Friday 23rd July
After reporting the very sad news back in January about Seaking Divers "The witch" boat sin
king, we were both delighted this week with the launch of their brand new boat the Mv Pheonix. Her first trip isaround Phi Phi in the middle of August, We are both very pleased that Pu and Alister are up and running again .
Tues 20th July
Schools finish and its starts to rain again. Rachel got absolutly soaked tonight playing golf and came home rather unhappy. The weather is looking better for the weekend, we are off to some friends 25th Wedding anniversary on Saturday night in Buxton (I am driving as I am playing golf at stupid o'clock on Sunday morning) we must actualy find out where the venue is a "Buxton" is a tad vague. We are both looking forward to going on holiday at the end of August to Vela Luka on the island of Korcula in Croatia for 10 days (diving of course) but we have a car and are looking forward to doing a bit of exploring as well. Its bound to be a bit of an adventure as normal with our holidays
Tues 6th July
Can't believe it is July already. Sorry for the lack of updates but we have been really busy in the last few weeks. Sun 27th was Captains Day and it was fantastic! The weather was beautiful although some did complain that it was too hot. The day started very early for us as the first golfers were off a 7:30am so we were at the club for 7:00am which a time we are not familiar with on a Sunday! Rob spent the morning meeting and greeting the members while I was official photographer, cake supplier, beer tent monitor and all round gofer!! It was a really busy morning but everyone had a great time and the beer and cakes proved very popular. At 3:00pm we moved into the club house to watch the football and very quickly gave up and went back outside again, it was too painful to watch! The presentation was followed by a buffet fo all Robs invited guests. I hope he enjoyed the day, I thought it was great. We finally got home and fell into bed some time afte 10pm. We were giggered!! I promise I will post photos of the day soon. Other than that we have both been busy playing golf. Robbie has now made it to the quarter finals of the Bromley which he is very pleased about. My golf is very mixed at the moment varying from great to terrible! Hey ho, I can't be fab all the time.
Thurs 17th June
Back from Wales already! We had a really lovely time. We went on Saturday and stayed in a very nice pub in Macynleth. Got there just in time to watch the football surrounded by a load of Welsh lads cheering for USA. The result was a little dissapointing but not the end of the world. On Sunday we played golf at Borth, it started off quiet nice but started to rain on the 8th and did not stop for the rest of the round. We got very wet!! Monday we played at Aderdovey, shorts weather was much more pleasant. It is one of our favourite courses and we both really enjoyed it. On Monday we decided to go for a trek up Cader Idris. It was tough going but the weather was wonderful and the views are rather spectacular. All in all it was a great weekend and nice to spend a bit of time with the family. We are now busy preparing for Rob's Captains Day which is a week on Sunday. I think everything is under control. We are just hoping that the weather stays good for us!
Fri 4th June
16 Years ago today was the big day. Time Fly's when your having fun, Rachel is planing to try on her wedding dress over the weekend (just to see if it still fits) and I am playing golf. Who ever said romance is dead. We are going off to Wales for a few days next weekend which officially is for our wedding anniversary but is probably also a bit of payback for me disapearing to Scotland for 4 days last week. The weekend was very enjoyable, drank and eat way to much and the quality of golf diminished in proportion to the hangover. Happy Birthday to Joan (for last weekend) and have a good Barbeque on Saturday.
Sun 22nd May
Summer is here and its beatiful. loverly hot days, all the trees are fresh in leaf I dont think the UK gets much better than this. unfortunatly I am sure it wont last to long, I go away for 4 days golfing in Scotland on Thursday while Rachel is home alone. Just a bit of payback for Rachels hard "Work" in Spain last week, She is already looking quite taned and very healthy. She has gone on a bit of a fittnes regime, not to much drinking, eating healthy and going to to the gym a lot, She lost 4lb last week and was very pleased. I am trying to do the first two ish, not easy at times and virtually impossible when I go to Scotland. We are also off to wales for a couple of days just after our wedding anniversary which should be great providing the weather stays good.
Man 2nd May
The weather has not been too bad today and we have had a very nice time at Sudbury Hall National Trust property. We took a picnic which we ate outside. Rob found us a nice sheltered spot in fromt of the house and when the sun came out it was very pleasant. There were loads of geese and swans on the lake in front of the house so we have taken a few photos.
****Have a look at photo archive 09 and 10 as I have finally put some new pictures on them!!
Thu 29th Apr
Bank holiday weekend were both looking forward to. Rachel is playing golf at Brocton Hall near Stafford in the EWGA Medal on Saturday at the crack of dawn. Following that we can enjoy a quiet night in. Monday we are going for a day out together (No Golf) and hopefully the weather will be nice. We will be taking out our camara to put some photos on photo of the Week.
Mon 19th Apr
Rachel has been grinning from ear to ear after her first hole in one on Saturday. She was quite wright to be proud of herself as it is such an achivement. She had to give me a ring to tell me the news and probably more importantly to tell me to bring the cheque book. Worst part was I bought the drinks but never got one myself. We did finish the night off with a bottle of pink champagne and Rachel was snooring her head off by 10pm. Busy Day!!!!!!
Sum 11th Apr
Summer in April? not quite but it's spring with avengance. We have both been enjoying playing golf in the sunshine. Rachel had a bit of a glow in her face after friday's golf and satuday's football. I have been busy at the golf club with two matches over the weekend which were both great fun. Tomorrow is, of course, my birthday. Not that we are doing much (apart from going to work) but I am sure we will go for tea somewhere. Rachel is enjoying her new job at Quality Golf and has been busy designing their new website which is looking very professional. She has to go on a few training courses for various parts of her new job but is far happier than she ever was at the bank.
Tue 6th Apr
We have been quite rubbish updating this page of the Website for the past few weeks. Holiday seems a long time ago, we are however planing our next two trips which we both enjoy doing anyway (its our excuse to lie in bed with the laptop). Rachel has started her new job at Quality golf destinations, revamping the website among other work. She is really enjoying it and goes of to Spain for 4 days at the end of the month. They call it a business trip I call it golf in the sun. Very nice anyway. We have finished our trip report for last months diving in Sharja, some nice pictures and our round up of the diving, please have a look. Easter was very nice and relaxed. Golf, food and Football made up most of the weekend, in between the April showers at least the weather is slowly warming up and I guess we should start thinking about new plants for the garden as this years cold weather seems to have taken its toll on a few of the less hardy plants.
(Rachel has just asked what this we and garden talk is? Fair point, I do well to find the shed).
Sun 21st Mar
A great weeks holiday in Dubai has come and gone. We had a wonderful time, some good diving, lots of good food and of course loads of great weather. A week was not quite long enough but we both really enjoyed the break and had a good rest as well which we both needed. Today we played our first game of golf together on a beuatiful spring day, relativley warm and great to be out on the golf course (Rachel won by the way). We will be uploading some holiday photos in the next few days as well as our trip report page.
Sat 6th Mar
I think I will have to get a photo of Rob to sit on the sofa next to me this year as he is never here! He has been to 5 meetings in the last 2 weeks and 2 football matches. Never mind I am sure it was the same for him last year. On a bright note our dinner was cancelled last Sat so we got to stay in. Rob cooked us a really nice dinner and it made a pleasant change to stay in for once. Last Thurs we went to a Pub Games night. Rob played with the Lady Captain (!!) and I teamed up with Mr Lady Captain. It was a great night made even better as Mike and I won and beat Rob and Chris on the way to the final. Excellent! Tonight we are going to the Annual Dinner at Astbury Golf Club. Rob has got to make a speech but I am sure it will be very good. We are rather exicted today as we are off on our holidays tomorrow. We are going to Dubai for a weeks diving, can't wait to be warm.
Sat 20 Feb
Life continues to be very busy in our house. Last weekend was the Captains Welcome. We all had a great night and were very well entertained by Jo Farrow, a really good singer. Other big news is that I have handed in my notice a the bank and have got a new job working for a company that organise worldwide golf holidays. It all sounds very exciting and I am looking forward to a new challenge. We are off out for a celebratory dinner tonight.
Fri 12 Feb
All very busy at the golf club the last few weeks with the handover of Captains. Captains drive in went really well. my drive was not quite as long as Phil's last year but I was very pleased with 173.6 metres very respectable with a 60 year old club. The main thing it was longer than Rachels. A fact that would never have been forgotten if it had been shorter. Only 3 weeks or so to we go off on holiday to the UAE. We are both looking forward to a few days diving and as important with the weather the last few months, being warm.
Sun 24 Jan
We had some bad
news from some of our Friends in Thailand last week, The boat we used to work on (The Witch) broke free from its moorings at night and sank after hitting the reef and rocks at Breakfast bend at Similan Island No 9. Everyone got off the boat safely but we were both down for a few days after we herd the news as our days diving on the witch and at Seaking divers are some of the best times we have had. Our thoughts go out to Alistair and Pu and hope life can get back to normal soon. Back home Rachel and Phil had their Captain's Fairwell last night. A really good do, lots of dancing but that means its only a week untill I take over the reins as Captain for 2010. Rachel has had a great year apart from playing some great golf she has been the model Lady Captain. I do need to prepair a bit of a speech for next Sunday when the captains Drive in and all the fun starts.
Mon 11 Jan
Very excited today, we have booked flights to Dubai for the second week in March
to enjoy some diving and warm sunshine of the Indian Ocean at Khorfakkan in Sharjah about an hour and a half east of Dubai City. 8 weeks and counting.
Fri 8 Jan
One week into the new year and we are both fed up with the artic weather, I can't remember it being this cold before, and the only thing on the weather forcast is more snow for the weekend.
O to back in Thailand where the hardest decision over the weather was what temperature to set the aircon at.
Rachel has started at Natwest Congleton, after a very hasty transfer from Crewe, she was told on New years eve that she was being transfered (Free transfer) and she started yesterday. Not hugely impressed as she feels like the new girl again, but at least she gets an extra half hour in bed.
New Years Day 2010
Happy New Year to everyone. We have had a very nice Christmas. We both recovered from various illnesses and enjoyed lots of eating. We spent Christmas Day at Ralph's house and as tradition dictates we ate too much. For the rest of the week we visited family and friends and continued to eat. Last night we went to the Golf CLub with Ralph and Ang. As the outgoing Lady Captain I was carried from the room just before midnight and Rob was carried in dressed in his best Port Vale kit. It was brilliant fun but we are rather tired today.
Thu 24 Dec
The last 48 hours have not been too pleasent for Rachel and myself as we have both been suffering from a sickness bug. I went down with it on Monday night and Rachel on Tuesday, but we have always believed in sharing. We are both on the mend but will have to take it a bit easy over the next few days. Happy Christmas to all our friends far and wide and hope you don't have to spend as much time in the bathroom over the christmas period as we have over the last few days.
Thur 17 Dec
I can't beleive it's only a week to Christmas. We are both looking forward to a few days off work as we have been mentaly busy the past few weeks, but at the same time enjoying ourselves. Christmas shopping is pretty much all done and the Christmas tree goes up tonight. Loads of things have been going on at the golf club the past week, Sherry morning, Carol service and silver band and the Christmas quiz last night. Oh for a night in front of the telly. Snow at the weekend may make it totally christmassie, lets hope so.
Mon 30 Nov
Really good weekend, in Dusseldorf at the Christmas markets with Ian & Marlies. Pity the weather was a bit ropey on Saturday, but at least it gave us a good excuse to sample the Gluvine. The only hard decision we had to make was if it was best add a shot of Amereto or Rum to the mix. We both started to feel really Chistmasie by the end of Saturday and bought a few bits and pieces on the stalls. Its one of those places were you could easily spend a fortune but fortunately we only went with 2 small bags so had no extra room to bring anything back.
Sat 21 Nov
The last two weeks have been filled with a very annoying cold. Its just a bit of a sniffey nose, occasional headaches, and feeling generally rubbish most of the time. Not particually suprising as everyone at work has colds at the moment. I just wish it would come out properly and feel terrible for a few days and get better, very annoying. Next week we are off to Germany for the weekend to see Ian and Marlise, which we are both looking forward to. Officially we are going to see the christmas markets but if our past record is anything to go by it will be an hour looking and then an inspection of the christmas market bars, sounds good to me. Photos from Egypt on the Photo of the week. Many underwater as normal but a few are taken above water.
Sat 7 Nov
We arrived back from our Red sea Liveaboard in the early hours of this morning, We had a great time, met some lovely people and took some excellent photos (well Rachel certinly did I need to spend some time going through mine). It seemed to take forever to get home, especially as the plane was designed for midgets. Not that Rachel or myself by any means tall, what it was like if you were 6ft plus I dread to think. Trip reports and photos to be posted as soon as we get round to it.
Sat 10 Oct
Another week just seems to fly past. Not to much to report this week but we are both looking forward to our holidays now we are counting days rather that weeks. We are playing together today in the Congleton Mixed open which was delayed from the moonsoon weeks of August. So hopefully we can play well this afternoon. All our best wishes go out to Jane,Dave and the girls who are emigrating to New Zeland this weekend, Have a wonderfull time and we will try our best to keep in touch.
Mon 5 Oct
Very nice weekend just gone. We went out with Sue and Neil for Sues Birthday on Saturday Night, It was a bit of a Meat fest with three of us going for the massive rib of beef. It was by far the biggest steak I have ever had and polished it off no problems and still had room for afters. Rachel was far more ladylike and admitted defeat about half way through (but she did finnish all her chips). Sunday my end of season golf form continued with the runner up spot in the last Medal of the year, at least the last two months of the golf season have been so much better than the first half of the season. Three weeks to go untill our holidays and we cant wait. to make it even better we are off to the Dive show at the NEC the week before we go just to wet our appities.
sun 28 Sept
Its quite a depressing thought that its already nearly October, apart from the fact that we go on holiday in a months time.(hurray) The clocks will be going back soon and the long winter ahead makes us both appreciate but miss our time abroad in the sun. Saying that we do tend to look back with slightly "rose tinited" memories as most of the time we remember the diving, our friends and of course the weather, rather than the drawbacks of living 10,000miles from home.
I think i may be in a bit of remanicing mood tonight as Rachel is away playing golf for a couple of days and I have been looking through some old photo's.
Tues 22 Sept
Busy,Busy week once again, mainly filled with lots of golf, Saturday I was organizing the mens team down at Dartmouth while Rachel was enjoying the sun playing in presidents day. Sunday it was my Turn for presidents day and played quite well for this season. Today Rachel had a double celebration winning the ladies medal with an excellent 65 and also winning the ladies player of the year trophy for the third year running. Well done.
Mon 14 Sept
Kids go back to school and suddenly the weather gets rather nice? any link, probably not but you have to enjoy it while you can. Saturday afternoon was absolutely perfect for golf, and the course was almost empty, how strange? There were more for dinner at the club on Saturday night than played on Saturday afternoon. We went up with Harold and Elizabeth and Ralph & Angela for Harold's Birthday and a very nice evening it was. Rachel has gone down south for a few days to visit Jane (one of Rachel's university housemates) who will be emigrating to New Zealand next month (Jane not Rachel) So I am home alone for a few days. As any self respecting son would do I went to Mums for tea (very nice) and to wish Dad happy birthday for yesterday. I may just have to pop in to the golf club on my way home tommorow just to make sure the Beartown beer is up to its normal standard (it was excellent at the weekend, had loads).
Sat 5 Sept
Excellent week just gone, Rachel and I enjoyed a very nice couple of days away down near Ludlow at the Riverside Inn in Aymestrey. An excellent Gastro pub set in a beautiful countryside location. A very nice comfortable room and very good food made this a very nice chilled break (Rachel was very impressed with the huge sausage !!!!!) The weather was typical bank holiday weekend but didn't effect such a nice weekend. Yesterday we paid for our holiday in the Red Sea in November, we are counting weeks rather than days but can't wait for it to come round. Today Rachel is playing in the Ladies Open at Congleton, while I am on a football extravaganza. Port Vales Football revoluton goes on V Grimsby and then the England match afterwards.
Fri 28 Aug
Well a Bank Holiday weekend bodes. Chronicle Cup for me tommorow while Rachel slaves away at work. Then on Sunday we go down to Ludlow for a couple of days just to relax and have a chilled out time together. hopefully the weekend weather will be ok, the forecast is pretty good so we will see. Last Weekend we were presented with the mixed centenary trophy for the 4th time in eight years (and we did'nt play in it for two of those) so we do regard it as almost personal property and its very nice to see our names on the centenary boards together.
Sun 16 Aug
** STOP PRESS ** Mixed Centenary Champions 2009 ***
Rachel and Rob Matthews Gross 71 42 Points
Fri 14 Aug
Top weekend last week, Summer ball was excellent, My prediction for Quality Golfs Pro-am team was correct as everyone was the worse for wear after the previous nights activities but it was still a good day. Rachel had a cracking day (and evening) judging by the state she arrived home in at Runcorn on the Lady Captains away day. Port Vale's Win at Sheffield Utd takes some beating and on the back of that Rachel has made the rash decision at come with me to Macclesfield on tuesday night.
Sat 8 Aug
Well what a differance a week makes. Summer makes a most welcome return this week and not to much change over the next few days. Tonight is the Summer Ball at the golf club which is the biggest social do in the golf club calander and always an excelent night. Rachel is straight off to the hairdresser after work this afternoon to have her hair "put up" before we go round to the Adams household for early evening drinks. Its bound to be a bit messy come 1am but we are both looking forward to it. Today is also crunch day for the Mens team in what will probably be the golf league title decider at Gorsty Hill, and also the start of the Football season. Tomorrow is hangover day and I am playing in a pro-am at Chester Golf club. Luckly all 4 team members of the "Quality Golf" all star team are out on the raz so it could be great of not !! We shall see.
Sun 1 Aug
Weather update. RAIN, RAIN, RAIN!! Course is closed and no golf has been played all weekend. Never mind, we went to see Harry Potter which was great. Today I have washed my new car. See photo of the week. Rob has inslulated and boarded out the loft. We have been planning to do it for ages so it was a good way to spend a free day. He has done a great job and there is loads more room up there for all our things now. Let us hope that the weather picks up this coming week and we can get back on the golf course.
Fri 31 July
Its official, the upcoming Heatwave forcast by the Met office for August is not happening, apparently its of to Spain instead and who can blame it because the weather here is Rubbish. Should be a big golf weekend but we are pretty sure its going to be a total wash out. Sundays big comp the 'Chronicle Cup' could well be called off tonight due to the condition of both Congleton and Astburys courses, Very disapointing but we will just have to go and see Harry Potter instead. Good News this week !!! RACHEL NOW HAS HER NEW CAR !!!.
Very nice little Hyundi I10, which is Rachels new pride and joy, and also means that she will be offering to drive anywhere we go out to in the next month or so mines a pint.
