans, toast, bacon & coffee.

Remember that we had a manicure/pedicure the other day..... well Rosie’s nail polish has somehow changed into a foul orange, pink color so we decided to have one last pampering session  ..why not?!!    What made it special is the color on Rosie’s fingers didn’t really come off that well and stained her nails and fingers, so after a lot of varnish remover and scrubbing, they still looked pink, so with a smile, the Thai lady just put a layer of clear varnish on and said “beautiful”  hmmm

We both had our toe nails painted but at one stage or another, we smudged them several times by putting our flip flops on, stubbing our toes  ..the poor Thai girls were hanging out the shop door trying to repaint etc while Rosie and  I were concerned that we needed to confirm her boat ticket, taxi and collect her case which was being dropped off at the pier.  What a palava but so funny!!

By the time, we’d finally retrieved Rosie’s case, sorted tickets and organized a taxi from Samui ferry  port to the airport, we had about another half hour to wait until her boat came in.

We waited at the pier for the ferry, said our goodbyes with a few tears shed.... and we wish her a short and safe journey back home. Its been a great time, and so nice to have family here.... its just so sad when they leave.....

15th January 2014 - Rosie Dives Again

This morning I met Rosie at ‘Zest’ for breakfast   ..it was a rather late start for us all, I think the activities were finally catching up with us all.  Earlier on that morning, I’d called Crystal to stick the 3 of us on the afternoon boat to fun dive as this would be the last chance for Rosie to dive due to her flying on the 16th.

The dives were brilliant, although it is full moon, high tide and pretty rough, the visibility was really good.  The first dive was at Twins, which Rosie had been before a couple of times but that didn’t matter as we headed out to what’s called the ‘Secret pinnacle’ and didn’t see a soul, the 2^nd dive was at White Rock, where  we had at least 20 meters visibility.  There was just an abundance of fish  ..just a lovely way to finish.  Simon took his big boy camera, so expect some footage to appear very soon. 

When we got back to land, Rosie and I headed back to her hotel for a quick cuppa and then decided to go for an oil massage.  OMG  it was amazing!!!   If only they were a cheap and as good in the UK.

For Rosie’s last evening, we headed down to Crystal as she wanted to watch the Open Water movies from that day (as Rosie loves them) and met up with the crew for a couple of beers.  For Rosie’s last meal, we headed to ‘Whitening’ where we had a delicious last meal.  

14th January 2014 - Chill out Day

A lazy day today!  …after Si dropped me down at Crystal, I walked along the beach to the Regal to find Rosie out on her balcony watching the divers in the pool.  Today ‘s definitely a quiet day as it’s been pretty full on since Rosie’s arrived.   I should think she’ll need another holiday after this one LOL.

As Kirsty our lodger had the day off, she came down to meet us by the pool to chill.  After sunbathing, swimming, snorkeling, we went to ‘Pranees’ for lunch where I ordered an assortment of Thai dishes that Rosie had yet to try.  It was rather a lot but hey ho  ..we left with very full tummies.  

On route back to the hotel, Rosie’s bought a pair of sun glasses and popped into a little craft/jewelry shop which had a necklace that matched her earrings that she was given. 

Café Del Sol was the venue for this evenings dinner.  I copied Rosie by having a Chicken Milano  ..very tasty!

13th January 2014 - Investigating Haad Tien

Haad Tien is where Fiona & Chris will be staying when they come to visit.   

Rosie and I started walking and yes it was a bit of journey to check out the resort.  I think walking in the midday sun was a bit of a mistake.   I’d been there but it’s not quite as enjoyable as going with your big sis.  

I think Fiona & Chris will like the resort very much, it’s beautiful and clean and good snorkeling.  Rosie and I saw half a dozen black tip shark and some huge schools of parrot and rabbit fish.  There is a huge turtle that is a resident of the bay but unfortunately we didn’t see him.  The grounds are very peaceful and the apartments are well spaced.   The pool is fresh water and Chloe and Iona are going to love it.  

The walk back was a struggle, most of it was up hill and because Rosie wanted to see our house, we had a detour uphill :-D   When we finally arrived, Rosie collapsed on the sofa and slept for an hour, I had a snooze too.  

That evening we went to the Muay Thai (kick boxing) in Sairee.  It was good fun, 

Simon and I had a little flutter of 20baht per fight with Rosie and Kirsty and came out with 120bht profit   YAY!!!!