Return of the Jedi

to England, not to the Dagoba System unfortunately. I am now back at home in England, and yes it is very cold here. It's supposed to be the start of summer, it's 22 degrees and I am again wearing jeans, t-shirt, long sleeved t-shirt and a jumper to go outside. Still it's nice to be home with my Mum and see the wonderful changes she has made to her house. Being back here means that I feel like a spare part though, I don't know what to do here as I have spent 8 weeks here in the last 4 years.

The first thing to do will be to get my old computer up and running, get myself on the internet (i.e. in my room) and update all the things that I have missed out on the blog, upload tonnes of photos, and sort through the mountains of paperwork that has been accumulating over the last 15 months since I left.

So till then it's Pop Gan Mai (Thai for See You Later)

Last Few Days on Koh Tao

Well it's been a long time since I updated the site, mainly because I've been on Koh Tao but secondly because my klaptop has been rubbish. However now my time here is drawing to a close and it's time to put some more information on the blog.... soon =)

Wonderful Koh Tao (in progress)

Again another two weeks have flown past on Koh Tao but this time it has been because I have been busy working. So I will start at the beginning and end at end in true story telling fashion.

Having last updated from Syndey airport with freeinternet it was through to the deaprture gate and the last fewphone calls to say goodbye to my friends in Australia. The flight over to Bangkok was so easy in comparison to a 3 week road trip. It was only 8 hours travelling time and it had movies to watch too. Landing in Bangkok it was the nerve racking time of getting through Immigration expecting o be asked a few questions due to the huge amount of visa run stamps in mypassport but everything went smoothly and soon we were in a taxi heading out to Khao Sarn Road, the back packers mecca in Bangkok. Wewere fleeced for 400Baht instead of the 250B it should have cost and so knew we were back in Thailand. After dragging the bags along the road we checked into Khao Sarn Palace and went to sleep. In the morning itwas action stations and we booked our ticket down to Koh Tao straight after having my first proper Thai meal in a long long time. Then it was off to Pan Thip Plaza to go shopping for computer accessories and electronics in the crazy 4 floors of electronics madness that is Pan Thip Plaza. Returning to Khao Sarn Road it was time for dinner and then off to meet the bus. Thanks to Planet Scuba booking our tickets we had the front row seats on the top deck of the bus and enough room to stretch out catch some sleep.

There was a beautiful sunrise over the hills at Chumpon's Lomprayah pier and then it was onto the catamaran for the return to Koh Tao. Pulling up along side Koh Nang Yuan the beauty of the island again struck me and the feeling of returning home was just as strong. A few new concrete monstrosities could be seen along the beach as the boat cruised into Mae Haad harbour but the same atmosphere lay in the streets as we walked down to the Planet Scuba office. Barry was there to meet us with Ian, Big Dave and Tob, the new store manager. It was great to beback and see people again so we left our bags in the office and rented a motorbike to go and see if there were any rooms available. Driving along the beach road to Sairee beach we bumped into lots of old friends and discovered that the island was almost full because it was the day after the full moon party. We stopped off at Vibe Bar, Dave and Therese's new bar on the north end of Sairee beach and had a beer with Barry, Wayne, Ian and a few others before returning to Mae Haad. Sat on the decking outside a friend's bar watching a stunning sunset made me feel that it was a real treat to be back on the rock. The only rooms that were available when we checked in the morning had been taken and so it was into the Diver's Lodge rooms behind Planet Scuba for a couple of days until we could find somewhere else to stay. Barry had received a call from Simple Life Divers in the afternoon asking if he knewof anyone that could help out with a 14 person Open Water course and he asked if I was interested. Of course I said yes and so within about 4 hours of being on the island I already had work lined up.

After a good sleep I headed down to Simple Life and met my students, Ida, Dani, Beate and Charlotte and we went out on the boat to Mango Bay for the Confined Water sessions. The confined session went well and it was back down to Vibe bar in the evening to catch up with some other old friends.

My first Open Water course on Koh Tao was great fun and there was a big BBQ and drinks in the restaurant for the staff and students. Wib, Anneli, Sofia met me at Simple Life and we headed down to Dry Bar for a bucket or two before stumbling down the beach to Maya Bar for a night out. It was great fun dancing away on the beach until 4am and then heading back to Mae Haad for a well deserved sleep. The next day was dominated by the hangover and Wib and I having a long talk about things. In the evening we finally left the room and went for a pizza and salad at Farango's before meeting up with the others later on.

The following day I went fun diving with Ida and Dani, who were friends of Marie and Steph, and we had two great dives at Green Rock and Twins before I started a 3 preson Open Water course in the afternoon. Mathias, Daniel and Payam; 3 Swedish lads were my next students and I went through Confined and Open Water Dives 1 and 2 with them before picking up a 4 person Deep Diver Specialty course, which meant I couldn't complete Dives 3 and 4 with them. However the Deep Specialty course was excellent and Eli, Heather, Merle and Markus were great students and we had some great dives at Chumphon, No Name, Chumpn again and Green Rock.

