Pics from Pirates Week Parade on Saturday 14 November

Just one of the many bars in Downtown that was totally heaving for the parade.

There were some fantastic costumes (and all the floats were being judged).


The Pirate boat that comes ashore and kidnaps the Governor! Hilarious!!!
The opening of the Parade - click to play the video.


Hugs, H x

Pics of Beach Club Colony - where I'm currently staying!

The room I'm sharing with Jolinne.
View from the other side of the room - the ceiling could do with being repainted, the TV put back in the room and the phone line/internet connection reconnected!! Still it's free and includes food (as long as we're there at the right time to eat) so that's enough complaining! :)
The view - 20 steps from my room door!!

See other posts for more pics. Hope y'all are well!

Hugs

H x

I'm Here!

I finally arrived in Cayman last night at 530pm local time but that's 1030pm UK time and boy was I knackered!! I got up at 245am to get to the airport and catch my first flight - which was delayed by a good 30 minutes, just sat on the tarmac waiting to get clearance to take off! Still, thankfully I got to Heathrow in time for my connection so I had a very quick mooch about the Terminal 5 shops (all Prada and Harrods and Burberry and the like!!) but didn't buy anything (having 1 quid to my name at the time probably didn't help matters!).
Took off a little late from Heathrow too and it was a pretty full flight. There were some decent movies to watch so although I was totally zonked out I couldn't really get to sleep. I watched Up (fantastic and a total tearjerker), GI Joe Rise of Cobra (quite good FX but not great on a dinky screen) and Ice Age 3 (quite funny and cute as per the previous two). There was a 2 year old with a family on the seats next to me and boy was I about ready to throttle that child. Scream, scream, scream was all she did!! There was also a new born (or at least only a few months old) on the other side of the plane and she was as good as gold - not a peep out of her! And cute too - she had little afro ringlets, adorable! Thank god for Bose noise cancelling headphones (at least it drowned out some of the screaming and wailing!).
We landed in Nassau to drop off some people and refuel and then set off again about an hour and a half later. Finally got into Grand Cayman (from here on in GC) and was picked up by Albert who works for Resort Sports as the "tank guy". He's been here 7 years and I think he's leaving soon.
Got to the Beach Club Colony Hotel about 10 minutes later and waited for the boat to get back so I could meet the rest of the team. Paul M (the owner/manager/guy in charge - not sure which title is right?!) came over with Jolene (Canadian) who I will be sharing a room with for now. Didn't get to meet anyone else yet but should do later today when the boat gets in again. We took all my bags to the room and I had a quick change so I could head out with Jolene to get a SIM card for my phone (I now have a local Cayman number) and some food - talk about starving! Sim card cost $5 with $3 credit and I got a spaghetti marinara and 2 litre 7up from a little takeaway opposite the hotel for $10. I've got to get my US$ changed into KY$ asap so I'm not boned with the exchange rate in various establishments. I think it's a set rate of KY80c to US$1 at the banks but I don't know about little restaurants and so on.
Anyway Jolene and I talked a lot last night about finding somewhere to live and what the operations of the company are like and so on. She seems like a nice girl (not sure of her age) and she's quite a new instructor too so we'll be (literally and figuratively) in the same boat! There are supposed to be 2 others joining us soon, one next week and the other who knows when (I understand she's having probs with her permit). Hoping we can perhaps all share together and get a good deal on rent.
Woke up this morning at 5am - ugh! Saw the time and thought screw that, I've got to stay in bed til at least 8am. Jolene got up at 7 and I ended up getting up not long after. Have had a bit of a walk about today - gone past Subway, Quizno's, Burger King and Wendy's. Found a big dive store and another sports store (maybe I can find a little electric scooter?!) as well as taking in the what looks newly built Camana Bay shopping centre. It's very modern and funky looking and I think there are apartments there too. There is definitely a cinema which I'm pleased about and at $10.50 a ticket I don't suppose is too bad. Had a lovely breakfast at a place called Cimboco for $5 plus drinks. And I am now sat in a net cafe typing to you lovely folks. Will need to head back to the store soon so I can meet everyone else and find out what the deal is about when I start work and where I'm going to be living. Must stop off to grab something for lunch tho - I think Quizno's is calling!!
Oh yeah and by the way...the weather today is lovely. Very sunny and warm - probably about 78 degrees. Although it has apparently been raining the last few days due to the tail end of a hurricane (remember season doesn't end til Nov 30!). Let's hope it doesn't come back this way anytime soon.
Will post pictures soon. Oh yeah my current room is count them...20 steps to the beach! YESSSS!!!
Love to all
Hugs
H xx

Cayman Bound

Hullo y'all! I am completely astounded to see my hit counter is over the 10000 mark! Who are all you people who visit me...? Please leave a comment or 2!

So I had my tooth out. After much huffing and puffing by the dentist and much uurrgghhh-ing and gargling by myself it was finally extracted and examined. Boy did it look well, yuck to be frank! Had so many issues with that tooth it really should have come out earlier than it did. Have been slowly trying to get used to the gaping hole in my gum and am regularly tongue-ing it. Haven't been able to eat on that side of my mouth for a few weeks now and it still feels kind of odd to me.

Anyhoo, my permit for Cayman has finally been processed and approved. I've booked my flight for 10 November and decided to go with BA as it had the best price and meant I could travel all that way in one day, rather than stay over en route. Although saying that I think there is a short stop in the Bahamas to refuel! Not a bad place at all, if only I was able to get off the plane and mooch about!? Still I'd rather just get there and be done with it. I am quite annoyed with BA though in one aspect because they have reduced the baggage allowance on the transatlantic portion of the flight from when I originally started looking at flights. You were previously allowed 2 bags but now it's just one! 23kg for all my scuba gear and instructor stuff, clothes and so on for at least 3 months worth of working (fingers crossed it'll be extended after the trial!?) - I don't think I can manage that! So now I have to fork out over £100 for additional bags for each sector - not the total flight as one charge but each bag for each flight! What a racket!! And to top it all, my mom said she saw on the news that BA are planning on striking soon... wonderful! Better not be when I intend to fly or I will literally go off my head at them. (Rant over).

So with less than 2 weeks to go till I leave these shores I have lots to do. I'm off out tonight with one of the dive guys and have also to head to Manchester to pick up some stuff. Besides deciding what to take with me in the bags I also want to pack some bits that I can mail over when I'm settled into an apartment or "condo" as I believe is the term there?! I want to take my jewellery making stuff and also my cardie things too, especially as it's been ages since I made any cards and I actually really miss it. Still I don't want to send it on until I know how long I'll be working each day and whether I'll have time to get crafty.

I have 2 students this weekend to finish their Open Water course and then I think that will probably be it for me in this country for now, at any rate. I've been waiting for some PIC's to be delivered to the dive shop so I can get them sent off. It's been a right nightmare with the postal strike as the PIC's are supposed to be sent in to PADI within 7 days. That hasn't happened as a. I'm waiting for photo's from students and b. I don't have any PIC's to send in and c. I need another instructor to sign off one of them from months ago as it was inadvertently forgotten about and this person still hasn't received their cert (obviously!). Shenanigans!! Once I've got those certs done that means I'll have done 6 students! Woohoo. Not much really considering the time since I got my instructor card, but as it's been all at weekends and not even every weekend at that for one reason or another, then I suppose it isn't too bad.

Alrighty that's all for now. Best get my ass in gear to get to Manchester.

See ya

H x

What's New Pussycat...

whoaaa, whoooaaa, whoa! Anyway... I've done a wee bit of research about setting up my own website and I think it may be quite a good idea. Still with moving away soon I'm not sure how it would work if I actually got some sales. Not like I can rely on my mom to do all the packaging up for me and mailing and so on. So it may have to wait a while. I think if I do at some point go ahead with it though I'll probably use Mr Site as it seems an easy enough piece of kit to use and is very reasonable in cost too.

Last night I went to see Surrogates at the cinema. I'd seen the trailers and thought it looked pretty good. Well I guess it was ok. The FX are decent and I quite like the idea of a surrogate in some aspects but in other ways it freaks me out. The story line is kind of like the debate I was having with myself over whether (if the technology was actually available) I would get one. But there are some confusing moments in there and you're thinking "who is that?" (am trying not to give the end away!). It does make me wonder if it's related in any way to the culture of celebrity and perfection that exists now. The surrogates are perfect - smooth skin, glossy hair, everyone is slim and attractive - so it's like you can live how you want to look (even if that means changing sex) and no one would be the wiser. The real people on the other hand though are haggard looking in comparison - lots of blotchy skin, bad teeth, lanky hair, overweight and so on. The real people really don't look good at all and it's quite shocking when you realise that you now kind of prefer/think as normal the "airbrushed" look the surrogates have, even if it's all fake!

Alright, movie review over... although in other movie news I can't wait to see this and this.

I finally received my police clearance certificate which means that my work permit package is now on it's merry way to the Caymans. Hopefully they should get it by tonight (6pm their time) so perhaps I'll have my permit in a couple of weeks? This means I need to get checking flight prices and the various options of where I fly through. BA looks like it might be the best option as I don't then have the hassle of flying through the US and all that extra security malarkey! Still I did get myself an ESTA processed so I could get through that way. The best price I can get so far is £661 (approx) with BA. I think Continental's price is about the same (if i remember rightly!) but it means staying over in Newark/New York for a night as the Cayman flight doesn't leave at a time that means I can fly in from Manchester and fly out again the same day. I can get a hotel in Newark for about $60 and the shuttles back and forth are normally free so that's not much of an extra cost. What worries me is the temptation of hitting Manhattan and having a wee spree (not that I could necessarily afford one but you get my drift?). The main thing is that I can't really get my flight until I've definitely got the permit confirmed and then I don't want to have to pay any extra because I'll be departing within a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed it'll all work out hunky dory.

The only remaining issue is how I'm going to get all my baggage there within the weight limits - 23kg per bag is not much, especially considering scuba gear is gonna take up a big part of it! If it's cheaper to pay for an extra bag than it is for me to mail it with FedEx then maybe I should just do that?! It's just a bit of a nightmare hauling bags around isn't it?

Anyhoo other than that, there hasn't been much else going on. Just been making a few other bits and pieces of jewellery. And having strange dreams again. It's a year on Friday since Jon moved out of our place so maybe that has something to do with why he's appeared in some of these dreams? I dunno, they are quite vivid for about 5 minutes after I wake up but then fade fairly fast afterwards. I do wonder what he's up to nowadays and whether he ever thinks of me at all. All I do know is that his brother is apparently in Afghanistan right now. Oh and that even though Jon told me he was single again (this was months ago now) he is actually part of a couple. Doubt whether they ever did break up, or if they did, it can't have been for long! Am pretty damn sure the girl I saw him with in Preston is the same girl with which he cheated on me. They certainly look similar if not.

Oh yeah and finally, I cracked my tooth. A whole chunk of my tooth came apart from the rest and so now I need to have it removed. I've had to demand an appointment to get it done otherwise they would have left it until my original 6 monthly appointment that isn't until the end of October!! What a shenanigans. They took an x-ray and it seems the root of my tooth has practically fused with the bone of my skull so it could be difficult to extract (oh joy!!). Roll on next Tuesday afternoon (NOT!).

Hugs

H x

It's Been A Long Time...

since I last wrote on this blog. So much has happened since I left Egypt. I'm now a PADI Instructor and am getting ready to move out to the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean in the next few weeks to teach scuba diving. I can't wait to get there and get back in the water again on a daily basis (like in BVI!).

I decided Egypt was not for me, mainly because of the food situation (the people I met were lovely and of course the weather was hot which is dandy for me!) but also because every time I looked over at the instructors teaching I just thought "that's what I want to be doing" and it kind of hurt being there and not being able to do it.

So I left and came back to Blackpool to start studying like a mad person for my Instructor's course and exams. I spent 3 weeks reading my manuals, retaking Divemaster exams as practice, taking more practice instructor exams and helping out at BAD to get more experience actually teaching students. Then I went up to Newcastle for about 10 days to do my IDC, some specialties and the EFRI course with Gary Mawston at Aquanorth (just fab, definitely recomment you take your IDC with them if you're thinking about it!) before heading down to Rugby for the 2 day IE.

Boy was that stressful! Although to be honest in hindsight it was a fun two days and the examiners did everything they could to make it as stress-less as possible. I'm pretty darn pleased with my scores on everything and have been working since then back at BAD, getting more experience.

I found the job I'm about to start on the PADI website and am really looking forward to getting there, finding myself an apartment, perhaps a new man in my life and if all goes well and I want to stay on there for a spell, then hopefully a couple of labs. (as in labradors, not a laboratory!) I'm also hoping to ship out all my jewellery making and cardie stuff so that I can still get my creative thing on! I've been having a mad couple of days lately making more bits and pieces and am seriously considering whether to set up a little website for myself (Jon said I should when we were together!) although it can be a fair bit of work keeping it up to date, you know? Still it would be good if I could sell my stuff all over rather than just locally. Maybe I'll check out some prices/costs and so on before I commit myself to anything? Take a look at my other blog - hksdesigns - to see what I've been doing. I've still got some pics to add of the latest makes.

Anyway I'm sure I'll be posting more as I get closer to my departure date and obviously I'll be writing stuff while I'm away so my peeps around the world can keep up with what's going on.