Sat 18th July
Rubbish week weather wise, nothing but rain (apart from when i am in the office) and cold too. To make me feel more summer like (?) Rachel bought me the coolest pair of quicksilver board shorts ever created. I may have to wear them and put the heating on just to pretend its summer. Not doing that much this weekend apart from watch the open on TV which hopefully will inspire me to get my golfing head on in the morning as i am playing in a medal instead of the normal Sunday lie in. Rachel is playing this morning hope she is not to wet. Off to Neal and Sues this evening, i must make a mental note that I have go get up in the morning and not to get to heavely involved with a good bottle of Red or two.
Mon 13th Jul
A nice quiet weekend just gone, Rachel was working on Saturday so I went to watch Port Vales first pre season match which was fun especially as they were playing Biddulph and I could walk to the game for a bit of token exercise. Saturday evening inn so I did the old masterchef routine which I always enjoy, a good bottle of wine and a bit of old rubbish on TV. Very nice , Very relaxing and most important the week before payday Very Cheap.
Wed 8th Jul
The week was taken up with Lady Captians Wekend at the golf club. Have a look at Lady Captains Blog page for a full report. It was brilliant. Rob was fantastic on the day. He was the event official photographer as well as cheif dogs body and he was brilliant. My day certainly went along alot easier with him there! Not had time for anything else but I was right about things breaking in 3's!! the windscreen wippers on my car have stoppped working. Thats not great! I can only go out now if it is not raining . Great!!
Wed 1st Jul
Team won on Mon. Excellent!! Rob and I have managed to have a resonably quiet week or so There have been the ususal few metings at the Golf Club. It was Captians Day on Sunday so we were off there for dinner. The rest of the wekk has been spent trying to sort out our kitchen disaster! The freezer packed in on thurs. Fortunatley there was not too much food in it but have been eating rather alot the last few days! We ordered a new one which was delivered on Tues. Our kitchen is all built in so it was a bit of a job to get the old one out but we finally managed with out making too much mess. The new freezer is now installed and working and did not cost too much money. The same day the microwave packed in as well. they say things come in 3's. Lets hope thats not true and nothing else is going to break!!
Mon 22nd Jun
Unfortuntely I did not manage to do the painting. I have had a really nasty chesty cold all week. Typical, have a week off work and be ill! I did not think spending a couple of days with my head in a tin of paint would help! Not sure when I will get round to painting now but I am sure it will get done some time. We have not been up to much for the rest of the week. I am still off work today and playing for the Ladies Team. We are not doing very well this year. Perhaps today we will do a bit better! At least it is not raining.
Sat 13th Jun
A quiet week just gone, not much on, going out etc which makes quite a nice change, Not rainning, a bit of sun, should be a nice week end. Rachel starts painting in a few days time as she is off work on holiday for 11 days from this afternoon and only has 5 days golf planned. Should keep her nice and busy
Sun 7th Jun
Rob has finally finished the trip report for our holiday to Tioman. Have a look under diving the Best and Worst. Reading brings back lots of great memories. Summer didn't last very long! It was beautiful for about 4 days. I got the garden furniture out of the shed and hey presto, it starts to rain!! On Thursday it was our 15th Wedding Anniversary and we are still as happy as the day we got married (sick bucket!). We went to the cinema on the day and last night went out for a meal at our local restaurant. It was really nice to go out on our own and not have anything to do with golf for an evening. Robbie is playing golf today and it looks like he will get wet again. Never mind, I am sure summer will return soon.
Sat 30th May
Hurray summer has arrived in the UK. You can tell that because everyone keeps saying it's too hot (I closed a window at work yesterday as I was a bit chilly). We will however make the most of it. Golf Today in league matches for myself and a Cup match for the ladies. BBQ tonight with a nice bottle of poncy zinfandel (Rose to the rest of the world) Sunday will be more golf for me while Rachel will be lovingly tendering her new flower pots and toping up her tan. Enjoy it while it lasts. Last week was quite bonkers. We were out everynight, good fun but we are both a bit knackered.
Mon 25th May
Bank Holiday Monday and Rachel is busy putting flowers in the pots following the visit to the garden centre this morning. I got back from Scotland yesterday evening after three days golfing in Galloway. 2 sunny days and 1 damp and windy, pretty good for Scotland, Loads of fun but quite tired now. Off to the pictures later on should be good.
Sun 17th May
Last night the "I am Knackered" sign was officialy up, 5 consecutive evenings/nights at the golf club either playing knock outs, team matches or golf club meetings ended with 36 holes on saturday and a Kareoke Do in the evening, at 11.30 I had to go to bed (that could of been Phil's bad singing). Today its more golf with a meal afterwards with Ladies invite Gents but at least this morning is spent in bed checking up on the emails and drinking coffee, listining to the rain pelting on the windows. Next week is just average before I leave Rachel at home and depart for Scotland and the Infamous "Hogg Trophy". 3 days of quality golf with some of the biggest golfing bandits around. Luckliy everyone is knocking on a bit so generally after a few pints and a good meal the nights are not too late. Rachel's Trigger fish bite is slowly starting to heal properly and she is looking forward to wearing skirts and shorts again (asuming its ever warm enough)
Sat 9th May
Its been another one of those weeks when we have just not stopped. Last weekends wedding and golf breaks were great fun, but a little tiring and we have been out every night since so tonight I think a quiet night in together could be in order. Rachel's fish bite is starting to recover and both doctor and nurse have been taking great interest in it. The test results showed some strange bacterias there but all the infection is now gone and it is slowly begining to heal. We have been trying to find a photo of the Triger fish that bit Rachel as we know we had seen it loads of times. This is because the picture sits on every page of this website in the top left corner, strange or what! Wedding photos of Phil & Andi's big day will be uploaded this weekend and hopefully the trip report to Tioman will be ready soon again with loads of photos.
Fri 1st May
May already where is this year going to. No work today, Hurray, Its Phil's Wedding blessing and bash today. Picked up my suit last night and look very dapper. After all of the festivities today its all golf for the rest of the bank holiday weekend. Rachel has organised a Lady Captain's weekend away and 14 are off to Breadsall Priory Hotel (Very nice 4 star hotel) near Derby for golf, good food and the european wine mountain (or should that be lake?). While the girls are away boys are probably being a tad less cultured, Golf ,Beer ,Curry or something like that. I am sure both weekends will be throughly enjoyed. Bound to be a wedding theme to photo of the week very soon.
Sat 25th Apr
Sleeping patterns are getting back to normal now, although Rachel's triger fish bite became infected and she had to go to the doctors on Thursday morning and is now on a course of antibiotics for the next 10 days. Her story about the event now is expanding with every day and she loves telling it to anybody and everybody she knows at the moment. Please do resist the offers to view the wound as its truly gross at the moment, wait a week at least as the ouzing should have abaited by then. Last football match of the season this afternoon (Hurray) it has been a perverse sort of pleasure and pain season. Going back for more next year, of course. Time is a great healer. New page coming soon on Diving the best and worst with a full trip report with lots of photos of Tioman. Should be complete by next weekend.
Tue 21st Apr
Two days back at work and our holidays seemed a long time ago. We do however have the delights of Jet lag, 5am is slightly too early for us to be waking up at the moment but we have been enjoying a 1st cup of tea before six for three days running. hopefully our sleep paterns will recover pretty quickly. Rachel is undertaking her post holiday moisturising routine to help prolong her golden tan for as long as possible. I am taking the boys attitude by leaving trails of dead skin around for the next few weeks, but at least there is no cream. Our Holiday was fantastically good with the exception of a 5 hour delay on our flight out of Manchester. KL was Dry for the first time (we flew out the day before the grand prix) and Tioman was one of the best island locations we have visited and one place where mass tourisim has not yet found. The diving was great, We had probably our best Shark dive ever, an hour of sharks upto 5 at any one time, These were not the most dangerous marine animals we encountered, that was the Titan trigger fish that took a dislike to Rachel invading its territory and gave her quite a nasty bite. After the initial shock Rachel took great delight in showing off her bite and recounting the tale to many an interested diver. I am sure she will continue to tell the tale for many years to come.
Sat 18th Apr
Just got back from the most fantastic holiday in an idyllic location. Full entry in the next few days with photo's, trip report and the like. No internet access for the last few weeks (that works for more than a min or two ???) hence the lack of updates.
Sun 22nd Mar
Well we now know that all dive kit fits in our new rucksacks with spare weight allowance to boot and a few corners (very small ones) left empty. Second problem where do we fit our clothes??? Thinking hats on boys. Off to the Golf club for Mothers day lunch in a few hours and I am already hungry. Rachel has gone off to the gym to build up an appetite, her body is such a temple and now in serious training for loads of diving on holiday, myself I am taking a more relaxed 'look love I cant be arsed' approach and focusing on sunset beer training instead as its only 7 work days to go (far less for Rachel of course) to holidays and we both are starting to get rather excited. The important things canont be left to chance.
P.S Problem 3 Camara kit, another bag methinks.
Thurs 19th Mar
St Patricks day party at the golf club was an excellent night last Saturday although a bit messy towards the end mainly due to a Guiness and Jamiesons promotion. But hay ho we had'nt planned to do anything on the Sunday apart from drinking lots of black coffee. We are looking forward to a quite weekend, our first Saturday night in since the 10th of January is this week so I could possible get to watch Match of the day. Holidays are now coming up rather quickly, less than two weeks to go and we do really need to get a bit organised, Well I do as Rachel always is. So I think I could be up in the loft getting a few summer clothes down after looking at the weather forcast for Tioman Island on the internet, max 31 C min 24 C and loads of sunshine Hurray !!!!
Sun 8th Mar
More busy, busy, busy!! Last weekend was Phils stag do so Rob went off to Blackpool for the weekend with the boys. They played golf on Fri and Sat and drank lots of beer! On Sat they went out for a Thai meal which Rob tells me was very good and I must admit to being a little jeaulous. It sounded yummy. On sunday however when he got home he was very quiet and looked a little grey! Quiet afternoon. This weekend was the club dinner at Astbury Golf Club. We weren't really sure what to expect but had a great evening and were very well looked after by our hosts. I have managed to play golf this weekend and came second. Very pleased about that. Hopefully the coming week will be a bit quieter but probably not. At least it is only 3 weeks until we go on holiday for a well earned rest. We can't wait.
Thur 26 Feb
Busy,Busy,Busy Rachels combined birthday party with her mum was a great night, everyone seemed to have a great time. Loads of food on the buffet. They were worring a few weeks before how many to cater for, there were around 70 freinds and family and you could off fed 100 comfortably, beer takings were pretty good too (see photo of the week). Lots of meetings and a quiz at the golf club this week for us both have meant a very hectic week. Tommorow I depart for Phils Stag do on the sunkissed golden sands of Blackpool (I am talking about the bunkers at the golf course we are playing at) I am sure one or two medicinal sherberts may be consumed? Four and a half weeks to Holiday !!!! Well done to William on his debut for Cheshire
U13 athletics team on Sunday. He helped them qualify for the national county indoor finals at the NIA in Birmingham later in March and bagged an individual bronze medal for himself in his field event.
Wed 11 Feb
Seven weeks today we will be in Kuala Lumpa, everything is all sorted, flights reconfirmed, hotels booked, emails sent to the dive centre, the best part of three weeks diving in Malaysia. To say we can't wait is a bit of an understatement after the last six weeks of freezing temperatures. We are really restricted with baggage allowance so gone are the wheeled dive bags weighing 4-5 kgs before you start, in are new lightweight 80 litre backpacks that weigh the bare minimum. A few tshirts and shorts (which will be washed while we are away) are all the clothes we are taking the rest of the baggage will be dive related. Rachel can't wait to try out her new birthday camera underwater, the few photos she has taken in the last week show the quality but with 12m pixels and nearly as many switches, modes and settings she will need a 14 hour flight to understand the user manual.
Wed 4 Feb
What a brilliant week we have had!! Drive In was fanastic. Rob was right, I did not hit it too far but it went straight down the middle. There were loads of people at the golf club and we all had a nice lunch and a really pleasant afternoon. It was great to see so many friendly faces at the golf club and receive so many good luck messages. I got over 40 cards and loads of gifts. It was excellent. Yesterday was my 40th Birthday!!! Can't believe I am that old. Again another brilliant day. I went to the golf club for lunch and was joined by aobut 20 of my friends. Nicky had arranged a cake and balloons which was a very pleasant surprise. We all had a great afternoon. In the evening Rob and I went to the pub for dinner with Neil and Sue. I seem to have spent the whole day eating and drinking! Fab.
Mon 26 Jan
We had a good weekend just gone. Saturday was Captains farewell at the Golf club. Rachel was driving as she is still on the wagon Not Drinking, or Eating Chocolate or Crisps for the whole of January. I was having a beer monster night (first time for a bit) and did not feel to good all day Sunday. Not the best thing to do when you are playing golf for the first time in 4 months needless to say I played awful but it was a nice sunny day albeit a bit cold. Next week end is drive in day for Rachel and Phil, Just a quick inside tip as there is a sweep on their drives, just like Phils hair and Rachel height think short.
Sun 18 Jan
I think we are finaly both cold free!! Shouldn't say that as something else will come along but for this week at least we are not keeping kleenex in business! The weather has been a little bit better this week and I managed to play 9 holes on Tues without freezing or getting wet. Always a bonus. Tues evening was the annual lades dinner at the golf club. A very good time was had by all. Other than that it has been a quiet week so we are just resting in preparation for the very busy weeks to come. It is always good to recharge the batteries.
Sun 11 Jan
I have been suffering with the worst cold I have had in years. 10 days so far with no sign of seeing the back of it yet, The only bright side is that Rachel has not picked my bug up yet. At least we are having a few days where the temperatures are not subzero. It tends to put a stop to nearly everything but after christmas and the new year its not to bad a thing to have a few quiet weeks.
One thing we have sorted out this weekend is Rachels 40th Birthday pressie (Its not a suprise)
as she is upgrading her underwater camera kit. Not a full DSLR but it comes close in many respects so expect some outstanding photos on the site this year both above and under the water once she is up and running.
New Years Day
What a busy few days we have had!! On Sunday Mum, Dad, Ralph and Ang came round for tea. dad and Rob went to watch Vale play. Vale won in the last minute so they were very happy when they got home. We all had a very pleasant evening. Unfortunately I had to go to work on Monday but Rob must have been really bored home alone as he did all the ironing while I was out. Brilliant! Tuesday we went to the pictures to see Madagascar 2. It was great. Yesterday was very busy indeed but loads of fun. In the afternoon we went to our friend Tony's Wedding. It was lovely if rather cold and Luci looked beautiful in a very unusual pink weding gown. In the early evening we left the wedding to join the New Year celebrations at the Golf Club. Traditions say that the incoming captains will be dressed up and carried into the club just before midnight. Batman and Catwoman eat your heart out! It was brilliant fun even if we did look rather silly. We all had a great night and a brilliant start to the New Year. see photos for the evidence. Happy New Year to you all.
Sat 27 Dec
Well that was Christmas. Rachel was back at work today at Satwest. She so much enjoys getting up on a Saturday to go to work. I avoided the morning by staying in bed a more sensible idea. We both enjoyed our first christmas back in the uk. Stuffed to the brim after Christmas dinner ( I needed a sleep but that could just be old age) lots of very nice pressies, footie on boxing day (The mighty Corn lost 1-2 to Formby) and now that funny time of year before New years Eve. This time last year I was Leaving for 5 straight liveaboard trips, now 1 days diving in the sun would be great, saying that its only 3 months untill we will be flying off to Malaysia, and Tioman Island for a bit of an adventure for 3 weeks. Loads to fit in between now and then. photo of the week to be updated in the next few days.
Christmas Eve
Quiz went very well. We had alot of fun and managed to finish 3rd which is a bit of a result for only our 2nd outing. We have both been very busy this last week but everything is done now. All the presents are wrapped and under the tree, cake is iced and the mince pies are made and almost all eaten!! Perhaps I will have to make some more. On Sunday we went to deliver Harvey's present and all decided we should go out for lunch. It was great to spend time with friends at Christmas. Makes us realise how much we missed it all last year. We are busy visiting family over the next few days and are really looking forward to all the festivities. Merry Christmas to all our readers and don't eat too much!!! xx.
Sun 14 Dec
I have a bad dose of man flu at the moment, I went to bed at 5 oclock last night and woke up at 8am this morning feeling a bit better, Rachel went of to the carol night at the golf club by her self and enjoyed the evening. Christmas nights out went very well last thursday. Rachel had the Circuit Girls (trade description enquiry pending -see photo's) night out in Alsager at the Manor with a Wham tribute band. apparently time has not been kind to Mr Michael over the last few years as he has put on a few stone's, shrank by a foot or so and is developing a receding hair line. I know the feeling well. I was in Winsford at the Plough Inn for a very nice meal with all my workmates and had my first mine pie for 3 years, Bliss.
Our Quiz team (Mr H's pie) have there second run out on wednesday night and we are hopeing for an improvement from our midtable position last time out.
Talking of Quiz's can you guess how many bottles of wine Rachel had drunk when the photo of the week picture was taken. Answers on a postcard please.
Tue 09 Dec
Only a couple of weeks to Christmas and it seems quite strange in a very nice way. With not having all the buildup for the last few years everything seems quite exciting. We both have christmas doo's this week which we are looking forward to, Carol concert with a brass band at the golf club on Saturday, even the gory Christmas lights make us smile at the moment. (I will however draw the line when it comes to Wizard or Slade on the Radio) Christmas shopping is pretty well all done, Christmas cards are posted, (This is all down to Rachels organisation) Even the cold weather adds to the build up. No work over christmas (Rachel had 25 phone calls last Christmas Eve evening)
and Christmas football to lookforward , We can't wait.
Sun 30 Nov
I have only been to work for 1 day this week. Great!! If has been really nice. I have finished all my Christmas shopping, been out for lunch with Neil and Sue, had my hair done and generally had a very nice time. On Friday I made my football debut with a trip to see the Vale in FA Cup action. What a waste of money!! It was so foggy that we could not see the goal at the other end of the pitch and we got beat 3-1. Perhaps I won't go again!!! Yesterday Rob and I played golf with Ralph and Ang in their mixed winter invitation. It was absolutely freezing and really foggy, but we managed not to lose any balls and all had a really good time. We did look like Mitchelin men though as we were wearing so many layers!! Still freezing today so staying in the warm and not doing much.
