Day 146 - 30th June 2010

Last night, we had Katti over, who offered to make us dinner in our new pad.

She made a veggie curry with potatoes, peas, coconut cream, onions etc.. very nice. She also made small veggie patties to accompany it.


Very tasty... Compliments to the chef.

Then waking early this morning, Jen has started teaching another Open Water class with Nathan. While she was doing this, I ran a few errands, before going back home and doing not much. Bored bored bored! Its hard being out of the water, but in a few days I'll be back...

After Jen had finished class, we went to "Vibe" as an instructor had returned to the island. Free BBQ for Jen (no veggie stuff for me), and then returned home for our nightly episode of Big Brother.

Jen fell asleep on the sofa.... bless.

Day 145 - 29th June 2010 - The Reverse Squeeze

We woke this morning, and headed to the school to do our Deep and Nitrox Specs. We had prepared our tank in the last couple of days, so no need to do this morning... We jumped on the boat and headed for Chumphon... which is where the fun begins...

For the last couple of days, I have been getting what is called "Reverse Squeeze"... this is when the sinuses are slighty congested and can be painful when you come up at the end of the dive cos the air is trapped in your sinuses... In actuality, congestion can be fatal if you experience this in your lungs, because if the air can't escape as you come up, it will cause your lungs to burst.. Thankfully my congestion was sinuses only.

So yesterday, as you may recall, was a bad one... From 8 metres I felt bad head pain, and a pop behind my eye,causing a brief blindness in my left eye (slightly worrying!) when I forced myself to come up cos I couldn't wait any longer for the air to escape...

I went to the Pharmacy last night and they gave me some tablets to take 30 mins before todays dive... they said take with food... and I forgot.... DOH! So, I took a tablet this morning, forgot to eat and kitted up ready for the first dive.

Fully aware that I may have equalising issues on the way down if my sinuses were not clear, I let the people we were with know that if I had difficulty on the way down, I would abort the dive... I didn't and down we went to 32 metres and did the skills that we were required to do.

Unfortunately, at 20 metres down on our way up slowly... I started feeling the pressure in my head again.. I can't explain the feeling of inevitabilty I felt.. in my mind I was thinking "This is going to get very painful, and I hope I don't seriously damage something... but what other choice did I have... I couldn't stay down there forever...

At 14 metres, it was getting quite painful, and I made Jen and the Course Director (big cheese) aware.. I was also feeling sick, had palpitations, hot and sweaty, and shaky.. So we get to the rope, and I make my way up super slow... Jen stayed with me, and probably took 15 minutes to come up, stopping every few inches or so... taking my mask off, blowing my nose... trying to clear (under pressure) my sinuses.

At 5 metres, we have to do a safety stop for 3 minutes on every dive... and me blowing my nose....then, I guess, some capilllaries burst in my sinuses... and whooooaaa... loadsa blood outta my nose... with some real big clots...!!! I mean MASSIVE!

Guess I have got rid of the congestion...

So we get up on the boat, clear the blood, and I rest and get water with electrolytes... After 30 mins or so the shakiness goes, weakness goes, etc.... and then I remembered that I didn't eat when I took the tablet... thats why I felt so bad.... what a donkey...

So now, to let my sinuses recover and chill a bit... I shall stay outta the water for a few days...

Note to oneself.. if sinuses are blocked... screw the dives... and just wait till I'm better... no more tablets to try push through...

Day 144 - 28th June 2010

Class started around 10am as Toby, the other MSDT was finishing his Oxygen provider course which was great as both Simon and I were feeling a bit worse for wear.  I still can't believe that Englands 2nd goal was disallowed, that might have been the turning point and maybe in another life we would have gone on to win ..oh well. Well done Germany  ..again!!

In class, we sat down and one by one, stood up to give our prepared presentations.  I got a fit of the giggles during mine, for whatever reason, I just dont know.  I blame Si, as he's always making me laugh.

For our Digital Underwater Photography spec, were shown a slide show on the Do's/ Donts of photography which we knew most of anyway and then how to check/set up the camera and housing.  This I must say will very easy one to teach students.   I was just eager to go out and have a play with the camera out on the afternoon boat.

Just so you know, we are each assigned specific skills to brief and debrief on every dive, we're not just having fun ;-)

Before breaking for lunch we went over to the tank room where we analysed & marked up our 32% & 36% Nitrox tanks ready for tomorrows morning dives.   Each tank has to be analysed by the person who'll be using it, equivalent air depth worked out, marked, dated, depths and  checked and signed off.

On the boat, we briefed each dive.  First was a multi level to 30 meters. Each of on this took camera's but the viz what terrible that we aborted the 30 meter and just stayed at a corner of a pinnacle snapping away, basically playing with the camera / settings.
The second dive was at Green Rock, where we took photo's of a new buoy being deployed in the first 10 minutes and then had a nice leisurely dive.

Unfortunately Si had really bad sinus problems and suffered a nasty reverse block.  It took some time to ascend and once on the surface told me that it felt as though his eye had popped out and his head was throbbing. When we returned to dry land, Si went to the Pharmacy to get some decongestant to enable him to complete dives the next day..(situation to be continued tomorrow!)

Returning home, Simon made dinner, a random mix of carrots, tofu, green beans, chilli, ginger, oregano, coriander, onions and tomatoes... After chucking a bunch of noodles in... it was a tasty treat and felt very nice to actually have a home cooked meal... boy was it spicy!!!

