The story so far...

Well, here goes!

This is my first attempt at trying to keep any sort of diary or journal, so you may have to bear with me whilst I work out how many of the boring bits to leave out! You've Phil to blame if this turns into more of a tool for the insomniacs than a blog as he's hoping my ramblings are going to be interesting! And so when my 'Frost Fair Friends' (thanks for that phrase Liz!) gave me a journal I thought that it was time to take the hint and get something started!

Since I got the job a few weeks back now I've had a few days of training which including jumping from 3 metres wearing an orange boiler suit, into a swimming pool with all the lights off, with a storm sound effects CD blaring away and a guy spraying a hose at us! So if we sink in a storm at night I'll know exactly what I'm doing! After this they showed us the Holidays from Hell programme where the captain and senior crew jumped in a boat and made for safety rather than helping anyone else at the first sign of trouble. They really need to work on motivation techniques in these training sessions I think!

The Emerald

All of that aside I'm obviously quite excited about going away and as everyone has been telling me, it's great timing, a super opportunity and to 'go for it'! It's all pretty scary too, not only a new job but new environment, lifestyle and everything so keep the words of encouragement coming!! However with some of the advice so far telling me never to trust air conditioning, to stay out of the sun and not to fall for a navy boy, I am starting to wonder just what some of you guys think I'm letting myself in for!

Finally I'm open for suggestions of special features, or areas of interest to keep you updated on whilst I'm away. Let's try and avoid anything too rude if we can, Andys suggestion of some sort of tan-o-meter, is one well worth considering I think. Perhaps if there was some sort of bet involved in how red I'm gonna get it could help fund my sun tan lotion costs!

So 16th April is the date I'm off last I heard, so hopefully I'll still get to see some of you before I go!