Sat 22 Nov
What have we been upto the last two weeks? Presentation Night was last week end and Rachels haul was quite impressive (see photo of the week) espeially winning the Ladies player of the year trophy for the second year running. Christmas shopping was undertaken on Wensday, considering all the talk of a credit crunch Hanley city centre in the potteries was absolutely packed. More like a busy Saturday than a midweek and its still 5 weeks to christmas, dread to think what it will be like today. It was however very well organised and didn't take too long. The same evening we made our debuts in quiz land at the golf clubs monthly quiz with Neil & Sue. Team name was Mr H's Pie which means something to the four of us but nothing to anyone else, perfect for a quiz team, we came 5th out of ten which we all thought for our first time out was quite respectable. On the subject of Quizes Rachel's Weakest link episode was re run again last night, she won again and if requested can give a full comentry. Pity we don't get another cheque from the BBC. This weekend should be quite a quiet one, Keeping warm will be my main objective as the UK is engulfed by its second cold snap of the winter. I am sure its wont last long but its a far cry from 32 degrees in Phuket last November.
Mon 10 Nov
All the house stuff is finished now, to compliment the new look front of the house we have gone for a trendy light and house number to stop the postman getting confused which is number 15. Rachel sent me out to put the light up in freezing temperatures but dispite frostbite in a few of my apendages mission was accomplished with little fuss (probably because Rachel went to the shops).
Golf is now restricted to fair weather days only but we have Presentation Night to look forward to
on Saturday, I am there in a supporting role (mainly to carry Rachels haul back to the car) but their is always next year. We had an excellent trip down to the Dive show at the NEC last weekend, not so busy as the last time we went 3 years ago but still loads of fun. Rachel still has the knack of haggling as she came away with a new Sunuto SPG with a high pressure hose for £30. not quite dive supply standards but a very good result. We also had a chat with Rene from Sea fun divers who we used to meet on Chalong pier fairly regulary, he filled us in on the news from Phuket. The other main news is that I will be grinning very stupidly following Port Vale's classic win away to Huddersfield in the FA cup on saturday, we have watched the goals a few times already and they seem to get better each time, unfortunatly we did'nt go a Rachel was working but roll on Macclesfield.
Tue 28 Oct
Its ******* freezing, Snow was a bit of a shock to say the least although the last 2 days its been sleeting on the way to work at Mowcop (thats in the hills) so its been coming. Rachel has been a star and found the big duvet in the loft. 14 Togs tonight we should be nice and snug. The New front door has been fitted as well as the facias and soffit so the house is looking very good at the moment. not to much new news at the moment, next weekend we are off to the Dive show at the NEC in birmingham so we are both looking forward to that.
Mon 20 Oct
Quite a quiet week just gone, nothing very exciting for me although Rachel secured the Ladies Player of the Year award for the second year running. Weather not too bad for the time of year although we both feel slightly funny not going off to the far east for six months. The thought of short days, colder and colder temperatures have made us hunt in the loft to find all the jumpers and coats we hid in there two years ago. Anyway the new patio doors have made the house a lot warmer. New front door on Wenesday so we should be as snug as a bug for the rest of the winter.
Sat 12 Oct
What have we been upto the last few weeks? Diets and colds have dominated the scene recently. The indulgence of a holiday and lack of exercise (on my part not Rachels) have stangley made some of my favourite clothes shrink and bulge in places they didn't before. This combined with the fact that this year we are not going to be diving 200 - 300 times in the next 6 months means some action is needed. Rachels now world famous White wine and cashew nut diet starts tommorow, I have been enjoying? fruit for my lunch (Mon-Fri) and attempting to keep away from too much beer.
We have also been sniffing and sneezing for the last week or so along with what seems to be the whole of the country but it is that time of year I suppose. Big birthdays this weekend Mum (Pat) was 70 yesterday, nice family party last night at their house, and today Rachel's Uncle Chris is 21
(60 really) and a we are off to Warrington this evening to send our many happy returns.
Football is off the conversational subject list until normal service has been resumed. Golf - I am still rubbish and looking forward to the end of the season, Rachel needs to beat her main competitor to win the ladies player of the year trophy for the second year running next week.
Thu 25 Sep
Jambo !!!
Kenya Holiday was cool. Hotel was excellent, the diving was unexpectantly good with a few new marine creatures we had not seen before, Lots of good food and (for Rachel) Gin Fizz by the bucket load, even the drive to down and back to Gatwick was quiet. The Weather was good with lots of sunshine and around 27 degrees C, the water was a bit chilly after around an hour or so underwater but we soon warmed up afterwards. Most days were diving in the morning and chilling by the pool in the afternoon, very relaxing. On other matters Rachel won the Clarke Cup last weekend which she was delighted about to say the least, winning at the 20th hole after giving her opponent hundreds of shots (16) so well done. I was caddying for Phil in the mens final but I saw Rachel hole the winning putt. We are both off work untill next Monday so are just enjoying a few days doing nothing (in a very busy way).
Sun 14 Sep
Well not quite so much rain this week but still pretty grim. This week has been a bit of a faff for us. We are going on holiday on Mon, we were going to Egypt, flying with XL. Oh dear, no flight for us then. Fortunatley we booked with a proper agent so will get a full refund. However we still want to go away so after much surfing and many phone calls we have got sorted. Tomorrow we are off to Kenya!! Bit different than Egypt but sounds great. Yesterday we had all sorts of things to arrange but we are now armed with money and malaria tablets and are really looking forward to our travels. Of course we will be diving but also plan to chill and enjoy the sun. Lots of pictures when we get back. Today is finals day at the golf club. I am in the final of the Clarke Cup which I have never won so am a bit nervous but quite optomistic. Lets hope it all goes well. At least it is not raining!!
Mon 08 Sep
Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,
Rain.Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN,RAIN (Friday)Rain,Rain,Rain,Rain
and then Vale lost 2-0. Hay Ho this time next week we will be on our way to Egypt for a weeks diving and we both can't wait for that. One thing we will not see for a week or so is any RAIN.
Sun 31 Aug
We had a great time in Scotland. The weather was supposed to be terrible but we played 54 holes of golf over 3 days and only got wet for about 5 holes in total. Not bad at all. On Saturday we played at Wigtown, a small 9 hole course just up the road from the B&B. Quite tricky but really good fun. Unfortunately the boys beat the girls. Ralph played too well and as a result received a 2 shot handicap reduction for the next day. Not very fair but we were making the rules so we can do what we want!! Sunday off to Portpatrick and the sun came out for a while but it was rather windy. Unfortunately the boys won again so a futher 2 shot reduction!! We must have got the handicaps right as the girls finally won at Stranraer on Monday although the boys won overall. All that golf and a few very nice meals out made for a very good weekend. Tues Rob was back to work and I was, you guessed it, playing golf again. All the practise must have paid off as I won. Wed I played the semi final of the club knock out and won that too. Excellent. Yesterday Jane (old uni friend) and her girls called in for lunch. It was brilliant to catch up on all the news and have a good old chat. Rob was very pleased as Vale won and by all accounts played pretty well. Last night we went out for dinner with Neil and Sue. Always a good night. So it has been a very busy couple of weeks. I think it is time we had a holiday, that will be the week after next then!!
Tue 18 Aug
What a awful week weather wise, typical monsoon rain but we are in the UK. Thankfully with us being confined to indoors we have been enjoying the Olympics and the odd tear in the eye as the Union jack keeps being raised very inspirational. 4 weeks to holidays and we are really looking forward to going diving. Especially as there is a new BBC program Pacific Abyss all about a diving expedition in Micronesia has just started (Sundays 8.00pm), wets the appetite a bit. Next week we are away in Scotland for the bank holiday weekend so lots of photos of the week coming soon. best not mention the football to much this week, Accrington Stanley who are they, Exactly!!!!
Sun 10 Aug
Last night was the summer ball at the golf club. It was a wonderful evening. There was a large marquee out side the club house which was beautiful. We had a very nice meal and then danced the night away until the early hours. Phil and Andrea stayed over with us and we all had great fun. We had bacon butties this morning to finish things off very nicely. The weather was terrible but it certainly did not dampen spirits. All round a great time was had by all.
Mon 4 Aug
Chronicle Cup yesterday Rachel caddied for me and amazingly I played extreamly well for 33 of the 36 hole comp. The first round is held at Astbury Golf club with the top 30 making the 'cut' and playing the afternoon round at Congleton. Front 9 and we were both suprised as a level par 36 however disaster struck at the 12th with a nightmare 10. we finished the round with an 81 very disapointed but I had just done enough to play in the afternoon. The Afternoon started even better with us being 1 under par after 8 holes. However tiredness crept in later on in the round and 2 bad holes we ended up with a 77 in the afternoon. No handicaps in this comp so a final finish around 20th is not a bad result but still fustrating after playing so well for most of the day. Rachel performed marvels 'on the bag' through the day. Rachel started at her new branch of Natwest after all the training over the past month so check your change.
Mon 28 July
Typical you have a rant about the weather being awful and it decides that this week is summer. What a differance a week makes. I am sure Rachel starting work has been a contributing factor in the improvement in the weather, saying that she has a 'day off' today and is playing in the regional final of the Peugot Foresomes at ringway in Manchester. This weekend was spent playing golf in the day and playing with charcole in the evening/night, lots of beer/wine etc etc but great fun, the neighbours were there too so we could make lots of noise trying to guess the year of my 80's cd collections. Only 7 weeks to we go on holiday, The good weather is making us both miss the diving especially as when we get home we done the board shorts and dive Tshirts and sample a Tiger or two. Rachels Birthday cake making found new heights on friday night as she prepared Harveys 4th Birthday cake, Following Teddy bears, Dinosours and Thomas the Tank engine this years creation was Rorey the racing car and pretty cool he was to. Pictures soon coming to a photo of week page near you.
Sat 19 July
Well this summers beautiful weather continues, Its so cold and windy all the time, not quite true as we had a very nice afternoon at Tatton Park in Knutsford last weekend, picnic by the lake and then a walk around the gardens. Its just every time we think about playing golf it rains big time, we might as well be diving as were always cold and wet. Rachel has completed her 2 weeks in Manchester on her induction course, obviously after a whole 2 weeks full time she is absolutly knackered (her words) and is now looking forward to her strenuous part time hours to kick in.
Not to long for our holidays now. A long weekend playing golf in Scotland at the end of August and then a weeks diving in Egypt (I can't wait) in mid September which we have to pay for soon.
Sun 6 July
Finished my first week at work. All went well so that is good. Last night we went to see Duran Duran in concert with Ralph and Ang. It was brilliant but I would say that. We all had a great time. I also played golf yesterday and had a great round. I dropped my handicap and am now off 12. Really pleased about that. Rob is playing in Captains Day this afternoon. I think he is getting wet but lets hope he does well. I will be joining him and the Captain for dinner later.
Tues 1 July
Its been a very busy weekend. It was Lady Captains Day at the Golf Club on sunday. I was busy taking notes ready for next year. The weather was terrible and we all got rather wet but I won!! Very delighted about that. The prizes were very nice and we all had a very enjoyable day. Yesterday was my first day at work. I felt a bit like a spare part as there is nothing I can do until I have been on my training course next week, but it was good to meet all my new colleagues. Everyone seems very nice and I think I will enjoy my new job. The weekend in the Isle of Man was great. Lovely to see old friends and catch up with all the news. The journey home was not too bad but not really what you expect in June. Rob has been busy playing lots of golf and working hard although the weather did disrupt his golf on Thurs evening. Too much rain. I think they will try again this week.
Sat 21 Jun
The longest day, more like November than June. The mens team were away to Leek today, very nice course but not the best place to go when its blowing a gale and the rains coming down sideways. We found out before the match we were top of our league after 5 games (4 wins 1 defeat) and with pride coming before the fall ended up being thrashed 12 - 0, (to a very good Leek side with quite a few county players) not the best way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Dry tommorow but 40mph winds, Rachel's flying back from the Isle of Man as all the ferries have been cancelled due to the predicted sea conditions, somehow I don't think the plane will be much fun. Rachel has a start date for her new job, 30th June, won't that be a shock to the system!!
Tues 17 Jun
More golf and cake baking this week! Dora mark 2 was a great success and Jessie was very pleased with her birthday cake. The Ladies team managed an honourable half this week so that is an improvement on last week. No match for the men this week. Rob played in a 36 hole comp this weekend and was a bit dissapointed with his performance. Never mind there is always next week. On Sunday I went over to Ralphs and we had a very nice fathers day dinner with Mum and Dad. Another cake which we all enjoyed. I am going to the Isle of Man on Friday for a girls weekend. That should be great fun.
Sun 8 June
As Rob said the diet has gone to pot but we have had a really nice week. Rob got me a beautiful bunch of flowers for our anniversary and we had a lovely evening on Wed. On Sat we went to the Pavillion in Congleton with Julie and Bri. We always have a good evening when we all go out. The food was fab and we all had a great time. I have also been busy cake baking. A friend of Julie's asked if I could make her daughter a Dora the Explorer Cake. So why not. See photo of the week. It must have been good as I have another order for one from another friend. Perhaps I will have to go into business! Or maybe not. We have both played lots of golf this week with mixed results. Rob won his team match but the Ladies were not so successful. Never mind there is always next week.
Mon 2 June
Rachels diet goes from strength to strength, She is a shadow of her former self after the best part of a month on her Cashew nut and White wine diet !!! (not the full diet menu but its a bit bizzar) its bound to go to pot over the next week as we are out on Wednesday night (14th wedding anniversary, were has that time gone?) and Saturday we are out in Congleton. She also has due to the long long hours spent out on the golf course managed to get back most of her Thailand tan and is looking incredibly healthy. Myself hard at work in the office am still brown at the edges but thats about all. We have also after 2 months non diving booked to go to the Red sea in September for a week. We are off to Nuweiba for 7 days of shore diving in an area of the sinia peninsular we have never visited before so we are really looking forward to that. We are also in the process of planning a much grander diving holiday for 2009 to Indonesia with a stop off on the way or coming back to catch up with a few friends in Thailand (as you do). The hardest part of this trip is timing the weather so each area is still ok weather wise dispite the the different areas monsoons. I almost started thinking of diving in the UK last week after looking down in to some beautiful bays around Portpatrick in western Scotland only for my enthusiasm to be somewhat dented when loking at the sea temperatures discovered they were a bathlike 12-14 oC, maybe in a few months time?.
Mon 26 May
Just got back from an excellent 4 days golfing in Scotland. The weather was great (no rain) although it was quite windy at times as the group fought for the prestigious "Hogg" Trophy. It was my first year in the event (its been going for 7-8 years now) and I made a good fist of my debut finishing in the middle of the field. Vast amounts of Gunniess and the local Bladnoch malt Whisky were consumed along with a daily calorie intake far above the recommended weekly allowance helped to keep the banter flying into the early hours. While away Rachel has been golfing as well having here best ever score (76) on Sunday in a team match at Congleton. She is also being incredibly healthy with a fitness and diet regime which is obviously paying dividends.
Thurs 21 May
A bit more of a quiet weekend but we do have great news. I have got a job!! I will be working at Natwest Bank in Crewe 3 days a week. Just what I was looking for so we are both very pleased. Not sure when I start yet but I am playing as much golf as possible before work interfers with my life! Rob has gone to Scotland today to play golf with the boys for 4 days. I am sure they will have a great time.
Tues 13 May
The weather has been fab and we have had a great week. On Thursday I went to Chester Races with the girls. We had a brilliant day and I even managed to win a couple of quid. On Friday it was my cousin Peters Wedding. It was lovelly. Jenni looked fabulous, Peter looked very handsome, the sun shone and we all had a brilliant day. It was great to see all the family and catch up on all the news. On Sat we played golf with Ralph and Ang. Girls v boys and the girls won. We were very pleased but I don't think the boys were too impressed! Sunday was a quiet day as we were both rather tired from a very hectic weekend. On Monday evening it was Phils finaces 30th Birthday so we were off to the pub again. We seem to be spending alot of time in the pub at the moment!! I think we need a few quiet days before next weekend.
Mon 5 May
Finally the weather has bucked up a bit. This week was a bit of a golf week, especially for me. My team won away on Mon which was great. On Tues was our ladies exchange day at Onnerley, a free round of golf on another course is always good. It was a bit cold but a great day. On Friday I played my first knock out of the season and won. Rob played in the mens team on Sat and they also won so all in all it has been a very successful golfing week. Today we have been for a really nice walk with Neil and Sue. We walked from our house and ended at the pub. It is a bank holiday and it would be rude not to finish off with a beer. We even remebered to take the camera so check out our photo.
Tues 29 Apr
Back in the UK for a month now and just a hint of spring in the air. We are both glad we came home a few weeks early and have really enjoyed the last few weeks going out, seeing all our freinds in the uk, being in our house, putting toilet paper in the toilet. Both our blood must have been thinned out over the last 2 years because people keep walking around in T shirts saying its nice and warm (some one even said it was too hot !!!!!) we are still planning multiple clothing levels for any occasion we venture outside, 3 to 4 is an average number of layers. Since we have last writen we have been very busy going here and there. Theater to see the Kodo drummers from Japan, An excellent works night out in Tarporley (very posh people there) and a cracking doo at the golf club with lots of dancing. Rachels golf has been a bit hit and miss but is showing signs of improvement . Mine has been downright dreadfull untill last weekend when Phil and I managed to finish second hopefully it will continue. we are trying to organise a dive holiday for later on in the summer our first proper holiday for 3 years (no comments please) and the planning is half the fun
We are going to make a special effort for photo of the week, Starting next week as Rachels new 2gb memory card is still being run in.
Tue 15 Apr
Another Birthday come and gone. 43 years old and Rachel very kindly reminded me I will be 50 in a few years time. Apart from that I had a very nice birthday, I dont know why but a birthday is always better when its over a weekend. We were out on both Friday and Saturday (see photo of the week for Saturdays evening) A few to many late nights for a man of my age but it was good fun. Rachel goes for a part time job interview tommorow, I am sure she will be fixed up quite soon so at least she has to get up early a few days a week (not including the days she is playing golf).
I went to see Port Vale at the weekend, Very glad I have been in Thailand for the last 6 months as it would of been a long winter over here watching them lose every week. They were nearly as bad as Huddersfield (who they were playing).
Wed 09 Apr
Still settling in to UK life, We have managed to sort out a few esentials Sky sports, Broadband internet and a case of wine. The broardband is excellent and its wireless to so we can use the the internet anywhere in the house and answer the phone at the same time. This will also help Rachel find a job without having to worry about how much it costs sitting on the internet during the day. The thing we are both struggling with are the temperatures and the SNOW. We did not expect it to be warm but the last week has been especially cold so not much golf on our return yet. We also have no excuse for not keeping this site upto date. My job is going well and have settled back in to the job no problems. Very busy all day so the days fly past.
