Missing in Action

Just a quick note to let you guys know that we are currently on a trip to Malaysia as part of our visa requirements.

We are staying on the Perhentian islands which is a very small island (smaller that Koh Tao!). Hence there is little in the way of communication.

So, we shall be filling you in with a full report the day we return to Koh Tao (2nd August)..

Take care!

SD

Day 172 - 27th July 2010 - Pin Up of The Month

Yesterday... not much done, and I didn't want to bore you with a mundane post....

But today... PIN UP TIME!!!

Let me start by thanking today's contestants... Some were real hard work getting photos (you know who you are!!)...

Our 1st contestant hailing from Essex is Laura Bailey.

Laura is an Instructor at Crystal and currently undergoing Staff Instructor training and anticipating her 25th birthday tomorrow.. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! She enjoys spending time with Ham, Cheese, and Pickle (cats!) ... A very active girl, you will often find her swimming in the Regal pool, drinking Bacardi Breezers, propping up the DJ booth in The Castle and strutting her funky stuff.


Contestant Number 2, is Debbie Gottendenker from Canada.

Debbie is an MSDT and a valuable part of the "eco team". She is currently training on the Pro course of Deep Down Production's videography course. She enjoys photography and has a nice new big toy to play with. .. although she needs more time to get to grips with it... She enjoys training DMT's in all aspects of diving, and is known to be especially good at helping them with rope knots.


And finally, Number 3 is Tracy Cook from US of A...

Tracy is a Yoga Instructor, Health Guru and Mum of 2. She is married to the Eco Warrior, Nathan. Tracy loves New Age, Inner Peace, and Diving (once every 3 years)... You might see her on a rare occasion smashing up the dance floor at Castle with some saucy moves and drinking a "Green Smoothie" (her own health drink). She likes to go on retreats and have time out for herself. I suspect she may be visiting KFC or MacDonalds .... but she won't admit it.


Who wins? YOU decide!

SD

Day 170 - 25th July 2010

More work!

Boy am I getting a lot done... which is good for when we take our visa run trip next week!
We were both woken at the crack of dawn by some crazy weather... Rain hammering down and wind at gale forces.. I looked out of the window to see the waves were looking hairy (it turned out that Crystal's largest boat had to turn back to port as it was too wavy to get out of the harbour!!)


So, cracking on with more work, I belted through a mass of projects.

Then in the evening, Jen and I went to Safety Stop pub, so we could watch the F1 and she could have a Sunday Roast! (me I had a Bean Toastie and chips!).

After the F1 we popped to Dirty Nelly's for a quick drink and then home for a film..

Day 169 - 24th July 2010

Today.... more UK work, even though its the weekend... its not for me over here..

Having a weekend gives me time to catch up on the mountain of work, which is good.

Apart from working, while Jen caught up with Eastenders, I cooked a Veggie chilli in preparation for a BBQ we were attending in the evening.... I really should buy a tin opener instead of using my whopping dive knife!


At 8pm, we went to Liran's house for the BBQ... Katti (who is veggie) didn't really enjoy the amount of spice that I had in my chilli, and watching her gulp water down whilst trying to be polite was incredibly funny.

A very pleasant evening...

Quick Clip

So, here is a clip from today of our journey from our house (top right in the first few seconds) to Deep Down Productions, a video production company that we are friendly with.

No soundtrack, editing... completely as is..

More exciting journeys to come!

Day 168 - 23rd July 2010

Another chill day...

Organised a visa run next week to the Perhentian Islands next week to see a couple of friends (and hopefully dive if we are better)

After that, it was haircut time!


In the evening, pizza, red wine, and a classic film... "Snatch"... forgot how good it was!

SD

Day 167 - 22nd July 2010

Not much today...

We spent the day at home, and while I worked on UK work for most of the day, Jen relaxed and tried to do a bit of sunbathing...


In the evening we grabbed some takeaway with our friend Nick and just chilled with some red wine.

Nice!

SD

Day 165 and 166 - 20th July 2010 to 21st July 2010

Jen was feeling much better, except..... now her abscess had returned..