Bed by 11pm ready for early dives the next morning.....

Day 143 - 27th June 2010

Today we were in the classroom doing part of our MSDT's (Master Scuba Diver Trainer).   We didn't start till 9am and finished at 4.30pm so not a bad day really.  I used to hate the academics, presentation side of things but it's slowly growing on me.  As we only had a class of three, it was really relaxed and a real laugh at times.   Toby who's doing it with us is from Sweden is a really nice chap, was so funny during his presentations, for every 'contact story' (basically a non diving story relating which you can relate back to diving  ..eg: Narcosis  ...is like being drunk underwater) he used hiking everytime  ..which became very funny  ..you really had to be there.
I remember last year standing up to do my first presentation infront of several people and hating it  ..I suppose everything become pretty easy when you know what you're talking about ;-D

As we had more presentations to prepare we went straight home.   After an hour or so, we headed out to 'Hippo's' restaurant as they were doing 'specials' before 8pm.  A juicy steak and glass of wine for 190baht and 2 beers for the price of 1.  I had a juicy tenderloin cooked medium rare while Simon had a veggie burger and a couple of beers before heading down to 'Choppers' to watch England v Germany.

Choppers (Aussie sports bar) was packed.  We headed upstairs where most of the Crystal crew had gathered.  The atmosphere was great, the big screen was up and trying to get to the bar and a place to sit to watch the match was a nightmare but we finally got some drinks and wedged ourselves in at the front on the floor just in front of the big screen. There were a few Germans in the bar, Carsten (Crystal Instructor) was geared up with his German flag over his shoulders, whistle around his neck ..he looked like a young kid, full of excitement and just beaming from ear to ear.   Anyone walking in that we recognised, everyone gave a big 'wwwwwhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy!!'  it was so funny ;-D  I did feel for the Germans being out numbered and everyone chanting England football songs.  A lot of emotions were flying around during the game and  I just wish we'd taken a video clip on our phone to show you guys.


After a 4-1 win to Germany, we shot home to bed

Day 142 - 26th June 2010

We helped out on the dive site clean up today.  Crystal's smallest boat went out with around 20 of us on and we split into three groups, the first got dropped at 'Green Rock' and the second and third, which Si and I were in, got dropped off at 'Twins' armed with baskets to collect rubbish and scissors to cut any nets or lines that may have been dropped.
On the first half of the dive we didn't find a thing then as we went shallower, we came across some fishing line, rope and a few nets.  I was taking photo's so didnt find a great deal but got some good shots of everyone else.

Coming to the end of our dive, which should have been 60 minutes, we found a really small pinnacle around 5 meters, wrapped in fishing net which we began to untangle but it proved very difficult as the scissors we had were useless. 

 Doing stuff like this you become absorbed and before I knew it, I was down to 50 bar (low on air) and we'd done a 100 minute dive, so signalled to the others to leave what they were doing and ascend.
What I hadn't noticed as I was so engrosed with detangling was that Si and Carsten had already gone. Carsten had run out of air and had to use Si's alternate air source.

On the surface we had a pretty long surface swim back to the boat and then the boat headed off in the opposite direction to pick up some of the other group.  I think we had to wait 10 or so minutes before they came back to pick us up.

Back at the pier, we unloaded all the rubbish.  As we were late back, most of the rubbish collected by the other dive schools had already been sorted and the volunteers sorting through it (which isnt a pleasant job) said they had everything in hand, so we walked back to Crystal to wash and pack our dive kit away.

In the evening we met Matt, manager of Crystal to see if he could have a word with his contacts about Si's missing bike but on the way, we rode past Morava, where Si's bike had been stolen and there it was!   We couldn't believe our eyes ..what a turn up for the books. 3 days have passed since the theft... That brightened our day no end.

Day 141 - 25th June 2010

Well, it's been a pretty busy day. This morning Si popped to the police station to see if there was any news on the his bike.  They were really helpful and said 'No'  ..so he's going to pop back in a couple of days to see if there's any progress. 

After breakfast and a cuppa we packed up all our belongings, ready to move to our new place.  I called Alan & Heidi to see if they, their jeep was free and luckily for us, they popped down half an hour later.  Bags loaded, I hoped in the jeep with Heidi and Si and Alan led the way on their bikes.  We're so grateful to them, it would have been a nightmare transporting everything on the back of the bike.

Cases unpacked and everything in it's place we sat out on the balcony to reflect :-)   Argh, it's so nice to have a sea view again.  We really missed that.

With nothing in the cupboards, we went to the supermarket and did a big shop.  It's a good job they deliver otherwise we would have had made several journeys. Delivery here, is a bike with a side car.
I think as we got a decent kitchen, we'll hopefully do a lot more cooking at home.   I bet Simons longing for beans on toast ;-D

After packing the shopping away we popped out yet again, to the butchers this time.  Si bought some tofu. spices and beans and I treated myself to some sausages.  Si then dropped me off and headed back to our old place as we'd left some stuff in the fridge.

I cant wait for this evening, just chilling on our comfy sofa and watching a movie...

Day 140 - 24th June 2010

Well, today is NOT a good day.

What started as a pleasant evening last night, watching the football, got better when England actually won their match putting them through to the next round.

Then Jen and I went home for a couple of hours before meeting up with Carsten at Choppers for the Germany game. Sometime during this game, somebody stole my motorbike.