Love to all

H x

Sharm

So I visited Sharm el Shiekh on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Jochen was travelling back there and so I caught a ride with him. He gave me a few tips with regard to the hassle you get from shopkeepers and the like in the town. Good job he did because they are relentless!! He'd suggested telling them "ana staff" which means "I'm staff" and apparently thats supposed to be enough for them to stop hassling you...but no! Then it turns into 20 questions about where you work, what you do, and so on. Instead of just being what's your name, where do you come from, come look in my shop/try my excursion, etc etc. Jeez!! It got so annoying that I felt like only going into the shops that didn't hassle me. In the end I put on my ipod and ignored everyone except those I wanted to talk to - ie the internet cafe guy. Thank god for that place. My internet connection in the apartment is patchy at best. It keeps going in and out and I can't seem to find a good place in the apartment where I get full bars on the wifi!
Sharm is very different to Taba. Apparently its been purpose built for tourists (like Taba then) but there is a lot more going on. There are quite a few more restaurants including a Pizza Hut, McDonalds, KFC and a Hard Rock Cafe! There are a few malls per se but they tend to be full of tourist tat. I was told there were a lot more dive shops to get gear but I only found two in Na'ama Bay and neither of them sold what I was looking for. I didn't go into every dive centre so maybe I missed some?
You have to pay to get on the beach and use the sun loungers. The beach is sectioned off and you have to walk through either restaurants or bars or security from various hotels to get on it! Speaking of security I noticed there is quite a lot, although what good it is doing I don't know?! Apparently you need to have a special license/permit to be able to drive in Na'ama Bay due to the bomb that went off there a few years ago. However that doesn't stop someone walking into the town with something in their bag! They don't go so far as to check your bags or to check the cars or people in them of those who do have permits! Seems like its more for show than for any actual security.
It took two hours to drive there on Tuesday and I basically walked around the town to get my bearings and see what's about. I also took a share taxi (basically a blue/white minibus that will stop wherever you are and take you via a certain route wherever you'd like to go for a few LE) to the Metro supermarket. Quite a lot more choice there than in the little shop here in Taba but still it was about the size of your average Tesco Express (maybe a little bigger) and so consequently not a huge choice. To be honest I think there was more choice of soy sauce varieties than any other food product I saw in there!! Why I have no idea?
Still I was able to get some brown rolls and a few other bits and pieces. Banana's seem a lot more accessible there than here so I got a big bunch! There was an internet place next door to the market called Wireless 24/7 but wait for it...it was closed!! Can you believe it?
I'd been told by someone that the shops stay open throughout the day but this turned out not to be the case. There was most definitely a siesta period with a lot of the shops. Not that I blame them because boy is it hot - a good 2 or 3 degrees hotter than Taba. On my first day in Sharm I saw a sign on the beach saying the air temp was 42 degrees C that day! Holy heck!! Jochen had arranged for me to stay over at the dive centre and so I was pretty darn central to everything but it wasn't as noisy as I thought it would be, especially considering that the Pacha nightclub was about 150 yards away. The town really seems to come alive at night, with lots of bedouin type restaurants/seating areas. It was actually quite pretty at night, only during the day does it seem like a somewhat Disney-fied version of Egypt (but without the clean-up crews and easy access!).
I spent my second day just "chilling" on the beach. Had a bit of a snorkel and saw a few pretty cool fishes on the reef near the beach. At one point they were totally surrounding me and getting very very close, so much so that I had to make like I was pushing them of me. I'm presuming they've been fed by divers/snorkellers before and thats why they are so unafraid/hungry for whatever you've got! One of them nearly nipped me, although as a little angelfish I can hardly say it would have been a gaping wound!! :)
I headed back to Taba at 6pm (although the driver was late!!) and the drive through the mountains was quite scenic with the sun setting. Again there was a strange level of security. At every township there are guard posts at the entry roads. You have to stop there and the drivers chat to the guards and then you drive on. Apparently they can stop to ask for your passport but that never happened on my journey. The driver basically waved at the guards, said a few pleasantries (I can only assume as of course it was Arabic) and we were on our way again. Bizarre!
So now I am back in Taba and it did feel noticeably cooler on my return. I'd like to get some dives in on my next days off but we'll see what happens in the meantime.
Hugs
h xx

I'm Melting!!

OMG, the heat here is quite unbearable. I think it has been up around 36 degrees if not more, these last few days and I am just about dying! I can handle the heat when I know I'm able to get in the water for a spell but as I'm stuck behind the counter all day then it's just about impossible. The design of the building is circular and so although the counter is covered and not getting direct sunlight hitting it all day it also means that there isn't much wind hitting you. But when the wind does come in it is hot and annoying as it just blows all the paperwork everywhere!! Grrr!!
I'm not sure whether I'm going to be able to handle it as it's only June and July/August is going to be even hotter. I'm thinking probably at least 40 degrees! As each day is quite long too (today was a good 11 hours and it ended up being only me and Jan working as Abdo went home sick and Sophie was off) and the summer months are due to be very busy, then it's not like I'll be able to take a long lunch and go for a swim. If I only have 30 mins for lunch it leaves little time for having a swim and also getting some food in me (as we aren't allowed to eat behind the counter). One of the instructors asked me how I was getting on today and admitted that there is NO WAY she would be able to handle it being at the counter all day.
I don't know why but for some reason I thought that maybe there would be more opportunity for me to get into the water than there is/has been. I've been for a swim once for a total of 10 minutes as I knew I had to eat and get back. As we don't finish until 530pm or, like today past 6pm, then there is no way of even getting into one of the hotel pools unless it's a day off as they close at sunset (meaning when their pools have no sun on them, so thats usually from 6pm). I get my first days off on Tuesday and Wednesday and I'm hoping to maybe get down to Sharm, if I can. Somebody else will also need to be off too though and wanting to travel down there as well, as I can't afford to spend 600LE (about £75) on the return taxi fare on my own. There is apparently a public bus that takes about 3-4 hours I believe (taxi is supposed to be about 2-2 1/2 hours). But from what I hear its not reliable in any way and if I then have to pay for a return taxi anyway what is the point? I'm hoping maybe one of the staff who has a car is going that way (Drew is back this week and so Jochen should be returning to Sharm one day!)?
I guess my motivation for wanting to visit Sharm so soon is to see whether it is a place I could live more comfortably than I am here. There are supposed to be a lot more restaurants/places to buy food as well as lots more hotels, bars and the like. The latter isn't what really bothers me, it's the former. Being able to get hold of some decent food and things to actually cook with is as it turns out quite important!! I can't say I was ever really made aware of how difficult it is here to get food and perhaps the pay off for that is that I don't have to pay for my accommodation. But the instructors do (about 160 euro a month) although they earn more through their teaching commissions, tips and so on. Still according to Jochen what they pay for rent is much less than the equivalent in Sharm - about 450 euro a month. Jochen said that you get a better deal here with regards to pay and so on because of how difficult it is to live here. Still I think I would rather not have to worry about what I'm going to have to eat and have less in my bank account than the other way round!
I'd like some opinions from peeps reading this on what you think I should do. I'm hoping that once I actually get a dive or two in here I'll feel better about the place. The majority of the people I work with are friendly but night time can be a bit lonesome as all the Brits are in couples, as are most of the other non-Egyptian staff. I'm going to give it a little while longer and see how it goes. Like I said once I've dived I may become totally enamoured with the life down there and want to stay just for that - there are some seahorses about 23m down just off the shore!!! Apparently it is also whale shark season so fingers crossed....! If things don't improve then I guess my option is to return home, take an IDC in the UK (save on spending for another flight somewhere) and then apply for instructor jobs wherever (as long as the opportunity for feeding myself isn't as difficult as here!).
Anyhoo hope everyone is well. Leave me lots of nice comments as it seems ages since I heard from anyone. (I know I've not been gone a week yet but the days seem very long here!) :)
hugs
H x

Re: Packing

Begin Rant... I took out all the manuals I could get away with not having and I still had to pay an additional £70 when I got to the airport. I am seriously not happy about this because I was specifically told by a Servisair rep on the phone that the cost per kilo would £7.50 not two days before. Only when I'm at the airport do they tell me that it is actually £10 per kilo!!! Astronomical for what is equivalent to a bag of sugar!!! Oh and they made me unpack all my scuba gear into another bag (which I luckily had packed away - what would I have done if I didn't have it?) so that it could be put through as "fragile"! Why did it then come through the baggage carousel upside down? Servisair and equivalents - get your act together!
End of Rant...
PS actually a mini rant - the flight wasn't even full so why charge me and no doubt others when the space isn't being used anyway!?? Grrrr

First Day at Work!

So I've just had my first day of work in my new job at Red Sea Waterworld Taba Heights. It was quite full on in parts and in others it was very laid back. We start with the bus picking us up at 735am and it takes about 5 minutes to get to the centre. Everyone then splits off into their areas to do whatever they need to do - instructors get the students/divers gear ready, accountants head upstairs to the paperwork, counter staff (ie Me!) go behind the desk and sort out the day for everyone. Paperwork is given, passports and diver cert cards are taken and checked, watersports vouchers collected and sold, the next day's activities are organised and yet more paperwork printed off. Money is taken in all varieties - US$, Euro's, British £ and Egyptian £. And credit cards too. A wee bit confusing with all the exchange rates but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. Everything is sold in euro's so depending on how people want to pay is how we work out what they actually do pay. And right now there is a 20% discount off the price of all the watersports (not diving!) as it isn't very busy, so you have to factor that in too!
From what I've seen today the busiest times are first thing in the morning when people arrive for the morning and full day dive trips, the snorkel boat and occasionally the fishing boat. There is also a submarine trip (there are 2 types of subs) as well as all the various watersports, like waterskiiing/wakeboarding, windsurfing, donuts/banana's, parasailing and so on. It then gets busy again when they bring all these people back and others arrive for the afternoon dive trip. Then finally at the end of the day when we're closing everything down. As the centre is open to the elements (pretty much) we have to hide away all the computer equipment with plastic bags (mostly I think to keep the sand out than for anyone trying to steal anything!!). Taba Heights is a gated "town" (there are only 2 ways in and out of the place) so anyone hauling away a load of computer equipment is gonna be pretty suspicious looking! :) In that respect I feel pretty safe but in another way I can feel (especially as the new girl) all eyes on me.
There are people from all over here. It seems the majority of the instructors that I've met so far are British, but there is a Slovak guy called Willi who speaks Russian, Czech, Polish, Slovak (obviously!!) and a bunch of other eastern european languages!! I'm wondering if they are all very similar (like French, Spanish and Italian are similar) otherwise I'm seriously impressed. He's also a bit of a computer whiz too apparently and he's allowing me to use his wifi connection so I can get online in the apartment! YES!! Love him for that :)
Last night Pierre (French instructor) and his new wife Jan (Thai head of counter staff) came round for dinner with Jochen (who is deputising for Drew the general manager). Sophie (the French girl I'm sharing the apartment with and who also works on the counter) organised it as a little welcome to egypt thing for me. Jochen normally works in Sharm running one of the hotel satellite centres there. Jan made some delicious veggie spring rolls and then a chicken and vegetable curry. Was totally yummy and as I was wondering what I was going to do for dinner (not being such a great cook) it was a welcome treat. I believe tomorrow night the group are having a BBQ at the staff apartment block so that is dinner sorted for tomorrow.
I think I'm going to have my biggest meal of the day at lunch now as there is a restaurant on site and as staff get a discount it is fairly reasonable. I guess the main reason (other than not really liking to cook) is the shortage of storage space in the fridge for food and the actual supply of food is sometimes quite sporadic. There is a guy who comes by the centre with fruit and veggies every so often. Today I picked up a watermelon, a few honeydew melons, a bag of apples and a cucumber (that looked more like a courgette!!) for 35LE (about £4.10 - I think I may have been had here as others walked away with about the same amount of stuff for less!! Not entirely sure). After work I then went to the little staff shop about 150 yards from the apartments and bought a loaf of bread (they didn't have any yesterday and apparently this was the first loaves he's had in a couple of weeks!!), some bread rolls, a tin of peaches, 8 pots of yogurt (they only had peach or plain! Although yesterday I managed to get a couple of strawberry from another shop in the market place - read more expensive!!), 3 packets of noodles, a big bunch of grapes, some mini chocolate croissants, a carton of OJ and 2 1L bottles of 7up for 71LE (about £8.35). I'm really not sure whether this is a good price but as I have no other place to get food (other than putting in an order with the next person going to Sharm) I suppose it doesn't leave me much option if I want to eat. So big meal is going to have to be lunch as the oven in the apartment doesn't work properly and there are only 2 gas burners working. There are some pots but I didn't see a frying pan. I did see a box for a toaster (which is why I bought the bread) but then when I got back into the kitchen I looked around for the toaster only to be told it didn't exist!!! There isn't anywhere to buy one here in Taba and so it seems the cheapest place for a toaster is Cairo!! (I think a good 4 hours drive away). I'm gonna have to search out who amongst the staff has a toaster so I can "borrow" it occasionally.
It is strange the things you take for granted living in the UK - like toasters in the kitchen - and I am wondering if it is like this elsewhere in Egypt or if it's just because Taba is a relatively new development? I believe Sharm is a lot more developed - specifically for tourists - so there are more bars, restaurants and so on. There is one bar here (other than in the hotels) and a couple of restaurants (Thai, Mexican and another one I don't remember) so there is no discernible nightlife. You either make your own fun or you enjoy the quiet life. :)
Anyhoo that has been my first couple of days here. I'm slowly getting used to the heat (tonight actually seems a little cooler than previous - I think its about 30 degrees at the minute!!) and I'm trying my damnedest to not put on the AC unit until I actually plan on going to sleep. I've been drinking like a crazy person (at least a full bottle of water and today I've had 3 cans of sprite, 2 cups of tea and am about to start on some 7up!!) so hopefully I'll stave off the runs (which is apparently more to do with being dehydrated than the food being bad!). I'll no doubt let you know. Hehe
Hugs
h x
PS I haven't actually sat out in the sun yet so tan development is going to be on the slow side!!

Packing

Oh dear! I have packed my bags with everything I would like to take with me and I am way over the weight limit!! I've paid another £60 for an additional 15kg on top of the 20kg I get as standard and the 5kg I get when I show my dive cert card and I think I am still over that limit!! I have what feels like almost 10kg of dive manuals which I'm hoping I can either not take with me or have posted out to me nearer the time when I'll potentially need them. I really can't understand how an airline thinks that a diver will have sufficient extra allowance with 5kg?! I think my BCD weighs more than 5kg alone never mind adding in my regulator and everything else. Am I supposed to live in my bikini? As much as that would be fab I think at night it is likely to be a tad chilly!! I suppose I am going to have to go back to my bags and take out some more things. :(

If only I could "zap" all my stuff over there, like the transporter/digitizer thing in Star Trek? How cool would that be?

Hugs
H x

Welcome!

Hi there!

This blog is written by me - Heather Sayles, currently of Blackpool, UK. However I'm about to make a big change in my life and move to Taba Heights in Egypt to start work for Red Sea Waterworld. I'll be working on their counter/reception and am then hoping to take my scuba instructors exam a few months down the line.

I can't wait to get there, especially as this past few days the weather here has been terrible - very rainy and a lot colder than you want it to be in June. So bring on those 40 degree days of a summer in Northern Sinai Egypt. Still in the meantime I have a lot to do before my flight on 16 June, so much packing up and organising of things to take with me; deciding whether to mail things out now or have them sent later; basically closing down my life here and transporting it to a whole new place.

