26th June 2106

Finally the festival is over and we ended getting 2500 baht in prize money.  In fact everyone got 2,500 baht due to the fact that not many dive schools entered.  All a bit odd but at least we won something  :-D

Accepting the prize money :-D

Si's still having to stay all hours at Crystal due to the bar.  This Euro football is such a pain but once it's over, he'll get his life and sleep back  ...well hopefully.     He's organised a sweepstake for the remaining teams.  I've got Italy, so I'm pretty pleased, I might have a chance to win :-D

Looking into the bar  ..

Looking out from the bar  ..what a contrast!

Apart from working in the office, I've organised a land and dive site clean up.  I thought it would be good to do one at the festival site  ..thinking that we'd find lots of stuff but the only thing we found was the odd flipflop and 1 baht  LOL   Apart from that, Keith, an old instructor is over on holiday and he's been helping to weld some new structures for Junkyard.  I've not taken photo's as of yet.

Festival clean up

18th June 2016

Today is the start of the Koh Tao Festival.  I met a few of the guys at the festival to put the final touches on our structure.  We've finally finished it, I'm so glad it's over.   Over the past few days, I've had a lot some great help & idea's and I'm pretty pleased with the way it's turned out.  

Ship coral nursery

An amazing seahorse

Anenomes

Jellyfish

During the festival, so many things go on.  Today was 'FREE' day, where shops, restaurants and cafe's give away free bottles of water, fruit, plates of food, sweets, cans of drinks, tea, coffee and also while that was going on, Koh Tao went for the Guiness book of records for 'Clasping Wrists'  I think they did it.  I would have been involved but I was waiting for the sculpture to be judged.  I did join the cycle ride which was great fun.

World record attempt. Most people holding hands

 

Not so many people took part in the bike ride this year due to the World Record attempt :-(

16th June 2016

Things haven't stopped for Simon, he's been full on with the bar and doing a brilliant job.   It's amazing how busy the place has become.  Last night was the bars busiest, with England playing Wales everyone was in the bar.  It was a great atmosphere.  Unfortunately Simon had to work till 4am.  I don't know how he did it.  He's been run off his feet.  Tonight he has an early finish, 8.30pm which is good.  It's so nice to have an early night together.  Just trying to decide on what to cook though.

While Simon's been non stop, I've been making a structure for the Koh Tao festival which starts tomorrow.  The structure has to be marine themed and made of recycled bits and pieces.  I've ended with a ship like theme, using wheels, rope which is going to be used for coral transplants and the netting that you see will have lots of brightly colored fish on it, in order for it to look as though it's underwater.   You can't really get the whole affect from the below picture as the fish have not been attached.  Final touches will have to be made tomorrow and then judging is at midday.

guys painting painting the fish

Pizzey and I having fun 

11 Jun 2016

It's been a pretty manic time as Simon has taken over the Crystal bar.  He's been working non stop, rewiring everything and I mean everything as it was a mess and to wait on Thai's to come in, you don't know what sort of a job you would end up with.  In the bar now are, weather proof speakers with all their own adjustable volume. The sound is just amazing,   There are flat screen tv's, that can show different channels or all the same  ...great for the open water movies.   All the stools have been modernized, furniture varnished and he's even made small table blackboards & large hanging ones to advertise drinks, promotions and screenings.

There has been so many changes,not all visible it's just great.  Gone are the plastic straws, water is now being sold in glass water bottles, we're having a go at making shakes  ..it's quite fun.

Its been really hard work for Simon, working over 100 hours a week and when you think things are settling down and when he can home at a decent hour, the European Cup starts  ..so games from 8pm to 4am in the morning   ...JOY!!

Bar full of happy divers

New Boards, fans, Freezer, cabling 

Euro timetable   ..YAWN!!