Busy season has arrived

Today is my first day off in over a week and a half and is past due. I have just spent the past 5 days diving with a group of 12 Dutchies along with 2 other DM's and have to say I havent worked that hard in a while. Just loading, unloading tanks /equipment and loading again has my shoulders and back sore. We spent a day on a big liveaboard boat in the furthest south dive sites (not accessible by jeep) and did 3 dives there and came back and did a 67 min. night dive which left me dizzy and exhausted although it felt good to be so tired (& going to bed at 9:30 every night!). They are finally gone and have another group of 19 coming in tomorrow which we have recruited Cameron to guide some tec divers in the group which will be a nice change for him and also fun to be working with him again. The water temp. is starting to drop a few degrees along with the outside temp. so I have actually been getting chilly during and after my dives so think it's time to get out the vest and hood! I am really not looking forward to water temp dropping to 20 degrees. It has been 28 and is now 26 and am already cold! Guess I'll survive, will also be nice to have a few days in the shop to warm up during the colder months. Starting to count down the days until Jessi, Kat and Anna arrive and am working on finding Jess a place to stay here for a month. Other than work absolutely nothing exciting is going on and am just going to work as much as possible while it's busy so I can save up a little bit of money for traveling. Hope all is well at home! xo

Ramadan

So we changed our clocks back last week. I was told it was earlier than normal because of Ramadan, which started on Thursday. As expected things have slowed down even more around town-amazing it's possible to be even slower than it normal. Things at work have picked up very quickly and Cameron and I have been working everyday. Unfortunately for all the boys at work, we have new customers coming in everyday and they are pretty worn out as you can imagine. They give up food, drinks, smoking and even sex from 4:10am to 6pm. They can't even have water and I honestly dont know how they do it. One of the Divemasters at work is also Muslim and dives twice a day without food or water, which I think is quite dangerous because of the dehydration but they all say they are used to it. This lasts a month and from what they tell me they go home and eat all night and then wake up at 3am and eat again before going to the mosque to pray at 4:10am.

Like I said things at work have been busy, Im doing my fair share of diving and working at the shop and have been exhausted in the evenings. It's kind of nice to be working everyday again... I guess its been over a year since Ive had a full time job! Things will only be getting busier and we have a few big groups coming in the last half of this month, a group of 10, a group of 11 and a group of 19 not including all the random couples and others coming in here and there. They are all coming for guided diving which will be good for me to be in the water and making some money. The water is still quite warm and will stay so for a while longer but can tell the outside temperature has cooled down and am now a little chilly getting out of my wetsuit after dives, especially with the wind. We have the IDC (instructor development course) going on as well and Ive been helping out with that, being the student for the instructor candidates. Its been great for me to work on my skills and has also been a fun break in the middle of the day. I am helping tomorrow and will be working on knots and the use of lift bags which I dont have much experience with either so it should be interesting!

Hope everyone is enjoying fall, its my favorite season and definitely miss it!

xoxo

Pics from the other day

me trying to take pictures...
Lots of Lionfish
Our house reefs permanent resident...

BBQ in the Desert

The dive shop that Cam works for took all their customers to a BBQ in the desert last night and I got invited. About 8 of us drove up into the desert and had a Bedouin dinner. There were small tent like areas with carpets and cushions and they cooked chicken, fish rice, potatoes, etc... over an open fire pit which was interesting to watch and ended up being a delicious meal. The sky was incredible. So many stars and we all just sat around drinking and eating for hours. It was nice to do something different.
All else is good here just been working alot as we are coming into the busy season but Ive still managed to sneak in some fun dives as well. A friend of mine, Mike and I went for a fun dive the other day and stole the shop cameras to practice our skills... Must say I'm getting better but still have a long way to go.
Just found out that not only are Kat and Anna coming for a visit at the end of Oct. but Jessi is coming around the same time for maybe a month!!! Can't wait to have my girls here...
I had to order a new camera since my old one finally broke and Kat will be bringing it out so wont be too many pics for awhile except underwater-if you aren't sick of them yet:)
Will try to post some from the other day when I get a decent Internet connection!

P.S.- 2 years ago along with a few friends I ran a 1/2 marathon for the Luekemia and Lymphoma Society and each area gets an honored teammate. Ours was a little girl named Cameron who happened to be te cousin of another little girl I knew... She had leukemia and I just found out that she died the other day. So I thought I would tell you all thank you-without my friends and family I wouldn't be here at all let alone living an amazing life halfway across the world.
xoxoxoxoxo