I finished off Emily's Open Water course and then started a Deep and Nitrox combined Specialty course with Gidi which was the best course I think I have ever taught. We double dived Southwest Pinnacle in 25m vis on Nitrox the first morning and then had a great 40m dive at Chumpon Pinnacle followed by one of the best dives I have ever had a Green Rock, again on Nitrox.

Two days ago I finshed Caroline, Laura, Grith and Alberte's Open water course and today I have had a day off. Last night we sat at Vibe Bar and had some drinks and took silly photos with the glas bulbs from the oil lamps on the tables. Check out the photo albums for the pictures.

Today I have been up to Wayne's bungalow to sort out the video and some computer stuff after waking up feeling very good; probably thanks to the litre and a half of water that Steve Read squeezed down my neck when I started to have a sip of water instead of beer last night!

More details will be added soon!

Airport Posting

Now this is a real novelty, free internet in the airport that allows you to visit www.blogger.com and waste all the time before your flight leaves updating your blog! So here goes with a quick update on what has been happening and then on to the old posts to finish off the stuff there. Obviously as it is free internet I can't get to the computer itself and therefore cannot connect the hard drive with all of the 10Gb of photos from the road trip on it... so you will still have to wait for all the awesome pics! Let me know if this is starting to annoy you, that way I know that you are reading it!

Finally Sorted!

Today has been the best day of the week so far with everything finally coming to a conclusion. This morning "Dory", our beautiful van and home for the last month, parted company with us. Now she belongs to a pair of lovely French people, Sophie and Philipe, who purchased Dory for the price of $5250! After saying a tearful goodbye and paying the cash into the bank account it was off into the city to go SHOPPING! Mananged to find a replacement camera for Wib so that the underwater housing can still be used and I looked everywhere for a camera and housing that I could buy, preferably the Canon A710IS. Finally I decided on the slightly more expensive option that I could actually buy before I left and walked out with a Canon PowerShot G7 and the underwater housing for it. All that is left is the Mardi Gras Parade tomorrow and recover on Sunday before flying to Bangkok at 17:05.

Obviously still loads to update which I will get to soon I promise....

I woke up on Thursday morning with the knowledge that I drank a couple of beers last night. We headed down to the main street in Coogee and had a lovely monster breakfast at the Tropicana Cafe before heading back into Paramatta to check for the airline tickets. Driving through the city is getting easier now as I seem to have driven the same routes at least 4 or 5 times in the last few days but I still don't know what the streets are called so with a navigator next to me I would be lost. On arrival back at Helen's house I met Joey, one of Helen's sons, for the first time and then hi-jacked the internet connection. The tickets had not arrived but after phoning expedia they were confirmed as e-tickets and the $15 handling charge refunded. After a shower and repacking the bags everything was loaded into the van I drove back into Kings Cross to meet up with Sophie and Philipe. We then filled out the paperwork and talked through the things in the van and, according to Wib, I repeated myself a lot and it was like I was teaching an Open Water class. Having started talking and explaining things at 4pm I was finished at 5:30pm and the banks were closed so they could not get any money out. We kept the van and drove into Pyrmont to have some dinner. A big rack of Oscar's World Famous Ribs was the plan and they were gorgeous and the cheese platter to start was mouthwatering. Stuffed to the hilt it was another drive to Coogee to find somewhere to park and sleep. There were no spaces near Phil's apartment and only one at the top of the hill so the van was at an angle again, meaning that we would both end up squashed against the door by the middle of the night. I wanted to go for a walk and to go to the toilet before going to sleep so we walked down the hill and into the main beach front area. Walking back slowly up the hill after walking along the beach we found the reserve along the cliff/water line and decided to move the van there as it was flat and there was another Wicked van parked up there already.

Wednesday

Tuesday

Monday

Sunday

Arrival: Sydney

After 17 days and nearly 4,500 km I am now back in a familar internet place in Sydney. There has been a lot of driving and travelling since the last update but again I am only going to put the headlines in as I have spent the last 3 hours trying to catch up with the previous post! Still no photos for the moment, sorry, but the camera died on the way down here (in Australia Zoo of all places!) and there is no way to plug anything into these computers to upload the photos anyway. There are, however, 4gb of pictures waiting to go online so it won't be long.

Surfers Paradise to New Italy


New Italy to Trial Bay Gaol


Trial Bay Gaol to Port Macquarie to Forster to Seal Rocks


Seal Rocks to Newcastle to Sydney

Road Trip Update

Well I am now sat in an Internet cafe in Surfers Paradise after approximately 1,500Kms of driving! The story will take quite some time to tell so let's start with the recent stuff and the earlier things I can catch up with from the diary.... Story has been updated!

