So I know it has been a really long time since I have posted.¬† Three and a half months.¬† No I didn’t fall off the edge of the world though I always have to watch myself as I am really close to it.¬† I have been getting things organized and finding work in NZ.

I am working at an ISP in Wellington, New Zealand doing programming.¬† It is interesting, challenging work and I am learning tons.¬† I don’t want to bore you with all the technical details, but I love learning.

As for things I do in my free time, I bought a car… ok that isn’t really something I still do… but it enables me to travel, to take my scuba gear and actually go diving without worrying about renting a car.¬† As it is getting into winter, I haven’t been traveling as much as I should.¬† As for diving, the water is cold, the crays are delicious and the visibility sucks.

Well, I plan to post more often, but what I plan aint exactly alway what happens.  We shall see.

So I have been on Koh Tao for about a week. Relaxing on the beach, eating good food, and having a great time. I stayed in a bungalow 100 meters from the beach for the first 4 nights then moved to free accomedation while I was taking the rescue diving course.

The course took 3 days and was great, even if it was tiering for me. Learning how to respond to other divers in distress makes you much more comfortable if you were to get into the situation yourself. I highly recommend it for any scuba divers.

Well, once I completed the course I went back to relaxing. Sit around, read, do some fun scuba dives. Life is hard.

I have been in Koh Tao for a few days and have done a few dives.  I have to admit that it took me way too long to make it to the beach.  Now I know that southern Thailand is why I came.  The beaches are beautiful, the diving is fantastic and it is so much more chilled and laid back than the other places I have been.

I have done 4 dives since I have been here and today I decided that I am going to do the rescue diver course.  It is only 3 days and will let me do a lot more if I choose.  I may have to go on a visa run and stay for 6 weeks for me to complete my Dive Master.  It would give me something else I can travel and work at anywhere.

Well, I will be staying here for at least 3 more days and hope my sunburn has gone away and I have a more permanent solution for my allergies.¬† The pollution is quite bad in Thailand and I have been having issues.¬† I have lots of pictures but I need to filter through and put them up.¬† It is quite hard without the internet on my laptop so I will see when they actually get up. I have been enjoying the free data on my phone but it isn’t perfect.

I am going to stick with this site until I have moved to a country I can actually spend time to migrate over.  There is just too much worth doing for me to sit and do it here.  Well, I have to go study how no save a person so I will post again soon.

It has been a while since I have posted because I have been trying to upgrade my blog. Doing that while traveling, treking, and sight seeing is hard.

So, a bit of a catchup of what I have been doing. I met a great group of people at the hostel. Seven of us ended up going to chiang mai together. Five of us booked a three day trek. We picked up a couple more from the inn we were staying at.

The trek was great. Our guide tama was so happy and funny all of the time. We saw some great waterfalls and amazing views. There is a video somewhere of me jumping off a cliff. I will see if I can track it down.

After the trek I made my way to pai. It is a nice laid back town in the very north west. I rented a moped for the day and have been tooling around.

Today and tomorrow I am making my way to koh Tao. A long trip but I could use a relaxing beach right now.

Ok.  Going to an Asian country I should have expected to be more out of my depth than say, Australia.  I know the people that are talking to me are speaking English, but I have no clue what they are saying.  I am sure I will get used to the accent after a while but right now just, wow.

I am also amazed at the city.¬† I have been in big cities before but to see so much life crammed into every place is amazing.¬† The sidewalks are covered with street merchants.¬† I’m not just talking about the major roads either. Every alley big enough for them to drive a car down and still have a stand on is packed.¬† I haven’t been that far away from my hotel yet because I wanted to get my phone working first. Maps/gps are important or just really nice to have.¬† I should have a new phone number soon but of course, my number back in the states will always forward.

Later today I plan on venturing out to go see where they take me, and how much I get taken for.  I am hoping to see the Grand Palace and maybe a temple or two.  I will try to take lots of pictures but my uploading place is full so I will see where I can put them.  Anyway, more thoughts later.

So here I am. Sitting in the airport waiting for my flight. I put everything I didn’t want to travel with in storage but should have put more. Cleaned out my apartment and I’m ready!

So, I am off to Thailand to play with sharks and tigers and elephants oh my! I really have no plans but that is the way I prefer to travel. Sit on a beach, get a massage, go for a hike. Sure I could do that anywhere, but why not Thailand?

Turns out once I finished with the classes that when you just go out to enjoy a dive it is really a lot of fun.¬† I went on three dives yesterday.¬† The first one was not that fun.¬† There are several reasons for that; I had gotten up at 4:30 to make it to the dive, I only had a drunk a V (carbonated energy drink) and had not eaten, and I was using new equipment I wasn’t used to.¬† This lead to me purging the V from my system once on the boat.¬† I highly recommend that you don’t drink carbonation before diving, the whole air compresses thing should have been a clue but I am not the brightest when I am tired.

