27th June 2017

It's Tuesday today and it's pretty grim outside which makes a lovely change as it's lovely and cool. The last week or so the weather has been pretty odd.  Lovely blue sky in the morning and then early afternoon, the sky has darkened and we've had howling wind with rain.   I'm not too sure how long this will last but I hope it'll clear up soon as we might have a friend, Kevin and his daughter visiting on the 30th.

The weekend just gone both Simon and I had the day off together.  It was so lovely not to have to get up, lie in bed with a cuppa and just chill for most of the morning.  I say that, but Simon is near enough always doing stuff  whether it's on his laptop or tablet ..but not having anyone around or being down at Crystal, was great!    I love spending the day with my hubby!!

Since we've been back, I've been pretty good cycling everywhere.  I cycle to/fro work everyday and depending on time and weather I'll go out during the week and at weekends.   Last weekend I started cycling back up to the reservoir, one of my old routes.  I was quite surprised that I could still make it as it's really steep in places.   I must be brave and start exploring some of the new roads that are even steeper :-D    During the week, I've also started doing a 20 minute workout that Simon downloaded for me.  I'm only doing this every other day to make up for me not swimming as the pool that I usually use (The Regal) is being repaired.  All the other pools are either just too busy or a pain in the neck to get to.

viewpoint from my cycle to the reservoir

Yesterday I though I'd do a bit of glass cutting with my new 'glass bottle cutter'.   After several attempts with different size bottles, a DMT, Rebecca and I managed to make 2 glasses in 3hrs.  We need to perfect our scoring technique and I think we need to improve our heating/cooling of the glass.

Today Simon was on the early boat (7am)  filming Open Water students as there were 4 groups wanting video's.   He woke at 3am and couldn't get back to sleep so must be shattered.  So before he returned on the morning boat,  I cycled into Sairee to buy him a yummy lunch from 'Through the looking glass' ..they're the only place on the island that do decent bread rolls (Chris & Fi, you've sampled their rolls on your first trip here) and cakes  ...it's the closest to 'Rosies Tea Room' we have on Koh Tao :-D

Si editing his OW movie

Video Tim was out filming too.    It's lovely to see good ole Tim back in action.  I'd forgotten how vocal he could be when sat with headphones on, editing.   Homer Simpson the 2nd :-D

21st June 2017

This week I've been in Eco office most mornings and diving have organized dives with the DMT's in the afternoons.  
We've been out collecting debris, Crown of Thorns starfish & Drupella Snails.  The Crown of Thorns starfish & Drupella Snails are corallivores, basically eat the live coral polyps within the coral and kill it  ..so on occasions when numbers are high, we go out and collect them, trying to do our bit for the coral.

Collecting Crown of Thorns Starfish

Drupella Snail collection

We've added some toilets to our artificial reef Junkyard. These were donated by the Crystal restaurant.  They've been stripped of all plastic/rubber components and the hard ceramic shell will provide and excellent substrate for coral to settle on once it's been given a rub down and scored as they're very shiny & smooth at the moment.

Another favourite job of the DMC's is to measure our Giant Clams in our nursery.  We've had the clams since they were 10-14 cm in length and now they're all around the 22 cm mark, so growing very well.  Out of the 25 we were given, we've only 1 fatality.

Simon's been busy with the bar, diving most days and taking some awesome macro shots with his camera.  He's also been offered a role to do 'Social Media' for Crystal  ..that's all the FB, Twitter & Instagram ads, blogs etc (I think  )  He's doing a trial run till the end of the month, so we'll see how that pans out :-D

17th June 2017

Our trip back to Thailand went smoothly.  This time we travelled with Thai Airways, they were pretty good.  Simon didn't think much of the food but all n all a smooth trip.  We both slept pretty well on the plane which made a lovely change.  At Bangkok we only had a couple of hours to wait for our next flight which was a prop, small but comfy craft.  Once at Samui, we hoped straight in cab and went to our friend Daves hotel for the night.  That wasn't such a good nights sleep, we were both watching UFC at 2am, wide awake.

Well we've been back on the island for a week now.  It's still seems a little odd, I haven't got 100% back into the swing of things yet.  Still missing everyone :-D

Simon and I have been out diving a couple of times, once on the normal boat with the crowds and then on our own boat as we were doing measurements on a research project that we're working on with another dive school  ...so that was lovely,  peaceful, no interruptions and back early

Just the two of us :-D

This is a shot of all the Dive Master Trainees on the Beach Clean Up that I organised with video Tim who's visiting.(green tshirt & black cap)  Tim was the chap that filmed Rosie on her Birthday when she was here a few years ago

A shot of the beach on my day off.   Lovely and quiet ..just the way I like it

10th June 2017

Time flies when you're enjoying yourself.  We've been back in the UK for just over a month and it's time to leave yet again.   This time, not such an emotional goodbye for us we'll be back in just a few months for Simon's brothers wedding :-D

It's certainly been an action packed few weeks.  We've got new passports, new visa's, had Dr appointments, sorted house management issues, banking, helped out in Rosies Tea Room, Si's revamped the menu,  celebrated Birthdays, I've gardened, had some great cycles, secured flooring in Toms workshop, moved greenhouses, made glasses from recycled bottles, painted furniture, eaten lots and have been spoilt by our families :-D

So much has happened, here are a few photo's of our time  ...lovely memories

Birthday gathering of the boys

Mrs M's Birthday

Fi & Pip 

My sleep over with Iona ;-D

My crazy Goddaughter

Cuthberts first driving lesson

Emily & Auntie Jen at Roys

Roger & Kate

David Lean cinema Croydon

Lovely walk

Down at Jans

Out at the pub

Tom in his workshop

On our way back to Thailand