Brisbane to Surfers Paradise

This morning I woke up early as usual and went back to sleep again until about 9am before we headed into the centre of Brisbane. The further south I have come the worse the environment seems to get; it is more and more built up and commercialised. So it was back into traffic jams and 3 or 4 lane highways this morning as I weaved and dodged my way into town. After stopping at an Post Office and finding out that the 24Kg dive bag would only be about $150 to post home it was the challenge of trying to find a Sony Center to have Wib's camera looked at. A parking space eventually turned up with a 2 hour meter and a quick stop at Woolworth's resulted in some fresh fruit and water for brunch. Having checked the Sony Center in the phone book there was a bit of a walk down into the center to find the shop, who couldn't help at all. So it was back to the van to top up the meter and then a 30 minute walk down to a camera repair shop who said the camera was suffering from a mechanical failure on 2 tiny little sensors and would cost $650 to replace the whole optical lens unit.... i.e. cheaper to buy a new one. A grumpy walk back to the van and a traffic dodging escape from the city centre brought Ikea into sight. Stopping off there were 15 tasty Swedish meatballs with my name on them for dinner before piking up a 50c ice cream and lots of free mini Dime bars which were duly stuffed into the ice cream and eaten with a smile. Since then it has been a case of a couple of wrong turns, following tourist drives and U-turn which has resulted finaly reaching Surfers Paradise. It is a real high rise tourist area on the beach which is very interesting as well as being unpleasant and noisy at the same time. I am looking forward to waking up and seeing everyone walking, jogging, running, surfing, blading, etc in the sunshine while I lazily turn over and go back to sleep =).

Noosa to Brisbane

Overnight in Noosa
Australia Zoo - camera
Overnight in Free Camping Wylie Park

Hervey Bay to Noosa

After getting back from the ferry we drove back to the ruce Highway and headed down towards Noosa.

Fraser Island

Two day safari with Patrick in 4WD Air Con Bus
Day one
- Lake Mirrabeen walk around
- Central Station - Pine Valley
- Wallab... Creek - Beautiful walk through rainforest
- Lunch
- Drive on 75 Mile Beach
- Maheno Wreck
- Indian Head - Eagle Ray and Bronze Whaler Shark
- Dinner Beer Stars
Day Two
- Sunrise
- Lake Wobby walk over Hammerstone Sand Blow
- Lake MacKenzie - walk around

Very glad did guided tour not self drive... maybe getting old but more interesting.

Carmilla to Hervey Bay

Day driving down to Hervey Bay from Carmilla through forests, raining, windscreen wiper fall off and taped back on. Arrive in Hervey Bay with brake lights permanently on, crash in camp site overnight for free, too late to book in for Fraser Island. Flat battery, jump start from Kiwi guys, drive around to charge battery, $15 to fix for rubber jumper under brake pedal. Nachos and beer after booking 2 day safari as 3 day self drive too long for timescale. Booked into Torquay campsite, power for movie, sort out van and box to send home, shower etc.

Avla Beach

2 Days diving Yongala

Day One
- Nitrox Dives - awesome - night in caravan park
Day Two
- Bouncy journey - Air Dives - 20 mins Deco

Drive down to Carmilla and park up for the night.

Waterfall Circuit


Cairns to Tablelands


Cairns to Lake Tinaroo

Saturday we spent sorting through the van and organising things into the right places. A bit more shopping was done including the final things to fill or stock up on including water and a new gas bottle. Having tried to swap it at the Shell garage (servo) I found that the spanners I had were not big enough to loosen the fitting. So it was off to Bunnings Warehouse to try it there but they only dealt with 9kg gas cylinders not the 3.7kg one we had. A big spanner was bought then swapped for a smaller one which still did not loosen the fitting. Nearing closing time we drove past a BCF (Boating Camping Fishing) store and stopped to ask them for help. Unsurprisingly the young asisstant that came out to help managed to undo it on the second attempt with his own spanner by turning the fitting the CORRECT way.... Doh! Finally ready to go we headed south to Gordonvale and drove up through the Gillies Range with some awesome views down to the coastal plains south of Cairns. Cruising on into the Tablelands we stopped off at Cathedral Fig, a massive Fig Tree in the forest on the way towards Lake Tinaroo. Starting on the track around the Lake we stopped at most of the sites there to have a look around; Lake Eacham and most of the camp sites before selecting Platypus Camp site for the night.

Port Douglas to Cairns

On Friday morning we finally left Port Douglas drove down to Cairns where we went shopping for supplies and camping stuff. I stopped in at the migration agent and left here with the paperwork that I had with me. We then headed to the caravan park we had stayed in before and set up the van there for the night.

Last Day in Port - Packing With A Hangover

Not a good day to start packing, knew we should have done it earlier. Having been sick at 3am I thought I was ok when I woke up at 8am.... how wrong I was. I managed to slowly pack my stuff into bags and piles, although it took sessions of lying down to complete these simple tasks. Then I loaded the van with my clothes and came inside to stick my fingers down my throat and get it all over and down with. That didn't work. Loading the van with the heavy dive bag brought on the last call to God on the great white telephone and a glimmer of hope. Lunch at Under Wraps at around 2pm finally sorted me out and I almost felt human agin by the time we should have been leaving. But it was one final goodbye Happy Hour that extended to 9pm with Richard, Heidi, Nicko, Trev, Jorg, Heidi, and Charles. We ordered some pizzas after our tearful farewells and headed over to Charles and Dan's house to watch Human Trafficking and eat pizza. Trev headed home bidding us a fond farewell we sat chatting with Charles and Dan until the small hours.