So before we did anything, it was back down to the clinic for an examination. Again, they couldn't handle it, and sent us to Koh Samui.

Jen was very upset that we had to spend money to go back to Koh Samui (3rd time in 6 weeks), but after talking, we agreed that it was for the best.

Quickly packing and arranging a hotel for the night, we caught the 3pm ferry, arriving at 5:30pm on Koh Samui. The hospital is only open until 5pm (which we were aware of) so we headed straight to the hotel for some chill time.

The Dara Samui is quite a plush place, and luckily we had an insider to sort a deal for us. We went out for a mexican meal..

After eating it was time to head to bed for an early night.. except I had UK work to do, so for me it was the laptop for a few hours.

Waking early and breakfast eaten, we were taken to the Bangkok Samui hospital (getting to know this place quite well!) where Jen was seen straight away.


After examining her, they made another small incision and did some drainage... this time she did not need stitches (phew!).
Out of the hospital it was straight back to the ferry for us, to catch the last boat which leaves at 12:30pm...

Once back on Koh Tao, we returned home so Jen could chill and I could get on with lots of UK work. Jen will be out of the water for a week... but is in good spirits!

SD

Day 165 - 19th July 2010

Last night, returning home from getting supplies, I had a 3 inch screw embed itself in my rear tyre.
So this morning, I went (gingerly) down to the nearest garage and they repaired the tyre and put some new rear brakes on.

Job done at a cost of £6 ... BARGAIN!!

Returned home to wait for a hairdresser to come in and cut Jens hair.. When she arrived, I fell asleep. The power went off for most of the afternoon, which is not too unusual here.

Thats about it, still no diving for us... but soon.....maybe :-)

SD

Day 163 - 17th July 2010 (Evening) to 18th July 2010

So, I thought that was the end of our health problems.... boy was I wrong!

Jen had her new tablets to take and I also have some tablets for my cough, which has turned into a mild chest infection.

So anyway, this evening Jen took an antibiotic called "Cravit" which contains Levofloxacin.

She took her first tablet at 9pm, after dinner of scrambled eggs as chewing was really hurting her jaw and ear.

About an hour later she was complaining of an itchy head, and felt her whole face was very tight. Her voice had changed and she was wheezing and coughing... We discussed it, and decided to wait for an hour and see if she improved... 10 minutes later and we changed our minds.
We headed back to the clinic in the south of the island, which is a 10 minute journey by bike, and by this time Jen was quite distressed... They checked her over, and sent her to the clinic on the north end of the island, as they are the only clinic with the correct medication to treat allergic reactions.

Another 10 minutes passed by, and we arrived at the clinic, where Jen was taken straight in and put on a drip and monitor. Her oxygen levels were lower than normal (probably due to not being able to breathe properly). Her blood pressure was way high.

After checking her levels and looking at the antibiotics that she had taken, they gave her an antihistamine injection, and said that they may need to give her adrenaline and barbituates to reduce the swelling. She was having an anaphylactic reaction to the drugs.
30 minutes later, the redness in her face, chest, and stomach had calmed down a bit, so I took a photo... If you click on it you can see her Angelina Jolie lips.!

Another 20 minutes later I took another photo... you can see how much her lips have gone down.


So, now stabilized, she needed to stay on oxygen and stay overnight for constant monitoring. When she stood up, she was close to passing out, probably just due to the battering her body had taken in the last couple of hours.

We got a room (well I got a couch, cos there was no way I was going home!), and Jen wore an oxygen mask throughout the night (at one point, snoring like a cruise liners horn!) with multiple checks by nursing staff.

7.30am they brought her breakfast of toast and tea (where's MY brekkie!) and gave her a barrage of different antibiotics, antihistamine, anti inflammatories, and painkillers, in an attempt to help with her ear infection. Then another waiting game, to see if she had any reaction to these.

12pm and no reactions, she was allowed to leave the clinic (after a 10,000BHT bill..) and is now back at home watching Big Brother and relaxing.


Phew! What a worry... but now she is back on the mend!

Day 163 - 17th July 2010

Jen woke with a very painful earache, so after breakfast we went to Sairee Clinic.