Mon 31 Mar
Back home in biddulph and you can feel the sun tans fade by the minute. To say we have felt a bit chilly over the last few days would be an understatement but we are starting to get used to the 25 degree temperature change. We both have to agree that its great to be home, especially seeing friends and family, playing golf for the first time in 6 months (albeit rather badly) and sampling all the things we have missed during our time in Thailand (proper beer,wine,sausages). I start work tommorow which I am looking forward to, Rachel has applied for a couple of jobs and of course will be trying to reduce her golf handicap again this year following her player of the year trophy last year.
Tue 25 Mar
Now in Bangkok on our way home, We are staying at the Holiday Inn on Silom Road and to make things better we have been upgraded to an executive room (Very posh and about twice the price of the room we paid for), So since our last update we have been on our last job with "Seaking" in the Similans, Its always nice when we are on the boat together. The diving was very good with the underwater visibility between 30-40 metres some of the best since November last year. Last night we went out with Mike one of our friends for a few beers, we both enjoyed it and was a great way to spend our last night in Phuket. We have a full day in Bangkok tommorow before the long trip home.
Tue 18 Mar
Well 10 days time we will be home. We are both looking forward to it, seeing everyone and doing things we have missed over the last 6 months (English beer!!) The last five days we have been on holiday ,which is abit like being on holiday at home, you do some nice things but not like a tourist would over here. We are on a strickish budget as well as the money we have we want to last without going to the bank. One thing we have been doing is to have a suite made each, Its been loads of fun choising everything and being measured properly. One more fitting to go untill we pick them up. On a down side I flooded my camera while on a dive with Rachel a couple of days ago, luckly we have managed to buy another camera the same model (its 3-4 years old) but with more pixels which still fits the underwater housing off Ebay for a few quid, If your reading this Mum a package addressed to Rachel will be arriving in the next week or so. We go on our last trip on the "Witch" tomorrow, bound to be alot of fun but probably a bit sad as well because of the friends we will be leaving behind. More soon.
Fri 7 Mar
Breaking News !!! We return Home on the 27th of March. A Joint decision to come home a month early, A number of factors have made up our minds. The diving side has started to slow down quite a bit over the last few weeks, A bit of homesickness, and the weather has already started to change (strong winds, rain at night) which will also effect the diving in the coming months. Now we
have decided we are both really looking forward to getting home and putting on a jumper.(gloves,hats,scarfs etc) as well as seeing everyone. Between now and the end of march we will probably be quite busy (working on our tans) Rachel has an Advanced course in a few days time and we will be on the "Witch" for a couple of trips before we go. So see you all soon.
Sun 2 Mar
Kuala Lumpur was a great 3 days away from Phuket, We did'nt do to much as the weather was pretty bad with some really impresive thunderstorms. Fortunatly we managed to dodge these quite well by visiting one of the many shopping mall's or stopping for coffee/Ice cream/Beer depending on the time of day. Even air asias flights were on time which if you talk to anyone around here will tell you is a bit of a rarity. Only down side is that we both have colds so not felling at our best today. Photos on the photo of the week soon. Also Happy Birthday Natalie 14! That makes us feel really old.
Tues 26 Feb
I came back from Similan for a couple of days only to return again on Sat. We both seem to be spending alot of time travelling back and to at the moment. The 6 day trip was great. I had the same customers for the whole trip and we had great fun. The diving, as always, was great and it was nice to have good company too. Rob is now in Similan with his Koreans and will get back tomorrow. On Thurs we are off the Kuala Lumpur for 3 days on a visa run. We are looking forward to a few days off and spending some time together. We haven't seen alot of each other recently! Lets hope the sun shines as it has been raining here for the last 3 days!
Tues 19 Feb
Well we had 24 hours off before Rachel Headed off to Similan for six days, She returns late on tonight. I have been out on the day boats for a few days then started an open water course yesterday, unfortunately my student has been sick all night so my 3 day course is now a 4 day course but these things happen and it gives me a chance to upload some photos on to the website from the last few weeks, please have a look. I go back out to the similans on Saturday with a group of Koreans, they came last year and held their annual photo compertion which was a lot of fun. hopefully this years trip will be as good as last years.
Thurs 14 Feb
We have just got back from the Chinese New Year Trip with 27 people on the boat, very busy to say the least and at times it felt like a six day trip rather than a four day trip but we were rewarded by experiancing the best Manta Dive this season. 30 minutes with these fantastic gaints was absolutley unforgetable. As normal we did not have a camera between us to record the event but we have put one from the previous weeks trip on the photo of the week page. Harold and Elizibeth are returning to the UK as we write this, If the number of photos they have taken is any guide to if they have enjoyed their month long holiday then its a resounding yes. A big thank you to everyone who sent Rachel a congratulation's Email after her telly debut, there have been loads.
we tried to watch the program on the BBC iPlayer but it only works if your in the uk so we will have to wait untill May.Bye for now and Happy Valentine's
Tues 05 Feb
Busy week last week, not so much with work but we had to go on the 'Witch' on a few hours notice
which ment a lot of running around for a few hours to get everything sorted. In the end with everything in place for Harold and Elizibeth (Hotel,etc) for when we got back, we all left for 4 excellent days in the Similan and Surin Islands. Its the first time Rachel and I have dived together just for fun for 14 months and Rachel was armed with her new underwater digital camera so we really enjoyed ourself's. Harold and Elizibeth thought the boat was great fun, went snorkling and enjoyed a couple of nice walks down deserted beaches and took a million pictures. The Last day was Rachels 21st Birthday (Again,she's had a few to meny of them now) after getting off the boat we went off to Norbu's Steakhouse in Rawai for a special birthday meal, Very good food in a very nice restaurant, with no rice in sight. Should be getting busy again soon as we aproach Chinese
new year (2 weeks of Feb), then Easter (2 weeks of March), then Thai new year (middle of April).
More soon, and look out for updates on 'Our favourite dive sites' and 'The Best and worst' pages as soon as we get a chance.
Tues 29 Jan
Sorry there has been no update for a couple of weeks but we have been having some techincal difficulties. Hopefully they are resolved now and normal service will be resumed. Mum and Dad arrived safely and have now been here for 2 weeks. It has flown by. They stayed at our house for the first few days. Rob was away on the boat so it was just the three of us. We went ot the beach a couple of times and also went to visit the Big Buddha, a new statue they are building on the very top of the island. It is 45m high and very impressive even though it is not finished yet. The statue is built and now they are in the process of covering it with marble. It will be amazing when it is finished. We also went to the pictures. Mum and I liked the film but Dad thought it was a bit stupid! Last weekend we took Mum and Dad over to Kata for part 2 of their holiday. They are very pleased wit the B&B we found for them. It is only 2 mimutes from the beach which suits them fine. They have been on a couple of trips and we have been over to see them most days. Work is rather quiet ot the moment. It was very slow this time last year as well. I have done an open water course and Rob is working at the moment. It is nice as we have been able to spend some time with Mum and Dad. Next week we are all going to Similan for 4 days. That should be fun. Other news I have had the date for my appearance on the Weakest Link. It is on in the UK on Thurs 7th Feb at 5:15 on BBC2. Hope you all enjoy it.
Tues 15 Jan
Finally we have managed a couple of days off together which has been great. We went to the cinema one day and didn't do much on the other. Rob has been on the Witch agian for the rest of the week and I have been busy cleaning and tidying ready for Mum and Dads arrival. Mum has just sent a text and they have arrived safely in Bangkok so will be here in the next couple of hours. We can't wait to see them. Just a couple more juobs to do then I am of to the airport to collect them. Great!
Mon 7 Jan 2008
Happy New Year everyone. Sorry no update last week but we were just too busy!! Since Christmas it has been all go. This time of the year is silly season so we have been working everyday. Rob went on the boat just before New Year and went on a trip south. We don't go that way very often so it made a nice change. He spent New Year on Phi Phi with his customers and it sounds like they had a great evening. I went out with a few friends and watched the fire works. Not much to drink as I was working the next day. On New Years day I joined Rob on the boat for a 4 day trp with 26 Americans. We all had a great time, they we a really nice crowd and wanted to jump from the boat at every possible opportunity. The more the merrier. See photo!! I taught 6 of them to dive during the trip and they all loved the new experience.
Christmas Day
Merry Christmas everyone!! Its been a really busy week so we are both delighted to be having a day off today. Last night we went to Tesco to get all the food for our sort of traditional Christmas dinner then came home and watched a film. Today we have had a lie in (bliss!), breakfast in bed and presents from Father Christmas. So he does know the way to Thailand after all! This after noon we have been to the beach for a couple of hours. Not the traditional way to spend the day but very pleasant. This evening we will enjoy our dinner and a nice bottle of wine. Later we will speak to our families to round off a very pleasant day indeed. Hope you all have a good one.
Wed 19 Dec
I have been home alone this week as Rob has been out to the Similans again. Sounds like he is having a great time! I have also been busy on the day trips. We had fun on Monday as the boat broke and only had limited steering. Fortunately South Siam have 2 boats so they sent the other one to get us. We had to swap boats in the middle of the sea. All good fun but at least we got home safely. On Sunday I went to the pub with some friends to watch the football. I was only staying for the Man U Liverpool game but ended up staying for the Arsenal game and did not get home until 1:30! I had a great night. I have not been too lonely as next doors cat has adopted us. She is called Similan and is rather cute. (see photos)
Thurs 13 Dec
We have been really busy the last week or so. Rob has been on the Witch with a boat full of Taiwanese people and at the last minute I got a call from the office of Le Mahe. A boat we have not been on before. They were given my number by a friend of ours so I went on a trip with them. Bothj our boats were on a similar trip so Rob and I got to wave to each other a couple of times. That was funny!! I saw my first Mant Ray of the season, excellent. It was huge and very beautiful. It is always a privalge when on comes by. Our airconditioning died last week which is not great but the man is fixing it as we speak so we can sleep in comfort once again. It looks like we will be very busy over Christmas and the New Year as we already have some jobs lined up. Today we are having a well earned day off and are going to the cinema later. Hope the film is good.
Mon 3 Dec
December already, Two months in to this years stint in Phuket and time has certainly flown. With December comes our first Visa run of the year. Yesterday was spent on a very enjoyable 12 hour road trip to Burma. Rachel, Laurence and I Hired A's Truck and made the 300 km drive north to Ranong the last Thai town before the border with Burma. Very nice country side along the way and some very good tunes (and the odd bad one) from Laurence's MP3 player made the journey quite fun. We then took a long tail boat for a 30min journey across the short steatch of water that seperates the two countries. A couple of stamps in the passport then its back in the longtail and back to Thailand, through imigration then back in the car for the journey home. A Very long day but it sounds as though we had more fun than watching Port Vale's awful result against chasetown in the FA Cup (Just read the report on the bbc website).
Fri 30 Nov
Well we never got round to diving for fun! Rob could not dive for 4 days due to the ear infection which is now all better. We had a couple of days off and then the phone started again. I have been to Similand again and Rob has been doing 3 open water courses. Monday was a bit of a disaster. We came out of the house ready for work only to discover that we had a flat tyre. We then discovered that the car does not have a jack or a wheel brace. Alistair next door kindly offered to give us a lift to work and we then had a small car crash on the way! Fortunately nobody was hurt and there was not too much damage but you can do with out it at 8 in the morning. When we finally got to work Robs customers had brought their own guide so he did not have a job!! They say rubbish things come in 3's!! Fortunately he bumped into another friend and got a lift back home so was able to get the car sorted out before I got home. Tonight is Alistairs 60th Birthday so I am helping Laurence prepare for his party while Rob is at work. There are about 20 people coming to Laurences house for a BBQ. It should be a great night. Still no news from the Weakest Link but I will be sure to let you all know as soon as I found out.
Wed 21 Nov
Still very busy here, I came back from the Similan Islands last night. It was a good trip but I now have an ear infection, 2 courses of antibiotics (one ear drops and one pills) and no diving for at least four days (No drinking either). Rachel has been to the Similans for 3 days and has also done a few day boat trips as well for South Siam. Hopefully we may be off for a few days diving for fun which would be nice. The last time we dived for fun was 1 year ago in that time we have done around 300 dives each. The weather here has finally picked up over the last week. The winds are now out of the North East which should mean settled weather for the next 5 months. Enjoy the uk winter!!
Tues 13 Nov
Sorry we have not updated this page last week but we have been really busy, Rachel has just finished 4 Open water courses and I have just compleated 2 back to back liveaboard trips. Very good for the wallet but we have enjoyed the last couple of days relaxing and getting over a bit of a cold. Rachel is working today which allows me to update the web site. The weather is a bit bizzar at the moment, Still having a lot of rain, It should be quite good by now, Maybe the odd shower in the evening but thats all. Saying that the last two days have been fantastic, and we did venture to the beech for the last couple of hours yesterday to watch the sun set. Its a hard life!
Tues 30 Oct
Five days of really heavy rain looks like it has come to an end, I was out on the day boats doing an advanced course on Saturday and Sunday and the sea conditions were horrible, The only suprising thing is no one was sick on the boats either day. Rachel is on the last day of an open water course today, Hopefully it should be a bit calmer. Our diary is filling up nicely and we already have a job booked in for 2008. We want to be nice and busy but not so busy that we cant have a few days off here and there between jobs. Oct/Nov looks like its going to just the right balance which is excellent as most dive centres seem to be very quite at the moment.
Photo of the week has a few of our neighbours, please take a look.
Thurs 25 Oct
We have been on our first trip to the Similans this week. The boat was chartered by a group of Argentinians and they we all barking mad!! We had a great trip and it really didn't seem like being at work. It was great to be back in the water and nice that we got to do our first job of the season together. We have alreay got a couple of other jobs lined up for the coming weeks so it is all looking good. We have also been out a couple of times to catch up with a few friends. It feels like we have never been away. On Tues, Laurence our neighbour, had a Indian curry night. It was a great evening and the food was fab. Sure we will be doing that again some time soon.
Thurs 18 Oct
Arrived back in Phuket on Sat evening. Anat picked us up from the airport and brought us home. The house was not quite ready, no sheets and so on so we stopped at Laurences house. Very nice and we got to have a go in his jacuzzi! We have been busy the rest of the week getting things for the house. On Tues we picked up a car. It is very similar to the one we had last year but a bit better. Less rust!! Yesterday we went to the baech and went snorkelling. It was great to be back in the water. We have already got some work sorted ansd are both going to Similand tomorrow. Really looking forward to that.
Sat 13 Oct
Here we are back in Thailand. We arrived in Bangkok on Thurs evening and were meet at the airport by Neil and Tan. Very good of them to come and pick us up. We had a very good meal in a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms. All the light fittings were made of condoms. Very odd!! On Thurs we did tourists for the day. Tan took us to the war museum and the Bridge on the River Kwai. Very interesting but I found it all very sad. Lets hope that never happens again. By last night we were both shattered so we had room service and watched telly. All round a great day. Today we are off to Phuket and back to reality. We know you don't believe it but we are not on holiday! Also of you want a small chuckle take a look at www.tasikria.com Look closely at the people kissing behind the cocktail glasses. Do you know who it is yet?!
Mon 08 Oct
As Rob said news of my exploits. On Wed last week I went to Pinewood studios to be filmed for an episode of The Weakest Link!! I know you probably all think I must be mad but I have always wanted to go on the telly so this was fulfilling on of my little dreams. It was brilliant. I had a great time. After arriving at the studio we went to have our hair and makeup done. They did an excellent job and it was very nice to be pampered. Then off to the filiming. I was rather nervous in the first couple of rounds but after that it was really good fun. Anne Robinson was a bit mean to me but that was only to be expected and I thought it was all rather funny!! And to top off a brilliant day I amanged to win so no I'm not the weakest link!! Amazing!! I think I will look a bit daft as when I won I could not stop grinning. I only went for the experience and really never expected to win so that really was a bonus. It will be screened in about 3 months time but I will let you all know exactly when so you can have a good laugh at me on the telly. What a brilliant experience and I won the money. I can feel a trip somewhere nice coming on!!
Wed 03 Oct
This time next week were on the way to the airport. We are both really looking forward to going back, Our business visas came this week which will make our life much easier when we get to Phuket. Big news this week was that Rachel has just secured the Ladies player of the year trophy which considering the amount of golf she has been playing is only to be expected (I am not bitter honest) and her handicap has been droped to 12 (Quite rightly so). The only bad thing about it is that she will not get presented with the trophy as presentation night is after we have left. There will be some more news of some of Rachels other exploites posted in a few days time but I will let her inform you of that. Socially we have been out most nights for the past week with lots of drinking and eating going on By Sunday last week we had that Christmas feeling when you know you just cannot eat or drink any more, so where did we go to on Monday night, China town in Manchester for a Birthday meal with some friends, Great fun but we both need to curb it a bit as a wetsuit shows every bulge.
Tue 25 Sep
Wow. we go back to Thailand in Only 2 weeks time. The last few weeks have gone past very quickly, Rachel has got her organizing head on with lists everywhere ( I keep calling her Ronnie, private joke !!) so I am keeping my head down. We (the royal we that is ) have orginized Insurance,sent of the Visas, made business cards, written Christmas cards and spoken to a few people about matters that are due to happen while we are away. I have just been to work, We are both looking forward to the next 6 months especially as there has been a bit of an autum feel in the air the last few days. The golf season is coming to an end, The mens team finished third in there league, my own form seems to be somewhat inconsistent at the moment to say the least. Rachel has finnaly got her handicap down to 12. The crunch could come in about 2 years time at present rates when Rachel and I should meet around about an 8/9 handicap, We will try no to think about that to much and anyway she has to go and do a bit of work next year!! more soon.
Tue 18 Sep
23 days to the off. Not that we are counting or anything, Hopefully the rains will have subsided by the time we return. looking at the Television pictures of the plane crash in Phuket this week, you don't realise how bad the Monsoon wind and rains can get until you see them first hand. The Crazy thing this time of the year its mostly the west coast of Thailand that is effected by the bad weather, you only have to fly for 30mins to Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand and the weather is like high season. Anyway Back to normal life. A good win for the Mens Golf team has seen us Secure 3rd place in our division, not a bad performance this year and its been fun this season. Rachel went to Chester races with a few of the Girls, she won absolutly nothing, I asked her to back Circuit Dancer in the third race for me which romped home but Rachel forgot to put it on. A combination of the Sun and lots of Beer!!, She claims she only drank halfs with the exception of a few glasses of wine and someone bought her a pint by mistake. Needless to say by the time I picked them up from Stoke station she was acting very loudly. Pictures on photo of the week in a few days.
