I was in the office till lunch with William, my Eco student, finishing off exams and going though knowledge reviews etc. Â As Crystal only dive in the morning on Christmas eve, we have nice early finish.
Simon was pretty fortunate, as he would have been on this mornings boat filming Open Waters but thankfully the group didn’t want a video. He’s not slept that well over the past few days, so that was a real blessing ;-D
Anyway, after finishing up in the Eco office, I decided to get my toenails painted (festive red) as it is the season to be jolly, then stopped off at the butchers to buy the chicken for tomorrows dinner before heading home to meet Simon.
This evening we’re going to the Crystal bar to have a few drinks with the Crystal crew and to open our ‘Secret Santa’ presents 😀
It’s lovely to have a break but there is nothing like sleeping in your own bed 😀
Yesterday I started teaching a Reef Check course which will finish on Christmas eve. The course itself gives people a greater understanding of the marine ecosystem, identifying, substrates, fish, invertebrates so to participate in Reef Check surveys around the globe.
The student I have, Willliam is only 17 …I’ve heard from other instructors that his attention span is very short and you could be in a middle of a dive briefing and he’ll just get up and dive off the boat to retrieve a piece of rubbish floating in the sea ..but I get along with him fine ..perhaps he’s on my wave length! LOL
Today, the 22nd, we were supposed to be his with severe rain and wind …but we’ve only had a sprinkle of rain during the night and it’s pretty sunny outside at the moment. Good ole weather predictions…
I woke this morning and Simon was just back from buying croissants to go with our boiled eggs, then he had to pop out again to get the gas bottle refilled as it ran out halfway through boiling the eggs (luckily it happened now and not Christmas day)
Totally spoilt with breakfast, I was handed a lovely sandwich for lunch and told to pack dry clothes, ready for today’s downpour, Si’s is the best husband ever!!!
Anyway, after going through presentations with William, I’m going to head off to get my dive kit ready for this afternoons boat.
The last couple of days we’ve been in Koh Samui to extend our visas, watch the new StarWars movie which the boys were very eager to see, go Go karting and do a little shopping. Â Â We came over with Tina and Carsten and have been staying at our friends Daves place ‘Cocooning’.
The trip over from Koh Tao was pretty hairy with many a green face on board which the others found pretty entertaining 😀
As soon as we arrived, we took a bike to the Immigration Office to extend our visa… its about a hours ride, and we both had numb bums by the time we got there.. luckily the rain held off.
Friday nights are are always good staying at Dave’s as the whole street in which the hotel is located on, is closed to traffic and ‘Walking Street’ appears. Â Loads of craft, clothes and food stalls line the entire street.
We spent some time perusing the stuff for sale, looking for presents for our “Secret Santa” gifts at the dive school. Then it was back to the hotel and a fairly early night after Dave starting bringing out shots.
Waking the next morning we were straight out on a motorbike that we rented and looking at new bicycles since Jen’s bike is a bit knackered now. Undecided, we left and went shopping at Tesco’s until we met the gang at the Go Karts. Jenny won the first race, and I won the other 3, so Team Dowling kicked butt !!
After karting, we went to the new cinema to see Star Wars in 3D… !! It was awesome (no spoilers).
Waking today, we went for a quick blast of last minute shopping (found some English cheese!).. and then its back onto the ferry for a choppy ride back… We have bad weather coming on the 22nd so we may get stuck if we don’t head off now!