Double Happy Hour Madness

Tuesday was the planned day to leave but the rains that we had been having and the tropical depression further south meant that the Bruce Highway was actually closed in several places, meaning we couldn't get south and i was not sure if we could get north to Daintree or Cooktown. So instead Nicko twisted my rubber beer arm and we headed to the Court House for the 9am to 11am happy hour. We phoned and harassed trev to get him out of bed and he joined us with the famous words "I'm only having one". Needless to say by the time the glasses were collected from the table there were quite a few empty ones massed in the centre. At the end of Happy hour we went across to Under Wraps for a lovely breakfast and then collected some munchies from Coles before grabbing a case of Carlton Draught with a free inflatable Aussie football. Trev and Nicko pumped that up and we ate munchies and watched a bit of a film before everyone started to get drowsy. That meant one thing; pool time! So we jumped into the pool and splashed around with plastic glasses (kindly donated by our neighbour) full of beer, while our housemate Mark, tried to teach a girl Open Water without the videos, knowledge reviews, quizzes or exam... good one Mark, very professional. All too soon it was coming round to Happy Hour again so we dried off and walked into town to hit the second Happy Hour of the day. I spoke to Heidi at some point about the demographics of the clientele at the 9am-11am happy hour which just shows you how drunk I really was! After Happy hour we returned to the pool with another case of beer and continued messing around. Chloe and Alex came to visit too and helpfully gave Nicko, Wib and I throwbacks from the bag of goon (wine). I also had half of Alex's cigarette, which is the first one I have touched for over 2 months, and it was lovely and digusting at the same time. At some point... memory a bit hazy now.... Laura from Under Wraps came over too and we tried to watch 24 before passing out on the sofa at around 11pm....

Monday was Wib's first day as an unemployed person again so we went into Under Wraps for a complimentary breakfast before returning to Wicked to finish off Internet stuff with the website. After popping home to get the van we bought a bike rack to make life easier when we leave and had the suspension rack fitted by the guy from the bike shop. This was a good job because the amount of time it took him would have meant at least a week for me to do it. Nicko came over and we watched Talladagga Nights again so Wib could watch it as she fell asleep through it on Saturday night.

Sunday was Wib's last day at work so we had a couple of beers with Wayne, Lara and Darren from Under Wraps at the Court House Happy hour before heading to Salsa to use the voucher. The food was excellent and it hammered down with rain while we were eating which met that the parking spot right outside was prefect. I had a gorgeous tuna steak while Wib had the Eye Fillet and we enjoyed a $45 bottle of red wine.

Needless to say Saturday was a write off with a hangover, although I didn't feel too bad having gone to bed at 07:00 (Nicko was passed out on the sofa) and woken up at 10:30 (Nicko had disappeared from the sofa). The evening though was time for movie rental and watching so after my afternoon session uploading some of the new version of Heidi's website, we grabbed 4 movies from Wicked and chilled at home watching Talladegga Nights (Will Ferrell).

Friday Night Out

Well the first ever BIG NIGHT OUT in Port Douglas was a raging success! It was supposed to be a night out at Salsa to use the gift voucher that Wib was given for Xmas from Under Wraps but Heidi and Richard had already eaten and then Nicko and Trev turned up so we did the Court House for a while, then Iron Bar and then amazingly went to Fluid, the one and only night club in Port Douglas! It wasn't as bad as I expected and I wasn't as drunk as I could have been so it was an excellent night out. Wib left early(ish) as she was working on Saturday and Nicko, Trev and I danced around a bit and I laughed at the state that Clare (TD) was in before helping her, with Mark's assistance, to a seat. The walk home at 6am was hilarious with Nicko doing commando rolls into anything; garden, wall, bush or tree.

Sponsorship Talks

I talked to Peter and asked him if I could meet up with him to talk about options for me coming back to Poseidon in the future. I met him at the office and helped him remove an old washing machine and install the new one before we sat down in the office to talk. I presented him with the information regarding the different ideas I had been having and told him that the only option left for me was sponsorship. He said on the phone that he was not very keen on sponsorship and I found out why before presenting the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme option. At the end of the conversation he said that he would be willing to do the necessary paperwork and left it in my hands. Yippeee!

Thursday I went for another bike ride and swim, like all of my days off so far (even if the ride hasn't been much more than into town and back again) and more time deciphering the code on the website.

Wednesday I spent most of the day in Wicked working on the internet to back up the online version of Heidi's website and also to sort out some of my own things. I spoke to a few suplliers about dive gear and eneded up ordering a new Tusa Dive bag, exactly the same as my old one but with zips that actually work!

On Tuesday (30th January) I actually felt like I had a day off as I didn't get up until 10am and my should felt a bit better. After a nice relaxing day where I started to look through some of the code in Heidi's website I met up with wib and we headed to the Court House for happy hour with Trev and Nicko quickly before he went off to school. Good lad eh?

