23rd August 2015

Dear Charles,

Simon and I wish you a very Happy Birthday!

Enjoy your day and we will be thinking of you.

Sending lots of love & hugs,

Jenny Wren & Simone  x x

(sorry it's a Ford in the pic)

21st August 2015

It's been a busy few weeks.  As Simon mentioned, I've had a Eco student here for 3 weeks who has now left.  So I'm finally free to start sorting things out ready for the office move.
Eco is moving to Steve's (Crystal Images) new apartment, just across the road.  We were originally told that we had to move from where we are as the landlady wanted the building back to extend it and then turn it into a coffee shop and massage place  ...as though they're aren't enough on Koh Tao.    So the next few days, I'm going to be sorting, clearing and humping furniture around.

As a treat last night, I went for a massage ...I have found a great place where you can have an hour thai massage for only 200 baht, which is about 4 pound  ...how cheap is that?!    When I walked in, I was greeted by these little things

x

JD

18th August 2015

So... what have we been doing for the last 10 days.

Well, since the 9th Jen has been continuing the eco course, and I have been working on UK projects. Not much in the way of diving, apart from a day out to Sail Rock having a couple of fun dives...

Apart from that, I have been trying to hike every other day if possible...

Jenny Eco student passed her Reef Check Eco Diver course and is just finishing her Marine Resource Management Course before doing some internship stuff..

She is now building a new nursery from recycled metal, and hopefully will deploy the structure today, since the weather indicates some big storms coming.

We popped over to Samui for the day to have some fun go karting, and stayed the night with David at Cocooning Hotel. We also met up with Atilla and Timea who had recently moved from Koh Tao to Samui just a few weeks ago...

 It was good to catch up, and we all had far to much to drink... We just managed to get the ferry back the next day.... it was fully booked, but arguing for ages, they finally relented and popped us on the boat... phew!!!

Meanwhile, the news of an explosion in Bangkok, is very concerning, but please be assured that we are all fine here.

xxx

SD

9th August 2015

Well.... finally I have a back that is back to (kinda) normal.

I have been able to test dive, and each day has seen a marked improvement.

Jenny has been busy with a Reef Check Eco Diver course. The girl who is studying is only 16, and Thai.. but speaks perfect English. She seems to be extremely intelligent, and I think Jen should some fun over the next couple of weeks of teaching her.

The weather is still very unpredictable. Bright sunshine, then strong winds, then rain... you sinply can't tell how its going to be from 1 minute to the next.

I returned to hiking yesterday, doing 7.5km up and around the island. It was a nice temperature.. cloudy and spitting, so I didn't get too hot. Weather permitting, I shall be doing a longer walk... we shall see.

In other news.... it was Mumsies Birthday!!

5th August 2015

Dear Fiona & Chris

Wishing you a very Happy Anniversary!
Have a fun filled day!

Love
Jenny & Simone
x x x

&

a little message to 

MRS M

3rd August 2015

I have been out of action for the past few days with a seized back that has been bloody painful and made me quite grumpy!

Gently easing, I decided to help Jenny out with a buoyline repair today.

What had happened is that a couple of days ago, a huge car ferry thought it would be a good idea to moor up on a line thats only suitable for a dive boat. Hence it snapped almost immediately. By chance, Crystal were at the same dive site (Junkyard), and someone filmed it with their phone.

Now, although this is a rare occurence (and soooo dumb), we have lots of buoylines that break from wear and tear. This is the 2nd one at the dive site in just over a week.

What people on the island don't seem to understand is that there is not and endless supply of buoys and ropes, nor do the great people that fix them get paid. Its sometimes a difficult job and takes at least a day or so to prepare and deploy... Rant over.!

Jenny and Kiwi had arranged to head out this morning to fix 1 line. They helped carry my dive bag and set my equipment up so that I could get set up in the water and not stress my back. Then they dropped down to fix the line.

Well done... with no input from any other dive schools as per usual... apart from Chad at New Heaven, who is always exctremely helpful. Its such a shame that the schools that use Junkyard on a daily basis just ignore any calls or request to help maintain the dive site so that they can benefit.. ah well...

xxx

SD

01 Aug 2015

Yesterday I organised a Beach & Dive Site Clean Up for all the DMTs (Dive Master trainees) at Crystal.  I met a keen bunch of DMT's around 8.45 and equipped them with gloves & bin liners down sent them along the beach and around Crystal to collect rubbish.  Some of them might as well have stayed in bed but there were a few that put some effort into it.

In the afternoon, we, DMT's and 3 fun divers went out for the dive site clean.  Our first destination was, Ao Mao, one of the new artificial reefs which then leads into a pretty coral reef  ..not much rubbish was found, only plastic bottles and fishing wire.   The 2nd dive site was Tanote Bay  ..this again didn't have much trash to collect, which is good.  Everyone seemed to enjoy both dives and we all came away with a sense of achievement.

Simon has been out of action for 2 days, since he has somehow put his back out, and cannot walk without pain... He looks like a penguin when he walks at the moment.. hopefully it will improve soon...