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Hello from Koh Lanta!!
I'm sitting in this cool french patisserie near our bungalow using their free wifi to write this blog, enjoying a gorgeous bowl of muesli and fresh fruit and a mango shake :-) Did a nice long run on the beach this morning before it got too hot, then after this will take my book and towel to the beach and sunbath some more to work on my much fading tan. It's a hard life hey but someone has to do it and I am more than happy to take on the role.
I am a divemaster - it's official!!! So excited to have finished the course. It was hard work but worth every second. The final day was such an exciting one to get out of the way. As with everything in my life I had built the 'stress test' underwater into this massive ordeal that I might not survive - needless to say I did and I had a cool buddy to do the equipment exchange with. We spent 20 mins 5m underwater at the beach taking off our equipment and swapping while sharing one tank of air and only one mouth piece from which to breath while our evil instructor pulled our masks off, unclipped our fins, turned our air off, unzipped our wetsuits, inflated air where it shouldn't be etc etc etc and I did freak at one point but only briefly and by end of it Bamon and I were laughing very hard underwater while I hit and punched the instructor each time he tried to attempt something else!!! Hilarious...can't believe I was so scared.
The snorkel test that night was horrendous. It was so funny - for anyone watching that is. I was under strict instructions - eat big meal, get drunk before it starts to avoid nerves then open throat and drink a shed load of alcohol through a snorkel poured by Gene.... I managed the first 2 bits....I started off well on drinking the bucket/snorkel of alcohol but then I lost the control thing and it felt like it was drowning me so instead I spat it out!! gene stopped to not waste the bucket - but as soon as i put snorkel back in I failed again and spat it all out! My jeans and top stank of sweet alcohol. Apparently it had tequila, sangsom, vodka, red bull, local whisky amongst other things....yuk. Proud to say I wasnt sick despite the photo that looks like it on facebook.... I then carried on drinking buckets of brown stuff until the early hours and Gene carried me home, kind of....thing is we ended up pushing a motorbike most of the way home as the bike ran out of fuel.
Needless to say the day after I nearly died. It was awful, by far the worst hangover of my life to date.
So much has gone on since then. We went to a Thai festival called something I forget briefly - but you get flower arrangements with a candle and incense stick in it - light them and make a wish of sorts and send it off on its way down the ocean. It was a really nice evening. The locals had huge paper lanterns which they set off in a similar way to hot air balloons.
I've been doing fun dives since finishing the course, it's been great not being tested on anything!! Gene's let me guide some of his customers a few times to keep giving me experience of it. Now I just need some work but am not thinking that will come until the new year. I did my 100th dive last night with Gene - it was a night dive off the beach and was awesomely good. We saw 2 big honeycomb moray eels and a peculiar boxfish I haven't seen before. Was pleased to do my big 100 with Gene with me - one to remember. I wasn't naked though which I am told is the rule....I am saying I was briefly and Gene just didn't bother to look round when I shouted to him!!!! That;s my line and I am sticking to it!
We have a visa run to do next week....hoping to still go to Penang in Malaysia but rumours are we can't renew there anymore so possibly horrid KL instead. Will be like my 10th visit there since leaving UK.
Sayang is forever cuter by the day. It's cool spending time with her when I am not studying now..she is just learning to climb trees and then cry for help when she can't get down. It's hilarious. Sad though - we have a bully tomboy cat who keeps attacking her. Until last week she thought she was the toughest kitten on the street and then after this cat attacked her (we stopped it halfway thank god) she just kept crying out constantly and needing cuddles and being so depressed and sick at night. She woke me up at 4am to show me this huge puddle on the floor. Poor thing. we have a catapult now though for when we see it and I have been practising throwing stones hard. Evil cat.
Loads has been happening but I forget from day to day. I must update this more often I guess or keep a diary or something. For now though I will say goodbye and take Per's advice after I moaned about not having any work yet - he said take a good book to a good spot on the beach, work on your tan and enjoy being a 'beach b****'!!!!!
So on that note I will leave you all. Hope you are all enjoying your xmas parties and drinking loads of alcohol for me in my absence!!!
Speak to you all soon xxxxx
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