Carsten very generously lent me his scooter so we could get home, and today has been mostly driving up and down the island looking for the bike (needle in haystack comes to mind)

No luck, and having been to the Police station (they were rather busy watching tv) I don't hold out much hope. 30,000 baht out of pocket, no motorbike, and we begin our move today to an apartment up a very steep hill which the bike would have come in very useful for.

Grumpy as... nuff said.

Eddie's 1st Fight

While we wait for the video of Eddies latest fight, here is his debut last year..

I remember hardly being able to speak from screaming so much!

After this fight, Eddie discovered he had broken bones in his foot... OUCH!!

Part One:

Part Two:

Day 138 - 22nd June 2010

Last nights Muay Thai was really good.   The first couple of fights were youngsters which I dont really like to see but they fought well and received lots of applause.
Eddie's fight went to 3 rounds, both men fought really well but on the 3rd round, Eddies opponent had enough and ended the match by which time the Crystal gang went crazy,  Eddie had so much support that I really felt sorry for the other guy. Video coming soon...

Today we signed up for the afternoon boat just for a fun dive.  Both dives were ok, nothing special, visibility still isn't great but it was nice to see that some of the corals are slowly recovering, well at least it looks like they are, as it has been cooler, more cloud coverage and the odd shower here and there.

In the evening, we met up with a few friends for a BBQ.  It was delicious.  Garlic bread, sweetcorn, egg salad, sensational spiced vegatables cooked in tin foil on the barbee   ..washed down with a nice red South African wine ;-)   Mmmmmmmmmmm...

Day 137 - 21st June 2010

A quiet morning had really, Si & I headed down to Sairee to the clinic as I needed to get my abcess checked out.  Once in there, they took my blood pressure, I talked to the Dr for 2 minutes, then he prescribed more anitbiotics and sent me away.   Felt like a waste of time really for a lot of expense.

As we were not fun diving on the boat this afternoon, we decided to go out to 'Junk Yard'.  Nathan and a chap called Jessie who did his Advanced with us came along. 

The journey out to Junk Yard was pretty rough, the wind had picked up and when we'd reached the mooring line, Nathan decided that it was too risky to leave the boat moored up as it could quite easily fill with water and sink as the bilge pump wasn't working.   So Si, Jessie and I jumped in and went for a lovely long dive whilst Nath motored back into shore.

Tonight, our friend Eddie (Dive Master) is fighting at the Muay Thai (kick boxing).  He fought last year, and won  and then found out he broke a bone in his foot, I just hope that doesnt happen tonight. He'll have lots of support as most of the Crystal crew will be there to cheer him on.

Day 136 - 20th June 2010

Both Simon and I woke up at the same time, checked the time.   7am!!!    and shot out of bed.  we're supposed to be on the morning boat   ARGGHH!!!!!!   After dashing about, dressing and packing our bags, we jumped on the bike and sped to Crystal.  Thankfully we'd not missed the boat.  Nathan had got all the students dive bags ready and they were just heading down the beach to the pier.   I hate rushing and especially in the morning.  We both felt really grotty, not being able to shower or have our usual cuppa. So on the boat, we set up and made our way upstairs for role call and then made ourselves a nice cup of tea to wake up accompanied by a large bottle of water.

Our first dive was at Champon, we were taking the student to 30 meters.  Si did a breifing and Nath went through some of the marine life that we might encounter.  The journey wasnt too bad a bit choppy but as we  were on Crystal's biggest boat, it didnt rock so much, I wasnt sure whether the students looked sleepy or sick to be honest.

In the water, Nathan decided to lead the dive as the visibility was 1-2 meters, terrible and he had a torch which came in very handy at times.
At 28.5 meters we knelt in the sand and the student were shown a colour card, showing how red loses it's color and looks almost black.  After a few minutes on the bottom we ascended to 20m and circled the pinnacle and then slowly came up to 10m & then made a 5m 3minute safety stop. It wasn't a bad dive but I just felt for the students as the vis was awful.

On the boat we changed to a fresh tank and then went upstairs for a debrief and the students filled in their log books.  The boat now was heading back to 'White Rock' for the students last dive of their Advanced course.  This was going to be the 'Naturalist' dive where they had to spot and note 5 different vertebrate and invertebrate.  One of the girls had hired a camera which the whole group shared amoung themselves throughout the dive which they found great fun.   It's lovely to have underwater memories.

As the dive was coming to an end, I was at the rear of the group and suddenly heard Si shake his rattle,  looked and there were two Trigger fish  ...funnily enough two of the girls just carried until they spotted them and then quickly retreated.  Fortunately, the Triggers seemed pretty chilled and left us alone.  I by this time was in the middle of the group and one of the girls signalled, what fish is that?  I turned around and it was another massive Trigger just a couple of meters away  ..Im so glad it just kept on swimming past.

Log books filled in and stamped, we packed our kit away and headed back to land.  The group were now 'Advanced Divers'

After completing paperwork and saying goodbye to the students, we grabbed some lunch and headed home for a much needed snooze and then woke to watch the MotoGP

Tonight we're going to get a takeaway and then probably watch a movie..

