19th March 2012

I woke up this morning to find the internet on!!! Crossing my fingers that it stays that way.

While Jen is teaching a Rescue Course, and I have been unable to access the internet... I have been playing with Jens camera. It rarely gets used, which is such a shame... so I have made it my mission to get some decent photos from it..

After a couple of hours playing with settings... I came up with these 2 below. Click them to make them larger for the full effect!

Oh, and a couple of days ago, I put a collection of Triggerfish footage together... take a look on the link below!

Trigger Video CLICK HERE

All thats left to say is, I hope Mum enjoyed Mothers Day, and is was great to speak on the phone... hope you like your little pressie today...

xx

SD

17th March 2012

It seems the internet has broken... yet again!

I have paid a provider £20 to get me online (albeit at super slow speed).... just so I can manage UK work and emails while this mess is sorted.!

On another note... its another birthday!! This time its Chris (Jenny's brother in-law)..

Happy Birthday & St Paddy's Day!!

15th March 2012

Happy Birthday Emily!!!

Its been pretty bad here internet wise, and have had single emails and webpages taking over an hour to load.

Apparently its been a problem on the mainland for almost a week now... This evening its finally working again (keep your fingers crossed).

Anyway... back to Emily... We hope that you had a great birthday party and lots of cake and pressies!!

xx

Uncle Simon & Aunty Jen!

12th March 2012

Open Water went really well. 

The group were really good and I think it was the most confident group I've had in a long time.  A pity that the two Austrian lads decided to have a day off due to one of them cutting something in his throat.  Lucky for them, Simon said he'd take them instead of being put with a load of chinese. If only they knew how lucky they were
After a pretty easy couple of days diving, the group had qualified and we all met later at Vibe to watch their video   ...which Im glad to say, two sold.

I had the next day off while Si had to meet the two Austrian boys for dives 1+2 and then he was up early the following morning for their dives 3 & 4.
After a surprize lunchtime visit from Simon and a delicioius egg, bacon and sausage sandwich, Si has a 20min snooze and then headed back to the office.

Around 3.30pm I headed down to Crystal to meet Si as we were off to New Heaven dive school to go out on the boat with them to witness and catch some coral sporn.    We eventually headed out around 6.30, set up our gear and jumped in the water for a quick survey of the area to find certain species that were going to spawn.  Spawning happens only a couple of times a year and a few days after full moon, which is related to the lunar calender ...so corals marked, the divers took it in shifts to watch for any sporning action.  It was all pretty exciting  and just a waiting game.  At one stage someone surfaced and shouted GO GO GO  ..we all kitted up as quickly as possible and jumped in  ...but unfortunately only one of the corals at the deep marker had started spawning  ..and only a small amount of coral spawn was collected.

x

Jenny

9th March 2012

Jenny, vastly improving started back with an Open Water Course of 5 people... The 1st day she found very tiring but was doing well.

In the meantime, I completed a 1 person Advanced and then straight in to a 6 person Rescue Course.  This course required me, an MSDT (new instructor getting experience), 4 DMT's (Divemaster Trainees) and the 6 students. A whopping big group..

I pushed them hard as I want people who do this very tiring 3 day course, to really get value and confidence to be able to perhaps help in a real life scenario.

They all bonded together and worked as a team.. 4 of the 6 students are heading to the DMT program and its good to make some friends to share your experiences.

That evening, in celebration... they all went out and got absolutely hammered (I didn't go!).. The guy in the 2nd picture carrying someone up a ladder, decided it would be a good idea to ride his bike home when by all accounts he couldn't even walk.. He ended up being found in the middle of the road with a broken leg and other less serious injuries. He has been shipped to Samui for an operation and will probably go home. What an idiot! Lesson learnt I hope...

Anyway, Jen is finishing tomorrow, but only with 3 out of the 5.. Two of her students needed a day off for medical reasons... so I am taking them tomorrow afternoon.. Day off soon please... :-)

x

SD

6th March 2012

I've spent the last couple of days just sleeping and drinking.  Thankfully most of my aches & pains have gone and my rash has nearly disappeared but now i've got an irritating itch all over my body which  ...which is nothing compared to the joint pain that i've experienced. 

Simon took a crew of 17 people to Biorock for an educational dive. We dive it very little and 15 out of the 17 people had not even heard of it. They transplanted broken coral to the structures in quite a strong current. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

Today, Si was up early after a terrible nights sleep.  We has a call(3am) telling us that there was a chap at the the Thai Inter (clinic) that was in bad shape, who didnt know where/who he was that had been involved in an accident  ..so after Si making various calls to the operations manager we later found out that he'd been evacuated by speedboat over to Samui  ...goodness knows who he was, thankfully it wasn't someone from Crystal  ...i just hope he's ok as from the call last night it was touch and go whether he'd make it  ..  No news as of yet
I've been up since about 7am  ...watching tv, so far today I've watched Troy and Volcano has just started.  I think I'll take a walk  down the road to get some water as we're totally out.

In the evening I ventured out with Simon to a Save Koh Tao meeting to discuss this years events, Koh Tao Festival, new and up and coming projects, coral spawning and the workshop for coral nurseries, so it made a good change from TV and cups of tea.

2nd March 2012

Climate Change Conference.

After having the last few days off and then jetting off to Bangkok for a couple of days attending a Global climate change conference held by the Norweign Embassy, everything seems now, looking back,all a bit of a blur. 

When we first received the invites we were pretty excited as it was something new, in Bangkok, so be nice to have a mini trip, but after attending it, we both came away feeling slightly disappointed due to the fact that nothing new had been learnt.  One bonus was that we finally met a lady called Dr. Suchana Apple Chavanich, associate professor, dept of Marine Science at Chulalongkorn University who certified us as Reef Check Instructors and had a wide ranging knowledge when it comes to research/qualifications on Marine Biology and another was that our trendy hotel was generously paid for by our Course Director who attended the conference as well and led us astray in the bars   ...which I must tell you, Simon was paying for it this morning!!

It was a nice change to be away but it's always so nice to leave the hussle and bussle of a city behind and come back to Koh Tao...

Also, in the last few days, I have been feeling unwell... Sensitivity to light, rashes, and joint pain in my hips and knees which is causing a severe lack of sleep... After a bit of research, it seems that another mosquito spreading disease called Chikungunya has affected a few people on the island, and my symptons match up with it. Hopefully the situation improves in the next few days..

xx

Jenny