The doc was off the island so we traveled to another clinic on the south of Koh Tao. Jen was given a barrage of pills and told to return on the 20th... she's not a happy bunny at the moment.
Me, I have a sore throat, and a bit of a cough going on so both of us went back home to rest for the day.

While at home, I heard a big bang, and looking out from the balcony, saw a truck that had failed to get up the hill (click the picture to enlarge). Thankfully no one was hurt, but some serious damage done to the truck...


Early night I guess...

Day 159 to 162 - 13th to 16th July 2010

Hey there,

Nothing new to report, as I have been working like crazy on the company website.. A complete overhaul of it.. in flash.... which is certainly not my forte...

Anyway, we shall continue with decent posts from tomorrow.!

Much love..

SD

Day 158 - 12th July 2010

We were both on the afternoon boat going to Mango bay for a double dive.  This is a pretty shallow dive site, so perfect for Simon as you know, he's not been able to equalise due to a sinus problem for a couple of weeks and it's been driving him crazy.
So in the water, we causiously made our decent down the buoy line.  At 5 meters all was good and then Si ascended a couple of meters to see how his sinus's felt.  All was good, so we dropped slowly to about 12 meters and pottered about in the shallows.   Throughout the dive I was very concerned and kept checking Si  to see if he was ok.  All was good, only some mild pain on surfacing and a huge smile on Si's face, which made a pleasant change.
After a 45mins surface interval we kitted up for our second dive which was much the same, slightly shallower, saw a blue spotted ray chilling out under some coral but not much else but a very enjoyable time had.

A good result to a very nerve wracking test dive...

Day 157 - 11th July 2010

Today was mostly relaxing (again)..

After 2 very late nights with not much sleep, we both needed a rest. Besides that we had another late night with the World Cup Final....

We went out on the afternoon boat and I did some tests with my sinuses at a very shallow site. Results are good.. not perfect, but good. There are definite signs of improvement, although the weird nostril closing thing is still there (and maybe always will)...anyway the prognosis looks good, and I look forward to further testing in a couple of days.!

World Cup final in the evening (1.30am) was rubbish. It went to extra time which means we were at the bar till 4am.... Spain are the world champs.

I managed to catch the only goal, on my phone...

Day 156 - 10th July 2010

Today was a chilled day after the mainland trip yesterday.

We woke up about midday (only 5 hours sleep then), had brekkie, and popped to the Crystal Regal pool for a swim. I went into the deep end (which is not very deep) to test my ears... I can equalise but there is still some comfort issues. Plus I cannot evaluate what happens on ascent as it was too shallow.... but it was great to get in the water..

After that, we popped to Nathans to pick up our £5 coffee perculator that we had purchased the day before on the mainland.
Then we went home and i attempted to make sausages. OH DEAR! I think I need some lessons.


After eating my delicious (not) "sausages" we watched Clash of The Titans, and then Jen retired while I went to watch the footie with Carsten.

Final score - Germany 3 Uruguay 2

Day 155 - 9th July 2010

Today, we rose early and headed down to the ferry. We met Nathan and Kailash, who were heading off the island to the mainland for some much needed items.

We caught the Lomprayah high speed catamaran and was on the mainland in 1hr 30mins.

After doing the tour of shops such as Carre Four and Makro.. Nathan had what he needed, and I had managed to pick up some Dried Soy Protein!!! Might be able to make myself some veggie sausages.

Another item we managed to grab is a sheet! Its too hot for a blanket at night, and the Thai's don't use sheets except over the mattress... so fitted sheets are very common and flat normal ones aren't... So we were very happy to find these (have I got a bit too in depth about sheets?)

After our mostly successful tour, we dropped off our bikes, and waited several hours in a bar for the ferry. Unfortunately, some drunk American guy attached himself to us and bored me silly for ages.. Then his Thai girlfriend rocked up after a while and slapped him around the face for lying to her about where he was. It was quite annoying, and I was gagging to get the ferry and not listen to them fighting. I think at one point, he puked over himself and man... that was not nice....

