here all is well -can't complain since i'm on a day off and just finished a lovely thai massage and a pedicure. aaaahhh....it was goooood. shortly i'll be off to the beach. unfortunately my co-dmt's are all with ear problems at the moment (one of the trials and tribulations of diving!) but they are therefore lucky enough to have more time off to go to phuket overnight. hrmpf. feeling a bit trapped here in khao lak. plus i'm without compadres this eve! boo. hopefully they'll bring me back a treat like yummy blue cheese...
anyway this also means that i'm getting many opportunties to guide and learn more and more from my many mistakes. ok -they're not life and death but it would be nice to get it right more often. although i am unlikely to forget or hopefully repeat!! however, i am also more and more relaxed and not sucking back the air as much -don't want to be coming up because i'm short on air -that wouldn't be cool! dives aren't necessarily deep anyway but on the wreck we're down at 19m for most of the 40min. it's a great dive with loads of lion fish and scorpion fish to watch out for as well as eels swimming about and huge porcupine fish. last trip we spotted the ghost pipefish -shich is rather rare -i've seen 4 now but never spotted one myself... i'm determined yet!
otherwise i'm doing ok -trying to get a run in every second day -there's an uphill part and a beach part and i must start out by 6:30 or else it gets too hot. there's also been torrential downpours every day or eve -not supposed to be monsoon yet but feels like it sometimes! i do like the thunder -but out on the water coming back from a dive it feels a bit hairy(sp?)!!

hope you are well and think of me with a sip of wine... here the cheapest option for wine is the S.Af. 1/2 l from the 7/11. it's not bad actually but we have to by a few to go around!

cheers!