Wed 12 Sep
Car is home again and (fingers crossed) this time it is fixed for good. Rob picked it up on Mon afternoon so it has now been running for 2 days with no problems. We will say no more!! We were both busy golfing this weekend as it was Presidents Day Weekend at the club. We both did ok but were not in the prizes. Never mind. On Sat I went out for my rather early Christmas Party with a couple of the girls from the golf club. We had a great evening and I even got a present. Not bad in Sept. I have also been to visit my old colleagues as Astrium. It was great to see everyone although rahter scary as it was just like I had never left. Everything was just the same and a year has gone by since I was last there.
Fri 07 Sept
Our little car returned to its favorite place today, the local garage. We have started to think its just funny now. The same recovery man came again and asked if it was the same garage as normal and took it there for us. He did say he likes to keep his regulars happy, Prognosis due on Monday more news then.
Mon 03 Sept
Quite a quiet weekend for us. No golf to report, Weather Poor,Steady rain and cool. Good news is we are back on the road again for no extra cost. (Thank you Dave) There was a problem with the hydraulic clutch but they think it was just an air pocket. Fingers crossed that nothing else goes wrong untill we go away which is just over 5 weeks to go. Its hard to belive that last year we were leaving tomorrow into the unknown. This year we already know where we are living and have a list of people to meet up with again as soon as we get there. We are both looking forward to the next season but its not as exciting as last year. Saying that I am looking forward to walking down Kata beach with my headphones on and watching the world go bye and tucking into a good masaman curry. We did intend to go for a walk and take a few pictures of round and about Biddulph but it never really happened, Im sure you would all be more interested seeing pictures of things going on in Phuket than wet scenes of Biddulph so we will try harder.
Mon 28 Aug
Well the car was fixed for a grand total 64 hours before it broke down again. The engine is running
like a dream, the problem now is the slave cylinder on the clutch has gone (we think). On a plus point the recovery man asked if we would like to join his frequent users club. ha ha ha how we laughed. Lack of a vehicle has in a way been a blessing as it has forced my preseason training to start only one month late, 10miles of walking on Saturday, 5miles and a 7mile bike ride on Sunday
bank Holiday Monday found a few stiff and sore parts of the old body but not to bad. On our return to Thailand (which is only 6 weeks away) Flights are now booked for the 10th October with Emirites which is one of our favorite airlines, I do hope they improve there record of loosing my dive kit !!!
Tue 21 Aug
The car is being fixed as we speak and fingers crossed it will not take to much longer. It's a bit like loosing your leg being without a car in the UK, you can do it but it takes a lot of planning. A big thanks to Dad and Phil for lending us your cars here and there, it's been a great help. On a happier note, Rachel and I won the Centenary Mixed Foursomes at the golf club for the third time in four years, not a bad record. As one would expect this year it was a horrible day loads of rain and wind but strangley it didn't seem to matter that much on Saturday. Saturday evening was celebration time, we went to Ruban Stubbs restaurant in Congleton. It must be 10-12 years since I was last there and it was excellent, I would recomend it to anyone.
Fri 17 Aug
Well talk about a rubbish week. Tuesday evening driving home from work and the car breaks down. Not a small break down either the engine is totaly knackered, bent piston the works.
We spent a couple of day's waiting for the full extent of the damage untill the bad news yesterday, but these are the joy's of motoring and its cheaper than buying another wreck. Today I managed to find a new engine for the motor, only 20,000 genuine mile (how many dodgey ones I dont know) so we should be mobile again by Thursday. Give me a Suzuki Jeep anyday!! More news after our fun filled wekend.
Mon 13 Aug
Summer ball weekend at the golf club and once again it was a great night. It always strikes me as being funny that if you went out ordered 6 pints in a pub for 2 people you would definitely be classed as a binge drinker, put on a Posh frock and a dinner suit and order a shed load of wine at a "ball" at the golf club and no one would put you in the same heading. Needless to say we were slightly fragile the next day and it was a definite early night, especially as somebody's antics in the night kept me awake for ages but she will remain nameless (there is a clue there). I am sure in years to come on far away shores it will become a good story but for now my lips are sealed.(it's not rude by the way just gross). Apart from the ball, quite a busy week, Rachel has been playing lots of golf which is normal and cycling here there and everywhere (as long as the hills are not to steep) so keeping fit has not been to much of a task for her. For myself the promised start to preseason training is nearly two weeks overdue and to be honest no firm plans have been set although I am wearing my boardshorts more oftern to get me in the mood. Anyway must dash work to do. Posh frock photos on the photo of the week page tonight promise.
Tues 06 Aug
Hurray Summer is here and with it the first BBQ. First thing we had to do was buy a barbie and at the moment there are some quite good deals around. Then lots of food and wine and hey presto a good night is had by one and all. Apart from dinning alfresco we had Ralphs 40th birthday party on Friday, which was an excellent night. It was held at Frodsham golf club (which apperently has just been bought by Micheal Owen) the day was golf in the afternoon followed by the do in the evening. It ended up being a bit of a boozy do on my part, well its not long untill its 7 months of lager so I had might as well make the most of proper beer for now. Rachel and I won the golf which was a good result. Sunday was Chronicle Cup the premier golfing event of the year, nice day but I played some absolute rubbish but beat Phil which is always the first objective of any round of golf, roll on the diving season. Apart from all that last wendsday Rachel and I went out with Ian and Marlise and Phil and Andrea for a curry in Congleton (No good curry houses in Dusseldorf) and even more important Rachels tooth (or lack of tooth) is on the mends and is now eating and talking normally again. The only silver linning is that she last a few pounds last week which now she's rather pleased about.
Tues 31 Jul
Well what a differance a few days makes, 3 days without rain (a record since we returned from Thailand) and everyone is now complaining its too hot or red hot. I still played golf last night with a light jumber as in our book its pleasent rather than hot but it is deffinatly a change for the better.
Much of the weekend was taken up with Rachel's annual Cake baking extraviganza ie Harveys third birthday cake. Only said 2 hours preperation and cooking time more like 2 days but it looked quite cool. Photos will appear on the website soon. Sunday was a Family get together I think it was the first time in 18 months that Phil,Ian,Clare and myself were all together in a room at the same time, very nice afternoon and Christmas dinner to as we don't get a proper one in December.
Planning for next dive season is still ongoing, we are planning to return to Phuket around the 10th
of October quite possibly via Bangkok for a few days on route. Rachel had her tooth out yesterday
so hopefully that will be the end of her Tooth ache although I am sure she will have sore gums for the next few days.
Thur 26 Jul
Any of you who could not get the cool dive gear link to work its ok now. Sorry
Tues 24 Jul
Rachel has been suffering with some pretty bad tooth ache for the last few days, finally got in to see the dentist yesterday and it looks like she will have to have it taken out. I think the last few days have really drained her and she is not her normal bouncy self and rather quite. On other matters this weekend it was The Open and while Sergio and Paddrig were battling it out at Carnoustie, at Congleton we were playing the 36 hole scratch Cup (no handicaps). I found myself leading after 18 holes with a 72 in the morning, very respectable! after 17 holes of the afternoon round I was sure a 4 at the last would give me a great chance for the win. Unfortunately I went out of bounds and ended with a seven not a happy bunny to say the least. I came joint third in the end (tied with Phil who had a hole in One). I know how John Van Der Velde felt now a few years ago, Never mind its only a game !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mon 16 Jul
Quite a good weekend, Friday we avoided getting wet thanks to the golf course being closed, Saturday was a bit of a marathon. Am, Rachel and I won our second match in the group stages of the mixed knockout to confirm our place in the quarter final. PM we gave Malkins Bank GC a good thrashing in the Mens League 10 - 2 . This was then followed up by a good night out with Julie & Bri in the bright lights of Biddulph (spoons then a curry). Sunday was spent watching the rain cascade over the decking at the back of the house. (for a change) and watching sport on the telly.
Germany - Moto GP excellent weather. France - Tour de france excellent weather. Even the golf at Loch Lomand in Scotland, Blue Skys and no wind. I know its an English thing that we all complain about the climate but its pants for July. We have sorted a new house in Phuket for next season already which is excellent, its in the same region we were in last year but a bit more in the sticks
but still only 5 mins from the Pier at Chalong which is important. Its good to have that sorted nice and early as its one less thing to do when we go back and we dont have to fork out for a hotel for a few day as well.
Fri 13 Jul - not to unlucky I hope
Just a small post, today is a bit of a milestone for our website as we have just had our 1000th
view of our site. Not to bad after just 2 months. A big thank you to everyone who knows us and
keeps upto date with our lives through the year, and also to all who have randomly found yourself here on a google/msm search thank you too, we have had visitors from the USA, New Zeland and Finland in the last week or so.I am sure you all agree its alot better than the old one. More ramblings in a few days.
Mon 9 Jul
Along with the rest of the country this week has been spent trying to get around the place avoiding the floods on the roads. Monday/Tuesday saw the stream that runs from Biddulph to Congleton bust its banks on a number of occasions. Unfortunatly one of the areas that was flooded was the golf course, which is now a bit of a mess on a few of the holes. On a more positive note the Sun was sighted on a number of times over the weekend, it must be time for a bit of decent weather soon.
The rest of the week has been quite relaxed. Rachel is still basking in her Triumph of lady captins day which was hightened on Thursday when the local paper came out with a few nice photos of
her and a good write up. We have the photo's that were submited to the "chronicle" and will put them on photo of the week for all to see.
Mon 2 Jul
We have had a busy week this week. I have been for a couple of interviews but still no luck on the job front. I was supposed to play golf but the course was flooded. The weather really is shocking!! Where is the sunshine!! Rob should have played a team game on Sat but agian rained off. On Sat evening we went out with Phil and his newish girlfriend Andrea. We had a great night. A few beers then on for a curry. Very enjoyable. Sunday was Lady Captains Day at the Golf Club. Unfortunately the rain again interferred with the day and we all only managed to play 12 holes. I was a little dissapointed not to be able to play a full round but who cares. I won!!! It was made better by the fact that I had no idea. It was a good score but I did not think it was enough. We had a lovely meal then Lady Captain made a great speech. After that the results were announced. It was brilliant. Lots of appaulse. The prizes are lovely and I also won longest drive so got 2 of them. All round a fab day. Picture of me and the trophy on photo of the week.
Tues 26 June
Wet! Wet! Wet!. No not the band just this awful weather. Photo of the week has a rainy theme to it this week. Yes we have taken a couple and they truly reflect the English summer. So any news?
We both got wet playing golf at the weekend, managed not to suffer any hangovers and went to see an Irish folk band at the golf club on saturday night. They were very good but kept telling awful jokes between songs. After two months back in the UK we are beging to make plans for next dive season, looking at flights etc. We need to send a few emails as well, out of sight out of mind and all that. So if you have not had one from us recently then there could be one in the near future. On the websibe we are fast approaching our 1000th hit, that's in just over a month so thank you all for the visits and keep looking.
Tues 19 June
A quiet week for us helped by the constant rain. Rachel is getting a few interviews over the
last few days for part time jobs (although this may somewhat cramp her packed golf diary)
A few quid in the coffers would be nice but we are felling rich (compared to our diving salaries) as I got paid on Friday. We have fitted the new blinds on the loft windows and they do a great job of cutting out the street lights at night and even more important cutting out the early morning rays of sun, 4.45am is way to early to wake up. The other big news this week is our little car got through it's MOT after a few jobs on it and it is running much better. We will try to take a few photos this week as our photo of the week page will have to be renamed photo of the month page very soon, Maybe a photo of loft blinds next week?? There are some new photo's on the dive sites of western Thailand, around Phuket and Phi Phi Islands please do have a look.
Mon 11 June
Loads of golf this weekend. We stormed to the top of our league with a very impressive win over Derek and Gill Rilley in the mixed knockout on friday night. This was followed up by an excellent first team win over Wolstanton at home on Saturday 9 - 3. Sunday, Expectations were high for Phil and myself as it was the clubs Am-Am comp. This however was totally unfounded and although we were steady we finished well outside the prizes. Rachel finished 4th on Saturday in the Ladies invite Juniors match with Erica who is only 10 but has the potential to be quite good. Rachel has been busy painting the front door this week and she is rightly proud of her handiwork it looks great. As well as painting her tan seems to be returning as quickly as mine is fading, at least we have had some sun to enjoy for a few days. We keep expanding our website and our new pages this week is a review of the dive sites we were diving last season in Thailand together with photos of the dive sites and the fish you can find there.
Tues 05 June
Another wedding anniversary comes and goes, 13 years and still happy. We visited a local restaurant in Biddulph called the Monument which was very nice. As we were in town we also went to see how 'Spoons' was and amazingly they had Singha beer. We didn't indulge as it would not be quite the same but maybe soon? Stop press news WE have some photo's on photo of the week. It's taken some time but its us in our work clothes. Also have a look at our new shop page. It takes you out of our website (we need to work on that one) and contains some t-shirts and other bits and bobs all with the RRMDIVERS logo on. Cool. On that point thank heavens the weather is finally improving, we are down to only a shirt under our jumpers at the moment, another few degrees and the thermal socks will be off.
Thurs 31 May
We thought we were leaving Thailand to escape the monsoon how wrong could we be. So one month into the UK leg of our year - we had forgotton how bad the weather is, especially how cold it is. On the plus points you can drive normally on the roads without playing dodgems with the motobikes and the beer is better. Work is odd to say the least, I am enjoying it but it's not like waking up in the morning knowing your going to be grinning all day because of the diving. Rachel is slowly going a bit stir crazy at home, being the perfect housewife (or is that golfer). We will be putting some photos on soon and some new ones to. Excellent weekend away on Bank Holiday Monday, golfing at Hollins Hall. It felt like somewhere just north of the artic circle but was actually near Shipley in Yorkshire. It was Phils 40th birthday present and we all played a mixed game some bad, mostly awful on my part, and occasional the odd straight drive (not Phil) but it was a laugh, honestly!!!
Thurs 24 May
We are finally getting into a routine and life has now got some sort of normality. Rob started work on Tues and seems to be enjoying it so far. It is rather odd to see him going out in a suit and tie in the morning and I am sure he would rather be wearing shorts and a t shirt! I am still busy job hunting and hope something will come up soon. I have been for a couple of interviews and one or too seem rather promising. I just have to be patient. We have both been playing alot of golf. We have alot of lost time to make up for. Rob has played for the team. They won away at Astbury on Friday evening and we all very pleased about that. I have played a couple of times for the Ladies team and we have managed to win all our games so far which is brilliant! On Sunday we played in a mixed event at the golf club. We did not do too well but it was a lovely day and great to see yet more people that we have not seen for ages. Sorry still no pictures but I will do my best to get them done in the next week or so.
We have been rather busy since the last update! For the last week of our stay in Thailand we both worked in Similan on the Really Wicked Witch. It was great fun and a brilliant way to end our time in Thailand. By the end we could hardly believe it was all over. We left our house in Phuket on 27 Apr and flew to Bangkok where stayed for a couple of days. On 30 we flew back to the UK. We arrived home on a lovely sunny day and it was wonderful to catch up with all our family and friends. Our house is great and we are both pleased to be back although already miss the sun and the diving. We have got ourselves a little car and Rob has already got a job. He starts next Tuesday. I am still looking for a job and am optomistic of finding something soon. We have both played lots of golf since returning home and are really pleased to be playing quite well. The 2 weeks that we have been home have absolutely flown by. We have seen all our families and managed to catch up with most of our friends. It seems rather odd to be living here now but we are settling back into UK life well.
Wed 18 Apr
Things continue to be very busy here. We have both been working almost everyday. On Thurs it was Rob's birthday. He had been working in the Similans for a couple of days so enjoyed some great diving on his birthday. When he got home we went to the pub. It is a real english pub which has been rebuilt just up the road from us. Rob had Gammon and chips and I had sausage and mash. It was all very odd. It was quiz night and almost everyone in the pub was english. We could have been back at home!! We both had a really nice evening. On Friday it was Songkran, which is the Thai new year festival. Traditionally people anoint one another with water to clean away the old year. In modern times this has turned into a huge water fight. We went out armed with lots of water and cups to throw it with and had a really great time. We were absolutely soaked to the skin by the time we got home. It was brilliant fun! We both did our last job on the day boats yesterday. We have lots of jobs to do before we come home and are going to Similan together on Sat for 4 days, so we decided that we should have a couple of days off. Today we are trying to get most of the chores done. Washing, cleaning, printing photos, repairing my wetsuit. The list seems endless. Hopefully we will get them all done and have time for one last day on the beach before our great adventure comes to an end for this season.
Mon 9 Apr
We have been so busy for the last couple of weeks. The time has just flown by. Phil, Natalie and William came to stay last week. We all had a fantastic time. It was only a short visit but we managed to pack alot in. On Tues we went to Wat Chalong in the morning. After lunch we took them for a short island tour and stopped at few good photo spots. After that we all went to the beach. The children particularly liked the beach so we ended up staying almost until it was dark! On Wed we all went elephant riding. It was brilliant fun and we all had a great time. After lunch off the the beach again. Natalie and William love it in the sea so we all got very wet. Unfortunately I had to leave before dinner as I was off to Similan working. Shame I had to leave early butPhil and the childrenwere leaving very early the next morning so didn't mind me going. It sounds like everyone had a nice evening without me!! I went off to work and must admit I had a great time. The boat was full and everyone was determined to have a great time. On the last day we dived at Koh Bon. The water was crystal clear and we saw about 15 manta. I lost count after 10!! It was truly amazing. While I was away Rob was busy working for Sea Bees. We haven't worked for them for a while and it is very nice to beback there, and they pay better than most of the companies!It looks like we will continue to be busy until we leave which is only 3 weeks away. The time will fly and we are rather looking forward to seeing everyone when we get back.
Thurs 29 Mar
Not too much has happened this last week or so. Rob came back from the Similans with a terrible cold which had been kindly shared around the boat by one of the customers! He has now alsoshared it with me. That is verygood of him. The other big news is that it rained this week. It is the first time it has rained since before Christmas and was actually quite nice!! We must have gone mad. We think rain is nice. We are now looking forward to seeing Phil,Natalie and William on Tuesday. They are very excited about their holidays and we can't wait to see them. They are only staying a short while on route to Australia but it will still be great to see them.
Tues 20 Mar
it is only another couple of days until they go home. I am sure they have had a brilliant holiday and we have enjoyMum, Dad and I spent a lovely couple of days at the beach. They wanted to chill for the rest of their holiday so that is just what we did. Robbie finished his course on Wed and on Thurs we all went to the airport. Mum and Dad got off ok and had a safe if rather long journey home. It was great having them to stay and is very quiet in the house now they have gone although we are very pleased to have our bedroom and airconditioning back!! Since they left we have both been busy working. I went to Similan for 2 days and now Rob has gone for 4 days. Things very quickly get back to normal!
