The 16th Farewell

For those of you who were at Darroll and Jax's house that night, believe it or not I am finally home and there will be no further farewells where your company will be expected. Shoo it was hard to get rid of me hey? Even after I disappeared for 2 and a half months you got your instructions to come and say goodbye one last time. Well all I can say is that it was without a doubt the best farewell out of the lot.

I tell you what...you guys made me a little bit emotional on the inside when I realised how much effort you had all put in to be there that night. Kurt and Toni deserve special mention for coming down from Yorkshire - you legends!! It was something special to see all you guys rock up for the first braai of the year and I can honestly say that there wasn't one person left out...every single person of importance was there and it was awesome.

Jax and Darroll, you guys are legends and I just wanted to say shot for organising the bulk of the evening and for opening your house to all of us. I like to think that by making the best potato bake in the world I thanked you enough so hopefully we're even. It was awesome to spend my last few London days with you guys.

Robs and Shuz, the G-Spot days are over and they were sublime, but there's plenty more good ones to follow once you guys get back here. And that goes for all of you too. Don't take forever to haul your asses over here, because this place is the best place in the world man!!!!! I'm semi-moved into my flat in Umdloti and I need you guys to come back cos so far it's Bren and Laura in Umhlanga and then the next mate is in Florida Road. Ideally you all need to move up the North Coast, so see if you can arrange something.

Anyway guys, once again, shot for an awesome evening and hopefully I'll be seeing all of you in the not too distant future.

Baj


Proof that he really is "The Tallest Man in Barnes"

If Not, Why Not?

Right here I am - Open Water Qualified and happy as Larry. I completed my course this morning and it was pretty sweet. Our first dive was down to 18 meters at a place called Chumpon Pinnacle. The Lonely Planet heralds this site as the best in Ko Tao. Visibility was a bit questionable but the dive was still very enjoyable.

Our second dive was at a place called Twins. Braura and Otta this is the dive spot in front of that Nang Yuan Island where they wouldn't let us take our fins. It's a pity we didn't manage to get out there because the coral and such was helluva impressive. Vis here was much better and although we didn't dive as deep it was definitely the more enjoyable of the two. I managed to swim past a massive bluey silver fish (I really need to learn the names of the fish) and he came in at about a meter in length. We also saw loads of smaller fish but in massive schools....really beautiful stuff.

On our way out in the boat this morning we were treated to a meter and a half long Marlin, jumping in and out the water like you might see a dolphin doing, it was incredible.

At the moment I would say that the diving I did in the Red Sea was better than Thailand. The visibility there was impressive and the colours and variety of sea life supercedes what I've seen here so far. But I'm not prepared to give up hope just yet. In a moment of spontanaety I decided to sign up for the Advanced Open Water course. This course should be insane. It only takes 2 more days but we do another 5 dives. One (or more) of them we dive down to 30 meters and we also do a night dive. This should be fun. You cruise down under the cover of darkness armed only with a torch and the knowledge that nothing "should" go wrong. Don't stress Mom, they say it's just as safe as diving during the day just a little different that's all.

So that's another 2 days of diving and then I'll have 4 days of Steve time to relax and read and swim. The end of this trip has been filled with awesome stuff right to the very end and I've been meeting some very cool people here at the dive school so it's probably best that I decided to do the diving toward the end of the trip now that I'm travelling on my ace. Nights have been spent drinking, eating quality food off the braai and sometimes someone might even pull out the 'geet' and play some tunes out on the deck.

So not that long to go now and I'm not sure if there will be any more posts from Thailand. Maybe just one more to report on the night dive. Cheers for now.

Baj

Go Sharks!!!!

What a game!! What an emotional roller-coaster!! Thankfully, there was one other dude watching the game with me and even though he was English I desperately needed someone to realise how brilliantly we finished off this game. That's four out of four - GO SHARKS!!