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.  

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 memorised 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.

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!