Tues 13 Mar
We have all been really busy this week. I have been working on a liveaboard out in the Similan Isalnds for 3 days. The diving was excellent, the customers really nice and we saw 3 manta rays. Seeing Mantas is always a priviledge and the customers loved it! Rob is now doing an open water course for a friend of a friend who got in touch with us last week. He said it is great being able to talk about mutual friends. They will be finished tomorrow if all goes well. Mum and Dad have been to Phi Phi for 2 days. It sounds like they had a wonderful time and they took loads of pictures. On Friday Dad went sea fishing. He had a great time and was rather tired when he got back. He caught a couple of fish so was rather pleased with himself! On Sunday they went sea canoeing. Sounds like that also was a fantastic day out. Yesterday was Mum's birthday so we went to the beach for the day. We had cake with candles. Mum was very pleased with that. In the evening we went to a very nice restaurant. A bit out of our usual price range and very nice! I think Mum had a really great day! We can hardly believe ed having them stay with us.
Mon 5 Mar
Mum and Dad arrived safely and it was lovely to see them coming out of the airport. Since they have been here they have been very busy seeing and doing everything. We have taken them to the beach a couple of times and Dad is now a lovely shade of pink! Mum is getting nice and brown. Sure Dads tan will catch up eventually. They have been on an Elephant Safari and a day trip snorkelling by speed boat. Both sound like wonderful days out. Dad is very fond of Kata beach and has had a foot massage. He said it was great and might get another before he leaves. Yesterday the European Tour Golf was in Phuket so we sent to watch. It was brilliant. We followed Colin Montgomerie round for most of his game. He played quite well but got a bit grumpy!! We also saw Ernie Els and Mike Weir. It was a great day. Dad sat at the 18th all afternoon and watched all the players coming in. Even Mum enjoyed her day at the golf. This week they have more trips planned are are going to Phi Phi for a couple of days. I will tell you all about it next week. We have both been to work a couple of times this week but not too busy which is good as we have been able to spend lots of time with Mum and Dad.
Sat 24 Feb
Sorry it has been a while!! We have both been really busy the last week and a half. It is Chinese New Year and every where is really busy. Rob had a brilliant time in the Similand Islands and saw lots of Mantas! Lucky him. I has been busy teaching and doing introductory courses. Some people really are rather odd. I had one lady who wanted to try diving but could not swim. She spent a pleasant day on the boat but never managed to get into the sea. No surprise there. The last few days have flown by. When not at work we have been busy preparing for Mum and Dads arrival. They arrived safely in Bangkok and sound like they are having an excellent time! They arrive here this afternoon and I will be off to collect them in an hour or so. Really looking forward to seeing them. We have lots of plans and hope they have a great time while they are here. The time is really flying now. We return to the UK in 9 weeks time. Can hardly believe it is so soon. Sorry still no pics. We have been unable to use our computer as there is some problem with wireless at our usual haunts. Hopefully it will be fixed soon.
Mon 12 Feb
Things seem to be getting a bit busier again. Rob has got a job in the Similan Islands for 6 days. Lucky him. The diving up there is brilliant but it means that I am home alone. Never mind, sounds like he is having a great time. I have been working in Rachai Yai. It is nice but not a patch on Similan! I have also got myself another little job updating some web pages for a friend of ours. It is pretty good as the only place I can do it is in the pub as I have to be on the internet. I will only do a couple of hours when I have time but it is nice to have a little something extra. Other than that not much to report. Sorry no pictures this week as Rob has taken the camera with him. I am sure he will have some nice ones for next week.
Tue 6 Feb
Singapore was great!! We went on Friday and arrived at our hotel just before lunch. The hotel was brilliant. A great big bed, a bath and fluffy white dressing gowns. Marvellous. On Friday afternoon we went for a look around the shops. there are plenty to go at!! We then went to China town to see the New Year lights. Very impressive. We then went to Boat Quay for dinner. Even though we said no rice we went for a Indian. It was great although we did lsugh when a lady tried to persaud us that a Thai meal would be very nice! On Sat it was my birthday. I had a nice lie in and then got presents. Robbie bought me a lovelly new watch. The old one was dying and the new one is great. I also go quite a few cards for all over the world. We had a nice relaxing day. In the evening we went to the bar on the 71st floor for drinks. The view is excellent. We then went to an Italian for dinner. It was a really nice day and a very good way to spend your birthday. We both had a great time and enjoyed the chgange from the usual routine. Other than that it is still rather quiet but the sun tans are coming along very nicely!
Tue 30 Jan
Well high season didn't seem to last to long. Very quite again this week only on the boats a couple of times and they were pretty empty, that's nice in one respect because the diving is in nice small groups and most people are quite experienced so its great fun but it leaves us with a lot of spare time on our hands. We have decided to go on a mission and make it our goal to get cracking sun tans. I know this doesn't seem fair as you read this in 5c temperatures but it is one of the side benefits of being a dive professional in the tropics. We also ne A bit more shopping on Sunday rounded off a very pleasant weekend.ed to go back home looking like we have spent 8 months in paradise not 2 weeks in Majorca. So at three o'clock each day (its just to hot before that) we jump in the car ,Towels and suncream in handand descend on kata beach for the last rays of the afternoon and the monotonous sight of another wonderful sunset (see photo of the week we have hundreds to pick from). To escape from this hell we call life on friday morning we fly off to Singapore for a weekend of luxury at the Stamford hotel for Rachels birthday. We are both looking forward to a bath!! a good glass of red wine and no rice for the weekend. So next weekends photo of the week you should be spared the sunset and have to endure our grins instead.
Wed 24 Jan
We have hd a quiet week this week, a few days work and a few days off. There are not too many people on the boats. Everyone tellsus it is the lulll between Christmas and the Chinese New Year holidays when it will get busy again. As we were free for a couple of days we went diving on our own yesterday. It is the first time we hae been diving together for fun since November and we both really enjoyed it. The visibilty wasn't great but it was nice just to go where we wanted and not to have to worry about anyone else. We dived for ages, 92 minutes. As usual dive with customers is about 45 minutes! We spent the rest of the day on the beach. It was lovelly. We are really looking forward to visitors soon. Mum and Dad have booked their flights and arrive at the end of Feb for 2 weeks. After they have gone Phil and the kids are coming for a few days on their way to Australia. It will be great to see them all and show them around our home. We are busy making lots of plans for their trips ans if possible we will take them all diving! Hope they will like it.
Tues 16 Jan
We have had a couple of days off this week. We spent the first day doing nothing. It is nice just to have a rest! The next day we went to the beach at Nai Yang. That is the first place we ever went to on Phuket so it was nice to go back and see what it is like. The beach is still beautiful but it has changed quite alot since we first went there. I guess that is progress. The rest of the week has been busy with work. I have been teaching and Rob has been guiding. We have been on the boat together a couple of times and that is always nice. On Sat we had a web chat with my Mum and Dad. It is the first time we have seen them since we have been here. It was great but I am not sure what they made of modern technology!! They are busy planning their visit over here. We can't wait to see them and show them where we live. Last night we went to the cinema. Saw a film called The Holiday. It was excellent. They also showed the trailor for the new Harry Potter film. Looks excellent and I will be at the front of the queue for that one! Think thats all for this week.
Mon 8 Jan
We have had another very busy week this week. I have been working on a liveaboard out in the Similan Islands for 3 days. It was great fun and nice to dive somewhere different for a few days. Saw lots of sharks and turtles. It was great but I think Robbie was a bit lonely being left home alone! He was also busy working on the day boats. We have got a new car now. It is still a heap but cheaper than the other one. I will take a photo next week so you can see what it looks like. Last night we went out for dinner with Katherine and Armin. We have a very nice eveing but it was a bit sad. We have got very friendly with them and today they are leaving to go to a new job in the Maldives. We will miss them as we go out with them alot but we have an invitation to go and visit so that might be nice some time in the future. We have both had the day off today so we have been to the cinema. We saw Blood Diamond which was excellent. Time is flying by and we are now well settled into working as dive instructors. We both love it! Sometimes it is hard to remeber that this is a job and we are getting paid for doing something we love. I guess we are just very lucky!
Tues 2 Jan 2007
It has been a busy time for us since Chrsitmas. We have both been to work almost every day and quite a few times we have been on the same boat which is nice. On Sat we had both done a full day on the boat and then we organised a night dive for some people we met last week. We picked them up from their hotel and took them off to thebeach. Idid the surface support andRob did the dive. They all had a great time and insisted on taking usout for dinner afterwards. We had a super eveningbutdid not get home until1am. A very long day!Fortunately we were off the next day so had a well deserved lie in. New Years Eve was incredible. We went on Excalibur the dive boat for a party. We sailed around to Karon Bay to watch the fireworks. They started about 20 minutes before midnight and were still going at 1am. We have never seen so many fireworks that were so big. It really was a spectacular sight. The boat thensailed back round to Chalong and we finally got home at about 2:30! It was a brilliant night.On New Years Day we both went to work. We wern't too keen but a job is a job! It turned out to be brilliant. There were only 12 customers on the boat and 3 staff. It was like being on holiday. On the second dive we saw 6 leopard sharks. The most we have ever seen before is 2. Fantastic. It has been a fab start to the new year.
Boxing Day 26 Dec
Merry Christmas everyone! We have had a really good week this week. We have both been busy with work. I have doen my first open water course with an American guy called Jerry. He was 60 and decided to learn something new. It was great fun and he was delighted when he passed. On Christmas Eve we were working together for the first time. Rob had the parents and I had the children (10 and 11)! We were all on the same boat and had a brilliant day. It is incredible that little kids can go diving and take it all in their stride. They were bettter students than alot of adults! When we got home we went off to Tesco to get provisions for Christmas lunch. It was odd going to the supermarket on Christmas Eve and not having to fight for sprouts, there aren't any. (What a shame!) We went to one of our favorite places for dinner on the beach and listened to some of the entertainment at the local hotel. Christmas Day was great. We woke up late, had breakfast in bed and then opened our small pile of presents. We just got each other a few little things but it was nice to have some things to open. In the afternoon we did, well nothing really! It was great. We then had a web chat with all Robbies family. It was lovely to see them all on Christmas Day. We then went home for dinner. It wasn't quite traditional but pretty near. We had pate to start, then roast chicken and salad, black forest gateau and cheese and biscuits. The best bit was a bottle of wine. It is rather expensive so we haven't bothered since we have been here. I think that was why we enjoyed it so much. After dinner we watched a film and then had a chat to Mum and Dad. It was all round a really lovely day. Today we have been to work. It was a pretty easy and very fun day. Not really like working! Well better go, hope you all had a good Christmas and a very Happy New Year as it will be 2007 next time I write. Where does the time go!!?
Sun 17 Dec
Sorry we didn't so our update last week but we never seemed to get round to it!! Rob has taught his first courses this week. We were job hunting and happened to go into one dive centre as the manager was wondering how she was going to manage with 10 students. Rob was the answer. The students were all Finnish but a couple spoke really good English. I am not sure who had more fun. Rob or the students.! On Friday whilw he was busy Iwent off to the beach. My teddy bears decided that they would come along to keep me company. See photo of the week. Today we have collected our car. It was proving rather difficult to get to work on our bikes so we have rented a jeep for a month to see how it goes. We hope that we will be able to do alot more work as we can travel a bit further. Last night we had fun. Happy Days a local bar was doing a free curry night. indian curry!! It was brill. the food was really nice and we saw a few people we know. A really good night.
Tues 5 Dec
We have had a great weekend. On Fri night we went to the launch party of Aragon the new boat. It was a great night. Free beer and food all night, terrible German music and loads of dancing. It was really good fun. Even the bad music sounded good by the end of the night!! On Sat morning we flew off to Kuala Lumpur to get our passports stamped. KL is great. We had a really nice evening on Sat. We went to Bukit Bintang which is in the centre of the city. All the shops had Christmas lights up and there were lights all along the main street. It was nice to be somewhere a bit Christmasy. On Sun we went to the Petronas Towers which are the 2nd biggest buildings in the world. They are very impressive. Unfortunately we had a 4 hour delay on the way home. They have just built a new terminal in KL airport for the cheap airlines. It is rubbish!! We couldn't even get a beer!!! It was quite late when we got home but we had a great time. Thats the end of holidays now. We will have to start earning our keep!!
Thurs 30 Nov
We got back from our little holiday yesterday. We are rather tired but very happy. It was the best holiday and the diving was out of this world!! In diving you are incredibly lucky to see certain things, amongst them whalesharks and manta rays. On this trip we saw both! It was a very incredible experience. Click here to see pictures from the trip. The boat was great and the crew were all very friendly. We sailed in the dark on Sat night and arrived in the Similans some time after midnight. The first dive the next day was at 8:00am. It was wonderful as was each dive after that. On Mon we werein the water for the second dive waiting to descend when our dive guide shouted whaleshark. We descended very quickly and the shark came into sight. It was about 6m long, not huge in whaleshark terms but still bery impressive. It stayed around for about 10min then disappeared off into the blue. Amazing! We thought that was the pinnacle of the trip unitl the netxt dive when a manta ray came into sight. He swam off and another one appeared. He stayed around for ages!! We really are amazingly lucky!! When we were all back on the boat everyone was soo happy. To see both in the same day is a one in a million. Fantastic. The rest of the trip was great and we saw all sorts of fish and some very rare small things. It was wonderful. We are off today and tomorrow and then have to do our visa run. 2 days in Kuala Lumpur. Life is hell! We will tell you all about that next week.
Tues 21 Nov
What a busy week we have had! We thought that we would have this week to just chill and get over all our learning but that was not to be. On Wed morning the phone rang with our first job. I had 4 customers that needed a guide. I was a bit nervous as it was my first one but the day went really well. We went to 2 dive sites that I have been to many times before and it all went very well. I was also asked could I work the next day. That was great. We went to Phi Phi and did 3 dives. I had never done 2 of them before but neither had my customers so that was ok. I must have done ok as they gave me a tip at the end of the day. Rob went to the beach for the day and bumped into some friends of ours. When Igot home form work theywere all sitting on our porch drinking beer! It is alright for some. On Fri webothwent to work. Rob had 2 introductions to do and I was guiding again. We were on differnet boats so did not see each other all day but that was ok. We both got good tips and we got paid so it was a pretty good couple of days. On Sat we went shopping then went for a pizza and went to the cinema. We saw Casino Royale. It was excellent. I am never sure about new James Bonds but this one was excellent. On Sun we hired a car as we have some friends from the golf club here on holiday. We meet John and Margaret at their hotel and took them for a look around the island and then out for dinner. It was briliant to see familiar faces from home and we all had a great day. We are going out for dinner with them again tonight. Next update will be late as we are going on holiday on Sat for 4 days! Diving of course. We will tell you all about it when we get back!!
Sun 12 Nov
Had a great week this week. Tues we started our speciality instructor courses. It was a pretty easy day. On Wed we had a day off and went to the beach. It was great. We sat on a chair under an unbrella and read our books. When it all got too much for us we wentfor a swim. It was great to have a day doing nothing. Thurs we didmore stuff in the classroom and in the evening went to Kata to do our night dive instructor stuff. It was brilliant. The visisbilty was great and we saw loads offish and things. Night diving is great. OnFri and Sat we were out on the boat doing the rest of our speciality courses. It was really good fun and we learnt loads of stuff. Today we have finished the rest of the classroom things so now it is all finished. We are going to have a rest for the next week or so and then we will have to get out and find a job.
Mon 06 Nov
We are very chilled out Dive Instructors today!!! The last 3 days were the Instructor Exam. It was hard work and alot to think about but we did a good job and passed!! Brilliant!! ON Fri was the theory exams. There were 6 sections which we had 3 hours to complete. You get the results as you go along so we both knew we had passed that part. On Sat we had to do a pool teaching session in the morning and a classrom session in the after noon. Everything is watched and graded. Sun was the last part when we had to do rescue and open water sessions. we then had to wait for what seemed like ages before we were told we had passed. We are both really pleased. When we got home we had a small sleep and then went out to the IE party. We had a great night. Click here to see some pictures. It has been a pretty tough couple of weeks and we are both rather tired but very happy. We are having a day off today and then doing a couple of specialty instructor courses this week.That will be fun as we will get to go diving. We are Instructors!!! Excellent!!!
Mon 30 Oct
Happy Halloween!! Well not here but I am sure you will all have fun constantly onpening the door to bedsheets. We are finally coming to the end of our training. We hope the end is in site as we are getting very tired now and are ready for a very long lie in!! This week has been alot of fun but there is so much to do we never seem to get a minute to stop and breath!! Every day we have pool or sea sessions in the morning for which we have to prepare lesson plans the night before and then in the afternoon we are in the class. We usually have a presentation to make which also had to be prepared the night before. It is all go. We has a "day off" on Sat. No pool or presentations, just how to teach first aid and CPR!! It was fun but not exactly a day off! I have put a new picture on this week although it was taken a couple of weeks ago as we don't have time for photos at the moment. Hope you like it. Well thats all for now as you guessed it we have homework to do. Hopefully next time we write we will be Dive Instructors.
Mon 23 Oct
We spent the weekend doing the IDC(instructor development course) Prep course. It was pretty good and we did well at everything. Today the IDC started properly. There is obviously loads more stuff to learn in rather a short period of time. We have a schedule everyday from now until the 5th Nov!! We have to do training sessions and pool sessions everyday unitl the 2nd and then it is the exam which lasts for 3 days!!! I am sure we will be fine. Last night we went to the pub with 2 of the other guys off the course. Christopher is from the Seyshells. Really nice guy and we could get invited to visit! The other guy is english called Swinny. We watched United Liverpool on the big screen. Not a bad match but Liverpool looked a bit poor! Sure Dad will be pleased with the result. We had a day off on Thurs so we went to the driving range. Very posh. They take your clubs out of your car, bring you the balls and clean your clubs when you have finished. Unfortunately we do not have any clubs or a car so we had to carry our own rented club! It was great fun. On the way home Robbie got a puncture. We took it to the man around the corner and for just over a quid he fixed it and gave the bike a full service. It is better than new now. We will try to keep you all updated over thenext 2 weeks but as you can see we will be very busy so it may not happen!!
Thurs 19 Oct
Finished our Dive master training yesterday. Brilliant. We are both really chufed. Instructor training starts tomorrow. We have updated the photo of the week. Hope you like it. We do!!