At 10pm ish we boarded the ferry. The Talay Sub is a cargo vessel with a few mattress to transport some passengers. It took 6 hours to get back to Koh Tao through the night... I did not sleep a wink, and spent most of the night pacing.


I did see 3 shooting stars though!!

Anyway, returning back to Koh Tao we picked up our bikes and headed home... still awake I did some work stuff and retired about 7am...

Day 154 - 8th July 2010

Jen took a day off diving and did not wake till 2PM !!!!!! Wow she can sleep...

We stayed in and just relaxed and ventured to Vibe at sunset to discover a sleeping Nathan..

Day 153 - 7th July 2010

Another day out of the water.

Today I joined Jen on the boat, even though I cannot get wet.... I just wanted a change of scenery.


As each day passes, I am getting extremely frustrated and concerned that there has been no improvement.

It is now 10 days since the sinus squeeze, and there is the possibility that I have done some permanent damage, but a few more days rest will tell me. If there is damage, I shall have to head to Bangkok to see a specialist as not being able to dive forever is not something I wish to comtemplate. Seems all negative, but I am still remaining positive that it will correct itself.

After Jen did 2 "eco" dives covering Reef Check. We returned to base, then shot home, where Jen had a couple of hours snooze... then it was back out to "Choppers" to watch the Germany footie...

Final score - Germany 0 Spain 1

Day 152 - 6th July 2010

Woke up late and went to meet Nathan, to give him a hand clearing out his house that he rents. We were just trying to help, and it took my mind of my diving problems for a few hours.

After that, we went down to "Vibe" to watch the sunset.


While we were watching the sunset, we noticed an animal in the cloud shape... see if you can guess what it is... (click to enlarge the photo!)


After the sunset, we grabbed some Thai food, and headed home, where Jen went to bed, and I stayed up doing some UK work before going to meet Carsten for some football action.

Day 151 - 5th July 2010

Today, we woke up to a lovely sunny day... And the water looked very still in comparison to recently.


We spent the day running chores, sorting a visa run out (still not worked out yet).

In the evening, we invited a few friends round to play Risk!. After many hours of play, I WON!

Day 150 - 4th July 2010

Same same... out of the water...

Last night I tried to dive, on a night dive, to test my ears... Unfortunately I failed... I could feel the same pressure so I aborted the dive and went back to the boat all by myself :-(

Jen finished her advanced course today, and after completion of all paperwork we headed to a clinic to get me looked at. The doc said that I may have some soft tissue damage... so eat loads of Vitamin C, eggs, plenty of water, take lots of tablets (antibiotics and antihistamines), and no beer...

So thats me for the next few days at least... getting to be a bit grumpy now!

Day 149 - 3rd July 2010

Jen started an Advanced course today.... what a busy little bee she is.

6 students continued their education from the Open water course... very good results...



Me, I was bored of being indoors, so I sat by the beach and came up with a new promo video for Eco Koh Tao... at least I did something more worthwhile today!





Jen was taking the students on a night dive also, so I joined to test my sinuses... Alas, they are still messed up, so tomorrow I shall be attending the clinic for the usual antibiotics (seems to be the super cure for everything).

Day 148 - 2nd July 2010

Another day outta the water..

Playing "Monkey Island" still... yawn yawn.

Jen finished her Open Water course today... the video was pretty poor due to really bad visibility so not worth uploading..

Jen seemed to enjoy this one alot... she was brimming with confidence. NICE!

Right... back to the game...

x

SD

Day 147 - 1st July 2010

Not much today... Me, still out of the water with tons of UK work to do, but waiting for replies on everything... so i spent a few hours playing "Monkey Island"... a computer game.

Jen, is still on her Open Water course... and today they went into the sea for their first couple of dives. I have seen a real difference in Jen on this course. She has lost the nerves, but more than that... she seemed to have developed a real passion for teaching.. You can see a spark in her eyes when she discusses her day teaching. Brilliant. I think she starting to reap some big personal rewards from it... really cool.

Anyway, had a couple of beers at the bar when she had finished, and then takeaway "Kanya" food, an early night, and a very smily Jen.

:-)