This blog has been set up mainly so my friends and family around the world can keep up with what I'm doing there, see pictures of where I am and what I'm doing and generally check up on me! :D For all those people who do know me I would suggest that if you haven't already, you download Skype so that we can chat. My username for Skype is hksginger. Please add me to your contacts and obviously if I know you I will add you back. As I understand it Egypt is 3 hours ahead of the UK, 1 hour ahead of South Africa, 8 ahead of the BVI's and East Coast USA and 7 behind West Coast Australia. That may be wrong but it's a good guess if you're looking to chat. My work hours are due to be 8am to 6pm approx (Egypt Time - ET) 5 days a week and I'm guessing I won't be available during those hours, but that may change.

Anyway my hopes for this trip are threefold - 1. that I enjoy myself and this new life I have chosen. 2. that the people I know will stay in touch with me and hopefully even come visit. 3. that I learn not only to become a great scuba instructor but that I can also perhaps learn to waterski and windsurf (and teach those too maybe?).

I have plenty to do beforehand so I'd best get on.

Hugs
H
x

Day Thirty

Ok so I decided to do one last post. Tom picked me up bright and early at 530 this morning after a totally sleepless night thanks to my neighbours playing "Eye of the Tiger" on repeat til gone 3am. As Courtney was still feeling a bit sick she passed out pretty early and slept right through it. Lucky $@@%^&!!! :) Still she was a total sweetheart and got up with me to say goodbye. Vicki also stopped my last night to say bye and give me a little leaving gift - some playing cards from Norman island with pirates on them. Lots of interesting nuggets and snippets of pirate lore - very cool. Thanks hun and I'm sorry I broke your watch too :(

So Tom gives me a ride to the airport and there is already a pretty big Q of people waiting to check in. So much for the airport only opening at 6am? I got my bags checked in (completely in shock that they were still under the weight limit!!!) and went to pay my exit fee before going through security. Bit of a shambles at security as there seemed to be only one woman doing all the work even though there were another 6 people stood around in uniform! Didn't have long to wait before we started boarding and as it was a free for all regarding getting a seat I think I was lucky to get in the front row and have no one next to me! Was hoping to get some good aerial shots of Tortola but it turns out I was sat on the wrong side. Ah well. Still I got a couple when we were coming into land at St Maarten.



The same beach as above but from the ground!

I was hoping that the Air France desk would be open when I arrived but there was no chance of that happening when the flight wouldn't be taking off for another 7 hours!! So I had to sit in the airport for about 3 1/2 hours waiting for the desk to get organised. Watching them trying to set up the lanes for passengers was quite entertaining as really it was yet another shambles. I think I could have done it myself in about 10 minutes and it took 6 of them about 25 minutes! Oh dear. Anyway I finally get my bags checked all the way through to Manchester and then head out of the airport to a little mall about 10 minutes walk away. Just round the corner from the mall is the beach above and it was really lovely, well if not for the fact that it is right on the flight path and if you stand in just the right place (about 20 yards across) you'll get blasted by the engines as they rev up to take off! Quick way of getting a "tan" if ever there was one. Hehe

So I have a mooch about the pretty much closed mall and gape in shock at the prices of some bikinis in the one shop that was open! Over $120 for a bikini brand I've never even heard of?! Is that just St Maarten for you? Then I walk down to the beach and sit there for a spell trying to drag the hours out. I suppose I look pretty daft sat on the beach in jeans and hoody while everyone else is in swim togs. Still maybe they thought I was a local and was cold as really it is still winter?! Ha! I manage to not rip my clothes off and go for a swim in that beautiful blue water and drag myself back to the airport for some food. One Quizno's sub later I am sated and head for security (memories of my first time through SXM security running through my head). Surprisingly there are very few people (in comparison) waiting in line so I sail through (after practically stripping off) and find a comfy spot for some Z's.

I was hoping to have the seat next to me free for the return leg but no such luck. The flight wasn't even full either and the guy knew someone closer to the front so when I saw that I thought he'd head down there to sit nearer her. Still no luck. So I had to put up with him coughing and being "fragrant" all the way back. Could not sleep so I watched Wall-E (FAB!!) and a couple of other not-too-memorable movies. Arrived in Paris to a drastic drop in temperature and after a bus ride pretty much all the way around the airport I was deposited into the correct terminal. Confronted by lots of premium brand stores after security was too tempting to not have a browse, not that I would have been able to buy anything! So then I hauled myself to the furthest gate possible to take off from and finally managed some Z's for the 1 1/2 hour flight to Manchester. Thankfully Manchester was not to type and was actually sunny! Gosh will wonders never cease?

An hour's drive (thank you Mr Taxi Man from Gold Line) and I was pulling up to the hotel a full 24 hours of travel later. Boy is it weird being back home. But luckily I am tanned and glowing and have apparently dropped a few pounds so all is good. Now I need to organise selling my car and some other of my accumulated worldly goods so I can partake in this dream of mine. Let's hope the credit crunch isn't too harsh that it takes forever to happen.

Thanks to everyone at SCD for making my time there fun AND educational. Massive thanks to Courtney for being a fab person to room with and share the month with. (Already miss you hun). And finally thanks to you readers for visiting. I hope you've enjoyed my tales and hopefully if I get my stuff sorted I may link you to another blog about becoming an instructor and what happens after....?!
Love n hugs
H x

Day Twenty-nine

Caught a ride into town with Steve this morning so I could buy some gifts for people back home. Then spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get everything I've accumulated here into my small suitcase. Quite the task. Just barely made it really!! Then spent my last few daylight hours catching the last sunshine rays I could. Slowly baked. Courtney was sick all last night from who knows what?! She spent the day at Norman today so hopefully she's had some time to recover.

Took a quick trip down to the shop to make sure I'd handed everything back in and to confirm what time I'd be getting picked up in the morning - 530am!! Oy. Not sure if it'll be Tom or Melie driving me to the airport - let's hope no one sleeps in - including me! Hehe :)

Am sad to be going home as I've had a really good time here - although I won't miss the midgie/mosi bites at all. They seem to love my feet/legs. Can't say I'm looking forward to going home to the cold weather but apparently it's been quite nice the last couple of days so maybe spring is on its way? Have so much to sort out when I get back - with selling my car and getting kitted out, never mind organising flights and actually finalising exactly where I'm going to do my IDC/IE. Cyprus is looking like a good contender but I'm wondering if I can find a cheaper deal elsewhere?

Anyhoo as I fly back home tomorrow there probably won't be another post. Sitting in an airport for 7 hours is hardly likely to be much fun to write about (never mind live it!) so I hope you've enjoyed my little blog about SCD and the BVI. If you're looking to dive there I would definitely recommend SCD as they are very safe and well organised. And of course everyone is really fun and friendly too which is the whole point of diving, right?

Hugs to all and thanks again for reading. If you have any questions about doing an internship with SCD I will answer what I can.
H x

Day Twenty-eight

My last work day! Went over to Norman island with Jason and Neil for a group of 3 certified divers and 2 Open Water referrals. Turns out that one of the CD's hasn't dived in 20 years and one of the O/W's hasn't got all the correct paperwork so they end up doing DSD's on Norman beach with another young guy who is on the same boat. His mom also came along for the ride when we went diving. Neil was hoping that I'd be able to do all the dives when we were headed over there but as plans changed when we arrived he had to lead their first dive. We went to the Indians and is was a little choppy - so much so that the father of the family group slipped off the back step and his tank slammed onto it - missing my toes by cm's!!! Crikey - that would have great wouldn't it? Trying to travel home alone with broken toes - not good.

A couple of the group decided they'd like to do a second dive so I did manage to get wet today. Yeah - my last dive in the BVI and it was at Ring Dove Rock. There was quite a strong current too so that was a bit of a challenge for the new diver. Still he did really well.

Went to the chinese as well for dinner with a bunch of peeps - never been there before (opposite the Mexican!) and it was pretty good. Apparently there is another chinese towards or even past Road Town which is better but I never got there during my month. That's the thing about Tortola - you have to have some transport!! Sat and had some drinks outside the shop though first as not everyone could make the meal.

In the pic - right side from front: Vicki, Me, Kitty, Neil

left side from front: Ria, Steve, Courtney, Rob, Jason

Dale and Harri turned up later (thanks Harri for taking this pic!) :)

Day Twenty-seven

Today was again all about diving. There were about 6 divers on Discovery this morning and again we went to the Rhone. One of the guests had asked Courtney to dive with her even though it was her day off so she came in to hold her hand as we dived. There were lots of lobster today in all sorts of nooks and crannies - but no seahorse! :( We did however see a turtle on the bw section feeding which was way cool. He was pretty big too!

The booze cruise last night was great. Very mellow just sailing in the channel. We went over to Peter island and had a tack and gib through the bay then headed back to Hodges Creek. Very cool with no lights out at sea - there were so many stars. Definitely way more than you can see from land. Very starry starry night! :) Took some photos but I haven't had a chance to look at them yet so will try to get them uploaded tonight and will add here asap (EDIT - DONE).
From left: Kitty Chang, Marc Easton, Jeff, Jason Chang, Vicki, Gilbo Simpson, Emily Parsons, Courtney Hansen.  Missing from the pic but also on the boat are Steve Ellefson, Rob and Jeff's wife Rain.  Not sure what Jason's looking at?
This is Marc and Kitty. I really don't know what Marc is making the face at but perhaps those lime tortilla chips aren't so tasty?!  Kitty doesn't look too impressed either does she? :)
This is Rob and Jason (doing the driving!).
This is the band - A Type of Toad - Neil, Courtney and Gilbo!
Me and Vicki

So tomorrow is my last work day. It's an early start for me too - 7am - and I think we are heading over to Norman island. Not sure how many divers there are or where we are going but hopefully it'll be a good day. I'm thinking of having a little goodbye meal/drinks thing as well at the chinese which I haven't been to yet. I hope it's nice. I'm supposed to be having my exit interview today with Tom but he's still teaching the EFR course so it will have to be another day.

Got Monday to pack and get things together. Hope all is well with everyone.
Hugs
H x

Day Twenty-five & -six

Yesterday I was off and so Neil and I took a drive around the island a little so I could check out other areas. We drove all the way out to Long Bay which is over on the west side on the north coast. It is absolutely gorgeous as you will see below! There is a lot more surf on the north side and we sat for a short spell watching the pelicans feed. We then drove up along the north coast for a while and then up the mountain into Sage national park so I could take a look at the view. From there it was back down into Road Town for some errands and then back to the apartment.


Last night there was a power cut, thankfully not long after I had made dinner for myself. Luckily I had some charge on my laptop so I could watch a movie as Courtney was working on the night dive.

Today has been my second day off and I booked to do a DPV (diver propulsion vehicle - those fun-looking scooters you see in James Bond type movies!) course.
Neil ended up being my instructor so we had a fun couple of dives on the RMS Rhone. I borrowed an underwater camera as well and I'm so glad I did as you will see from the pics below!


We saw the seahorse!! And I saw Fang and his buddy under the bow sprit too! YESSSS!!! I was beginning to think I wouldn't see them before I leave as my last two work days are both dive/dive and maybe I wouldn't end up on the Rhone again?!


This is the lucky porthole we tell all the divers about - you rub it three times and make a wish! See how it's all shiny from the rubbing?!

Tonight is the booze cruise on Jeff's yacht and so I will hopefully have some pics to show in the next couple of days. Sunday is my last work day and so that leaves me Monday to pack and get some gifts for home and say goodbye to everyone I've met.

Day Twenty-two, -three and -four

Monday and today have both been cruise ship days. Today was good as I got to dive both bow and stern sections of the Rhone although the first dive was way short!! I had 5 divers and two of them are married. As we are about to descend down the line to the wreck the wife says to the husband "did you tell her about your ears?" He of course hadn't so I figure right we'll take our time down the line and be ok. Well he drops down the line just fine. I get half way down and look around thinking why do I only have 4 divers and when I look up the wife is still on the surface. Turns out the last dive she made she had a cold (NEVER DIVE WITH A COLD!!) and so she ended up getting a nose bleed and it freaked her out. She of course was now somewhat freaked at the memory and so we went down nice and slow and she was fine. I get to the bottom of the line and my 3 other divers have disappeared. They have decided to follow Jason (the other leader) around the back of the wreck even though I told them to wait for me at the bottom!! I haul ass to try to catch them and tell them to stop, wait for me and finally reach them as they are about to head into the swim thru!!

So finally we get on with the dive and I take them through the wreck. On the other side of the swim thru I ask for all their air and the husband is down to 1100 psi! We head for the line again at 1000 so I'm like "right where do I take them now for a couple of minutes that will leave him enough time to do his safety stop and not blow through the tank?!" So we rode the current over the top of the wreck and headed back. Shortest dive of my life - 18 mins including 3 minutes safety stop. Oy!!

So after the surface interval of almost an hour we head back to the stern section and there is quite a strong current there which I knew was going to be difficult for this group, especially going through the air so fast. We manage to get about 28 mins on the second dive and still I ended up having to send up the husband early. I didn't do that on the first dive because I wasn't too sure whether I could just leave him hanging on the line. Because the visibility wasn't so great either at the bow even if I knew I could have sent him up, I probably wouldn't be able to see him and that is something I need to do!

I was so bummed about the bow section because the other divers got to see the seahorse that has been hanging at the coral nearby and I of course totally missed him! Boo hiss!! I also never saw Lobzilla on the stern or much else.

Afternoon was snorkelling which I enjoy but no one else seems to! And we made good tips today too which is always fab! :)

The previous two days were of a similar vein although I didn't have as many problems with ears or air blowers. One dive was just me and a guy who's an engineer on one of the cruise ships! Very cool dive and we got to see lots more than normal. Still no camera for me though as I'm not allowed when leading. I have the next two days off and so I'm hoping to be able to dive on one of those days so I can at least take a camera down there with me. I'm also hoping that some of the other staff are going to email me some of their pics so I can post them on here for you all to see. :)

Anyhoo not sure what else I'm doing on my days off other than on Friday night we are having a booze cruise on one of the instructor's boats. Should be a good laugh and hopefully some pictures will be taken so you can see the people I'm talking about!

After that there are two more days then I'm gonna be pretty much heading back home. It's been fun and has flown by so fast! I would so recommend you come out here if you can. But make sure you organise transport if you plan to stay on Tortola. I would definitely say you should charter a boat and a captain too if you can't sail. The best way to see everything here, most definitely!

