Hello and Happy New Year!!! I can hardly believe we have not updated this since October or was it November, urm? Sorry anyway were back!

What have we been upto? Loads. We arrived in Khao Lak on the west coast of Thailand at the end of October (07!) and hummed and hawwed about doing our Dive Master. Eventually we decided (in a restaurant called Jai in the pouring rain!) that we would spend 6 weeks doing our DM and head off to Cambodia for Christmas...oh the best laid plans!! Anyway we took our Rescue Dive course which is the prelude to DM and loved it, dragging lifeless scuba divers from the depths (ok 5 meters!) and generally having plenty of fun with the Sea Dragon family (they call themselves that and the're nothing like the mafia!). We started our DM training on the 1st of November with another couple, Eva (who is lovely and my cake eating partner!) and her boyfriend Roland. Their from Switzerland but hey! Anyway we basically spent 2 months studying and practicing our scuba skill's, 8 exams including Physiology, Physics (what the F*&# is a half time!) equipment, the Planet etc...We also did a couple of training Liveaboards (where you live aboard a boat for a few days) taking customers to see the underwater delights the Similan islands have to offer. Bloody awesome! We had a 2 week break at Christmas when Gordie and Emski came out to see us. Spent 2 weeks travelling around and laying around. We vistied Khao Sok National Park, went elephant trekking, river rafting, stayed on the beach for a few day's, checked into a 5* hotel for Christmas Eve and Chrismas Day, had the first bath and a bar of Galaxy (thanks Mum) since June! Went to the beautiful but hugely overcrowded Phi Phi Don and basically had a fab time. Sadly they headed off home on New Years Eve and we headed to a party at Tiffy's (restaurant next door to the dive centre) and enjoyed a hog roast and danced to ABBA!!! We finally finished our DM at the begining of Jan and had the compulsory snorkel test! Basically you have your head in an ice bucket of water, a mask filled with toothpaste so you cant see or breathe!, a dodgy snorkel with a funnel attached and you neck a copius amount of booze upsidedown whilst pledging your leigence to Posidon and having buckets of water thrown at you. Emma had had a blocked ear for 6 days at this point due to a cold but the snorkel test sorted that out!! Since then we have moved to Bang Niang and have a cute, brand new house WITH A FRIDGE and are looking for work. We were both out on the same liveaboard last week doing an environmental reef watch programme on coral reef's and Jay is out in the Similan and Surin Islands for 4 days with a group of customers. From here we don't know what we will do, work until the end of the season (May) go home for a while, head of somewhere else, finally visit Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos as was the original plan. We really have no idea! So watch this space, keep in touch [email protected] and we'll let you know. In the meantime if any of you fancy a cheap week by the beach...you know where we are. Lots of love and kisses Jay and Emma x x x x x x x