Happy Chanukkah!

 

So I pretty much love Amunuca. I’m not sure why so many people are against it. It’s great. The people are nice, the food is decent, and get this, there’s a waterslide! It’s been slow but sales have been alright and I’m diving every day. I like the team of divers  that I have here and I have a really plush hotel room to stay in.

On Saturday evening me and the crew are heading back to Denarau in Silvertip, one of our boats (we have three) for a holiday party at the office. Every site is supposed to be putting together some sort of number to present to everyone else. So me and my team are making homemade coconut bras and dancing to I’m Too Sexy, by Right Said Fred. So good! 

I’m teaching an Advanced Adventurer course to this couple. The guy is the French version of Brain Sherwell, which makes me happy, but I cant stop staring at him and I think I’m starting to creep him out a little.

That’s about it for now. More updates soon…

Siga na Liga!

The last few days I’ve spent on the lovely Manta Ray Island in the Yasawas. I’m covering a shift for Mike, a South African guy with a great body and a weird accent. It’s been relatively slow on the island but tomorrow I’m starting an advanced adventurer course and I’ve been doing intro dives every morning. But mostly I’ve just been reading a book and hanging out with my Fijian dive team. Oh and bathing in the rinse bin...

On Wednesday night we went into the village of Soso for an evening of Cava drinking. I ended up going into someone’s house to sleep for a bit while my crew drank until 230 in the morning. (They started at 5:30pm, I can‘t go for that long!) Then we cruised under the stars back to Manta Ray which is awesome because you can see about 1,274,839,274,913,284,719 stars at night! Pretty cool. Also cool because that means there were no clouds! Hooray!

Patrick, one of the dive guys taught me how to make a bird out of a palm frond, but without his guidance I’m pretty much a hopeless case. Good thing the next few days will be full of diving and not bird making. I should stick to my day job.

I am supposed to leave Manta Ray on Sunday head to Amanuca. I’ve heard mixed reviews about the place so I’m not exactly what you would call excited. But I’m sure it will be fine! We’ll see!!!

So, I was in Ice Bar tonight and there was some guy painting tattoos on people. I got really excited and got tatted up and down my face, neck and arm! And then i was officially the belle of the ball!

 I've had some days off work to just hang out and do whatever. I'm crashing at my bosses' house. This is their backyard- no retouching involved!

Dom also had a few days off so we headed down to Natadola for some fun diving and hang-out time. I love this girl a lot!

On Monday I head out to Manta Ray Island for 6 days, followed by a stint at Amanuca. Should be an interesting ride. I just want to get back to Reef Endeavor where I belong!

More soon!

See how gracefully he husks the coconut....

You know what really makes my day?? When you rock up on Tivua Island and there’s a bajillion green coconuts just sitting there in a pile waiting for you to collect them! I could only carry six in my bucket so that was all I took. And then, coconut party at the stern!!! We busted out a machete and let the coconut husking begin! Hooray!  Some were really immature and there wasn’t much meat inside them, but there was a lot of juice and it was delicious!

We’re not really having a lot of divers lately because the weather hasn’t been wonderful, but yesterday we took one guy out for a dive on Yaqeta island and we saw a turtle and two sharks!  It was my first turtle on a dive in Fiji so I was stoked.  Good times, good times…

So assuming my bosses still like me in 4 months, I’m thinking I’m going to extend my visa until my birthday and have a super awesome Fijian birthday in june! The weather will be great, the diving will be great and the people will be great! Buy your tickets now people! Go! Go! Go!

Send me addresses and I’ll send you  postcards. LOVE!!!!

Ni Sa Bula!

Well! I’ve been here for two months and even though the weather is currently shit (read: hurricane season), I’m still loving it. I’m finishing up a dive course with this couple, Warren and Marie, from Australia and they’re awesome. A week ago I had a completely different experience, one I hope to never repeat:

I had a diver who was very much on Fiji time. He wanted to do his course, but he didn’t want to actually do anything. If I said to meet at 8, he’d show up at 8:30 and say he had to do something first before we could start.  I was stressing because I wanted to make sure we got everything done that needed to be. Then on  what was supposed to be his last dive, we knelt down in the sand at 12.6 meters and were doing skills. He was removing and replacing his mask, a skill he'd never had problems with, and he started to cough into his regulator. Then, he claims, he couldn’t clear his reg and couldn’t breathe and started to panic.  Then he tries to bolt for the surface. At 12m this is not a wise idea. I’m fighting to keep him down and get him under control, and slowly bring him to the surface. When we get there he gasps for air like he couldn’t get enough. It was petrifying for him I’m sure, but for ME, well I just kept saying to myself “I can’t believe this is happening to me, I can’t believe this is happening to me…”

He was fine and I was fine and we did another dive where he did his skills again and everything was okay and we talked at length about what he’d do in the future were this to happen again. Dear G-d, please don’t let that happen again. Marie and Warren are star pupils and I have no worries about them. But guy-from-last-week, I worry about him a little.

Back on-board the ship I’ve been having little tiffs with the Hospitality Manager. He likes to nit pick and yell at me for things, even though the things he yells about are part of my job description.  So that’s no fun.

And I think I may have had a pilondial cyst, which has ruptured and gone away but was painful and gross when I had it. I’m glad the internet exists so I can pretend like I know what things are and look them up if I don’t.

Additionally, a 70 year old guy from Fort Myers was on this past cruise and he kept hitting on my the whole time. The best was when he told me i was Drop Dead Gorgeous and gave me his phone number. His wife, who was standing right there, she loved it. Not really. But i though it was pretty amusing.

Other than that, I’m happy and buzzed on wine and heading off to bed… More updates soon!

one thousand words:

Happy November!

So the next two cruises are complete opposites. The next one: 17 passengers, the one after: 120 passengers. Whew! It’s going to be an interesting week!  Hopefully my sales will be decent on this next one. We shall see.

I’ve been taking photos with my new camera and am working on a slide show to present to pasengers as part of a Reef Talk that I give on every cruise.  I just talk to everyone about the reef, and different fish and whatnot. But now I’m trying to use my own photos. I downloaded some random photo editing program off the internet, and am now playing around with some of the images I like but are not necessarily usable for the slideshow…

Also I was supposed to have days off, but we’re short staffed so I offered to work for a while longer. Not that I mind! Now I don’t have to worry about packing, finding a place to stay, making my own food, nothing! Whew. Who thought days off would be so stressful??

Nothing much new to report. Lovin’ life. Come visit! Serious!!!!!!!!!!! xx