Hope everyone is well
Hugs
H x

Day Twenty & Twenty One

These past two days have been all about diving. We've had a family of 4 from the States diving both days as the son was completing a Deep dive Specialty and the daughter her Open Water. Both parents can dive so they accompanied a child each on their respective dives. One the Sunday we also had the grandparents join us for some snorkelling which I guided. The site was quite disappointing and they were all set for heading back to the boat when I spotted an eagle ray and shouted for them to come take a look. As none of the divers saw the ray they were very pleased in the end that they stayed wet! Saturday was another ugh-y day for me though as the first dive site was at Santa Monica which is about a mile off Norman island and consequently was very swell-y! So of course I ended up hurling again over the side right after all the divers had got in the water. I took some Bonine (seasick tablets) on Sunday as well as wearing my bands but as the water was like glass all day I can hardly say whether they helped or not! :)
The afternoon dives on Saturday were again at the Rhone and I led my first trip around the stern section. I managed to finally see Lobzilla! And boy is he huge!!! He was sitting in a very large section of the wreck just chilling and I nearly swam right past him until I clocked that his attenae were actually not huge bits of coral but were in fact attached to him. Hehe. We saw another lobster and again lots of lovely fishes (see card in an earlier post below) but no rays or turtles unfortunately. Apparently one of the other groups saw some turtles right behind us but they never let us know! :(

There has been some confusion it seems about this gig I mentioned. Apparently the band weren't booked to play and so of course it didn't happen. Maybe they'll get something together for this weekend as this is my last week here. I can't believe it has flown by so quickly but it has. I'll be home in 8 days and trying to get myself organised to do my Instructors course as soon as possible. I've been in touch with the company I mentioned before in Cyprus and they don't take on DM's as they use people who are doing their DM course as their assistants. I know having spoken to a lot of people here about working as a DM that it is possible in certain locations but that you're pretty much not going to get paid. So to earn any money you need to be a dive instructor and the more specialties you can teach the better.

Anyway hope everyone is well
Hugs
H x

Day Eighteen & Nineteen

Back to work after my two fabulous days off! Yesterday (Thursday) was supposed to be a full-on cruise ship day but it turned out that one of the ships cancelled claiming an email had been sent but we knew nothing of this. The second cruise ship were supposed to have a fair few certified divers but Jeff and I ended up with 2 Discover Scuba Divers. So as with all DSD's we take them over to Cooper Island to do their skills and education stuff right off the beach. As I had spent almost all afternoon with Bella yesterday she comes bounding over to me when we pull into the dock on Atlantis (one of the smaller boats) and proceeds to jump on board as Jeff is going through the education! I manage to drag her off while I take all the gear to the water's edge. One of the divers had never snorkelled before and was having a lot of issues with getting used to the gear so he didn't end up doing the dive at all. I basically walked around the shallows of the water with him holding my hands so he could get used to breathing through the regulator. He didn't feel comfortable enough to do the dive and as he hadn't completed the required skills anyway we couldn't let him do it. So he sat with me on the boat when we took the remaining diver to the Rhone for her dive.
The afternoon we had a family of 4 and another guy who also dived the Rhone. Two of the family hadn't dived much before and had brand new kit too so it all had to be set up to fit the tanks. One of the BCD's was a Scubapro and their clasp system to keep it attached to the tank is not friendly! It took a great big bite out of my thumb and I almost bled all over the ladies new kit!! Not good. It has been stinging ever since - especially when I get it wet and boy does that happen a lot in this position!! :)
The father of the family lost his new snorkel when he was climbing out so someone out there is going to find themselves a new piece of kit. We dropped them back at Cooper and then headed back to base. Courtney had band practice again last night for their gig on Saturday and I just headed to the apartment for some food and a long shower - I was barely in the water much today but I seem to get even saltier when that happens!
Today was another cruise ship day and Dale, Neil and I were on Discovery with 8 DSD's. So again over to Cooper and then the Rhone. This afternoon I was on base again and so I had Neil show me how to service a regulator. All the bits you need come in a kit ordered from the manufacturer but in this case one of the mouthpieces plastic covers had cracked so no wonder the owner thought it was leaking! As they are not kept in stock it can't be totally repaired so will have to go back to the owner so he can decide what to do with it.
I've been wearing my seasick bands as usual but on some days I really feel like I'm going to hurl overboard! It seems to happen mostly at the Rhone. I don't know whether it's beacuse of its sort-of exposed position - it sits right at the edge of Salt Island and so consequently any waves are crashing onto the rocks and then around into the mooring field. When you're diving it is almost always ok down below but on the surface you're bouncing around like a cork! I'm usually fine when the boat is in motion en route to whichever site but as soon as we tie up that's when the ugh-ness starts to kick in. I can see myself becoming a land-based instructor at this rate! :)
I've been offered a position with a company based in Cyprus on completion of their Instructor course. I need to book and pay a deposit before the end of this month to get 10% off the price. I can afford to do the course but at this stage without selling my car I won't be able to get myself kitted out and pay for the exam fees and some books that are required. As the course starts on April 21 I'm not sure if that will give me enough time to get back home, get the car sold and get everything I need and then get over to Cyprus a few days before it starts to settle in. I'm wondering if the company will take me on without being an Instructor (in a similar capacity to what I'm doing now) so I can maybe take the course and exam at a later date and thereby gain more experience in the meantime.
As much as I've enjoyed my few weeks here I do wonder if it's been enough time to decide if it's for me. Some days are totally great, lots of fun and the customers are fab but then obviously other days aren't so good and I get back to the apartment totally exhausted and feeling well beyond my age, thinking can I handle another 5+ years of doing this every day? I definitely feel a lot worse when those ugh-y sick feelings kick in. I know it's supposed to pass the more time you're out on the water but how long does that take? :)
Anyway that's all for now. Hope everyone is well
Hugs
H x

Day Seventeen

Today I took a trip over to Cooper Island. Again the weather has been truly gorgeous - so hot in fact I nearly burnt my feet on the afternoon sand. I had a lovely relaxing day until the afternoon when Bella (the dog who lives at Cooper Island Beach Club) and I had a great play session. She loves to swim and chase thrown coconuts so that's what we did while running up and down the beach. I think I was more exhausted at the end than she was! :) I'll try to add a photo of Bella tomorrow (EDIT - DONE) - she's a cutie pie black lab.



Other than that I haven't done much else. Last night Courtney and I went to Pusser's for dinner. Another intern arrives today I think although I'm not sure when she is due to start work. Tomorrow is another cruise ship day for me - Ocean Village - which is one I haven't worked before. I'm not sure how many people are diving but today was apparently very busy.
This weekend Courtney is playing keyboards for the band that Neil and Emily's boyfriend (Gilbo) have formed. Matko (the instructor who was recently laid off) has now gone home and he played bass guitar so they felt something was missing with just Neil's drums and Gilbo's guitar. They have a gig this Saturday at Cooper so that should be good fun.
Otherwise it is work all the way through to next week now. I can't believe I am more than half way through my internship. It has definitely flown by so far. I'm somewhat disappointed that I wasn't told I could possibly stay here longer as Courtney is doing as I would love to stick around a bit longer. However I've been looking into doing my IDC (to become an instructor) at various places and have pretty much been offered a job in Cyprus with a company there once I've completed and passed the exam and gotten into teaching status. I just hope that I can get my things together in time to get there for it starting in mid April.
Anyway that's all for now.
Hope everyone is well
Hugs
H x

Day Fifteen & Sixteen

Today (Monday) was another dive day and there were only 3 guests and 3 crew, so it seemed like total one to one service! Two of the guests wanted to refresh their skills and one of those still had to complete their Open Water course so I dived with one guest at the first site and 2 at the second. I'd never dived either site so again I was a wee bit trepidatious about leading them around. The first site (The Indians) was ok but the visibility wasn't as good as it has been lately in other sites so that was disappointing. But we did spot a green eel - about 4 feet long - just hiding in the reef.
The second site (Kelly's Cove) was cool with lots of lovely colourful fishes but no eels or lobsters. We did see some hermit crabs though and a couple of sea cucumbers. We also had a bit of a surface swim as another company had hooked up at the mooring ball nearest the site.
Both sites are near to Norman Island so we had a late lunch there after dropping off the guests. I'd only been to Norman once before and that was for a half day and briefly dropping off/picking up guests at other times so I thought it would be good to stop there for a whole day if I could.

So that's what I did today (Tuesday). Neil was on Norman so he gave me a lift in on Explorer and I spent the whole day sunning myself, snorkelling and generally just chilling out! Just fab! Felt totally like a holiday today. There were lots of people on island from around 1030am but from 850am (when we arrived) I was the only person on the beach (not including staff). Awesome! I snorkelled around the dock and was surrounded by fishes, a big barracuda and also a very cool sting ray who is about 2 foot across! He brushed past me on my 2nd snorkel trip and I almost pee'd with excitement :) hehehe!
Have just got back now and I'm quite bronzed and salty. I have tomorrow off too and am not sure what to do. I think I may take a trip out to Cooper Island and do the same type of thing. The weather today was just fab - barely a cloud in the sky and not one single drop of rain. This is just the best news because all my other days off have had some rain and so I'm holding out some hope that tomorrow will be good too. Fingers crossed.
I've taken some photos of Norman today and will try to get them uploaded tomorrow (EDIT - DONE). Not sure of any plans for tonight but after the lovely easy day I may just hit the hay and try to stay as blissed out as possible! :)



Hope all is well
Hugs
H x

Day Thirteen & Fourteen

Yesterday I was on base all day so had quite a quiet day. Tom, Dale and I went to Sunsail again to pick up and deliver some equipment as well as try to sell some more dives. It was quite busy but not many people seemed interested in diving. I then had a few little projects to do on our return such as re-writing the sizes on all the wetsuits (they tend to fade a bit) and restocking first aid kits.
Last night Emily had a barbeque for all the staff and some of her friends that are visiting. She lives on the other side of the island so it was quite a trek to get there. Steve picked us up and dropped me off and Neil brought Court's back later as I was pretty tired.
Today was another dive day. Rob and I had 2 divers from base and then picked up another from Cooper Island. We went to Shark Point but it was too rough to pick up a mooring ball so we went to Carrot Shoals instead. That too was really bouncy and Rob took them for a 30 minute dive. I yet again had a bit of a barfing moment - even though I was wearing my bands! Still I didn't have much to feed the fish with but that yucky feeling lingered for a while. We then moved on to a reef called Black Forest just off Peter Island and I dived this one. I've never been to the site before so it was quite interesting to try and lead the divers around but as soon as we arrived there were 3 turtles - 2 small ones and one slightly larger. Very cool. Never saw them on the dive though which was disappointing. Still there were some cool fishes and lots of corals.
I also tried driving the boat today - Atlantis, a 26 foot monohull which was fab! It was really choppy for most of the journeys around so that made it pretty wet for everyone but it was great practice. I also docked the boat a couple of times - at Cooper and again back at base. I think I did really well and probably just need more practice to get it down without being told where to aim for.
There is another intern arriving this week which should be good. I also have 2 days off together which is fantastic but I have no idea what to do with myself for them. Surely I should go to another island for the night or something? We shall see...
Hope all is well with everyone
Hugs
H xx

Day Twelve

I've been off today so have just had an easy day, doing errands and laying in til 10am! Wow, that felt good. I thought I may show you some pictures of the apartment I'm sharing with Courtney (if blogger lets me upload them all!). We are in apartment 5 which is upstairs and about 5 minutes walk to the Marina. There is a shortcut through some other buildings to get there otherwise it means walking up to the road and then along through the Marina gates.


This is my bed and drawers. The mattress is quite squeaky so every time I turn over in bed I feel like I'm gonna wake Courts! :)


This is Courtney's bed (we are going to swap this weekend so I get to spread out - yay!!)


This is the kitchen area. There is a stove, microwave and small fridge. Occasionally the power goes out so sometimes we come back to a warm fridge! There is also a small sink - it really is dinky and just fits a full size dinner plate. :)


This is the patio/balcony area which we hardly use, although I have sat out there a couple of times when it's been nice weather.


This is the view! Shame the pool isn't filled as that would be so fab!! You can just see in the distance behind the trees a tall mast from one of the yachts in the marina.
There's no point showing the bathroom as it's a typical bathroom. The lighting in it is great though. There is a ceiling fan in the main room and also an AC unit which we have not really used as the weather lately has been pretty cold for BVI. Although for me it is still warm enough for shorts and a T. The only thing needed in the apartment is some better lighting (especially on my side of the room) and maybe a TV (there is a TV unit but no TV?!). Still we are usually so tired come the end of each day that reading for about 20 minutes is about all I can muster. Heheh.

I know when a lot of people think of the Caribbean they think it must be all luxury and amenities and so on. However there is the usual poorer side to it too. I spoke to an American couple who have been living on their boat in the marina for a couple of years and they said they thought the BVI was almost 3rd world in comparison to other Caribbean places they've been. I suppose I can understand that as you definitely will not find any Starbucks, McDonalds or other franchise type places. It is also quite wild with lots of active wildlife in the roadside. I've seen plenty of lizards, newts (a small one took up residence in my slipper the other night!), etc as well as the random chickens (who crow at all times of day and night), goats and so on. The roads are not perfect and you most definitely need a 4x4 to get about as Tortola is very hilly. It takes about 20-25 minutes to walk from the apartment to East End (where the nearest market and laundry are). It would take probably an hour if not more to get into Road Town on foot as there are at least 3 hills to get over/around. You definitely need a car or some other form of transport as although it is quite easy to get a taxi it can be hit and miss. There are some very friendly, helpful people who will stop and give you a ride if you're heading in the same direction but you can be waiting for a while or just a few minutes.

