We’ve not been teaching at all over the last couple of weeks.  The peak season has passed and we’ve only been offered a one person Chinese wreck speciality which neither of us can teach.  So fingers crossed we’ll get work soon.
To keep busy, we’ve taken out some eco students, Sylvain & Kim on some afternoon and night dives which has been fun gathering garbage and doing some Coral watch. Yesterday, we hit the HMS Sattakut for some fun, and to ascertain what life had come to live at the wreck in the last few months. 

 Today, the eco gang met at Crystal and took the longtail out just offshore to try and break up/bring up a sunken boat which is destroying a area of coral.  For something that’s been in the water a few months now, we only managed to break small sections of the boat with a hammer and a few tools.  On our next visit, we definitely need a crow bar or two.  It’s really hard work.What else have we been up to?  I cleaned and sanded down one of the eco boards near the pool which took hours.  Then when I was just about to paint it, some DMT’s came along and said they’d help which they did and now, one girl’s drawing a few designs/wording for the edging which will look super once it’s done.   Nath, Sylvain and Si put a new thatching on the roof, so it almost looks like new.  

The weather has not been great over the last week.  The day usually starts off lovely and then by lunch, the skies darken, wind picks up and then it lashes down.

Pretty irritating when we were suppose to deploy our boat/ship at Buoyancy world this week which has now been postponed   ..typical!!Si’s always busy with UK work and is at present downloading a film for tonight’s Eco movie night ‘Carbon Nation’ which I’m very much looking forward to seeing…
Well, it’s time to shower, get dressed and whiz down to Crystal, ready for the movie night.Bye

Finally an update.

Over the past week, its been full on with the boat… I wanted to finish it as it had been dragging, and the ceremony is in 4 days…

So pretty much all we have been doing is welding, welding, welding… most days just me and Jen (and maybe some kids hanging around) up at the construction area.

Nathan took some video on his stills camera the other day… here it is…

 Apart from bad weather hampering things on a couple of days… we have been able to just plough through, coming home tired and shattered most nights.

Above is an adapted bin bag, that Petra (another instructor) implemented as an impromptu rain coat… very nice!!

The construction area is located near the post office, and since I constantly think about the missing parcel… I decided to go down and talk to them…..

Now the guy in the post office is not the most friendly fellow. Trying to explain to him about the missing parcel was annoying, especially since he made it as difficult as possible. Anyway, eventually he allowed me to look through the delivery book for the past month (thankfully no data protection act!!)… Scouring through the book, my name was not to be seen… but then I came across a delivery for “Matt Bolton, Crystal Dive” which had not been signed for…

I asked the postmaster if I could look at the parcel… he wanted to see my passport… I asked if he could just see my name on it… eventually he looked, and…… YES it was the parcel that Roy (my bro) had sent about 6 weeks ago!! I was so pleased… I rushed home to get my passport, and 7 baht  storage fee (cheeky gits!).

Now, I am in the possession of some toothpaste, mosturiser (which Jenny loves!), choc chip cookies… and PICALLILLI !! I love the stuff, and am building myself up to buying a french baguette and some cheese… and smother it with the picallilli…. its making me hungry now!!

Along with the food bonuses, there was a beautiful picture that Emily had drawn, and a photo and letter from Mum & Del.. Thanks guys! It was tortuous waiting for it… but so happy I finally found it!!

Back to our coral boat… yesterday, 7 more hours spent welding… and its finally complete!! Now, with deployment in the next couple of weeks… we wait and see what happens…

Righto… I am off to have a Cheese & Picallilli baguette…. and maybe a choccie biccie!

x

SD

I’ve been busy teaching Open Water with 3 lovely individuals.  2 American Airline pilots, Dan & Sarah and a Parisian girl Caroline.

They breezed through academics, confined and the exam.  Taking them diving was a pleasure, infact they were so good it was just like taking fun divers out, apart from the skills.    Shame not all students are the same 😉

Last night we all met ‘Vibe Lounge’ to watch their Open Water movie.  We all sat down on a long sofa and watched intently and giggled away.  I love watching my students.  When you’re leading, you don’t catch everything they do in front of the camera and I was in hysterics when Dan came up to the camera and started to do some air guitar …not what I expected at all.

Watching them made me feel very proud especially when at Buoyancy World they swam through the buoyancy rings perfectly and under the big octopus’s legs.  They were better than some of the advanced divers I’ve taught.

After far too many G&T’s we said our goodbye’s and headed home to bed.

Tomorrow, Simon & I are heading down to the Buoyancy World construction site for more metal bending and welding.