Day 135 - 19th June 2010

Today we started the Advanced Open Water with 4 of our Open Water Students and a Canadian chap that joined our us.  So after meeting at Crystal we through their Knowledge reviews and briefed them on the afternoon dives which were

'Peak Performance Buoyancy' where we try and instill how they can use their breathing effectively, their use of effective approach and to practice this, get them to dive through swim throughs, pick up or draw circles around a weight in the sand and then write their names whilst being upside down.

'Navigation' dive, we practice this on land first on how to navigate a square in thier buddy teams.  They found this pretty confusing at first, turning the compass bezel one way and then turning their body another.  Counting kick cycles and getting them to use natural elements then after a short fun dive, we asked them where the boat was.  Most of them got it spot on, I suppose it must have been our brilliant instruction ;-D


Todays dive sites were Twins and Japanese Gardens.  The visibility wasn't great but much better than their Open Water dives.  The students seemed to be enjoying themselves, at least they saw Buoyancy World at Twins and some beautiful coral at Japanese Gardens

Back at the pier, we moved our dive kits to Crystal's smaller boat as we were the only group doing a night dive.  Si and I were conducting this as Nathan had to stay on the boat as surface cover but had his wife Tracey to keep him company.  So with just an hour to grab a drink and food, we walked along the beach back to Crystal and Nath, Si and I waited in the restaurant. The students turned up early so Si did a dive briefing and we headed to the boat.  We chose to go to 'Twins' the journey out was pretty choppy and all the students were feeling sick and setting up wasn't the easiest of things to do. 

Torches on and kitted up, one by one we jumped in the water and made our way to the buoy line and decended.   As the shallow pinnacle at Twins is only 10/12 meters we made our descent, swam out into a sand area and then knelt on the sand.  Si then sent the students in thier buddy teams to do navigation on a rescipricle heading, the only skill which they had to perform, which they did beautifully and then we went for a 40 minute fun dive spotting numerous sting rays, puffa's,  feather coral, trevally hunting which the students loved.  I must say that the students did very well, they managed their buoyancy really well for a night dive.

The return journey wasn't that pleasant, we had a great dive but the students we feeling pretty sea sick.  One girl threw up but most of it came back in her face  and the rest of them just sat, looking very pale while Si, Nath and I disassembled their kit and packed it away in their bags  ..what a spoilt lot!!
 
It didnt take too long to get back to the pier, maybe 20 mins or so and then Tracey appeared,  she was feeling rough and was lying down on the upper deck unable to move,I dont think she'll be coming out to keep Nathan company in the near future when it's this choppy.

Day 134 - 18th June 2010

We had a day off today.  Si spent the majority of the day doing UK work and all I did was to cycled down Sairee with our tupperwear boxes to get breakfast.  I ordered a veggie breaky for Simon from 'Choppers' and whilst that was being prepared  I rode to 'Zest' for fruit, museli and yoghurt then popped in to 7/eleven to buy a carton of OJ, water & milk and then back to 'Choppers'.   It's not really far to cycle but it's just the heat that kills me.  I got back puffing and panting and plated up.  Si was delighted as he'd not had veggie sauasages for ages.

I spent the afternoon watching TV, typing a few mails and popped out for a bit to drop off/collect our washing.  Around 6pm Si had had enough of work and we decided to go to 'Choppers' to meet up with Carsten (German Instructor) and a few others the watch the Germany V Serbia game which ended in a 1-0 win for Serbia.  Carsten was gutted.

After the game, we shot up to 'Kanya' to meet Alan & Heidi for a meal and then went home to bed to catch a couple of hours sleep before getting up again at 1am to head down to 'Choppers' again to watch the England game.  I wish we hadn't bothered as England were rubbish.  We were lucky to finish with a no score draw.

Pin up of the Month WINNER!

Well done Dominc.... must have been the naked dive video!

One small Chang coming your way...

More pin ups coming soon!

Day 133 - 17th June 2010

We arrived at Crystal at 6.50am and helped Nath pack the students dive bags and then grabbed a coffee.  The students turned up a couple of minutes later and checked their equipment, making sure it was the correct size etc.   On dives 3 & 4, the videographers come out with us to film the dive but today wasn't the greatest of days.  The vis on both dives was terrible, maybe 1-2 meters vis on the first and maybe 4 meters on the 2nd.  As we couldnt do any skills on the first dive, performance requirements were not met, so Nath decided to do a short 5th dive at Junk Yard on our way back. Thankfully the vis was much better, maybe 10 or so meters, so we were able to complete the skills, go for a little fun dive and the Jace (videographer) was able to get some semi decent footage.  I felt bad for the students as it's the worst vis that we've experienced since being here.

The students funnily enough had a great time, they loved the extra dive at Junk Yard and were pleased with seeing half a dozen puffa fish, baby sweetlips, cuttle fish amongst the normal damsels etc  and back in the bar, after having an hour or so lunch break, they decided to signed up for the Advanced course in a couple of days.

I must say that I originally thought the 4 young girls in the group would be a complete nightmare as they weren't taking things seriously, were playing around during their buddy checks but with a stern word here and there, they stepped into line quite nicely ;-)

We're at home now, Si's catching up with UK work and I'm popping out to see whether anyones in the office so I can collect our washing.

Tonight at 7.30pm, we've our groups open water video which should be interesting, I wonder how much footage Jace got.

Day 132 - 16th June 2010

Dive 1 and 2 for our student... No dramas... video coming soon (when they complete the course)

But for now, this...