Hope everyone is well
Hugs
H x

Day Eleven

Today was yet another cruise ship day for me and it was the first early start I had. We had to be in at 7am instead of 730am to pick up the cruise guests from Road Town. Again we visited the Rhone wreck but this time I actually led a dive around the bow section. I was supposed to have 4 guests with me but ended up somehow with 6! One of the guests had a mild panic attack before diving but then she sorted herself out and came with me.
It was great leading this dive as I felt much calmer after my first leading trip and also because there is so much activity around the wreck and reef. A seahorse has been spotted at the bow sprit and so we have all been looking to find him again. There is also a huge lobster (Lobzilla is his name!! :) hehehe) hanging around the davits too. Very cool.
I was surface support for the second dive and there were some hairy moments with a diver having another panic attack who consequently didn't dive again. Another diver pulled out of the second dive as the wind and waves had picked up and he was knackered just getting to the ball.
Megan, Neil and I then took everyone back to the cruise ship pier and picked up some more snorkellers. Neil left us and that meant I had to do all the crew work on my own. I think I actually did really well as I'm getting the hang of tying off the boat at the docks and sorting out fenders and so on. I also gave the goodbye talk and spent a lot of time with the small group of snorkellers, about half of whom had never snorkelled before. They all had a great splash about at the Caves near Norman Island and then a quick trip to the beach and Pirates on Norman. A couple went snorkelling again off the beach and dock and managed to see a couple of rays around the dock! Very cool!!
We've just dropped off everyone at the pier and have refuelled and headed back to base. Filling the boat's fuel tanks takes quite some doing! 140+ gallons!! I think tonight is just gonna be an easy one (for me at least) as I didn't sleep too well last night with all the shenanigans. I am off tomorrow too so it would be nice to not get out of bed until at least 10am! We'll see.
Hugs
H xx

Day Ten

Today was another cruise ship day and also Courtney and I actually worked together on the same boat! Every cruise ship company hits the RMS Rhone wreck for 2 dives and this one was no different. There were a few Discover Scuba Divers though who needed training so Rob, Neil and I got dropped off at Cooper Island for that. I need to shadow 2 more DSD's and then I am allowed to teach them myself (I think that's how it works!). One of the divers had a lot of trouble staying underwater and then he had some problems with clearing his mask. In the end he decided that he wouldn't dive, he'd just snorkel over the wreck. I felt so frustrated for him as he was such a nice guy and was trying really hard to get it right.
Steve picked us up again from Cooper so we could take the DSD's back to the Rhone for their dive. I followed Rob and his group around the stern section trying to learn the whereabouts of everything.
We then headed back to port to pick up some more snorkellers. Neil, Court and I got off the boat in dock and took all the gear back to the base. We then spent a few hours filling tanks and doing general base work until the rest of the boats came back.
Today was Courtney's 21st birthday so when everyone was back we had a drink on the marina. Steve then picked us both up later to take us to Neil and Ria's house for a barbeque. The food was just so yummy - definitely recommend the salmon and tasty sausages they have here on island.
Steve dropped me off at the apartment as I had an early start and he then took Courtney over to the Last Resort bar/restaurant. I left the door unlocked for Courtney and around midnight I hear Courts come back in. I turn over and see this figure in the room and then Courts starts shouting "hey, what are you doing?" amongst other things. It turns out some guy had sneaked into the apartment and had grabbed her bag! He made a bolt for the door and managed to get past her and out into the night. Courts chased him but he legged it and was gone. I barely managed to get up out of bed in the time this all happened.
To say the least I was very freaked out because not only did I not hear this guy at all but I have no idea how long he may have been in the apartment. Obviously I'm very lucky because I suppose things could have been much worse and none of my things got stolen. Courtney has spent her day off cancelling her credit cards and talking to the police about it.
Anyway thats all the news for now
Hugs
H xx

Day Nine

Courtney and I had today off so we decided to take a ferry over to Virgin Gorda. We've heard a lot about a place called the Baths and how beautiful it is and so had to pay it a visit. The ferry cost $30 from Road Town and took about 30 minutes to get there. We then got a taxi from the ferry terminal to the Baths for $3 each one way. The guy came to pick us up again later (which we had to pre-arrange with him when he dropped us there) as there are no taxis that just sit waiting for you. There were a lot of people visiting from cruise ships or charter companies and so walking through the rocks was quite time-consuming to get to the lovely beach at the other side. I'll add some pictures tomorrow (EDIT - DONE, SEE BELOW) as I haven't uploaded them yet - truely they are gorgeous! :)


This is the first beach you arrive at after walking down through the first set of rocks.


This is the Baths.


Do you see the orca?


This is looking out into the channel.


One of the beach's permanent residents!


The gorgeous beach you reach after your trek through the rocks!


This is the first beach again (after practically everyone has left!).

We also stopped there for lunch and as we got there quite early decided we may as well spend the whole day as the weather was lovely (for the most part) and we weren't too sure what else to do on VG. Within about an hour of us getting to the beach everyone else had practically left so there must have been about 8 people total on the beach! Just fab!! :)
When we returned to Tortola we got a little food shopping done and then hitched a lift back to the apartment. We then got ready for the Full Moon Party at Trellis Bay. Got a taxi there for $5 and joined the growing mass of people on the beach. The craft fair was still on and there were lots more people actually manning the stalls. I got a fab cute pair of shell earrings and Courtney got a wooden mask and a lovely silver banana leaf ring.
The rest of the dive shop peeps arrived not long after we did and we sat talking and laughing all night. (Unfortunately I don't have any photos of the FMP as my camera batteries died right as we arrived! Boo, hiss!!) Finally Steve gave us a lift home and we hit the hay.


This is Trellis Bay taken on a previous visit. Imagine the metal ball things filled with fire and lots of people standing around/dancing to the band/drinking etc etc :)

Day Eight

Been a very busy day today and I led my first dive ever! I had 6 divers following me on a site I've never dived before and I was kinda scared about it. Still everyone came back alive and well and happy with what they saw so that's all good! Still it was a tough dive because the current was really strong and there was some surge around the point we were diving which really didn't help my bouyancy at the end of the dive and I felt like I was flying to the surface along with some of my divers!! Not Good At All!!!! I also did surface support today for the first time on my own on one of the bigger boats (Discovery today) and that was quite interesting to be in charge of the boat for a spell. I like doing surface support as it utilises my organisational talents! :)
Last night Courtney and I went to Pussers again for dinner - another yummy pizza - and lots of talk about life and loves. It's Courtney's birthday this week and it is also a full moon midweek. Every month they have a full moon party at Trellis Bay. It's supposed to be great fun and so we're hoping to head down there for it. One of the instructors who's been laid off is leaving on Wednesday and so it's also sort of a goodbye party for him too.
This past weekend was good although I didn't get much chance to write. I was off on Saturday and so again went into Road Town for supplies (food, more shorts for the boat, a new bikini). Sunday was an easy day as the dives got cancelled so Tom and I had to stay on base and do some random jobs. I also got to drive my first boat - a small RIB called J Lady - which was great fun! :) Tom also taught me how to use the air compressor to fill tanks and so I spent a lot of the day doing that. Courtney and I also went to Trellis Bay one of the evenings for dinner. It took us a fair bit to get back home though - no one would pick us up on the way back for ages and it looked like we'd have to walk all the way! Much too far for that!! Finally though we got a lift so phew.


Courtney and I at Trellis Bay - note the extremely wind-blown hairdo's!!

Anyway thats all for now. Hope all is well with everyone
Hugs
H xx

Day Five

Today was another cruise ship day this time with Princess Cruises. There were six staff on the boat today - Emily as captain, Neil, Tom, Mark, Dale and me. Dale and I were to get off at Cooper Island to do a Discover Scuba Diving course with one of the guests. As I'd never done one before Tom said I need to see them done 4 times and then I can apparently get certified to teach them myself - cool! The wind and the waves were so bad today. Really strong wind made the waves even higher. And yet again it poured it down for the morning at any rate. Apparently the first dive at the Rhone this morning while we were doing the DSD was really difficult, so much so that they changed the second dive there to a reef dive in a more sheltered area.
The DSD was good to see but it was difficult for me to dive as I couldn't get submerged at all. Mainly due to the fact that I had to hold on to a dive float so that any boats coming into the dock know there are divers down and not to go above. With the weather being so bad I was being pulled back up by the flag and it was a complete nightmare to control. Anyway the DSD went well and we were then picked up again by the boat and taken to the reef.
Chromis reef is no doubt so called because of the large amount of chromis fish found there! There were of course the usual suspects of parrotfish and butterflyfish but I also saw a trumpetfish, a sand diver, another balloonfish, a few blue tangs and a FAB ray and another turtle!! Awesome! I basically followed around the DSD and Dale although I joined them late and left early because for the latter I hadn't changed tanks so was getting low on air. For the former I was helping others into the water.
We dropped the divers back at the cruise ship pier and picked up only 12 snorkellers after lunch (there were supposed to be 40!). Tom and Mark also left the boat to return to base. The company emailed the shore-ex desk to say that the swell was huge and obviously a lot of people may not be able to handle it. As it turned out I had to rescue 2 swimmers who'd gottten exhausted and couldn't get back to the boat. We paid a quick stop at Norman Island right after the snorkel too so they could go onto the beach and get a drink or snorkel from the beach. Unfortunately someone had had a stroke or heart attack and the coast guard had been called to get them off the island. All quite dramatic!!
Anyway we then got everyone back to the pier again and sorted out the boat. I don't remember if I've said before that all the boats need cleaning every day after use. The big boats obviously take a bit more work to do and the heads need cleaning too - yay, how pleasant!! :) All the boats are also re-stocked with tanks after each day and boy are they heavy. There is a trolley to carry 6 tanks at a time and you need some ooomph to get it in motion.
Last night some of the dive guys who've formed a band played at a place called Trellis Beach. A bunch of us went down there to watch and Courtney and I had a mooch about the place. Very cool and funky. They have a local craft fair there quite regularly and Ria (one of the DM's) is hoping to show some of her artwork.
I am off tomorrow and may venture into town again but Tom may be able to take me to a lookout point or a beach on the other side of the island if he gets finished with his jobs earlier.
Oh and super bonus - I wore the seasick wristbands all day today and was totally fine! Not one iota of queasiness! Awesome! I am going to have to wear them all the time I think :) YAY!!!! No barfing today :)
Hope everyone is well
H x

Day Four

Today was a good day although I got completely soaked in yet another downpour! What is with all the rain since I've arrived? Rob and I went to Cooper Island to open up the little shop there and try to sell some gear/courses/whatever we could. Rob was sent today instead of Tom so he could fix the compressor there. Tom was off on another cruise ship day. So Rob brought his sister with us who is visiting from the UK and we hung out on Cooper all day. Rob showed me how to set up and take down the shop and all the procedures and everything for the place. Then it was just a case of waiting for customers to come in. By the end of the day we'd sold a few tank fills, a regulator and a few other little bits and pieces. As the weather was soooo bad this morning I was surprised that there even was any sales.

I managed to take a few pictures today from Cooper so will try to add them asap. (EDIT - DONE, SEE BELOW) Tomorrow is going to be another busy day I think as it's another cruise ship day for me. In an effort to stop my self throwing up all day again I've gotten some wrist bands that are supposed to prevent seasickness. I'll give them a shot as other than some ginger there isn't really much else I can try.


The dock at Cooper Island.


The boutique and compressor shed behind on Cooper.


The SCD shop on Cooper.


Another view of the shop.

Let's hope the weather improves for tomorrow as all this rain is making me wonder why I even left England! Hehehe
Evening activities so far have not extended to much else than recuperating from the heaving by watching a couple of movies. Tonight a couple of the staff who have started a band together are hoping to play somewhere on the island. Nothing specific has been organised I think but if they get everything sorted then that may be a plan. Otherwise probably yet another movie from my hard disk or a quick trip to the bar above the shop to check it out.
Hope everyone is well
Hugs
H xx

Day Three

Today was crazy! We had a full boat for both morning and afternoon trips with passengers from the NCL Dawn cruise line. There were 16 divers in the am for 2 dives on the RMS Rhone and then 40 snorkelers in the afternoon for 2 1/2 hour snorkels next to Norman Island. Everyone was really friendly and very generous with tips (and the best thing is that interns get to share in the tips split too!), even the snorkelers who didn't require as much as assistance.
Yet again the heavens opened and we had a real heavy down pour. It only lasted about 3/4 hour max but it was right when we were tying off the boat back at Marina Cay to drop of the guests to the ship. No one wanted to get off! Emily (the captain for today) had to tell them they HAD to leave as we needed to get back under way! :) So not only did I get completely soaked but so did every one else!!
I also think I spoke a bit too soon with regards to getting my sea legs. I was sick so many times today I lost count - it had to be at least 5!! Ughhh :( Everyone said to keep drinking lots of water and keep myself hydrated but it just all ended up coming back up again. I found myself with a fab pulsing headache and no way of keeping down a couple of nurofen. I attempted to eat lunch but that too paid me a return visit. Oy! I am going to have to get me some sea sick tablets or ginger because this can't go on. Apparently everyone goes through it and it seems to be a great weight loss tactic too as I don't feel like eating much right now, evn though I'm starving! I think today has been the hardest day so far, not only because of how busy it is but also the physical side of it too. Being sick really took all my strength away and hauling tanks, kit and so on at the end of every dive and then again at the end of the day really takes it out of you too. I should have muscles to die for come the end of this month.
I'm also finding myself covered in bruises from I don't know what! And in very strange, random places too that I think how did that get there?! My hands are getting cut up a bit and my feet too seem to be developing a tough layer on the soles. Ahhh the joys of a scuba intern, eh?
As for the dives this morning - they were both great. On the first I saw a turtle, lots of lovely fishes and there is a swim-thru on the wreck that was great but a little creepy (because so many people died on the wreck). The fishes iuncluded: balloonfish, schoolmaster, rock beauty, reef butterflyfish, yellowhead wrasse, bluehead wrasse, spotted truckfish (very cool), foureye butterflyfish and some grey snapper. The second dive saw more of the same but also a big lobster and some of the guests also saw a ray (although there was some debate over the type of ray it was!!). The second dive also had a pretty strong current although Bart (one of the DM's) said its been much stronger than that so I'm gonna have to kick harder still in future.
With the day being so crazy busy I haven't had a chance to take any photos at all today but will try to tomorrow. Also as the weather was soooo poopy it didn't seem worth it even if I'd had the time.
For anyone thinking of coming to BVI please bring (or get while you're here) a TON of mosquito repellent. I am bit all over! And they seem to find their way through the nets too. Very adaptable creatures - grrr!
Hope all is well with you.
Hugs
H xx
(Pic taken in the apartment bathroom)

Day Two

I haven't worked today as all new interns have to shadow their mentors for at least the first week and Tom was off today too. So I went into the office (at 8am, even on my day off!) to see if I could catch a lift into Road Town. Managed to get a ride on one of the boats that was heading there to pick up some German cruise ship passengers. There were 3 ships in port today and boy was town busy. One road in particular was just heaving with traffic - totally bumper to bumper. I had a walk about and tried to orientate myself with the place. When we were heading in it looked really cloudy and yes after a couple of hours of mooching about the heavens opened! Quite the downpour but then I suppose that's what keeps the island green eh? I've taken some photos (see below) and have some more to add from Day One and also of the apartment in a separate post. I'm currently in the crew room using the computer rather than my own as I haven't been able to get the wireless thing set up on my laptop yet.