Boat Refit

This morning Jorg picked me up at 04:15 and Nicko, Jorg and myself went down to the boat to get ready to sail at 05:00. I nearly missed the boat leaving because I was taking a photo of the boat from the marina finger and jumped on quickly as the lines were thrown off. We started the cruise south in the darkness with Neilo skippering, Mick, Paul, Jorg, Nicko and myself on board. It was weird going south instead of north, especially in the dark! The stars were fantastic and really visible as we passed along the coastline. The sun rose just as we reached Double Island (I think) and although there were a number of clouds in the sky it was awesome. As we approached the leads to Cairns Harbour, Mick took over at the helm and we communicated with the Harbour Master to find out that there were 3 other boats coming in to the leads at the same time. There was already a massive cruise liner in the harbour that was manouvering, Spirit of Freedom was entering from the north, Reef Endevour was coming from the south and a tanker was coming from the east. We gunned it into the leads and cruised past Oceania, still sat at the same place as she was 5 months previously. Once at the Norship slip, Mick managed to put Poseidon into a tiny slipway and the massive crane hoist moved itself into position to raise her out of the water. Slowly the boat came out of the water and was then moved into position to have her propellers taken off. At that point it was time for me to go as I was not being paid for being there and it was about to get hot, sweaty and unpleasant... so I walked for an hour and a half with a 10kg laptop in a dry bag on my shoulder in to the centre of Cairns. Which was hot, sweaty, unpleasant AND painful. Especially without a wallet, cash or card, too. After stopping off at the bank with my pasport that I had brought with me as I was going to see a migration agent I armed myself with some cash, bought breakfast and ate it in the shade at the Lagoon. My appointment wasn't till 16:00 so I wandered around gathering information and window shopping. My meeting with the agent resulted in my ideas of having an Australian Business Number being pointless but did result in a great option to be able to stay; being the Regional Sponsored Migration Scheme. This wold result in me having a Permanent Resident visa from the start and not having to find another company to sponsor me if the initial relationship broke down. Awesome! Just need someone to sponsor me now.... Poseidon is unlikely and tech Dive is a slim chance but it's worth asking the questions! I tried to get my iPod fixed again in the iShop but it was a post away/get a new one option so i left it and got picked up by the boys in the Poseidon on the way back to Port Douglas. My shoulder had been killing me all day and had now rendered my left arm utterly useless so it was back to the Court House for happy hour as a pain killer with Nicko.

Clearing Out The Boat

Sunday morning was very strange as it was up and down to the boat as normal but this time we all sat around drinking coffee and talking. Slowly 8am went past and not surprisingly at all, there were no customers. Then it was down to work and we stripped all the equipment out of the boat and carried to the waiting Ute and trailer to be off loaded at Neilo's house. After we had finished at aroiund 12.30 Jorg, Nicko and I met up with Heidi and went for lunch at Under Wraps with Wib. Not much else to do for the day so it was back home and in the pool for a swim.

Last Working Day on Poseidon

The last day on the boat was an awesome one. Gus and I ran the Intro show while Jamie, Andy and Paul looked after the Certified Divers. Gus did the briefing and i chipped in with the aquatic life section to break it up a little. We had enough divers for both of us to do all 3 dives which was perfect, especially as the last one was at the back side of Gone Again, "Not Often" as it has been termed.

Last Playday on Poseidon

Today was the last playday on Poseidon and it was the best ever. I was diving with Wib, Heidi and Andrea - 3 gorgeous ladies and we were dropped off first of all at Wreck Bay. Finally i got to dive this deep dropoff wall that everyone had told me about. We dropped in and it was lovely and clear. Soon I was dropping off to 35m and as we came around the sharp corner of the reef wall I dropped out to 46.7m to set a new depth record on my second Vyper. As the wall angled in I came up and saw jorg and his certified divers hanging at about 25m so I stayed at 30m+ and investigated a swimthrough set of rocks which didn't lead anywhere. As we came up over the reef wall the soft corals were fantastic and the colours incredible. i suddenly spotted soemthing in the distance and to my amazement it looked like a massive shark, about 3m long. As I banged on my tank and chased after it, I managed to get close enough to see the spots on its side and the wide nose at the front. The huge dorsal fin made it look like a massive shark but it was in fact a guitar shark or shovel nosed ray. We surfaced after 50 minutes and were picked up by Mick in the tender. Then we headed off to Blue Lagoon where I was hoping that we could be dropped outside as the dive out there is awesome too but we had to be content with a reef shark, turtle, painted crays and gorgeous hard and soft corals inside the lagoon. We did make a concerted effort to get outside the lagoon but had to get back in again and the dive time was running towards 55 mins... meaning not much sirface interval before jumping in again after lunch. The last dive was at "Not Often" on the back side of Gone Again and the steep wall was just beckoning so as I reached the pillar on the corner I dropped down to have a look for the big Queensland Grouper that is occassionally seen there. I had a look under and around the pillar and the big rock next to it before coming back up across stunning coral gardens and back to the boat finishing off the decompression stops on the way. I nearly had to leave my dive computer on the BCD that was down there to hold the mooring line up as one of the ladders was up and I thought Mick was going to be grumpy because we had a long dive but it was all cool in the end.

Chloe and Alex's Open Water

We finished off the Open Water course on the boat after doing the academics and pool stuff yesterday.

East Coast Road Trip

Basically there is a massive amount of stuff to put in between the last post and now, including the last week working at Poseidon, two weeks of sorting things out and then leaving Port and starting the road trip south.

