Monique and Justin's Travels

When I was a kid, I use to love to fly.  I’d love to sit in airports and watch people and then get in a big airplane and go somewhere exciting.  Now I hate airlines, most airports, and most airplanes.  The airlines rip you off every step of the way with their completely random hidden charges and they force you to sit in seats designed for people who are 5’3″ and 95lbs.  Airports are poorly laid out, overcrowded hellholes full of overpriced shops and restaurants with crummy parking and not enough seats.  Flying has become the necessary evil that exists to get me from point A to point B without needing a boat and a 3 month journey.

I do have to say that a lot of this is probably because, as a diver with my own gear including a fairly professional photography setup, I never ever make it under the allowed weight.  But it’s a bunk charge anyway since I’m 70kg and I’m allowed 20kg of baggage.  Some big fat bastard who weighs 120kg is also allowed a 20kg bag.  Personally, I find this offensive and proof that the airline’s baggage allowance is completely arbitrary.

There should be a maximum weight allowance of, say 120kg for a passenger plus their bags plus their carry-ons.  Then you’re penalizing no one specifically while making it look like there’s actually a reason for the overweight charges.

Also I would like to say the San Francisco International terminal is how all airports should be.  Ample parking, plenty of space, plenty of seating, good food, plenty of power points for laptops, and a train station.  Koh Samui airport is also very nice.  Less of an airport, more of a resort. -jp

Und es war mal wieder soweit – mein Geburtstag. Nun sind es nur noch 2 Jahre Zeit bis zur magischen Zahl!!

Hier ein paar Impressionen vom Tag:

http://gallery.me.com/the_np_bat_man#100469

-mk

So I caved in and got a Facebook account.  I feel so dirty.  Actually, I signed up last week, thought it looked lame, and deactivated the account 10 minutes later.  But then I figured that if you’re going to be traveling and actually want to keep in touch with people, then you need to have it.

So I signed up and lo and behold a couple of people that I irregularly email suddenly get in contact.  Damn you, Facebook, for making people too lazy to even use IM or email for communications!

Ah well, at least it’s another tool for getting people to communicate in the modern cybernetic world blah blah blah. -jp

We’ve had a ton of outages in the past couple of weeks.  Power outages, internet outages and cell service outages.  A couple of days ago there was a brutal storm that knocked out all of those at once.  On one hand, I like to have the idea that I’m on a remote island where I don’t need this stuff.  On the other hand, it’s modern stuff that I’d really like to have working properly.

Then again, if there was one thing I could fix about Koh Tao, it would be that they need a sewer.  Like seriously. -jp

I finished!  So after something like 7 weeks, I finished my training with a 92 in skill circuits, 3 OW assists, 2 assists in each, AOW and Rescue, and the specialties Gas Blender, Equipment Service, and Deep.  Also I did the DAN o2 provider.  I already had the Nitrox card since 2000.  So now I just need the 5 day St John’s first aid and I can work in Australia.  Yay!

Thanks to the Big Blue instructors and DMs for all their help.  I learned a lot from them.

My DM day was on a full day trip that was loaded with people, inclement weather, and on the fly changes to the plans do to the currents and big swells.  I got pranked a bit and that evening there was a big party for Josie, another DMT who also did her DM day on a different boat, and me.  Good times.  Did you know I don’t remember the words to the middle part of the National Anthem?  I didn’t either.  Turns out I’m not as patriotic as I thought I was.  Damn. -jp