I feel like a prisoner counting down the days. Oh the melodrama, my life is so hard! But seriously, I’ve given away 2 Discos and a funny. No money for me (well, a tiny bit for booking them). Fatty and I are doing time together, resting on the bed, reading and watching the Simpsons and cursing Karma.
Walking into town for breakfast this morning, I overheard a French couple commenting that average October rainfall is 22 days. Yikes! If it keeps raining as today, there will be no water left in the sky. I slept poorly last night because of the stupid MSG laden fried rice Chris and I shared for lunch which had me getting up every half hour to drink water, and I heard the rain beat down. This morning in the complete zombie state, I was aware of Ryan leaving the room to go diving. Still it was pounding down with rain.
Before leaving, Ryan let Fatty Monster (his previous owners called him Monster, so since we named him Fatty, I’ve renamed him to Fatty Monster) into the room. He made a lot of noise demanding food then was very happy to flop on the bed squooshing his little body as close to me as possible while I read “The Fundamentals of Tech Diving” by Jarrod Jablonski. And still it rained.
Around 11:30 or so, it finally took a break and I thought the sky was empty. Really, it rained so hard that there couldn’t possibly be any water left up there. Chris and I took advantage of the break in the downpour to go grab some breakfast in town and stop by Barakuda, my place of employment so they remember that I’m more than just a voice at the other end of the telephone asking for my shop shift every night. I discovered that my fins had come in (in the wrong color, but what the hell). I don’t remember if I told you guys that in the same week as the slip n fall fiasco, a few days earlier, one of my fins had “bounced” off the POS Pasadena, gone forever, but not forgotten and greatly regretted.
This afternoon, Shop 2 from 2 to 6. I’ve been in Shop 2 every day and Chris and I have taken advantage of the time to get him through all of his Divemaster exams on which he’s done very well, but to my surprise he did not get 100% on all of them. Little overachiever that he is, he was adamant about maintaining an “A” average, which I think he did.
Ryan came to visit on his way home, and the sky took the opportunity to open up again and dump another three or so inches of rain. Here is the video that Chris took:
And an hour since and it is still dumping down.
The island is currently infested by Israelis and Chinese. It’s nearing the end of the Israeli holidays as we’re getting through Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Having read up a bit on my Jewish lore (i.e., I wiki’ed Rosh Hashanah), I am wondering what all these fine God fearing Jews are doing partying it up (disco, disco) during the holiest of Jewish holy days.
Not sure what occasion landed all these Chinese here.
I know you’re all dying to hear more on the Israeli front! A few nights before we left for the visa run, I was sitting at shop 2 again, minding my own business, again. The guesthouse next door closes up shop by way of putting up a tarp in front of their desk around 8:00p.m. It is often my job to respond to inquiries for a room by simply pointing to the desk next door. At about 8:01, I did this for two Israeli gentlemen who had walked up the road and 5 minutes later, upon, I’m sure, determining that there was naught else up the road yonder, had come back in this direction. They asked me about a room and I pointed. The guesthouse lady (Apple) had not left yet, so she put down the tarp and showed them a room.
8:00p.m. is NOT a good time to be looking for a room. The guesthouses are closing up shop and possibly only the very expensive luxury hotels have reception desks open past 8:00. (Not sure what you do if you’re shaking your thing on the beach all night and you lose your room key – sleep on the beach, I guess.)
Having looked at the room the two gentlemen decided that they would bargain down the price of the room. This made me laugh. Two seconds earlier the guesthouse was closed. Two seconds earlier they had not sold the room. Two seconds later, having pulled out the following phrases, “you are being very unfair” and “how could you do this to me” the two gentlemen left. The bargaining is not Israeli. This is Thailand – I’m quite sure that the first sentence about Thailand in the Lonely Planet guide is that you can bargain down just about anything. The two other comments are very Israeli though. And it makes me laugh!
On the work front, neither team is real good for business. Chinese don’t swim (I think I mentioned this before). Taking Chinese on Discover Scuba is a bit of an exercise in herding cats. First, if you have more than one participant, you’ll be lucky if you can get both to stay underwater at the same time. One or two is an ideal number because once you are able to get them underwater simultaneously, you need to drag them around by their tank valve because they will not propel themselves through the water. Since you only have two hands, you can’t really effectively tow more than two. This results in them coming out of the water with near full tanks while you have sucked down near every last molecule of your available air supply. And you’re exhausted.
So, on one of my last posts, I left you abruptly having told you that moments after his arrival, Chris managed to piss off Buddha. He’s convalescing and keeping me company in my misery. And he’s working on his Divemaster requirements that can be completed without getting in the water. He is antsy to go diving (as am I). He’s antsy to be a Divemaster so he can get work. I forgot to tell him that he was coming to the monsoon and that there would be no diving for him. Ha ha, no diving for him. At this moment, he is supposed to be completing his mapping project.
I had my stitches removed and Thank Buddha, Ryan was able to go with me. The nurses at the Phi Phi Hospital are not gentle. And I'm a wuss who's become way too accustomed to medical care in America that no longer hurts AT ALL. Removal of stitches was supposed to be painless. Yeah, right. When she DUG to get under one of them it felt like she was giving me an injection in the bottom of my foot. It is hard to trust your well being to someone who keeps hurting you. This is kind of a metaphor for life if you think about it. But thank Buddha, Ryan was there to hold my hand.
And still it’s dumping. Really, I thought the sky would be empty by now.
No comments:
Post a Comment