Day 131 - 15th June 2010

We arrived at Crystal around 8.15, most of the students were finishing off their breakfast in the restaurant, I bought some water and sat with Si for 10mins whilst he carried on with some work.  8.30 on the dot I gathered the students and headed to the classroom.

With Academics 4-5 complete we headed down to the Crystal bar and went through their equipment set up (which they repeat 5 times) and then broke for lunch. 

Confined water was a breeze, Si & I took 2 students each while Nathan took 3. We did our own skills which worked well and seemed a lot faster than if were to do the whole group together. 


After the students 10 minute float and 300mtr snorkel, we'd finished for the day, and returned home so Simon could continue with his work!!

Day 130 - 14th June 2010

This morning, Nath text me saying that he was starting an Open Water Course and would his eco warriors (Si & I) like to teach it as he'd 7 students.   We both agreed and met him & his wife Tracy for an early lunch at 'Zest' which was scrummy, Humous, salad & bread   Mmmmm, while Si had beans on toast ;-)

Around 1.30pm we met the students, 1 chap and the others girls  ..and took them to the classroom where we proceeded with Academics 1-3  ..it was really cool as Nath did chapter1, Si did 2 and I did 3  ..The students were pretty clued up and we flew through the chapters and finished around 4.30 pm, which was very good going.  Tomorrow we'll start at 8.30 am to finish off Academics 4 & 5 and then jump in the pool to do confined skills.

Students sent off with a little homework (look through their Recreational Dive Planner) we went to Safety Stop for one beer with Nath and Tracy.   They finished before us, so left and within a couple minutes, Tracy was back.  She'd got a flat tyre and couldn't call Nath as she'd left her phone at home.  I tried calling Nath but there was no reply, so with that, she rode very slowly to the nearest garage which was now closed, so left the bike outside and jumped on the back of ours. The journey back to Sairee was hilarious, lots of giggles and Si shouting 'Bump!' along route  ;-D

Finally back at home, Si cracked on with some of his UK work thats been building up and stressing him out due to peoples idiodicies in the last few days.   But it wasn't long before we had to go out again to meet our new landlord Ronan, to pay a deposit and arrange a moving in date and then ride back to Mae Haad to see our friend Teresa who's leaving tomorrow for a few weeks.

By the time we rode home, stopping on the way for food, we were shattered and Simon still had to do more UK work.  

Day 129 - 13th June 2010

Felt tired this morning when we got up.  I dont think we'll be watching the Germany game tonight at 1.30am   ;-)

All we had planned for today was an afternoon dive 'Junk Yard' to put up some new signs,  that we'd painted & varnished last week.  The dive was supposed to be at 9am but due to the footy, it was rescheduled to 1.30pm.

When we arrived at Crystal, there was only Nath, and 3 DMT's  ..most of the others that said they'd help out were either hung over or sick.  Lightweights!!!

Anyway, not to bother as we took extra tanks on the boat and managed to get two long dives in.  The first was attaching signs and to move the weights system and on the second dive, we removed some tarpaulin, that was looking pretty messy and then went for a fun dive around Junk Yard.

Every time we dive Junk Yard, we're seeing more and more species of fish and marine life, it's just brilliant.

After the dives, we packed up our gear and rushed off as we had a couple of houses to look at.

The first was just up the road (between Mae Haad and Sairee) A 1 bedroom apartment really, big balcony, great view, tastefully decorated livingroom/bedroom, AC,  Plasma TV, kitchen and a decent size bathroom.  It felt really homely.

The second place was at the far end of the island and what seemed on top of the island. It was huge.  3 bedrooms, massive open plan kitchen, lounge and bathroom.  The whole of the front and side of the house was windowed as the view was spectacular ...you could see the whole of Mae Haad, Sairee and Nang Yuan   ..the only downside apart from being so far away, was that it didnt have internet access otherwise I think we'd have snapped it up, just for the view itself. 

Back home and still memorzed by the view (which we're kicking ourselves now that we didnt take any pictures) ..we discussed the pro's/cons and decided that it would  make sense to take the apartment on all counts really.  So tomorrow we'll meet up with the landlord Ronan and discuss dates, money etc.

Day 128 - 12th June 2010

World Cup fever hits the island...

Today, like most days was hectic. 1st stop on our tour was Deep Down Productions as I had errands to run, and favours to sort out for people. Plus it was the students "Showreel Night" so answering there final queries before completion of there showreels took up a couple of hours.

Then it was down to "Dirty Nelly's to rig up the projector and sound system... This is where it went a bit wrong.. Cables were missing and general stupidity equalled steam out of my ears!

In the end, the night was a success, starting at 6pm with a couple of Open Water movies, and then the 3 showreels by Jordanna, Kat and Teresa. All the showreels were very well received by the audience of 100 + people, and I think the students were also very relieved.

Next on the agenda was the free BBQ ! Sadly, as Jen was busy (lumbered with) selling raffle tickets to raise money for Eco Koh Tao, and I was busy running around doing numerous thing.. we hardly got any food... not best pleased..!

At 11pm we returned home for a 2 hour snooze, before getting up and heading to "Choppers" to watch the England V USA game. A very noisy and animated crowd was ultimately dissapointed by the draw.


Got to bed at 5.30am! And sober!

Day 127 - 11th June 2010

What a great nights sleep, the bed & pillows were so comfy  ..that's the only thing of our posessions that I really miss funnily enough.  Perhaps we should have bought a couple at Tesco  ..maybe next time.