Tues 17 Oct
We have been really busy this week. After 3 days off last weekend we haven't had a day off since!! We don't mind as the weather has finally picked up and we have been doing lots of diving. Mon and Tues we were in the classroom finishing off exams and some other stuff. We passed them all and the worst mark we got between us was 75%. We are really pleased to have got that bit out of the way. On Wed we helped with try dives at the pool at the local Hilton Hotel. That was fun and we booked some people to go diving. Thurs and Fri we helped with training in the pool and classroom. Sat, Sun and Mon we were on the boat. There was not a cloud in the sky and the sea was like a millpond. Fantastic!! Sun was a very long day. 4 dives and not home until almost 10pm (hence no website update!!) It was great. We were helping with a course. It was good fun. On Mon we were doing the same course. On the second dive of the day we saw the biggest fish you can imagine. It looked like a car with fins. Dad would have loved to caught that!! It was a giant grouper and nobody has seen one of them before so we were quite chuffed!! It was huge!!! Today we have been in the pool do our last few skills. We have one more thing to finish tomorrow and then we will be qualified divemasters. Excellent. Instructor training starts on Mon so not a moment too soon. Sorry no picture this week but we have a couple of really nice ones so we will make sure we put them on the photo page soon.
Sun 8 Oct
It has been a funny sort of week this week. At the start of the week the weather was terrible. We were out on the dive boat and it was very rough. We still love the diving but the boat ride is not great when the weather is bad!! On Thurs Robbie had a bit of a bad tum so it was decided that weshould have a few days off to make sure he was properly better. Brilliant! A long weekend!! On Fri he was still a bit ropey so we didn't really do anything. Read books and played cards and listened to our music. It was quite nice really. We went to Fattys for tea and bumped into Stefan and Sofia so they joined us for dinner. That was nice. On Sat we decided to go to the beach. We had just settled on our sunbeds when the rain arrived. We waited a while but it wasn't going to stop so we went home again. Never mind. Today has been fantastic. The sun has been out all day and not a cloud in the sky. We went across the road and spent the day by the pool. It cost us about 75p each and we had the place to ourselves. (see photo of the week) It was lovely. Robbie is fully recovered so we are off fun diving tomorrow. Our instructor is away so we get to go by ourselves and have fun. I'm not sure how that is different to the diving we do on other days but we will try our best to have fun??!! Also we would just like to say thanks to everyone who keeps sending us email. We love reading all about what its going on at home. Thanks and keep it coming!
Sun 1 Oct
Another busy week in paradise only this week it is not really paradise. The weather has been dreadful. We have had a couple of really rough days on the boat. On Tues it was that rough that the barman off the boat was sick twice. Perhaps he needs to find a new job! On Wed we were on a different boat. The Marco Polo is a smaller boat and that was even rougher than the day before. We were fine and the diving was good but the boat trip was not great! On Fri we were back on Excalibur our usual boat. The weather was fantastic and we had a brilliant day. We were left in charge of our 2 divers,we did all the briefings and itall went really well. Sat was our day off and boy did it rain. (see photo of the week for evidence)We stayed in for most of the day as it was not fit to go out but we got lots of studying done so the time was not wasted. Today we have been practising skills in the pool. We almost look like we know what we are doing now! We found a new place to eat this week. It is a seafood place by the sea. The food is great but we didn't really understand as it is all very Thai so I ended up with 2 helpings of crab curry. It was delicious and I managed to eat most of it!!
Mon 25 Sep
We have been really busy this week. We have had 3 days in the classroom and 4 days on the boat. The classroom days are good but we still have alot to learn!! The boat days are great.Wed and Thurswe had an open water student. We helped with his training and when he had finished guided him on his first fun dive. It was great fun and he thought we were really cool!! Thurs was a really long day. It was a 3 dive trip so we had to be at the office for 7am and we didn't get home unitl after 8pm. Funny but we thought it was great!! On sat we hadto do a map of a dive site called Staghorn Reef. It is a really beautiful place and the map has turned out pretty well too. Sun was our first go at "Super Sunday" only it wasn't!! Things didn't quite go according to plan. Visibilty was rubbish on the first dive and we managed to get lost on the last dive of the day. Oh well I am sure we learnt something from the experience!! Today we have had a day off. It has been great. We did boring stuff in the morning, cleaning washing etc, then we went shopping and stopped at the beach for a beer on the way home. Lovelly!!
Wed 20 Sep
Just a quick update. Yesterday there was a military coup in Thailand. The coup was peaceful and was all centred in Bangkok many miles away from where we are. Today was declared a public holiday so it has been very quiet but apart from that you can not tell that anything has happened here in Phuket. We are trying to get as much news as possible and keeping our wits about us but we do not think that it will cause us any problems. We are both well and happy and having a great time so there is no need to worry!!
Sun 17 Sep
Gosh these weeks really do go by quickly. We have been very busy this week. We stared our training on Mon. The first few days were tough going but we are getting into it now. We have already learnt loads but there is still lots more to learn. Te house is starting to feel like home. We have bought a few bits and bobs to make it more homely. Yesterday we went on a Reef clean up dive. It was run by the Thai government and all the local dive centres helped by going downand removing fishing line and other rubbish from the reef. It was brilliant. We were helping on the boat which was also good learning for us. At the end of the day we all got a certificate so ours is now on the wallin our house. Today we have had our first day off. We went to Big C the local very big supermarket and bought some bikes. Tey are excellent. Walking was ok but a bit slow so we decided pedal power wouldbe better. This side of the island is very flat so it is really easy to get around. We are both really pleased with our new bikes althought they are a bit sad as they are both exactly the same!!! Tomorrow we are helping some students learn to dive. We are lookingforward to that. We will try to do bike pictures for next week.
Sun 10 Sep
We moved into our new house yesterday. It is great. Chris picked us up from our hotel at about 11:30 and drove us over to Chalong. We completed all the paperwork and were given the keys. It did not take us very long to unpack as we do not have much stuff but it looks great. Click here to see some pictures of the house. We went out for a bit of shopping. There is a little supermarket just around the corner where we can get most things we need. When we got back Duke, an instructor at Sea Bees called in to say hello which was nice. In the evening Morag and Mohey came round for a drink. We have only been in for a day and already we have guests!! We had to drink beer from mugs as we only have 2 glasses but thats ok. We all decided that we were hungry so went out for dinner together. They knew a small place just round the corner so we went there. The food was great and it was very cheap. Perfect! Today we have been for lunch with Duke and made the arrangements for tomorrow. We start work at 8:45. We are both looking forward to getting started. It will be good to get into a routine.
Fri 8 Sep
Well here we are in Thailand. Its great!! We arrived on Tues after a rather long and tiringjourney at about 11:30pm. We were shattered so went straight to bed. It was almost 10:00 when we woke up, brilliant. After breakfast we went off to sort out our phones. It didn't take too long or cost too much so that was good. We also had a look at a couple of houses while we were out but they were all too expensive. We spent the rest of the day sleeping by the pool. You might as well make the most of it! On Wed we spoke to Chris who put us in touch with Morag and Mohey. They are also divers who have recently arrived in Thailand. they told us about a house they had found and put us in touch with the land lady. We had a look and it is perfect so we paid the deposit and move in tomorrow. Fab! the weather has been terrible today, it has rained all day so we have had a very nice time doing nothing. We have read our books, played cards and generally chilled. This morning I spoke to Mum and Dad which was great. All in all the first few days here have been as good as we could have hoped! Can't wait to go diving!!
Sun 3 Sep
Another week gone by. On Tues we went over to Robbies Mum and Dads for dinner. They had decided to do Christmas so we had roast chicken, stuffing and all the trimmings and then christmas pudding. It was lovelly. On Wed we packed our bags. That took ages as we kept having to make the pile smaller. I think we have just about kept within the weight but no doubt we will think of lots of other things to take! In the evening we went over to Neil and Sues for a drink. On Thurs we headed south to go to Richard and Lauras wedding on Fri. We had lunch on Thurs with Jane, an old university friend of mine. We haven't seen each other for ages and it was brilliant to catch up on all the latest news. Esther and Kezia, Janes daughters are lovelly and great fun. In the evening we went to stay with my cousins Chris and Heather and their children. Again great to catch up on all the latest news. We always have a great time when we stay with Chris. On Friday we headed over to Leatherhead for the Wedding. The weather was beautiful and Laura looked amazing. It was a fabulous wedding and an added bonus for us to be able to spend the day with all the family. We had a brilliant evening and danced the night away. Great! On Sat we drove back in the morning. The weather was horrid but the traffic was not too bad. In the evening we went out for dinner with Neil and Sue. We went to a new restaurant in town which was very nice. A very pleasant evening. Today has been great. We have had dinner at the Golf Club with all our familys. At our request we had roast beef and yorkshire pud. Very traditional and who know when we will have that again! After dinner everyone came back to our house for coffee. It was a great way to spend our last full day in the UK. No doubt we will be busy with stuff before we leave tomorrow. The next time I write we will be in Thailand. After all this planning we can hardly believe that the time to leave has arrived. Thanks to all our family and friends for all their good wishes. It is going to be great!
Mon 28 Aug
Yet another hectic week in our house. On Mon we played golf at Wallesey with our friend Nigel. What a lovelly golf course. It was very windy which made playing well rather tough but we really enjoyed the course. It is a while since we have seen Nigel so it was good to spend a few hours playing golf and catching up on all the latest news. Tues was unpacking and tidying day. We worked really hard and have emptied all the boxes and managed to put everything away. It is great now as the house is all tidy and we can finally sit down and enjoy it. We even found time to sit in the garden to eat our dinner. Wed we played golf with Ralph and Ang. It was part one of the girls versus boys challenge. Betterball stableford which the boys won by 1 point, however it is cumulative so there is time for us yet. Thurs we had to wait for the BT man as the phone still was not working. He came just before lunch so we went out for a bit of shopping in the afternoon. On Fri I played golf for our ladies team away at Newcastle and Robbie did some jobs and finally got the phone working. In the evening we went out for dinner with Julie and Bri. It was really nice although rather strange to think that we will not see them again for 8 months! Sat I played golf in the morning and Robbie played golf with the boys in the afternoon. In the evening Robbie had his boys night out in Congleton. Ralph and Phil were staying at our house so I got kicked out as there was no where for me to sleep! I stayed at Angs house and we had a very pleasant evening. Nice bottle of wine and box of chocolates helped. I think the boys had a good evening. See photo of the week! On sunday morning we all went to Breadsall Priory. Part 2 of the boys versus girls. Ang and I played great and beat the boys by4 points so we are now 3 points ahead going into the final round. After golf we went for a swim with Mum and Dad. In the evening we had a brilliant meal. We gave Dad his birthday present as we will not be here for his birthday. He really liked it. Mum gave us a couple of small gifts for our travels and Ralph had his birthday presents. It was a really nice evening. Today was part 3 of the golf challenge. We hired a buggy for Mum and Dad sothey could spend the day with us. We all had a great laugh. Mum had a go at driving the buggy and Dad had a couple of little goes at playing golf. Brilliant fun. The girls lost by 2 points on the day but won overally by a single point. Fantastic!! Robbie and Ralph were not best pleased to be beat by the girls!! We have had a great week doing loads of fun stuff. Another busy week next week and then we are off. This time next week we will be at the airport. That's rather exciting!!!
Sun 20 Aug
Finally we have moved house. We moved on Thursday and on the day everything went very well. Phil came over in the morning to help and was an absolute star. We had the van packed by lunch time although we could not quite fit it all in so we put the extra stuff in the garage and went back for it later. As we unloaded the van our small house seemed to get fuller and fuller!! Mum and Dad came over in the afternoon and brought food. That was good as the workers were starving by then! Just as we took the last stuff off the van it started to rain. Good job it waited until then or we would have all been soaked. We spent the rest of the afternoon starting to unpack. At 5 we had to stop as we were going to Germany to visit Iain and Marlies. Mum and Dad dropped us at the airport. We were shattered so it was quite nice to have a sit down. We have had a great weekend doing very little. Brilliant! We have been looked after very well, been into Dusseldorf for a bit of shopping, been for a nice walk in the park and drunk lots of beer. I think it was just what the doctor ordered. When we get home we still have lots to do but we have had a good rest and are ready to start again. Once the house is tidy I will take some pictures so you can all have a look. Only two weeks until we leave and for the first time it feels like it is really happening. We can't wait!
Mon 14 Aug
Another week gone by and we still haven't moved house!! However everything is finally sorted out and we are moving on Thurs. Thats a relief. We have still been busy this week. We spent the end of the week packing and sorting and are now almost ready to go. Robbie had to have a wisdom tooth taken out on Friday. He said it wasn't too bad but did look very sorry for himself all day. Sat was the summer ball at the golf club. What a fantastic evening. We went with Phil and Ang (Phils new girlfriend!). The boys looked very smart in their dinner suits and Ang and I didn't scrub up too bad. We had a lovely meal and then danced the night away until the small hours. Great!! Sun we had lunch with Julie, Bri and Harvey and dinner with Mum and Dad. It is the first day for ages when we haven't done any jobs and it was very pleasant. Lots to do now but looking forward to the move. Hopefully next week I will have good things to report and may manage a few pictures of the new place!
Tues 8 Aug
Well we are both unemployed now. I finished work on Friday. I wasn't really loking forward to my last day but it turned out ok. We all went put for a drink at lunch time. When we got back to work I was taken into the canteen where nearly everybody was waiting. They had a collection and got me a big bunch of flowers and a voucher for £75. I was really pleased. On Friday evening we went over to Neil and Sues for dinner. We had a very pleasant evening. Played golf on Sat although not very well! That was probably relatd to all the wine on Friday! Sunday was the Chronicle Cup and I was caddying for Robbie. Unfortunately he pulled a muscle after 3 holes and missed the cut. It was a bit disappointing as he is playing really well at the moment. Monday was the golf ladies day out. We went to Trentham which is a really nice course. The weather was great and we had a very good day out. Today I palyed in the medal. It was nice to play on a Tuesday. I played really well and dropped my handicap to 13. Very pleased about that. It rather nice this not going to work. I think we could both get used to it!
Mon 31 Jul
Another hectic week in our house. I played golf on Tues evening, ok but not great. On Wed we went over to Robbie's Mum and Dad's for tea and so I could borrow a cake tin as I had promised to make a cake for my Godson's Birthday. Tea was very nice but I think the weather is too hot for Pat and George. Robbie left work on Friday which wasrather odd as Istill have a weekto go. The guys in the stores got him a card and a bottle of wine.Rather impressive for blokes! We played golfin the evening. I played the best 12 holes ever and Robbie was level par. He really is Mr consistent! When we got home I made the cake ready for icing the next day. Sat I played in Presidents day, got 39 points and came 2nd. I was very pleased. Robbie played for the team away at Astbury. While he was playing I iced the cake. Thomas the Tank Engine style. It looked pretty cool when I had finished. I then headed over to Runcorn for a night out with Tony, Sharen and Suzanne, old friends from school. We usually manage to see each other at least once a year. This waslittle leaving do for me, champagne and everything. We had a brilliant evening, ate too much, drank too much and had a really great time! Its great to have friends who you can just have fun with even if you haven't seem them for ages. Thanks guys! Robbie had a evening with the lads at the Golf Club. From what I can work out he also drank too much and had a very nice time! Sunday fortunately we didn't feel too bad as it was Harvey's (godson) party. 11 2 year olds would not be great with a hangover. We all had a fab time and the cake went down very well. Harvey was particularly impressed that he could take Thomas from the cake and play with him! In the evening it was the presentation at the golf club for the Presidents prizes. I got a very nice crystal jug and 6 tumblers. Ideal for making Pims and Lemonade!!
Mon 24 Jul
Life seems to be chaos at the moment. We are far too busy but loving every minute of it. Last weekend we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean which Phil and the kids. It was great. Natalie cooked curry for us tea which was excellent. We both played golf. I shot 67 which put my handicap back to 14 and I came 3rd so I was pretty pleased with that. On Sunday Mum and Dad came over. We went to Biddulph Grange and they stayed for tea which was in the garden. It is great to be able to eat outside all the time. Tues I went out with the girls from work. Val left a week ago and I am leaving soon so we had a retirement party at her house. It was brilliant fun although Wed was rather a slow day at work!! Fri we went over to Neil and Sues for a BBQ. Neil does cook a mean steak and his wine collection is fab. Sat was great. There was a continental market and Town Crier contest in Biddulph. We walked down and it was really good. We also had to go to the post office to collect our passports. Our visas have come so now we are really excited!! We bought lots of lovelly bread and cheese and walked home. Ralph and Ang came for lunch and then we all went to play golf. It wasthe mixed open at the golf club. We played OK but Ralph and Ang were great. They got 42 points and came 2nd. Excellent result. Robbie got up really early on Sun as he was playing in a 36 hole comp. He played great in the morning and was only 2 over par. Unfortunately he was not so great in the afternoon. He came 2nd and was presented with a very nice pot thing!! I did a bit more packing and watched the Open. A bit dissapointing as I was hoping for a close run thing but Tiger did play very well. It is Robbies last week at work and I have only go 2 weeks to go. I can hardly believe we are going 6 weeks today!!
Wed 12 Jul
Its been another busy week and we have a great time. At the weekend we both played golf and did some more house packing. Robbie sorted the shed out so I think we are making progress. I have been off work for 3 days and Robbie was off yesterday and today. On Monday evening we drove down to Balsall Common to stop with Helen and Paul (old university friends). We haven't seen them for ages and it was brilliant to catch up on all the news. Their 2 children Olivia and Joe are great fun and incredibly self sufficient. They definately take after their Mum on that one! On Tues we headed off to Hanbury Manor to play golf with people from work. What a fantastic place. The golf course is fantastic. The best I have ever played by far! Ours was a very close match which we lost on the last. Very dissapointing but we both played well and it was a great match. In the evening we went to watch Grey hound racing at Walthamstow Dog Stadium. We started out gambling with £3 and ended up with about £15 so that's not bad. Last of the big spenders or what!! We statyed in the hotel and have had a great day today. We had a leisurely breakfast on the balcony, went for a swim then headed off. We got a picnic on the way and stopped at Wimpole Hall. The weather has been fantastic and we have had a very chilled day. It was a really good break and we both feel like we have had a small holiday. Batteries are recharged ready to start again.
Tues 04 Jul
Gosh these weeks are going by quickly! It was Lady Captains Day at the Golf Club on Sunday. I played ok but not great. It was a really nice day. The weather was fab and we had a lovelly meal after the golf. Lady Captain had a nice day and that is what it is all about. Robbie went over to his Mum's as cousins were visiting. It sounds like they all had a really good afternoon. We have booked our flights to Thailand this week so now we are officially very excited. We go on Mon 4th Sept. That is 8 weeks on Monday. That's not very long. On Thurs I went out for dinner with my friend Julie. We went to the Pavillion in Congleton. I have not been there before. It was very nice. Football is all over for another 4 years. I just knew we would lose when it got to penalties. Oh well we will just have to wait until the next time. All is progressing well with the house although still no date for the move. Shouldn't be too long now.