Currently we are in Townsville, I have a buggered shoulder from sleeping on it funny and I look real stoopid typing with my arm in a bandage to rest the shoulder.

Keep checking for updates.... there will be LOADS of photos...... soon.

Just Over A Week To Go

As the season slows down very quickly now with only about 9 days of work left until the boat comes out of the water it's time to start preparing for the next steps.

Over the last week I have been working and 2 days ago said goodbye to Ces and Jamie. As Ces only came up here to work on the boats and go diving, the results of her ear examination meant that she would not be able to dive until the low season really hits. She and Jamie have chosen to go back to Airlie Beach and be with the people down there rather than tough it out in quiet season here.

Jamie came out on a playday with me and Nicko on Monday 15th Jan which was cool. I also took Alex for an Intro dive as we couldn't do any Open Water skills without a student record file and a medical. We did a great slow dive at Barracuda before I took Alex to the bommie at Totem and finally dropped in for a drift at Triggger which was excellent but not outstanding. Jamie enjoyed the day which was great to know as she has done some awesome diving in Palau and PNG.

Ces and I spent the day sorting through music, photos and doing other needed things on Tuesday before going to see Jamie and Wib, who were both at work. Then we went shopping for salad stuff and prepared a nice early meal before we all headed down to the Courty for a goodbye drink. Mark was there with Bronwyn, having a few beers in preparation for his big night at home with her, and after we finished our beers we jumped in the van to drive down to Cairns. We stopped at Castaway Backpackers and left the luggage, which weighed about 150Kg! and then headed into Pro Dive while Wib went off to Fun To Bead and then the shopping mall. After Ces and Jamie finished their beer at PJ O'Briens Wib and I said goodbye and headed back to the van for the drive home. We had a long discussion about things on the way back and maybe will reach a decision at some point soon!!!!

Yesterday Wib and I rode down to the very end of 4 Mile Beach and back again on our bikes to do some exercise as we were not at the Courty. It was lovely riding back with a few cooling drops of rain falling on me. After an excellent tuna salad it was early to bed to try to read a little before falling asleep. Today has been mostly spent sat here in Wicked Internet cafe, uploading things, moving all my data and files on to my external hard drive as my laptop is just turning itself off more regularly, and researching more visa options.

My current plan of action at the moment is:
Work until the boat comes out of the water
When the boat is out of the water, concentratte solely on Heidi's website
Go to Osprey Reef with Chris, Fluffy and Jamie... grr...but yeehah!
Leave with the van after Osprey Reef and drive down to Sydney, road tripping
Sell the van and fly to Thailand.
Go to Koh Tao to earn some cash
Spend 2 months in Thailand and then head to the UK
Sit around confused and work out what to do next - pending Australian visa information that is.

Well its a plan of sorts and it can be changed at any point. Lets just see if I can get through it all without spending all my hard earned dollars!

Busy Season Slows Down

The boat has been fully booked for the last 10 days and now the numbers are starting to drop, meaning that I have a day off today and probably tomorrow too.

Ces and Jamie arrived in Port Douglas on the 9th January and I managed to arrive a training trip for Ces to get her straight out on the boat and lined up for some work here. We met up at the boat when I got back in and I showed her around before finishing off my cleaning job. Then we chatted about things in the Courty before heading home and getting ready for work the next day.

Ces and I were on Intros and it did the busy season snowball thing of changing from 9 to 21 in the 30 mins after everyone had boarded the boat! So it was going to be a baptism of fire with a double dive to start with. I did the briefing and we arrived at Barracuda Bommie with everyone almost kitted up and ready to go. We took the first group and headed into the fish soup on the top of the bommie before cruising around the shallows for the last 10 mins of the dive.

The second group turned into a group of 2 so I took Chrystal for a dive and Ces took Paul around the bommie and returned to the boat. At the end of the dive Ces asked me to check her ear and when she equalised a couple of bubbles came out... meaning she had possibly ruptured her ear drum! So she helped out of deck for the rest of the day while Emma and I carried out with the intros. At the end of the day Ces went with the bus to the doctors and found that her ear was thankfully just bruised and not ruptured. After work we met up with the others and had a few drinks at the court house while discussing the options for Ces as she cannot dive for another week or more.

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I've had a good one but a bit reserved and different to the last couple of years. The story will get filled in here asap and I will upload some photos to the album site too so you can see the pictures too.