Breakfast was down by the pool where only one other couple sat.  It was very quiet.  I had scrambled eggs & bacon, Si had poached eggs with OJ and coffee.  After we'd finished, we headed back to the room and packed our bags, I managed to squeeze all our shopping into my drybag which now weighed a ton but at least we didnt have to carry any extra bags.

After checking out, we headed to MacDonalds to pick up a couple of Big Macs to take back to Koh Tao for Carsten & Tina.  So with our errands complete, we caught a taxi to the Lomprayah.   When we arrived, the boat was already in, so we bought our tickets and only had 5 or so mins to wait before boarding.
The journey seemed really quick as Si was doing UK work on his PC and I was playing games on his Iphone.

Off the boat we walked to Crystal to find Carsten to give him his Maccy D .  Luckily we spotted him at the side of the pool so presented him with his & Tina's Maccy D's which he was delighted with and started to eat immediately.   Urgh, cold MacDonalds just doesn't do it for me in the slightest.

After riding to Deep Down, we pottered about, Si helped John play around with one of the projectors which they set up later at Dirty Nellys in time for the World Cup and I just sat around which got really tedious as I had nothing to do ..In the end everyone left Deep Down and I walked over to Dirty Nellys to see what John & Si were up to.    I arrived and they were stood around waiting on the light to go to see how effective the projector was.  Thankfully Katti turned up and I chatted with her.  
We eneded up staying there all  night and watched the first match of the World cup.  We would have gone home but as it started to rain and rain heavily  so we stayed put. 

Day 126 - 10th June 2010

We caught the 9.30 Lomprayah boat to Koh Samui  as I had a 12pm hospital appointment.  I was quite looking forward to the mini break away and we were booked into a lovely hotel, thanks to Jace's girlfriend.

On arrival at the hospital, I was seen straight away and was only in there for 10 minutes and came out feeling 'what a waste of time.'  Last time I was there I was told that I had to come back to get the stitches taken out only to be told this time that they were dissolveable  ..ARGHHH  ..but they did tell me that I can dive again  HOORAY!!!  ..and that I needed more antibiotics as I still had an infection so told me to go to a pharmacy as it was cheaper  ..well at least that was nice of them.

We left the hospital and caught a taxi to the hotel. After being shown to our room, we unpacked what little we had.   We hadn't had breakfast so I suggested that we'd get supplies from Tesco Lotus (big supermarket) and have a picnic on the beach    ..It's really sad but I was so excited to be at a big superstore.I was in heaven, aisle and aisles of food, clothes, electrical etc..   We bought batteries, shampoo, shower gel, cheese, salad, french stick, crisp, water and  a few other necessities.   It was a lot cheaper than Koh Tao.  We did have a bottle of wine and beer in our basket but they had a 5pm selling licence, so we had leave them behind.

Instead of gong to the beach and getting sand in everything, we sat on our terrace and had our picnic whilst watching Dr Who on Si's laptop.  It was lovely.  We then decided to collect our free non alcoholic drink from the pool bar where we sat and read in a comfy wicker double chair until the mozzies came out.

That evening, we went for a stroll along the main shopping strip.  It wasn't too busy which was nice but the stagnant smells along the way, nearly made us heave.  We stopped in one trendy bar to have a mojito and then walked back to the hotel.

Oh yes, our room had a lovely bath in it, so not having one since we visited KL, it was a real treat and had a lovely soak whilst watching Big Brother ..the last ever series!

Neither of us were very hungry so we skipped dinner and just munched on fruit, crisps and chocolate cookies.

Chumphon Pinnacle Coral Bleaching

This is a dive at Chumpon on the 9th of June, to capture some of the bleaching occuring... The guy in the video is Nathan Cook, head dude of Eco Koh Tao..

Day 125 - 9th June 2010

Early mornings are great but it's just the 'getting out of bed' that I hate :-)   06:00 the alarm went off and Si jumped out  ..sorry, should say, staggered out of bed and put the kettle on whilst I jumped in the shower.  After sipping out tea and packing our bags with the days essentials, we hopped on the bike and rode to Crystal to grab Si's dive bag and then popped to Deep Down to collect Si's camera.  Today, Simon's went out with Nathan to film some of the bleaching at 'Chumpon' one of Koh Tao's deepest dive sites.  It's good to have this documented and they may put together a short film for 'ECO Koh Tao'

I'm still not allowed back in the water for a few more days so stayed on the boat with Nathans son Kailash whilst everyone went diving.   It was nice to have the company, even though Kailash was feeling pretty sea sick and threw up several times.

With everyone back on the boat after a fabulous dive, we headed to 'White Rock' where the visibility was really poor, I think when everyone came up from that 2nd dive and moaned that they didn't see much at all.  I was sat on the boat and heard one of the girls shriek, looked over and beside her was a massive sea snake popping it's head out for air.  My first sea snake and I didnt even have to get wet.  How cool is that?

Back on dry land, Si headed up to Deep Down with his monsterous camera that weighs a ton whilst I quickly nipped back to Crystal to drop his dive bag off.
At Deep Down, Si was helping Nathan pull off some footage off his harddrive which didnt work very well, so then Si decided to take Nathans HD home to see what he could do. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the computers, sorting stuff out.