Mon 26 Jun
We have had a great week. We went to Wales for a long weekend with Robbie's Mum and Dad, Phil and the kids. We had a really lovelly time. On Firday we went to the beach in the morning and then played golf with Phil in the afternoon at Borth GC. It was great. It is a links course and is in great condition. Playing on other courses is always fun. We got talking to the Lady Captain and she asked me to play in their Ladies Open the next day. Robbie offered to caddy for me so I said I would play. It was really good fun. I didn't play great but had a good time and Robbie was a great caddy. We also had time to fit in a swim, sauna and a game of pitch and put. On Sunday we played more pitch and put and went for a swim with Phil and the kids. On the way home we stopped for a picnic and then got home just in time to see the football. A better performance and the right result. It was the perfect end to a really great weekend. I have been off work again today. I am getting rather used to these 4 day weeks! I played for the ladies team away at Prestbury. What a great golf course. It is being used for open qualifying next week so it is in wonderful condition. I won my match on the last but unfortunately the team lost 4-3. Never mind I have had a lovelly day. I think we have had enough enjoying ourselves now and need to get on with packing if we want to move at the beginning of Aug!
Wed 21 Jun
Brilliant news!! Everything is sorted with the house and we are hopefully moving in 6 weeks. We are doing a part exchange with one of the people who came to view last week. Our new house is rather small but fantastic. Everything is new and very trendy. We went to see it on Sunday and it is great. Very different from the other house we were going to buy but fab. We have agreed a price and are all systems go. Lets hope nothing goes wrong this time!! On the golf front I played in the Charter Cup this week which is one of our majors. I won! I am really pleased. It is the best I have ever played in a medal round and I will get my name on the wall in the golf club. Football is still not great but job done so far. We are looking forward to the next match on Sunday.
Wed 14 Jun
Another busy week with some better news on the house front. We had 2 lots of people round for 2nd viewings at the weekend. Neither of them have sold their houses but both were having second viewings on their own houses. It all gets very complicated but lets hope we get a new offer soon. We both played golf at the weekend. I played a match away at Mellor and unfortunately got beat but I also played on Mon won and shot the best score of my life 78!! I was very pleased. Robbie played in the Am Am with his brother on sunday. They finished 10th and won 35 each so were rather pleased about that. Fri evening we went over to Neil and Sue's for a BBQ. Neils steaks were great if rather large!! This weather is great, we both love the heat which is a good job when you think about where we are going!!Footy has started so we seem to be spending much too much time in front of the telly. I guess so far it is job well done but not many marks for style. Lets hope for a better display on Thurs although we will have a small thougth for T&T as they have a Vale player in their line up. Come on Chris Birchall but not too good!!
Sun 4 Jun
What a rubbish week this has been. Talk about ups and downs. Got home on Tues evening. There was a knock at the door and I opened it to find our buyer on the door step. She had come round to tell us that she was very sorry but their sale had fallen through. Their buyer had changed his mind!! They still want our house but until they find a new buyer they can't. We can't believe it. Everything was going along so nicely and now we are back to square one again. We are gutted to say the least!! So the house is back on the market and we are back to our second hobby of cleaning!! Oh well I am sure we are not the first people this has happened to and we won't be the last. On a brighter note it is our wedding anniversary today. We had avery nice evening last night. We walked into town and had a nice meal and a few drinks. Today we have been for a nice walk and have just had a quiet day but very enjoyable. We both played golf yesterday in league matches. Both our teams won so that was a good days work. I have done some holiday snaps (see link on the left). Hope you all like them.
Tues 30 May
Gosh we have been busy since we got back from our holidays. We arrived home on Mon afternoon and the weather was dreadful. The rest of the day was spent washing and putting stuff away and of course sleeping. Back to work on Tuesday and not a clue what day or time it was! I have managed to do all the washing and ironing, we have been shopping and we have started packing ready to move. The estate agent tells us that everything is going well and we should be ready to go in the next 4-6 weeks. We have made several trips to the tip and I have packed up 7 or 8 boxes already. Still lots to do but a good start. I played golf on Sat. Robbie had the car so it was my first trip to the club on my bike. It didn't take too long and is down hill most of the way there. Took rather longer coming back but still not too bad. Considering I had not played for 3 weeks it wasn't too bad. Robbie played on Sunday and did ok. Monday Mum and Dad came to visit. They have been on holiday in the US for the last 4 weeks so they had lots of tales to tell and loads of pictures to show us. Sounds like they had a fanatastic time. I have told my boss that I am leaving today. He was rather surprised and I think rather envious! I am sure news will be all round the factory by the end of the day. We have also paid the deposit for our instructor training so it really is all happening now. I can't believe I only have 9 more weeks at work. It is all very exciting! Sorry still haven't done the photos but I will do them this week.
Sun 21 May
This week has been a little more relaxed than last week.On Monday we hired a jeep and went for a look around the island by ourselves. We paid a visit to Tesco. It is huge and sells lots of things we thought we might have to do without. What a relief to discover I can buy proper milk and tea bags!! We also had a look at more potential places to live and there are certainly plenty! Tues we meet up with Chris again and made more plans for our Instructor Training. Everything is shaping up very nicely. More diving on Wed although the weather was terrible and the boat trip was not great fun. The diving was very nice and we took lots of pictures of fish. We are now in Singapore where we seem to have spent the last 2 days shopping!! It has been great fun and we have got some very good bargains. We also did a little sight seeing and went across to Sentosa Island although we were a bit dissapointed with the man made beach. We have been very spoilt for the previous 2 weeks. We are now in the airport waiting for our flight home. It has been a fantastic trip and we can not wait until we are coming back again. If all goes to plan that will only be 3 months away. Brilliant!!! Photos of holiday to follow soon.
Sun 14 May
What a busy week this has been! We are now qualified rescue divers. We spent most of the last week doing the course. It was rather hard work and there was alot to learn but it was great fun! It is also the first step towards being diving instructors so that is good! We have talked to alot of people in the last week and made some very useful contacts. Chris who runs the Instructor training courses came over and took us out for a couple of hours. We had a look at the sort of houses we can rent and he took us to the training centre to show us the facilities. It is excellent and is one of the best places to get trained on the island so that is good to know. There has also been time for some fun. We managed to fit in 3 fun dives. It really is great to be back under the water. Last night we found a bar that was showing the cup final. What a brilliant match. The bar was full of Brits so the atmosphere was great. Lets hope that Gerrard plays like that in Germany!! Well must go, the sea and the sun are calling, more soon.
Sun 07 May
Arrived in Singapore. We have got some time to kill in the airport and the internet is free so we thought we would do a quick update. Flight was good, lots of movies to watch and food not bad. Went by quite quickly for a 13 hour flight! Off to Phuket in an hour or 2 and will be on the beach a few hours after that!! More soon.
Tues 02 May
Wow!! What a week this has been!! We accepted an offer on our house on Wednesday. There were 2 people who both wanted it so we had a bidding war on Wed morning. By lunch time we had accepted an offer for the full asking price which is brilliant. We then went off and looked at lots of little houses and on Sunday morning had an offer accepted for 108 Tunstall Rd. We are really chuffed. It is a small 2 bed terrraced which is in really good condition and has got a great little garden with a wonderful view over fields and hills. It is just what we were looking for. Other stuff for the week. Sat was my first golf league match of the season.We played Mellor and Townscliffe at home. I won 7&6 and the team won 3-0. Great start to the season. On Sunday Ralph and Ang came down and brought my bike with them. They stayed the night and we played golf on Monday. The boys won! I also went for a ride on my bike. I had forgotten how hard work it is but I did quite like it! We are off on holiday on Saturday. It really is all go in our house. Everyting has worked out just right for us. When we are in Thailand next week we will be able to make some plans for our future. Very exciting!!
Tues 25 Apr
It seems like spring has finally arrived. The weather has been great this weekend. We both played golf on Saturday. It was lovely to be out in the sunshine although it was rather cold early on. We sold my car on Sun so are now a one car family. I was rather sad to see her go as ithas been great fun owning a convertible. I am having a bike insteasd so at leastI will still have the wind in my hair! On Sunday afternoon we went to open house at a friends house. Henow lives in Oz and is visiting for a couple of weeks. It was a brilliant afternoon. It is really good to catch up with old friends.Micheal used to run as dive shop in Australia so had some really good advice for us. I am sure we will have to visit him at some time in the future. Only a week and a bit until holiday!! We are getting very excited now!!
Tues 18 Apr
We have had areally busy week this week. It was Robbie's Birthday on Wed. We didn't do much on the day but on Thurs went out for a curry with some friends. We had a great night, eat too much, drank too much and had a really nice time. Phil stayed over and we played golf on Friday morning. The weather was great and the golf wasn't too bad either. Saturday we went shopping for Robbies Birthday present and then went to the cinema to see Ice Age 2. What a great film. Very funny. Sunday we went off to Robbies Mum and Dad's for dinner. Phil and the kids were there, it is always nice to see everyone. On Monday we went over to Mum and Dads and then played golf with Ralph. It was really windy and the course was playing really difficult. None of us played that well but it was good fun anyway. We stayed at Ralphs last night and here we are again back to work. The long weekend was great but went by much too quickly.
Mon 10 Apr
These weeks do seem to fly by! A very golf filled weekend this week. Friday we played 9 holes after work. It was nice to be out in the fresh air although neither of us played very well. On Sat was the 1st Ladies Medal of the season and I won. I played really nicely and am very pleased. Sunday was the Bell Cup. I won my match but unfortunately the team lost 5-2. The weather was much better than last week and I rather enjoyed my afternoon. Robbie was not so lucky. It started to snow in Congleton and his competition had to be abandoned. We had another house viewer at the weekend but nobody has called about the car. It's all a bit frustrating but we just have to wait. It will all come good soon! Only 3 weeks until holiday.
Mon 03 Apr
A quiet week this week. We tried to play golf on Friday night but the course was closed so we went for a pint instead! I was supposed to play golf on Sat but the course was still closed. It was a shame because the weather was lovelly. I washed the car and took pictures. It is now up for sale. There is no point having 2 cars when we workat the same place. She has been a great little carand I will be sad to see her go! We both played golf on Sunday but I think Robbie had a much better time than I did. He played in the morning and only got a bit wet. I played at Stand near Bury and got completely soaked. It was a practise round for the Bell Cup match next week although it was so wet I am not sure we learnt anything! Lets hope the weather is better next week.
Mon 27 Mar
Played golf on Saturday. It is the first time we have been off proper tees and no mats. The weather was great and I played pretty well so it was all round a very pleasant morning. On Saturday evening we went to the Golf Club Dinner which was very nice. Food was great again. Sunday was Mothers Day so we did the rounds. Robbies Mum's for a few hours in the afternoon and then off to my Mum's for dinner. I am sure Mum is not supposed to do the cooking on Mothers Day but she didn't seem to mind and we enjoyed it. We had a couple more house viewers in the week. One of them is very interested but again haven't sold their house. Never mind!! Only five weeks until holiday!!
Sun 19th Mar
Had a great day yesterday. We went to the races at Uttoxeter with Julie and Bri to celebrate Brians 40th Birthday. It was the Midlands Grand National and we were useless!! We had a small bet on every race only managed 1 3rd place which won us the impressive sum of 2.80!! We only picked that one because the jockey had a nice shirt. It seemed better than going with the form. It was absolutely freezing but good fun nether the less. After the races we needed warming up so we went for a curry. Very nice! All in all a really good day. Nothing much else to report this week. No news on the house and the weather is still rubbish. Roll on our holidays. Six weeks and counting.
Sun 12th Mar
We have had a couple of quiet weeks. Car tax and MOT time so we are a bit skint!! The weather has been so cold it hasn't really been fit to do much. It was Mum's birthday yesterday so we all wentover the Ralphs for dinner. I made a cake which turned out to be very large!! We even found some candles which Mum seemed to rather like. More house viewers on Saturday. Again they have not sold their house so still we wait. We just have to be patient. Other than that not much to report.
Thurs 2nd Mar
We have been mad busy this week! On Friday I went to a Ladies Dinner at Alsager Golf Club with 7 friends from the golf club. The after dinner speaker was Mickey Walker, ex European Solheim Cup Captain amongst other things. She was excellent. Told lots of amusing tales of her days on tour and answered lots of questions about fellow ladies pro golfers. It was a great evening topped off by 6 of the 8 of us winning prizes in the raffle! Sat was the first proper comp of the year and we won!! It was foursomes and I think Ann and I were inspired by the previous evening. Sat evening we went to a dinner at the golf club. Our first experience of our new stewardess and her catering. It was fab. Food was great and plenty of it. I think we will be sampling Patsy's cooking more often if this is what we can expect. Sunday was a quiet day. I am certainly getting too old for going out 2 nights running! Still no house sale but things are looking good. We now have 3 people who have said they want it as soon as they sell theirs. Fingers crossed it won't be too long now.
Tues 21st Feb
These weeks really do seem to go by very quickly. I played golf again on Saturday and our team managed to come last. Never mind we had a nice time and the weather was fantastic. A really nice sunny day. On Saturday evening it was Aunty Jean and Uncle Harry's 50th Wedding Anniversary Party. Click here to see lots of pictures. We stopped at Ralph's and went to see both Mum and Dad and Robbie's Mum and Dad on Sunday. It was a great weekend. We saw all our relatives in the space of two days. That doesn't happen very often.
We had more house viewers on Saturday. They seemed to like it but still we wait. I am sure it will sell soon. Vale got beat but that was always going to happen. Play a team who have just sacked their manager and you can guarantee they will win!
Sun 12th Feb
Another busy week in our house. On Saturday I played golf with the ladies although I am not sure why as it was freezing!! Nice to get a bit of fresh air though. We had more people to view the house and they seemed to like it. We will just have to wait and see.
I spent all afternoon cooking on Saturday as we had some friends coming over for dinner. They were guinea pigs for a new recipe and it all turned out very nicely. We all ate too much, drank too much and had a very good evening. Today is a quiet sort of a day. Neither of us are in the mood to do very much! Drinking tea and watching the Olympics sounds like a good plan to me.
Sun 5th Feb
It was my birthday on Friday. I had a great day. I took the day off work and went shopping. Got some good bargains and had a good look around. In the evening Robbie andI went out for dinner which was great. We stayed the night so nobody had to drive and had a very pleasant time. On Sat evening we went over to Phils as it was William's birthday this week as well. He had a pool table for his birthday which is great fun. Mum and Dad came over for lunch today. All round I have had a really good weekend. Ate alot, drank too much and had a very nice time!
Promise I will update the photo of the week soon. Never seem to have time to get round to it!
Sun 29th Jan
We have booked our holiday to Thailand this week. I guess it is a fact finding mission as much as a holiday but whatever you call it we are rather excited. We fly out on 6th May for 2 weeks with a stop over in Singapore on the way home. The hotel looks great and we can't wait to get back in the sea.
The rest of the week has been rather full of golf things. Ladies AGM on Tues, AGM on Sat and the Captains drive in today. The drive in was good and both Mr Captain and the Lady Captain hit good shots. I am sure they must be very relieved!
Vale got beat by Villa in the cup but they put up a good fight and scored a goal. Certainly better than last time we played them in the cup. They won 6-0! Lets hope we can get our act together in the league. The play offs would be good but we can dream!
Sun 22nd Jan
These weeks really do seem to go past quickly! Wed was the annual Golf Club Ladies Dinner. About 30 of us went toCafe Symphony in Congleton. It was a very pleasant evening if rather noisy. But then what do you expect with 30 ladies in a small space.
The weather was lovelly yesterday so we decided we would play golf. It is not often at this time of the year we think it is warm enough for golf. We don't like the cold. Another good reason to go to Thailand! It was nice to be out in the fresh air.
We had some more people to view the house today. The ones last week had a house to sell but the ones today are renting and seemed to like the house. We will just have to wait and see. At least we have got 2 viewings out of all the cleaning.
Sun 15th Jan
We had our first house viewers today. They seem to like the house but you never know when selling a house. It certainly kept us busy, as we spent the whole morning cleaning like mad people. The house does look nice though.
The rest of the week has been rather quiet. We went to Mum and Dads for tea last night. Mum tried out a new recipe on us and it was very nice. Not much else to report this week.
Sat 6th Jan
The first week back at work is over already. It wasn't too bad although Christmas does seem a very long time ago! We took delivery of our new washing machine on Wed. Not a moment too soon as we were very quickly running out of clean clothes. Its very nice and the first new washing machine we have ever had!
Excellent night last night. Port Vale won in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. It is the first time we have been in the 4th round for 10 years. Lets hope we get a really big draw. It would be great to see Vale Park full for once. After the match we went to the pub to celebrate. It is Phils birthday today and I think he enjoyed his pre birthday night out although it was freezing!
I have added more pictures from New Year to the Christmas Pictures page. Feel free to have a look.
Tues 3rd Jan
Happy New Year!! Doesn't time fly when you are having fun. Christmas and New Year are already over and now we are back at work. The last week we have visited friends, caught up with people we don't see often enough and of course eaten and drank too much!! New Years Eve was a great night. Ralph and Ang and Julie and Bri came to our house. We had great fun playing card games. At midnight we went out to watch the fireworks. Everyone stayed and left rather quietly the following morning. Photos to follow soon.
Now it is back to reality. Never mind. Not long until Easter!!
Boxing Day 26th Dec
Merry Christmas everyone. Its been a really busy week this week. We both worked right up until Christmas, although work let us all go at 12:00 on Friday and not alot was done in the morning. On Christmas Eve we played golf with Phil. It was my first chance to try out my new (2nd hand!) 5 wood. Very nice!! It was a bit cold but dry and bright. We don't play much golf at this time of the year so it was nice to get out in the fresh air.
Christmas Day was great. We both received loads of great presents. We spent the morning in Crewe with Robbies family, then went over to Runcorn to have dinner with my family. It was great as we managed to see everyone. Its not often that happens. I took lots of pictures. You can see some of them on our Christmas pictures page.
Hope you all had a Great Christmas and are looking forward to a happy and healthy New Year.
On another note. Duran Duran was fantastic!! I was about 14 again. They sang all the old songs and a few of the new ones. Brilliant!!
Sunday 18th Dec
So that are we up to at the moment. Well not much really. We have done all our Christmas shopping. The presents are all wrapped and under the tree. Thats quite good as there is still a week to go until Christmas!
Robbie is still working in the stores at Astrium and has just had his contract extended until the end of March so that's good news.
My car broke down last week and is currently in the garage awaiting repair. Sounds like it is a big job and a big bill! Let's hope it is not too painful. At least we do not need the car at the moment. Working in the same place does have its advantages.
We are going to see Duran Duran in concert at the MEN this evening. I am very excited, I know I am getting too old for all this but they will always be my favourite band.