It's been quite a while since my last blog so here's my new blog, enjoy.

Following the events of end of March i had another day off and with an adventure company, Goodtime Adventures, i signed up for a trek across the Koh Tao jungle from the west coast to the east coast of the island and to my delight at teh east coast was cliff jumping. at teh same spot as last time. I managed enthusiastically to jump off the 12 metre cliff and at 9 in the morning this was both liberating and the perfect wake up call. Following anothrr few jumps on the 6 and 9 metres Goodtime adventures sent a boat to take us on a relax snorkleing tour of the island. this led to more jaw dropping sights of corals and fish and more photography on my part. at the end for undertaking the trip i was provided with a free beer and that was probably one of the fmany fun and productive mornings on Koh Tao.

As time passed by work was underway. I had over two hours of footage from my training dives for the internship and i had to edit it all down to 25 minutes for a dvd that ui could keep for my portfolio and as a reminder of some of my best training footage. in one day i spetn six hours bringing the 2 hours down to 26 minutes which was very time consuming but time well spent. for the rest of the week i was fine tuning the fooatge and removing bad fooatge that was shaky, adding in effects and learning the skills of adobe premiere pro for editing until eventually I narrowed it down to 24 minutes and had it copyrighted by ACE MARINE Images to use royalty music and then burned to a disc which was a delight to know that i had 24 minutes of fantastic footage from 16 dives. as of now i have yet to make an MPEG digital file for it to be saved.

Following this assignment i was asked to narrow the footage down to a 6 minute cut to be used for the youtube channel and for a portfolio of Ace Marine Images work. this task i took on willingly to see how the footage would change and ensure more footafge for a portfolio. one thing about editing is that no matter how good you final cut looks, there is always roome for improvement and trimming the pace down. as of now i have almost finished fine tunning the 6 minute cut and shortly it will hopefully be online.

meanwhile i finished the script for my short ten minute film about coral reefs and had it sent off through chris(former head of ace) to a scriptwriter he was in contact with in Bangkok to polish the script. I then set work on a shots list for the eventual filming which was estimated to last two days and editing to be the tricky phase.

The highlight of the month was Songkran/Thai new year which came on 14th of April which involves five days in Bangkok of drinks and water fights. On Koh Tao this was only one day but for the price of two new years i was happy. this started out with early drinking withe the Ace Marine Images crew and then follwed by a pub crawl and navigating through people armed with water guns. myself and James(south african) became water buddiesd and were engaging in water warfare many times during the pub crawl and times where we danced and drank to celebrate thai new year with the Ace Marine image crew. This was a long and epic fun day and probably the best day ive had off on the island to go around with friends and water guns and drink to a fantastic day. in the process i broke my phone but the day was worth it and i simply replaced it a day later with a cheaper phone.

Following this i had a few sessions of Shadowing the videographers and learning the routines and techniques with filming the students. my handheld camera skills were rusty but improved as i went through the sessions. A few days later something strange happened and i was forced to cancel a shadowing session due to an inability to sleep the night before due to pain in my leg. TYhe next morning i still felt the pain and my right foot started to swell and i felt very hot to the point of ice packs being required.

Taking initiative from a friends suggestion i wnet to the nearby medical centre and was told i had a high fever at 38 and a leg infection spreading from my foot. this meant i had to be shipped over to Koh Samui to Bangkok hospital(on the island) for a week for the porper treatment. Andy kindly gave me a set of clothes and money to help which was generous. I made contact with my insurance company, Columbus Direct who took care of most of the medical expenses as i underwent Iv therapy with antibiotics being put into my blood and had ice packs strapped to my leg with every few hours, even in the early hours, blood pressure and temperature taken and some blood taken and my cuts on the foot(that caused the infection) cleaned regualy.

Although for the first time in two months i was in an aircon room and comfy in contrast to my qauters on Koh Tao, i was in great pain and all alone with just a Tv and being stuck in bed all day and using crutches to move around the room. As of today i don't know how my leg got the cuts that caused the infection. my only guess would be the events of Songkran but i knew 100 percent it wasn't from a stray dog and i was vacinated with Tetnus that was reasureing.

As my stay came to an end i was discharged with the hospital and given good news that i didn't have to have crutches and the bad news that i would be on meds for a week with no diving or drinking. As i left Koh Samui to return to Koh Tao my road to recovery began and is still happening as i type. I am so grateful to the staff of Koh Samui Hospital who helped me, looked after me and got me back in good health as my fever died down in the week under their supervision. my leg is still in minor pain but i am glad to be back on Koh Tao and have great admiration for the Thai medics.

After two months of diving and filming underwater i now have under a month left and lots of work to do.

As i recover with excitment to get back to work soon and drink to a sunset and watch more underwater films i know whatever happens. it's all a learning curve on the internship and there will be many more experiences to come before my time on the internship finishes.

Until next time the road to recovery goes one and the plans for my portfolio with Ace Marine Images continue.