Anyway town is quite nice. There are some really pretty buildings and Main St is quite cute. There is also a small craft village (below) right next to the harbour with all sorts of T-shirts, keyrings, cups, hats and general tat to buy with BVI or Tortola on it. I was looking for a cup to use in the crew room ($6!) and another pair of shorts as my nice ones already have boat grease on them!! So I found myself a pair of red Billabongs for (OMG!!!) $45. I dunno whether they tack on a few extra bucks because it's cruise ship day or if that is always the price but then I guess BVI is expensive for pretty much everything. I also found the supermarkets and so have a bit more food for the week.



You'll notice as you go anywhere in BVI that chickens (especially) are everywhere. These two (above) were having a spot of brunch at the craft market!
I was told to flag down a taxi for the journey back and after about 10 minutes managed to get one to take me back to the Marina. Two others stopped to askme where I was headed but then drove on once I'd told them. When I got in the third taxi there were already 3 others in it (it's a share type of bus/taxi system) and the trip cost me $3 - not bad! Took about 10 minutes to reach Hodges Creek (well it did but then the driver drove right on past and dropped off the others first!! Only as they were getting out did he realise/remember that I was still in the back and he asked me why I didn't say anything?! I said I figured he'd just drop me off when he was headed back into town :) heheh So I managed to get a little look see in the other direction!)
Last night my roomie Courtney (above) and I walked along to Pusser's - a bar/restaurant about 10 minutes walk down the road. One of the other staff said they did great pizzas so we figured we'd go take a look. I ordered a medium mushroom pizza (apparently the small is only 4 inches!) and it came out a good 11 inches across. Way bigger than I normally get so I had the rest today for lunch. It was really, really good. The base is just right - not too thin that the pizza flops over when you're holding it but not too thick that you're full of dough and not toppings! Cost about $17. While we were waiting for it we decided to have a drink in the bar. Cocktails were on Courtney as she'd received $25 in tips that day. She ordered a margarita and wasn't impressed and I had a "Nelsons Blood" - rum (at least a double measure was poured straight in with no actual measuring!!), cranberry, orange, lime and angoustura bitters. Really quite tasty but the rum was pretty darn strong and even though I was eventually eating my pizza at the bar too, I felt a wee bit woozy on the walk home. (Am I a total lightweight?) It wasn't that comforting to see the bar person having to read the menu to know what to mix - I actually mentioned to Court that it was hardly Tom Cruise in Cocktail and she said she was thinking exactly the same!! Hehehehe! :D
My first night's sleep wasn't that great but the second was much better - was that all to do with the rum? Quite possibly!
It is now barely 3pm and I feel like I've already had quite a full day. I think I'll be heading back to the apartment to chill out, read some of my new book/my intern folder and get ready for Day Three - cruise ship day with NCL.
Love n hugs
H x

Day One

Today has been my first day with Sail Caribbean Divers (shop at Hodges Creek Marina above) and it's been a long one! :) We start at 730am every morning with a meeting in the office to discuss what we'll each be doing that day. Some days start earlier, some later, but mostly it'll be 730am. We've only just finished today and it's now 6pm - so 10.5 hours on the boat (well pretty much). My mentor is Tom (an instructor born in Jamaica) who's a total sweet heart. Also on the boat today was a DM called Mark who has been here for about 3 months and is also from the UK. We picked up another guy called Tom from Norman Island who was completing his last 3 dives of his open water course. I joined the Toms on the first dive - which was very cool, but unfortunately no u/w pictures to show (need to get a u/w camera). Only shallow this one to about 20m for about 20 mins. Lots of lovely fishes and some great coral too - will also have to get myself a fish ID chart so I can tell you the names of them. Gonna try to post a picture of the chart (done - see below) if possible so you'll be able to see them too if I can't get a camera sorted soon.

EDITED TO ADD - Fishes/corals seen on the 1st dive include: brain coral, basket sponges, orange tube sponges, staghorn coral, gorgonian fans, balloonfish, queen triggerfish, reef butterflyfish and a few others that I now don't remember!
We moved from Angelfish reef to another place for the last 2 dives (called the Indians I think??!) and then from there took Tom back to Norman Island (where he works) and opened up the new shop they have on the beach there (see pics below). Had a quick break for some lunch (yummy chicken Caesar salad while the guys had burgers) and then headed back to the shop for some O2 administration training and run through of my rescue dive skills. It's been so long since I last did any rescue training I am somewhat rusty to say the least but the last attempt (there were only 3) was much better (so Tom says). :) Gonna have to do another rescue in a few days just to prove all is well.


I have tomorrow off as Tom is also off (I'm pretty much shadowing him this week) so I'm hoping to be able to get into Road Town so I can have a look around, get some little errands done and generally get a feel for the place. Then its back to work on Wednesday with a group from one of the cruise ships. Usually cruise days are really hectic/manic so it should be interesting - eeek! :)
Anyhoo that is it for now. I will post more and hopefully add pics soon. Hope everyone is well.
Oh PS the weather is gorgeous - I'm already getting a tan. I think the temp today was high 70's. And with all the water action my hair is getting pretty darn super curly but slightly blonder already.
PPS Just to give you a laugh I also threw up over the side today - fish food!! Still maybe I've got my sea legs now and fingers crossed that will be it :)

Love to all
H x

15 hours to go!

I am packed and ready to go. With so much going on trying to pack up my things and moving out of the apartment, putting things in storage and generally trying to organise my life I haven't really had a chance to get excited about my trip. But that has certainly kicked in now! I CAN'T WAIT TO GET THERE!! YEAAAHHHHH!! Not only for the sun as it is currently grey and rainy here in Blackpool but also for the complete change to what I'll be doing day to day. I have no idea really what's in store for me (other than having a quick re-read of the intern brochure they sent me) and so I'm kinda trepidatious about it but I'm excited too now.
I had a fab night out last night with some chums and am paying for it this morning with the sexy Eartha Kitt voice and general exhaustion that comes from staying out til gone 4am!! (Sheesh I think it's been a good 10 years since I last did that!) Lynda and I then went for a yummy breakfast this morning and she has just left for home. I miss you already sweetie - have a good meal tonight :)
Lyn suggested I take a photo everyday and post it to the blog which I think is a great idea. I'm definitely going to try to do it and just hope that I can get net access enough to do so. (And also that my "employers" don't mind me dragging a camera around with me constantly, heheh)
Anyway here's hoping there will be more regular posts to come so you can keep up with all that's happening and you can get to know the British Virgin Islands too.
Love
H

Shenanigans!

I don't know what it is about this trip of mine but there seems to be one thing after another with it right now! After the previous shenanigans regarding my flights I've now received an email saying that my flight from Tortola back to St Maarten has been cancelled!!! They won't be flying at all on that day and so I can either take a flight the day before or the day after! Obviously the day after is no good for me as I can't change my return flight so it would have to be the day before. But do I have the spare cash to spend on one night's accommodation in St Maarten? No I do not! So now what? There is another flight company I'm using for my flight in to Tortola - Liat - but I didn't book a return with them because the times didn't coincide with my second flight. It means just barely getting there in time to check in with the distinct possibility of any delays leading to me missing my flight. Or it means I sit in St Maarten airport for 7 hours. Maybe that wouldn't be so bad if I could check in my bags as soon as I get there and then go off somewhere for a while. But with the security at airports being as it is right now, would they let me leave? I really don't know. What I'm hoping is that maybe their is an inter-island ferry service but my 'net searches so far haven't brought up anything between Tortola and St Maarten. I can get to the USVI no problems but anywhere else seems a no go. What's a girl to do? I've emailed Mike (the guy who runs Sail Caribbean Divers) to see if he knows of anything else I can try.

I've had quite a time getting my professional liability insurance sorted too. The one company I wanted to go with won't cover me because they think that the majority of the clients I'll encounter will be US/Canada based and they don't cover any claims that originate there. So that means I'm having to pay more than double the first company's price to go with another company called DAN who do more specific dive accident insurance that also covers you for liability.

It's as if the universe is trying to stop me from getting there in one way or another. All very weird.

Meanwhile I'm pretty much packed up and ready to fly the coop. One of the guys who works in the hotel is looking for a new place with his partner and would like to move in here. However my landlord is looking to offer it to another couple who have been displaced from their current place because of a fire. Doesn't this all sound like something from a book or a movie or something? I really wonder sometimes whether writing about stuff that happens to me or people in my life would make a good book. I'm wondering whether to invest in a writing course advertised by a company called The Writer's Bureau. Apparently they teach you to sell your writing as well as obviously make your writing better.

Anyway, there is sure to be more occurring before I actually get out of Blackpool so I will post again soon.
Hugs

Welcome!

Hi there. I've set up this blog to record my little trip to the British Virgin Islands in March 2009. I'm hoping to add lots of lovely photos, ideas for things to do/see in the Islands and also some great places to eat and so on for those who might be thinking of visiting.
The reason I am travelling there is to take part in an internship with Sail Caribbean Divers for one month. So I'll also be posting hopefully lots of information on the scuba diving sites and other watersport related things. I hope you'll visit often and perhaps also take a look at my other blog - My Creative World.

Flight Ticket Shenanigans & Other Bits + More J!

Get comfy...this is a long one!
I thought I had nothing better to do than get my whole ticket booked with Just The Flight who I have used before when I've taken a long haul trip. Turns out actually no, that's not the case. Seems last night when I went to make my booking online things have changed somewhat!! I go online and book as normal then I receive an email this morning saying that they can't book the entire itinerary because of new rules regarding inter-airline e-tickets. Why offer the itinerary in the first plce then? My flight route is: Manchester to Paris, Paris to St Maarten, St Maarten to Tortola. This was one of the cheapest routes and also the one with the least amount of stopovers. And with all the hassle of flying through the US nowadays I didn't want to go that way and saddle myself with an overnight stay due to the flight timetables! So Air France was coming out a winner...or so I thought.
I called JTF to find out why they couldn't do my flight and they suggested calling Air France direct. So I thought stuff this phoning malarkey, lets do it online. I get all the way to paying for the flight only to find that AF's system will not allow me to book with my Maestro card because it is issued by HSBC. Apparently all HSBC Maestro cards have an issue number. Their system does not allow issue numbers with Maestro cards so I'm supposed to pay an additional £4 supplement to use my Visa?! I think not. I called their customer service department and the nice gentleman on the other end said you can pay by Visa and we'll knock off the surcharge because it's our fault. He says he'll make sure he writes that on my booking and when I call back with my Visa details they can push it through likkety-split!
HA!!! After calling my bank to make sure they would allow the transaction (the cost of the flight is more than my Visa limit) and going through all their shenanigans of transferring funds from my bank account to the Visa account, I finally get back on the phone to Air France only to be told that the "nice" gentleman did NOT put my waived surcharge on the system and the snotty lady said I would have to pay!! Well, red rag to a bull...I bloody don't think so. After much ranting on my part she said she would speak to a supervisor to find out who had spoken to me before and sort it out. She finally comes back to the call and says OK, we'll waive the fee, let's get you booked!
The best part of 2 hours, perhaps more, was spent just getting me from Manchester to St Maarten. I now have to book the short flights from there to Tortola and back online myself. I've got one half done, the other needs my passport details so that'll have to wait til I get back home. What a frigging nightmare!! And I've still to sort travel insurance and liability insurance yet. OMG!! Once the fees show on my account I'll know for sure, but I think it has turned out cheaper doing it this way. Perhaps by about £30 at the most but still, that's £30 towards my other costs. Yay!!

I've got the moving van booked. And the storage unit is arranged too. I put an ad on Gumtree for some of this furniture I want rid of and fingers crossed I have a guy coming on Sunday evening to take the largest lot. Now if only I can get the rest sold, then it'll be sweet. I've started taking small boxes of bits to the storage place as he's given me a really good deal. I've got two weeks free because I'm a previous customer AND he's letting me use the unit from now until when I'm officially taking it for nothing. WHAT A STAR!! So of course to save myself some moving money I'm trying to get shifted what I can myself. What I really could do with is some muscle-y chap to help me get things down from the attic as those boxes are quite heavy and awkward to move from up there, down the ladder to the landing on one's own.

Would you believe it, but Jon has been back in touch. After asking him where he went away to all those weeks ago I finally get an answer - down south (nothing if not specific is he!?). This was after much other "chat" about my going away. Somehow he has heard I'm heading to BVI and wanted to wish me good luck and hope it all works out for me. He's sorry things didn't work out but "u only regret things after they have happened, don't u?x" He said a 'little friend' told him. Now who this is I haven't had an answer to, but I have my suspicions and they point squarely at my landlord. I cannot see any of my friends telling him (and how could they when they don't have his contact info) and I don't think he's found this blog, as later in our conversation he said he didn't know what I was doing while I was away or for how long (all of which is on here) so that leaves the landlord who doesn't know what I'm doing but I think I told him where I was going. I feel violated and am sooo happy to be getting out of his place if that is what he does. Especially after all his "oooh I don't want to get involved" bollocks.

So I ask Jon if he regrets what he did. "Yes, what I did was wrong and I know that. I should not have messed with our plans!" I replied that he "made the choice to cheat. Things not going well for you?" He answered that he "just wanted to say good luck anyway." I said thanks and asked if he was happy. "Not really!" Apparently they are "not vibing" and he doesn't know what to do. He asked if I miss him so I said sometimes and asked the same. I had to wait til the next day to get a reply. "Yeah do." I asked him what he wants to do then about his life, relationship, etc. If he's not happy then he should make changes. Hell, he certainly made them with me even though I was unaware that he was unhappy. He replies "learnt from past experiences that changes are not good." Was that leaving me for some random shag?! I said "if you're in a crap situation why stay?" to which he replies "just plod along I suppose. I've hurt enough people in my life and I'm not big for it. I don't want to upset anyone else." Can you believe this? When did he grow a conscience?
So I reply "meanwhile your miserable (which means he'll make her miserable). If you're honest with her then she'd appreciate that more. Is she happy with things?" Apparently not, he "doesn't think so. There are other things that I want to do like gym, friends, etc but I feel like I can't do them." This plodding along comment intrigued me so I asked if that was what he was doing with me? "No not at all!" I asked why she's unhappy and has he told her what he wants to do but got nothing until the next day again, when he asked about getting a copy of all our pictures. Apparently he had a problem with his pc and lost them all. I don't know what his issue with his pc is but he always has a problem with them!! Every one he ever had he ended up trashing for some reason or another. And the funny thing is he works in IT (or at least I think he still does, still had no reply to my questions about work, if he's still with BT with all the lay-offs and so on) so he should be more akin with the workings of them than most people!!
Anyway I said I don't know, what was he thinking? And what did he want to happen with "us"? He said "its a bit late for an us, you are about to embark on a life changing journey and I am not about to stop that. I've held you back long enough!" Now this is interesting...is that what he thought when we were together? "Kind of yes tbh but I did want to go away, there was never any doubt there." I asked him what he wants in an ideal world, what would make him happy? And he said he "didn't want to say, it's not fair!" I told him to just say it and be totally honest but again nothing until the next day, when I said "I think I know what you want but then maybe not?" After his "what" I said "to get back together." He replied by asking when I fly and if I'm all packed yet? I said in a few weeks and is that a yes? Yes it is!! I asked how long he's felt this way and it turns out "a while." And apparently not just since he's heard I'm leaving!!
So now what? I asked if he wanted to come with me or what? "That would be impossible for me right now" apparently because he doesn't have the money, etc. (Etc?? Hmmm) So then the conversation boils down to questions about whether I'm excited about the trip, does he want to stay in touch, be friends and so on. He actually admitted to being jealous of the trip which I thought was tres shocking!! I also asked him about whether he had a good christmas and it was apparently "not great, ... things are what you make them I suppose" and that's it. Last I heard was Wednesday when I got no reply to my question of what he got for christmas?

