Saturday 14th Feb (Valentines Day)

OK so I woke up this morning with no less than 65 bites (mosquito? I dont think so - feel like a chain smoker there was so much mosquito coil smoke in my room all night) possibly bed bugs or even from yesterday while sitting on the grass with only a sarong and thin white trousers seperating me from the many irritating creatures. Makes it all the worse as I never even mananged to connect.) ANYWAY they seem focused on the two areas in a nice little path from my butt cheeks to my knees. Extremely itchy and rather unattractive!

However, depite that AND having to wake up at the ridiculously early time of 6.15am to go for an early dive, I've had a fab day and am now a fully fledged Open Water Scuba Diver! Wahay! The dive was really cool although I would have liked to go down for longer. We did the maximum 18 metres on both dives. We saw trigger fish, eels bat fish amongst others. I thought the parrot fish were incredibly pretty and also we saw Titan Triggerfish which apparantly are known to attack divers when defending their nest. Other cool ones were two Moray eels together (the instructor said he hadnot seen two together in this region before) and blue-ringed angle fish. We also saw honeycomb grouper, trevellies, yellow back fuesellier, guppies, butterfly fish, aemone fish, sergeant major, moon wrase, rabbit fish, sea cucumbers, barracuda, potatoe grouper, long finned banner fish, bat fish. I am starting to really relax and enjoy it now - basically my control freak nature makes me worry the equipment will malfunction or something and its getting to trust that the regulator etc does do what its supposed to! I am still debating what to do about my advanced - at the end of the day i dont need the qualification but its a good way to do more diving and more depth gives more choice of dive. I'm so pleased we were on this island long enough for me to do as as this part of the trip was pre booked by the girls before I had even arrived. I will really really miss it here its jusy my sort of place I just love the vibe and mellow atmosphere.

We finished the PADI course with the exam (I got something like 90 something percent) by 2pm (even did it over a bar lunch!) so spent the afternoon on the beach but is sooooo hot am quite enjoying catching up with my online activities in a rather trendy beach front bar. Finally managed to text Gran and sent Mum my second text since being here.
Managed to spend a good 3 1/2 hours on the wireless and in the shade. I think my bites may be termites or giant ants. They are extremely nasty, quite big, and itch like crazy.

I had a shower (seem to be having 3 a day just to cool off!) and we headed out for food although I think I could happily have fallen asleep. On the way I found another bargain top for 150 baht a nice bright pink colour. Thats what I like about over here i have lots of bold colours to choose from.

Felt really hungry but I lost my appetite upon ordering my burger and chips with orange juice for dinner (180 baht) which was possibly the least romantic place on the island considering its valentines day! - and bought a Mojito in the same place I was in earlier for 80 baht - valentines day special. Got chatting to a guy who was repeating horror stories from the full moon party. Fortunately we got off quite lightly. The bar staff gave us all a red rose - aw ;) Had a giggle with Lottie and Lauren on the way home - Emily had already left as was falling asleep. My camera memory is full so have to sort that out tomorrow and do some hand washing too while we're in one placxe long enough fir it to dry...

Im quite into a book too at the moment is 'My sisters Keeper' by Jodi Picoult. About a girl who sues her parents for righs to her own body as she was deigned and born to help her sister with leukemia survive.

I really need to learn how to upload photos. Happy Valentines Day all ;)

Money spent: 50 baht lunch (noodles with vegetables) Vanilla mikshake in beach front wi fi bar 40 baht chang beer wi fi bar 50 baht, dinner (burger chips and orange juice, 180 baht, Tiger balm 55 baht, Mojoto cocktail 80 baht top 150 baht. TOTAL: 605 baht / 12.10 quid

Best thing: Being a certified Open Water Diver ;)
Worst thing: Itches and appearance of all my bites.