After the last post on the 22nd December I have basically worked all the way through to the 2nd January! I had Christmas Day off and had a bit of a hangover to deal with but I will fill you in with the details as I get to it... =)

Christmas Eve we all raced through cleaning up the boat and practically ran to the Court House for Happy Hour. We were sat down with the Poseidon crew, half the Haba and Calypso crew and Gaetan and I ordered trays of beers to start with. The trend continued and after an hour's worth of trays being bought we were all pretty happy! Wib, Mark and I returned home to cook some dinner, made some lovely fajitas and a lot of mess, had a shower and then headed back down to the Court House to meet up with everyone again. The group sat round the table decided that it would be a good idea to start with some drinking games which did the trick of getting us drunk. At around 11pm we headed to Iron Bar for a bit of a dance but I didn't quite make it as I took my shoes off and was caught by the bouncer without any shoes on. I was asked to put them on, which I did (with somewhat of a wobble), and then was asked to leave. Apparently I told the bouncer I took 80 people diving every day and what was the importance of wearing shoes before a turned my back on him and walked off home. As I neared the house the frustration of being asked to leave for not wearing shoes took hold of me and I punched a road sign marking the end of the traffic area. Go me... I took out my contacts and went to bed only to be woken up by Wib, Nick and Mark coming home about an hour later and shouting at me as Wib had given me her key and mine was in my pocket too. Nick, Wib and I then grabbed a few more beers and headed down to 4 Mile Beach where we sat around talking rubbish and staring at the stars. I woke up at about 0430 in the sand and elbowed Nick a couple of times to wake him up before we headed back to the house; Wib had been unable to wake us when she woke up and so had had to leave us.

Christmas Day was not ruined with a hangover though; we woke up early and opened our Christmas presents, I got some new board shorts and some books on marine life for me to learn more about. Then we headed over to Chris, Lyndsay, Gaetan, Charles and Dan's house for Christmas afternoon drinks by their pool. The house was awesome and is designed around living in pool area and being in the open. After a drink and watching the rest of them playing Charades we had a game of street cricket and then some dinner. Soon afterwards we went home and fell into a deep sleep trying to be ready for Boxing Day.

At work I was put on Supervisor on Boxing Day, which was good and bad at the same time. Good in the fact that I was deemed responsible enough to take the position and bad in that all I wanted to do was throw myself in the water and cool off. But hey, it was good, even though my hand was really starting to hurt with the bruising from punching the road sign. I could not grapple the vertical line at Totem which was really frustrating and in the end Angus had to swim for it and at the end of the day Neil decided to put an extension on it. I managed to do the loop on a loop correctly but did it on the wrong end of the rope so both the buoys were next to each other. We hauled the buoys up and Neilo came down to do it but he managed to get the rope through the railings of the boat so that they were both attached to the boat.... hehehehe. One all in messing it up. We got back a little late due to those things but still a good day.

Over the next week, I asked to fill in for Fluffy on snorkel guide to give my hand a rest as the bruising was subsiding but the pain in the bones was still there. I think I may have cracked or hairline fractured a bone but I took it as being like doing it to a toe, there's not much I could do about it and I still have full flexibility of the hand so just let it heal itself slowly =). So for all the days between Boxing Day and New Year I was on snorkels and finally learnt the structure of the day inside and out.

New Year's Eve was similar to Christmas Eve with finishing work and drinking beers at Happy Hour. Then we went home to cook some food on the 3 working hot plates left after Christmas Eve and people came round to join us. We stayed at home, popped party poppers and drank some beer before walking down the beach to town. Once in town we stopped off and said hello to Fluffy, Jo, Dan and Charles in Watergate and then met up with Heidi, Richard, heid and Jorg at the Court House. Thankfully we managed to get a round of beers in before midnight, it took us about 40 minutes and then we went out to watch the fireworks go off. They were really good fireworks and it was good but I can imagine what it would have been like on a boat in Sydney Harbour.... still a good night even though Jorg and I had to leave at 1am when Heidi told us to as we were working on New Years Day.

Again I was Supervisor on New Year's Day and we had a good day out on the reef with beautiful weather. Since then I have hhad 2 days off after working the last 8 straight and only having had 3 days off in the last 22 days!

Christmas Time Is Getting Closer

Last week I worked 6 days out of the 7 so having had the last 2 days off has been nice but already I am bored and looking forward to working again tomorrow. Since my last update a couple of things of note have happened, the main one being the Poseidon Christmas Party on Saturday.

I was working the next day, as were a few of the others who were a lot more drunk than I was, and had a good day laughing at the state of everyone. Sunday I was on Certified Divers again which was excellent, Monday I was on Certs too, Tuesday I was Supervisor, Wednesday we had 29 people listening to my Introductory Diver briefing and ran 25 Intros on the first site. I had to double dive with 4 students at Phil's and dived with another 4 students at Castle Rock. At Whaler, the last site of the day, I took Amy down with her husband Ben and another girl Frances and took it really slowly as Amy had not managed to get underwater on the first two sites. So we just had a look around and I swam Amy and Frances around holding their hands showing them Christmas Tree Worms and Sea Cucumbers.

Yesterday Wib went for a haircut and after she was dyed and trimmed we drove down towards Cairns. We decided to go up to Karunda again and have another look at Barron Falls to see if the rain we have been having had made any difference. Unfortunately it hadn't and the falls were the same so we will have to go back later on in the rainy season! After leaving the falls and negotiating the road back down the Karunda Mountain Range to Cairns, we headed into Cairns Central and went shopping. After walking around most of the shops we finally split up and I got the last present for Wib before we headed down to the Esplande for some dinner. We picked up an $11 plate of help yourself Thai (which was more like Chinese) which was very nice and then I drove back up to Port Douglas in the rain.