So there you have it. I don't know whether to believe a word of it, although there are parts that do strike me as being true. Still with all the BS he fed me how can I trust what comes out of him? I was pleased to hear though that the grass is NOT greener. Maybe that's more BS but I certainly felt better hearing it. What I'm wondering now is whether he is trying to manipulate me into staying or perhaps suggesting that I'd pay for him or something? There is no way that either of those scenarios is going to happen. For one I couldn't afford to even if I wanted to and secondly even if he could pay for himself he couldn't do the same as me anyway. He's not qualified to the right level, there are only 2 spaces available each month with the internship and I'm pretty sure the other has gone, so what he'd do out there I don't know. The other thing I find intersting is that he never asked me whether I would take him back. It's as if he assumed that I would, without question or requiring some conditions to be met. I have, since we split up, thought about what I would expect him to do for me to gain any kind of trust in him again and the list is pretty darn long. I can't see him doing any of them (willingly) so really what is the point?
There are days when I do miss him a lot and would like to be part of a couple again. But then those other days come along when I love being single again and doing my own thing, having to answer to no one nor worrying about what they are doing. It's a strange place to be in.
Hugs

Packing, Packing and yes, more Packing!! And more of that Ugh Feeling.

All my books are in boxes, pretty much most of my DVD's too. Some kitchen stuff I haven't used much lately is also boxed up. I've pulled down all the boxes I'd kept from when Jon and I moved in here, out of the attic and they are sat waiting to be stuffed. I'm trying to be very organised and keep a log of what's in each box and make sure each box is numbered, so I can easily go to it should I need to find something. Boxes are filling up around me and it's quite cathartic to pack up your life in one way. But also very sad and depressing in another. It is strange to think that if Jon and I were still together would I be doing this same thing right now? The plans were to go at the end of January so I should imagine so. But after everything that's happened I think that Jon had no intention at all of going abroad. I could be packing things up to move elsewhere in the UK - if he'd only talked to me and been honest about well everything, that could have been another option.
So as it stands I'm packing my life away for a month, possibly more, depending on how it goes in the BVI. I'm really looking forward to getting into the sun and being in the water again. It's been ages since I dived - at least 5 months I would say - and although I love SCUBA I don't like it so much in freezing England! It wasn't too bad in the summer at the quarry - I had a really good day with Jon but he got a headache and felt a bit sick so we called it a day after two dives. In retrospect I should have realised maybe that was his way of telling me he didn't want to do it? But when his words say yes I guess you just have to believe them. (Again in retrospect, actually no you don't have to believe them - follow your instinct is what I've learned!)
I have still to book my flight - I've been checking a site every few days or so to see if the prices are falling and they do seem to be, so I'm holding out for a little while longer yet. I've also still got to sort out professional liability insurance and travel insurance too. There are so many things to arrange when you make these big changes. I suppose I should be used to them really as this isn't the first time I've put things in storage and gone off "galavanting" (as some would say!). But over the years you gather more things into your life and it seems to be getting more difficult to get them all together.
I guess when it comes down to it I'm a bit of a scared-y cat...what happens if I don't like it out there? What happens if I do? As I've previously mentioned before, I hate making decisions and sooner or later I'm going to have to have an answer to these questions. Arrgghhh! One of the things that is so difficult is that I feel a tremendous sense of loyalty to my mom and in a way I feel like I'm letting her down by going away and leaving her to deal with the hotel. Now the hotel is closed throughout all of March so it's not like she has to get someone in to cover for me. But after March, then what? I suppose I just have to wait and see what happens when I'm away. Let's presume I love it - I still need to be offered a job and perhaps also get my instructor rating if not offered a DM position. There are things I want in my life and I do wonder if I can have those things if I'm working abroad. Seeing my soon-to-be-colleagues lives will surely answer some questions.
Anyway besides all these things running through my mind, I've also felt pretty yuck again today. I thought I'd gotten over this bug I had last week but maybe not? I woke up this morning feeling a bit ache-y and oh-oh in the tummy area again and so have spent the majority of the day in bed, not sleeping as I'm finding I can't get to sleep some nights till gone 2am!! I don't know whether the poorly tummy is to do with having a huge lunch yesterday with mom and then not eating anything else all day because I was so stuffed? Or is it lingering from last week? Or something else completely? Oy, I just wish it would ease up already you know?
Hope you're well
Hugs

Time to Organise

Well I have given notice on the flat and now just need to sort myself out to be out of here by 28 February. I've started calling all the service providers to give them notice too and have begun collecting cardboard boxes so I can get everything packed up. I cannot believe how much stuff I've collected over my years. I have about 8-10 boxes of stuff that I don't even want to keep - stuff I was going to sell on a car boot somewhere or maybe put on eBid. I have listed some of those things and went to a car boot this past Sunday to see how busy it was. I'd been planning on attending it this Sunday coming but after seeing it last week think I may as well not bother. Man, was it depressing. I got there just before noon which I know for car boots is quite late, and it was practically empty. Every time I've been there before it was always busy throughout the whole day. There weren't even that many stalls, never mind people buying things. This credit crunch is really affecting everything - even the "lowly" car boot!!

That Uggghhhh Feeling

Well I think I've caught the lovely sickly virus that's been going around. Wednesday evening it struck with a vengeance. My tummy started to gurgle and moan and I thought "oooh what the hell's that? Maybe I should just go to sleep and see if it eases off?" So 1030pm I was tucked up in bed and managed to get about 2 hours shut eye before the hourly trips to the toilet ensued! All the way through till morning and on into Thursday! And yes it may be TMI but it was not pretty, sitting on the loo, bucket in hand to catch the barf while whatever was going on in the lower half of me does it's thing from the other end! OY!!
So Thursday was spent in bed all day. Nary a morsel of food passed my lips till this lunchtime when I managed to hold down 2 slices of toast. And that's been it. 'Tis now almost 5pm and although I'm starving and barely able to lift this laptop to type from lack of energy, I haven't dared eat anything else. I may venture another couple of slices and perhaps some very light black tea (so light it's really more of a soft tan colour) and see how that fares.
Have you had this bug yet? Ugh, really my sympathies if you have as it is not pleasant. Let's hope that by tomorrow or the very least Sunday I'm feeling a bit more me!!
Hugs

HNY and What's Happening Here!

I've been so hacked off these last few weeks for various reasons - the main one of which has been this apartment I'm in. The landlord fitted a new boiler in Feb last year and when I eventually went to turn the heating on at the start of December I thought let's hope this place is actually going to be warm for once (the previous 2 winters here were not warm - and not because of the outside temp, but the radiators being duff!!). Well it was fine for about 2 weeks when the bloody timer decided it had had enough of being called to action and proceeded to keep to its own time! This meant it was coming on at random times - like 2am til 4am (so in the middle of the night I'm slowing cooking!) or throughout the day when I'm not even there. So at least a week before Christmas I call said landlord and ask him to get it repaired. Only today has it happened. He was due to come on Saturday but didn't turn up (and no phone call either). I was surprised he said he'd come on Saturday as he'd told me he wasn't going to be able to get the part until Jan 9th!! So that's almost a month after I first called. Grrrr!!!
I'm also kind of hacked off with the amount I'm paying for this place. As I am barely really using the living room (it is filled with wardrobes/drawers and other bits of now unused furniture that I need to get rid of somehow) and the spare bedroom has hardly been used that much either I feel like I'm paying for a big flat and not using it. I do like that it's big and in comparison to some other places I've looked at quite spacious. And there is a huge attic space so all my junk that I don't want to get rid of or don't use that often is stored away and not out on view. Still as the majority of that space is taken up with furniture that was bought when there were 2 of us in here and is now not really needed I could "slim down" to a one bedroom - as long as that bedroom is pretty big! :) Although it would be great to have a second bedroom for all my crafty goodies, so maybe I should keep a 2 bed in mind. I have had a quick look though on Rightmove at some other places and it's quite disappointing that something the same size as I'm in is a fair bit more expensive, so I am somewhat trepidatious about leaving here and then not finding somewhere else for a good price.
Still I need to be paying less than I am now so if that means somewhere smaller then so be it. What I am annoyed about is that it seems to take ages for things to get done repair-wise for this place. I do realise I could move into a worse situation with regard to a landlords responsibilities. But I guess that's a chance I have to take. Also another reason I'm looking to move elsewhere is so I can get myself a pet. I really want a dog and a cat but I'm thinking I'll get the cat first. I'm not allowed to have animals in this place even though the landlord has allowed a lady in another of his properties a little dog. And not just any little dog - but a yappy, craps all over the place and therefore has cost landlord some £££ to repair/replace ruined items, pain in the ass mutt. I know there are not many rental properties that will allow animals but I'm holding out some hope there will be a nice place with a decent landlord who is willing to give it a shot. I even offered this landlord new carpets if these got ruined by poop - at my expense - and he said no!
So with all these factors and the fact that I am leaving for at least a month, with the potential for that to be extended depending on how it goes out in the BVI, I am about to give notice that I'll be vacating this place. I need to give a month's notice and so am gonna call him this week to let him know. I'll definitely be out by 28 February as I'll be flying on 1 March but I'm hoping to maybe be out of here a week before then. I've taken a look at a couple of places for storage of all my stuff in the meantime. I was going to keep this place on while I'm away but really when I added up what it was going to cost me to keep it and not be here, it makes more sense to put everything in storage. If after my month in BVI I decide that I don't want to be a scuba instructor then when I come back I can look for somewhere else. And if I do go down the instructors route I'm gonna need to store my stuff anyway. Considering how this place was always me and Jon there are too many memories here that I just can't deal with.
Anyway that's how it stands right now. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot...after a month or so of not hearing from Jon I got a text on 30 December saying that he was sorry he hadn't been in touch, he'd been away and had just got back. I figured as much and so I replied the next day "so where did you go?" Still not heard a peep. Is it really so difficult to get a straight answer from this guy? It certainly seems so!
Hugs

Merry Christmas & Happy 2009

Hey peeps, hope you all have a lovely christmas and new year. Am gonna be pretty busy all over the holiday season with work and probably won't blog on here til the new year.
Have a good one!
Hugs

5 Days Til Christmas

I can't believe Christmas is nearly here! This year has gone by so fast. I'm pretty much set for present buying and all that other stuff. All my cards have gone out, presents are wrapped, I haven't bothered decorating the house as I'm hardly going to be here and as it's just me now there's no point. And as I'm going to have Christmas Dinner at the hotel there's been no need to get all the food stuff in. My last Tesco visit was a typical shop, although I was tempted by the huge amount of chocolate! But then what woman isn't? :) All the hotel guests start arriving on Tuesday, although some arrive on Wednesday. They are here for 3 or 4 days and then more arrive for the 3 days between (Twixmas) and then the New Year guests arrive for 4 days on the 30th. Everyone leaves on 3rd January and we close pretty much til Easter. There are some winter weekend events going on in Blackpool like the Pigeon festival and the Magicians Conference buts only weekends here and there. As Jon and I were planning on leaving at the end of January I gave my Mom notice at the hotel that I'd be finishing on 3 January. What I'll be doing after that date is still somewhat up in the air. With all this talk of recession and job losses and so on, my intended plan of doing some temping is looking like it won't be worth it. How many companies are going to take on temps if they are getting rid of regular staff? I have enough money saved for my flight to BVI in March but obviously I still have bills to pay in the meantime and I won't be earning anything while I'm there for the month so I do need some money coming in from somewhere. We shall see what happens I guess.
Hugs & Merry Christmas to you

It's been a while...