Day 124 - 8th June 2010

Si had to be up bright and early to catch the a.m. boat as he was doing the deep & naturalist ..I decided not to accompany him today as Heidi was coming at 11.30am to give me ride down to Crystal so she could borrow my dive computer and compass.

Down at Crystal, I got a coffee and water and caught up with some mails.   Half an hour later, the morning boat was back and Si, Nath & students.  Their first dive was a 'Chumphon' which apparently was stunning and the 2nd dive at Green Rock where Simon got badly triggered for around 10 minutes on his 29 minute dive, wearing his brand new fins, which he'd only picked up this morning.  There were holes and various bite marks all over them. Check out the pics I've never heard of a Trigger being so persistent.   Si was not happy and on top of that, had a splitting headache.
 
Simon's account: " I took 2 students down to 20m and headed towards the coral, delicately avoiding the notorious Trigger Pits (their nest). Once past and along the coral, we started noting down different kinds of sea life as part of their course. In the distance, I noticed a big Titan Triggerfish swimming... no problem, plenty of space between us, but for safety's sake I warned my 2 students and we backed slowly away. All of a sudden, the "Trigger fin" went up and the battle was on. He belted through the water and I knew immediately he meant business. I put my fins up and started swimming away slowly at first, trying to keep myself in between my students and this bad boy. He got a couple of hard bites to my fins before circling back round to get a attack position on my body, but every time he went for me, I pushed my fins in the way. 10 minutes of swimming backwards, with the Triggerfish attacking me, and keeping an eye on my students who were sh"tting themselves (like me!).... it got the heart pumping. I used half my air!!!

Finally he left, and after checking that my 2 students were okay, I looked around to see him coming yet again for another go...and then eventually he left. Then I examined my fins.... my brand new fins.... destroyed!

My new fins!

 Damage from bites!

My finger through a hole!

The rest of the dive was an attempt to get back to the coast but after being surrounded by 5 other Triggerfish, I ended the dive after 30 minutes, and had a long surface swim to the boat. Not a great dive, but what an experience!"

What an exciting morning, mine seemed rather dull as I'd just started trying to enter some of the Coral Watch Data for Nathan.  All was going well until I tried entering the lattitude and longtitude of dive sites.  For some reason it wasnt accepting the data that I'd been given by Nathan so I'll have to put that on hold for the moment. 

My afternoon was spent painting, making signs out of odd bits of wood for 'Junk Yard' with a few others while Simon kept an eye on his students whilst they completed all their knowledge reviews for their Advanced Open Water.

This evening we're meeting friends at 'Hippo' for a meal. It won't be a late one as we're on the 7am boat.

Day 123 - 7th June 2010

Si was assisting Nathan today on a Advanced course and met down at Crystal at 9am and I was meeting Kiwi at the Crystal Market to help out with equipment repairs.  After finishing my coffee I walked over to 'Market' but Kiwi wasn't there, so I popped back to Crystal (2mins walk) and sat for a bit, expecting him to turn up late as usual  ...then after about half an hour, he'd still not surfaced.  Slightly annoyed as I hate waiting around, I found out that he had to do surface cover on the a.m. boat.  He could have at least text me.

As Si, Nath and students were out on the afternoon boat doing Peak Performace Buoyancy and Navigation dives, I decided to go along for the ride to catch some rays.
Both dives were at Aow Leuk and the visibility apparantly was pretty rubbish at 3 or 4 meters so I was smiling inside.  I hadn't missed out on to much ;-)

We returned to Crystal around 5.30pm and had a 1/2 break before Si and the gang had to be back on the boat for the night dive.  I'd earlier bumped into Katti who wasn't doing anything, so agreed to come on the night boat with me for company to watch the sunset and have a little picnic.  So Si and I popped to 7eleven and got some coke, crisps and cookies and Katti popped off to buy some fruit.

Once at 'WhiteRock' and everyone was in the water, Nath who was surface cover for the evening, Katti and I, gathered and feasted  :-)   Lovely!!

Simon had a pleasant dive, guiding the students around on their 1st ever Night dive... seeing a couple of big Sting Rays and a lovely cuttlefish.

After the dive we gathered at the bar, had a drink and then went to Dirty Nelly's for food.

Day 123 - 6th June 2010

Today we popped down to Deep Down and ordered breakfast frm 'Greasy Spoon'  Si got his usual portion of large chips, bread roll with salt, vinegar and tomato sause and i had a egg and sausage sandwich.  Very health eh!

As I'm out of the water and Si's not assisting on any courses we pottered about at Deep Down for a few hours, I chatted and played with my DS whilst Si helped a couple of students our with their show reels and looked up pricing of computing equipment.

After a period of time, we headed home and watched the motorbike racing.  First the 125cc and then the Moto2 (600cc)  all very exciting.   I was in and out of consciousness for most of it.

We had planned to meet some friends later at 'Dirty Nellys' to watch the MotoGP when we arrived there was no sign of the MotoGp and we asked a few of the staff and they were unsure as to whether they were showing it as boring ole football was on.  So with that, someone suggested that it might be on at 'Cafe Corner' so Si took a quick walk to check.  Luckily it was and with commentary, so we headed down and took our seats, ordered drinks in perfect time for the start.  

Unfortunately Rossi was out of the race due to crashing and breaking his leg in the practice rounds but it was still a pretty exciting race for 2nd.