The second dive was great.¬† It was a drift dive, one where you don’t need to swim and let the current take you across the dive site.¬† By then I had gotten my equipment sorted so I just sat in the current and flew along the bottom.¬† There were tons of sponges a few rays and some fish.¬† My dive computer had flooded so I couldn’t check my depth or time underwater so I was a little nervous but I just checked my buddy’s from time to time.

The third dive was another fun one.  My first scallop dive.  We were just dropped into a scallop field and went collecting.  I got about 10 scallops, saw a nice crab, and a gigantic ray (2 meters).  When I got home, I cooked them all up with a nice salad and had a fine feast!  I need to start cooking more for myself but I find cooking for one hard.

So, where does that leave me.  Next weekend I am scheduled to go do my advanced open water course.  This will open up a lot more dive sites here in Melbourne to me.  I would be able to go see more of the wrecks and submarines that are scattered around.  In addition, I will be a lot more confident about my equipment so I can enjoy diving more and focus on the beautiful sceanery!

So, I finally got an apartment.  Yeah!  It is on the Southbank and is a 15 minute walk from work.  Not that I really need the extra time before or after work, but it means I can walk home for lunch.  The place has a pool and a gym so I hope I will get some physical activity.  Sitting in an office for 9 hours means I am not getting as much exercise as I should. Having a gym in the building I might actually use it.  At the very least I will be walking a couple miles a day.

I missed many things not having an apartment; a big bed, my own room and oven.¬† I’ll be off baking cookies several times I am sure.¬† Sleeping will be nice not having to stay in the same room as 5 other people.¬† I haven’t had more than 4 hours of solid sleep in months.

I have been informed that it has been a month since my last post, and well, not much has changed.¬† I am still living in the hostel, looking for my own room.¬† I have some possibilities but none that are too soon.¬† Tonight I will be going to a house party at one of the houses, but the room isn’t available until the middle of August.¬† They are a great group of people and really friendly.¬† It would be a great place but I would have to find somewhere for the next 7 weeks.

I have been working at my job for 5 weeks now and I like the work.¬† It is great to have to wrap my mind around a large project and what all the pieces are, how they fit together and what still needs to be done. ¬† I only have 22 weeks left and then, well I have no clue what I will be doing then.¬† I will start by flying to New Zealand but I don’t know if I will start looking for work straight away or go tramping (hiking) for a couple months while I decide what to do.¬† I could really use the exercise but I haven’t decided yet.

Since I have been working full time all I have are my weekend.  Last weekend I flew to Brisbane to see a friend for the weekend.  Sadly she was getting over being sick but I had a great time.  I caught myself several times wondering how it was that warm and green in winter.

I have rough plans for some future trips but I have some preparation that needs to be done.¬† I am going to visit a friend in Perth once he is done working and actually gets to the city again.¬† Hopefully this will be around the end of July.¬† I need to take some scuba lessons before visiting friends in Cairns so I can spend one day out on the reef without the need to take the lessons there (I would spend 7 hours flying anyway).¬† I need to visit friends in New Zealand sometime, I was thinking middle of August but I haven’t set a date yet.

So, I have a lot I want to do over the next few months while I am working.¬† I obviously won’t be saving as much as I wanted to but I won’t be going insane or getting restless.¬† I need to take some sailing classes too but as I only have so many weekend I don’t know which to do when.¬† My first priority is still to find an apartment or a more permanent living situation.

If you are a friend in Oz or NZ or hey, even Thailand, let me know and I will see if I can come visit for a weekend.

Where to begin.¬† The last couple weeks have been interesting.¬† I finished working at my last contract and applied for a few new positions.¬† I got an attractive 6-month contract offer migrating data and processes to use new software for a bank.¬† I would go into more detail but I don’t really know anything until I start on Monday.
I will be working in Melbourne until the end of November so I am looking for a room of my own somewhere close so the commute isn’t bad.¬†¬† It is hard to find a furnished room really close so I may have to commute or just stay in the hostel until I find the right place.¬† I am getting tired of sharing a room with 5 other people though and am excited to have my own space and a larger bed.¬† Not sleeping in a bunk will be nice as well.

I could see not updating this blog as often as I get back into working an 8 hour day five days a week.  That is, unless people want to read about me picking up my Dry Cleaning and not cooking for myself again.  I have been horrible with cooking lately and have only cooked 3-4 meals for myself in the last month.  In my defense, take out is pretty close to the same cost as cooking for yourself over here so I am not just throwing money away.  I could be eating more healthy and need to start exercising more but hey, it is the middle of fall.

Hope all you up north are having a wonderful spring and I hope you enjoy it and summer.  I will be working down under.