...since I last posted and a few other things have happened since with the Jon saga! He has been back in touch, both by text and also by instant messenger. The day after he didn't reply some of the hotel guests were asking after him. (He used to work with me in the hotel and obviously regulars got to know him). I sent him a brief message saying so and a couple of days later he replied. He was pretty much in touch every day for a week afterwards going on about his desires for this and that in the sex department, as if that was why he left. I asked him that and he said no it wasn't but that these things were never going to happen, so that pretty much means yes that IS why he left. He's been going such a length about them that I told him to ask the New Girl for them and he said he can't ask her!!! Why not I don't know as he won't reply to that question. I told him he really should ask her because if she's into these things too, he could be missing out. Since then not heard a peep. Presumably he's asked her and things are all go!? It's now been nearly 2 weeks since then and apart from changing his tag on messenger from "is sleepy" to "has got the sex factor" I've not heard another thing. It's his birthday on Wednesday so we'll see if I hear from him... quite possibly I may do, especially if I don't text him with a Happy Birthday greeting. It's his brother's birthday just before New Year too.
I do wonder whether Fredy knew about all these lies he's been spinning. Apparently after Jon had his weekend away Fredy and he weren't talking. Maybe Fredy told him some home truths and wasn't happy about his behaviour? Still they are brothers so when it comes to taking a side of course Fredy is going to choose Jon even if he disagrees with what he's done. I suppose though there is always the very distinct possibility that Fredy is as bad as Jon when it comes to that sort of stuff and the whole "not talking" could be yet another lie. Most likely.
Anyway apart from that I've been really busy with work and if you look at my crafty blog, making jewellery. The hotel sends out christmas cards every year to people who have stayed with us. It's quite an undertaking with over 4000 cards to stuff, label, stamp and post. I've done most of it myself and am finally finished. Royal Mail are due to pick up the last batch of boxes today and that should be it! Hurrah!!
Other things going on include a couple of birthdays - my chums Adele and Lynda both had parties in the last couple of weeks. Lynda's was this past weekend and her fiance Nigel arranged a surprise 30th for her. We all had a meal at TGI Fridays in the Trafford Centre and then went for a boogie in Manchester. I haven't been out in Manchester for years - I'm talking at least 15!! We pretty much ended up in Brannigans (there is one in Blackpool too!) and it was quite a good night. I felt a bit funny in my tummy though after the meal and throughout the night and it turns out I wasn't the only one. Manchester is quite a different night out to little ole Poulton where I normally end up. Although I haven't really been out a whole lot in a long time. Come the weekend I'm usually pretty knackered and just want to stay in and snuggle up, especially when the weather is so atrocious. And I think like most people, finances aren't so great right now, so the spare dosh I do have is going on crafty things so I can hopefully make a sale!
I've been thinking about starting my own little craft-type business, making cards, jewellery, bags and so on. I went to a craft and gift fair at Bolton's Reebok stadium on Sunday and there were some gorgeous things there but nothing like the stuff I've made. Obviously some of the cardmakers were similar but the jewellery seemed a lot more specialised than my stuff and the bags there were all leather-type or knitted or using Chinese/Japanese silky fabric, which is again different to the things I have in mind. I'm trying to decide on a name for the business too and have a few in mind:
Heather Kim Designs
Designs by Heather Kim
Handmade by Heather (although the .com and .co.uk websites for this is already taken)
Handmade by Heather Kim
Handcrafted by Heather (Kim)
Made with Love by Heather (Kim)
Butterfly Designs (because I love butterflies)
What do you think? Can you think of anything better?
Anyhoo I still have a lot to do so hugs to all

Wow!

Well late on 19 Nov (actually 1215am on 20 Nov) a text comes through from Jon! I was already asleep and the phone off, so I don't get it until the next morning (yesterday). It says "thanks for forwarding my mail. How you doing?" As you know I had wondered whether he would be in touch at all so I said that and asked why he was texting so late? He was usually in bed by 11pm when we were together, so obviously things are somewhat changed now! He asked me why I was wondering that and replied he was just watching tv and wondered how I was. So he has thought of me!! Shocking!! So I asked what made him think of me? I'd replied that I "just was" wondering about him and so of course he put the same!! I thought I should just take the bull by the horns and ask why he left? He replied "not too sure"!!!! Can you believe it? So is he having second thoughts? Does he just do this sort of thing for kicks? Is he completely delusional and really doesn't know why he does anything? I started texting numerous different replies and in the end went with "things not going so well with the new girl then?" Of course I didn't get a reply to that and haven't heard anything since.
I do actually feel better for him having text me. (And it being him that did it first). It seems weird that it is so close to the anniversary...as if maybe he remembered but too late for the actual day or just had "a feeling" or something. Although I'm probably reading too much into it. Maybe he is just angling for a birthday present? (Sheesh cynical eh?) When I've spoken to people about not hearing from him I said it would most likely happen when Jon and the New Girl have their first big argument. Maybe that has happened already? Or maybe she has reacted to something he's said or done completely different to how I would and he's thought "whoa." Having had some time to think it through I'm now thinking it's perhaps just something as simple as the fact that a TV show we used to watch together started their new series on Wednesday night - The Big Bang Theory. Perhaps he watched it and thought of me. (Maybe the New Girl doesn't like it?) He told me when we were together that some of the guys from work said he was like Sheldon!! I don't know exactly where the resemblance is supposed to come from as they don't look alike and Jon is hardly a double doctorate physicist. Maybe it's the geek-ness, but then we're all a little geeky about some things, right?
I've been trying to decide whether I could ever forgive him and allow him back into my life in some way. I'm sure over time I perhaps could forgive him and maybe be friends (of a fashion) but as a boyfriend...how could I ever trust him again? Even as a friend how could I truly believe what ever came out of his mouth? I do try to maintain a somewhat Buddhist philosophy on life and forgiveness is part of that but then so is karma, and I'm wondering what I've done to deserve that sort of treatment? Or is it more that he will get his sooner or later?
I guess yet again it's wait and see what happens next...to be continued...?
Hugs

Anniversary

Today would have been the 3 year anniversary of my relationship with Jon. Not feeling so peachy today as you can imagine. And in 3 weeks it is his birthday. Then 2 weeks after it is Christmas. Can you believe it is only so few days away? Can't say I am really looking forward to it to be honest. No doubt I'll be working in the hotel which I suppose should keep me busy and my mind off "things" but it sure will be lonely going back to an empty house. I'm wondering whether to even bother putting any decorations up as they are only there for me and as I'm likely not to even be there so much, what is the point? In the past we got a real tree each year so its not like I even have a small tree to sit gifts under.
I've been contemplating whether to text Jon today and remind him of the date. Not that he was great at remembering dates even when we were together! I've also been wondering whether I am ever likely to hear from him again. Some days I think I don't want to but others I miss him so much that it takes me all my time not to try calling, just to hear his voice. I suppose I'm torturing myself by wondering whether he even misses me at all or thinks about our time together but I would like to know. It's probably negative as he's moved on so swiftly (TOO swiftly, in that he moved on before he'd even moved out!!) but it would be nice to know what's really going on in his head and whether I had any affect on him.
I've also just found out today that my sort-of grandma (Annie) has lung cancer. She's not technically my grandma but as she was my maternal grandma's best friend she kind of took over the role when my real grandma died. As I never really knew my mom's mom (she died when I was still a baby) Annie has always been there in that role and her family became my extended family. Annie lost 2 of her sons in the last year and this past week the wife of the first son she lost also passed away. It's been quite the week!!

Weirdness

Have you ever woken up and thought to yourself "whoa, what was that dream all about?" It seems that lately I am waking up to that every day. For about 5 to 10 minutes each morning I lay in bed after the alarm goes off and try to figure out what's been running through my head each night. Some dreams have been so vivid and real that it feels like what happened in the dream actually happened in real life. As some of the events in the dream aren't that great I wake up depressed/angry/annoyed/(insert horrible emotion here!). It takes me a while to realise that I was indeed dreaming and that if I pull myself out of my warm, snuggle-y, cocoon-like bed I may just have a better day. I don't know if it has something to do with me taking Kalms to help me sleep? (But aren't they supposed to be all natural?) Or (more likely) the events of my life recently? But whatever it is, it is most certainly weird. And somewhat freaky. And to top it all off probably only happening to my half of the split twosome! Now why is that? How can people sleep at night... does their conscience not give them hell for their treatment of others? Is karma just waiting in the wings to kick their ass in another fashion?! It may sound unforgiving, but I hope so.
Sweet dreams to all of you
Hugs

Quantum of Solace & Trailers

So have you seen the new Bond movie? I watched it last night and really enjoyed it. Daniel Craig is just a fab Bond. He's so yummy and serious. And you have you seen those new Sony HD adverts featuring DC getting blown about by explosions and so on? When it does the close up at the end of his eyes ... WOWZERS!! How delish, its like you could just dive into those blue beauties and swim away to your heart's content. Ahhhhhh, I'm just so dreamy for Daniel. Heheh
Anyway enough gushing (at least for now)...what did you think of the movie? I was surprised not to see anyone from the Q department (I thought John Cleese was being brought in as the other fella's replacement in the previous Bond) and also that the Aston Martin didn't have more screen time. There were plenty of other snazzy cars though - particularly the nice Ford towards the end - I think its called an Edge. Will have to check on the Ford or 007 sites to be sure. The technology was quite groovy too, don't you think? I especially liked when they were in the MI5 building and one of M's assistants was working through the files on the table. Very similar to Tom Cruise in Minority Report I suppose but it definitely looked a lot cooler than I remember MR looking. And did you see DC taking photos at the Tosca show? I mean come on...how in the hell does a 5MP camera phone have a zoom that powerful? He was at least 100m away from those people and they were then digitally enhanced...I doubt the regular Sony Ericcsson user will be able to get such results! (And yes I know its only a movie but you'd like a little bit of reality in your tech wouldn't you?)
So besides all the gadgets and cars and so on, what did you think of the storyline? It didn't seem to me like Bond actually got who was responsible for Vespa's death. There was all that time spent getting the General fella for Olga's character and obviously Greene was like a middle man for this "company" but who was ultimately the guy responsible? Surely it wasn't the guy right at the end that Bond visits and hands over to M? I thought he was Vespa's other fella? I am somewhat confused and I'm not too sure if I just wasn't paying enough attention because I was drooling over Craig or have the filmmakers been deliberately evasive? Perhaps you can help me out...do you know? Please leave me a comment if you do.
Before QoS started there was a trailer for the new Tom Hanks movie - Angels and Demons based on the fab book by Dan Brown (he of The Da Vinci Code). Have you read this book? I loved it. Once I read DVC I went out and bought pretty much every other book he'd written. All the time I was reading A&D I thought this would make a fab movie. It certainly seems to have been kept under wraps for a while - at least to me at any rate. I'm normally such a massive movie buff but with my life lately my mind has been elsewhere and I've not really paid too much attention to anything else. I usually try to watch a bunch of trailers on Apple's website every so often but I haven't done that in a while. Obviously all the BIG movies have a lot spent on advertising them, but those little ones that can't afford it tend to get missed and so watching those trailers via Apple opens up a lot more potentially good movie visits to me. You should definitely visit the trailer site if you've never been before. Highly recommended!!
Anyhoo I have a waxing appointment later today so I should go pysche myself up for it. LOL Actually its not so bad. As I've never once shaved my legs and have only ever waxed them I think my nerve endings are pretty much dead. :)
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A New Week

I have finally managed to move all my craft stuff into the bedroom and am getting quite used to sitting at my new desk to type and other stuff. It's nice having somewhere else to sit other than my bed. Pretty much everything lately has happened on that bed (oo-er missus! Actually no, not really) - eating, watching tv, using the net and so on. So it's great to move to a different area. As I've mentioned I have no intention of turning on the heating in the flat unless absolutely necessary so living in one room is something I've quickly gotten used to. I do feel somewhat angry about paying for a two bedroom flat and not using it all, but that is hardly my fault now is it? I'm hoping to soon get rid of some of this extra furniture I have but right now those extra rooms are needed just to store it all.
I was planning on doing a car boot this past weekend but turns out the place was full! I think I'm going to give them a call later today to book a space for this weekend as it seems to have booked up quite far in advance. Will need to organise something to put everything on though, as I do not have a table of my own to use. Pasting tables shouldn't be too expensive though right? Maybe I'll drive out to B&Q tonight to get one. I MUST get rid of this extra stuff as not only do I need the money, but its all just sitting around the flat and is starting to get on my nerves a bit.
My pal Lynda paid me a visit this Saturday. We went to watch Wall-E at the movies (during the Kids Club which although cheap at £2.50 I don't think I would do again - every minute this little kid behind us kept asking questions about why did that happen, why did this happen....Grrrr just watch the movie!!! I clearly don't "do" kids.) and then hit some shops. Had lunch at a pub and I showed Lyn my local craft shop. I got myself a groovy snowflake punch and some glittery paper and I thought Lyn wasn't going to buy anything. BUT she then went a little "inspired" and got a bunch of things! Heheh :) Thats the problem with craft shopping - you go in with good intentions to buy only what you were intending to get and then come out loaded down with lots of goodies! Ah well.
Anyhoo, as it's only Tuesday there isn't much else to tell you. Oh other than I am back at work as the hotel has started our Turkey Tinsel breaks. They are basically a pre-christmas break to get some shopping done but with a festive feel. The hotel has all the christmas decorations up, there's cabaret every night and a late supper too. On the middle day of each stay we also have a christmas dinner and a visit from Santa bearing gifts! All in all quite a good time for the guest. So there are 4 more weeks of TT's and then a couple of weeks break before Christmas. Can you believe there are only 43 days till christmas?! Wow, this year has just flown by. What are your plans for Christmas and New Year?
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Some Rearranging

I went to Ikea today to get myself a new desk for crafting. My current desk I've had for 19 years (mom confirmed that for me!!) and as much as I love it, its just not sufficient in surface area for my craft stuff and laptop to sit on together. So I got a table top and 4 chrome adjustable legs and a new drawer unit called Alex for all the stash. Spent most of the rest of the day putting the drawers together and screwing in the legs of the table. Goddam they were tough. The drawers came together quite easily and I'm pretty good at that sort of stuff - always follow the directions!! :) But those table legs - trying to tighten the screws was just a nightmare. Anyway the table is up and the drawers part filled - just got to get the rest of the old desk drawers emptied and have a bit of a shift about and I should be all set.
I moved the wardrobes and drawers that Jon was using out of the bedroom yesterday and shifted the ones I used today. The living room is beginning to look like a furniture showroom!! I don't know why but there seems to be a bit of a mould problem with these wardrobes. Maybe they were too full and so no air circulation? Maybe there is a damp problem with the flat? I really don't know but all my clothes were starting to smell musty and yuck so I had to do something. They are now on a regular clothes rail and I'm gonna clean out the wardrobes and sell them on. As I'm pretty much living in one room of the flat I wanted my craft stuff in there with me so I can get back into it.
On my way back from Ikea I stopped off at my friend Lynda's for lunch. She made some yummy ravioli which I haven't had since I was a kid. Think I will definitely have to go get some from Tesco this weekend. Speaking of Tesco, the local store has been extended again. It wasn't that long ago when it practically doubled in size and this time around I have no idea how much its grown by, but apparently it is now huge! I have yet to visit since it reopened but surely yet again it'll be an adventure trying to find the stuff you normally can go right to.
Tomorrow I'm going to a meeting at the Solaris centre on the Promenade for more information about getting mom's hotel accredited. A lot of local tourist boards now won't let you advertise with them unless you have a star rating. As Blackpool is full of thousands of hotels/guest houses/B&B's I can see why they want to limit advertising to only those that have met certain standards. However there are plenty of places out there that won't do anything about getting up to standard and nothing will be done to curb there ruination of the town and its rejuvenation plans. Its the crappy places that accept all kinds of trouble makers that drag this town down. But its also the councils fault for not addressing the situation and not doing more to bring people here. There needs to be a proper conference/events centre, more things to do when the weather is crap (which is pretty much always) and better facilities for everyone.
Alright, thats enough ranting. Its now past midnight and I should already be asleep :)
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