After the race was finished, we walked back to 'Choppers' to meet Alan & Heidi who were having a Sunday roast.  As either of us hadnt eaten, we ordered food too.  Si being the veggie that he is, the menu was rather lacking veggie food, so he ordered a cheese plate and I ordered the roast chicken.  Si's food or should i say snack, turned up and half of the cheese was too sweaty for him, so ended up putting most of it in Heidi's doggy bag for the dogs.    Fifteen or so minutes later, i got my roast and tucked in but felt guilty as this was the 2nd night that Si hadn't eaten properly.

Food finished, we headed back home, stopping for water on the way.

Day 121-123 4th, 5th and 6th June 2010

This post was accidentally deleted by Jen!

Basically I was writing about the Coral Bleaching, and for more info read www.ecokohtao.com or join the facebook page "EcoKohTao".

Ta

SD

Day 120 - 3rd June 2010

I woke around 9.30 to find Si working on his laptop.  He'd been up since around 7am

I was feeling much better, the swelling had almost gone and I found walking semi comfortable.

So after a shower we went out for breakfast to 'Cafe Corner' in Sairee for poached eggs on toast and a smoothy.   The ride down wasnt too bad as I supported most of my weight on the footpegs and right hand on the back of the bike to take most of the impact from bumps & holes in road.

Back at home, I finished off all the Reef Check slates for Nathan that needed re-marking as they'd become pretty faint over time and an hour or so into doing that I turned around and Si was snoozing on the bed.

It's pretty boring when you're not diving and can't go swimmng so I think Im going to find the next week a real struggle.  I think I might see if I can sit on some academics, equipment specs or see if there's anything on the Eco side that I can help out with.  I dont think I can stand another lazy day watching tv...

In the evening, we decided to pop down to Crystal to catch up with people and watch a couple of Open Water movies.  I'm so glad we did as it was great to see everyone and so many people asked how I was feeling which I really appreciated.  I know we've only been away for 48hrs but it felt much longer.  When Carsten & Nathans movies came on I felt guilty as we were supposed to be team teaching and starring in them.  Oh well, I'm sure there be lots of other opportunities.

On the way home we got a takeaway and then watched the Survivor finale.

Day 119 - 2nd June 2010 - Samui Hospital

Today we were up early and I was supposed to be starting team teaching with Nathan and Si was finishing off academics and then confined water but instead of that I ended up going to the clinic.

As a few weeks ago I had either been bitten or had a spot that got infected in my lower region which obviously being me, I had picked and picked and had resisted in the last few days as it had become very swollen and uncomfortable.  When I woke this morning it had doubled in size, the tenderness had spread up into my groin region and walking was painful, so before heading to Crystal, we popped into the clinic to have it checked out.

After being examined, which really hurt, the Dr said I'd had to go to Samui to have it cut/cleaned etc as it was badly infected and they couldn't deal with it.   Si was adamant that we'd go to Samui straight away and thinking about it now, I'm glad we did.

We shot home to collect insurance docs & passports, rode to Crystal to let Nathan & Carsten know before catching the  9.30am boat to Samui. 

Once in Samui a couple of hours later, we caught a taxi bus to Bangkok Hospital where we checked in and I was seen pretty much immediately.  First my blood pressure & temperature were taken and then I was taken through to see the Dr. who assessed my lump, saying 'Oh, absess, very very bad, lots of pus, will have to open"  My immediate reaction was to ask 'will it hurt?'   she replied "In beginning only" she then promptly asked if I wanted a anaesthetic, which I said "YES!!!!!"

Boy, when that needle went in, my eyes just streamed  ..then again  ...ARGH!!   but after a few seconds I could hardly feel anything thankfully.   After she made her incision and squeezed a little , she says 'lot and lot of pus'  and then show me a blood/pus soaked gause  ..Hmm, how lovely!!
1/2 hr and 4 stitches later, she had finished.    Thank goodness for that.   I dressed, met Si in the waiting room, arranged another appointment and then then collected my prescription.   Standing and walking felt fine until the anaesthetic wore off and then I looked like a little old lady hobbling along at a snails pace.

As we'd missed the last boat back to Koh Tao, we caught a taxi to a hotel next to the ferry port.  I spent most of the time laid down as I was very sore whilst Si went out to get provisions. We laid in the hotel room all afternoon trying to keep cool, and slept very well at night..

Day 118 - 1st June 2010

Si was up working early this morning as usual and I watched Eastenders whilst drinking tea.

Today, Si started team teaching Open Water with Carsten and I went diving with Tina and has a couple of incredibly chilled dives.  We searched for the sea horses at Mango Bay but to no avail but came across a couple of crabs fighting of which one of them only had one claw, slightly unfair, so we split them up and sent them on their way.  Then Tina spotted a flat worm, only the 2nd I've seen in Koh Tao since last year.  Our 2nd dive was at Twins, so we thought we'd hang around the shallow pinnacle to spot the Eagle Rays but didnt see one, so just pottered about and ended up watching a blue spotted ray for ages which didnt seem bothered by us in the slightest.

Back on land, Si was still in the classroom teaching and I hung out at the bar with the Deep Down girls
Ten or so minutes later, Si came down as the students had just started watching Chapter 3, so had 45mins or so to waste, we grabbed a drink and then I decided to sit in on his class whilst he went through Chapter 3 knowledge reviews.  He did a great job and I felt very proud.

Tonight, we're watching the finale of 'LOST' which is going to play on the big screen in the Crystal bar.