Today I have been pretty bored and I dropped Wib off at work at Under Wraps and had a lovely Big Breakfast. I then walked to the Reef Adventure Centre and talked to Heidi and Heidi for a while before heading to Tech Dive Academy and talking to Lindsay and Clare. I then went down to Undersea Explorer to try and talk to the Operations Manager John. I have been down there about 6 times now and still have not managed to talk to anyone useful as I am always working when they are free and vice versa. I then stopped off at Under Wraps and had a yoghurt Ice Cream with Joel and Mike before dropping into the RAC and Tech Dive AGAIN. Then I came home and did some research on JCU Marine Biology courses and sent some emails to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! What a day.... still tomorrow brings more work and then a Sunday Session on Christmas Eve.

Awesome Drift Diving

Yesterday I was working and Wib came along for a play day to do some diving too. I got the more experienced group of certified divers, as Angus opted to do the briefing, and because Wib was with me. The first dive was at Castle Rock and as we descended we ran into Daisy who was being very friendly as usual. Then as we moved around the bommie, out to 24m, we found a White Tip Reef Shark resting on and several Blue Spotted Stingrays hiding in the sand. The fish soup at the shallow sheltered section of Castle was lovely as usual.

Me Looking Sexy in My Stinger Suit

White Tip Reef Shark

The second dive was Wib's first drift dive (finally!!!) and we were dropped in right around the far side of the reef. Again the dive was stunning and as we moved against the surge and dropped down to 22m to keep depth for the third dive at Gone Again we encountered a school of 6 or 7 big Bumphead Parrotfish. Above us there were schools of fusiliers, perch, jacks and barracuda moving in and out as if the reef was breathing. The corals were gorgeous and soon we were visited by a 2.5m Bronze Whaler Reef Shark. Another White Tip Reef Shark was resting on the sand and we also found 2 of my favourite fish, Clown Triggerfish. With the swimthrough at the end of the dive to finish it off it was an awesome, awesome dive.

Clown Triggerfish

The last dive was at Whaler and it was a nice shallow, scenic and relaxing dive to finish off the day. We found the Cuttlefish, Lionfish and a cool little Flounder/Sole while scuba snorkelling around at 3m to 5m. A selection of the photos are on the new Web Album page just you can go to by clicking here.

Awesome Solo (Sort Of) Drifting

While yesterday was good diving with Wib, I still had customers to look after and was working. Therefore the day before was actually better because I was diving on the back of the group. The first dive we did was at Totem and I was dropped off right on top of the bommie around the reef from Totem. Adam, my buddy, used to work on Poseidon so we did a quick lap of the bommie and then headed a bit further around the reef. There we found a White Tip Reef Shark resting on the sand, two Barramundi chilling under a table coral and big schools of fusiliers and jacks. The Tech Dive Xmas Party was on the boat and so there were lots of sparkly hats, tinsel and silly costumes near the boat as I caught up with them and took some photos.

The second dive was phenominal at Triggerfish City as Adam and I went about 15 mins further round the reef from where we were dropped off. We explored the swimthroughs and canyons, saw millions of fish surrounding the reef and then started to head our way in to towards the boat. Adam swam off and was just about in sight for the duration of the dive so I had the beauty of drifting the last half of the dive on my own.

I met up with some of the Tech Dive party as I got to the swimthrough and got a good video of going through the swimthrough. Underneath the boat was the carnage of the Tech Dive crew, wearing silly costumes and having photos taken so after messing around for a while it was time to surface. The last dive was at Whaler and I tagged on to the end of Mick's group so I could take some photos and spent the dive just chilling with the camera.

The photos are on the Web Album which you can view by clicking here.

The videos will be on the Web Album soon!

No Smoking For One Week!

I have finally finished uploading the pictures and updates to the blog and it is bringing the time close to 2am. One; it's time for bed and two; it is time to celebrate the fact that it has been exactly one week since I last smoked a cigarette. This year, for a birthday present to myself, I decided that I should finally give up for good, not just cut down.

I don't really want to give up but I do want my taste buds back, I don't want to smell like an ashtray, I want to be able to breathe clearly, I want my free diving (breath holding) to improve, I want to save the money for a digital camera and I want to stay healthy and alive! Pretty simple to see why I should give up then and I have know all of this for a long time but now it is time to just do it.

So when I got back from the pool party last week I smoked the last cigarette that I possessed (well borrowed from Madelene because I had already run out!) and since then I have not touched one. It has not been easy, the first couple of days were pretty hard with the cravings especially after eating a meal. The main reason that I still smoked was out of boredom; it gave me something to do and so the first couple of days off when I have been bored and had nothing else to do have been a challenge too. Going out on Friday night for drinks was also a real test but the best thing about all the Smoking Laws here in Australia is that is difficult to smoke and it helps having friends and colleagues who do not smoke. The boat is non smoking too so it is only getting through the evenings now that I have to battle with. The next challenge will be the Poseidon Christmas Party so wish me luck for that!

I have been a little bit more irritable than normal and had a couple of "short" conversations with Wib although they were about things that would do the same to me with or without giving up smoking. Thankfully I have made this far without any massive mood swings or arguements, so only another couple of weeks to go before being a non smoker is my new habit! =) OK, it's past 2am now so time for bed.