Last day in paradise

Last day here on Kurumba in the Maldives and what a lovley day, the weather has been great the whole holiday but today looks to be the best.  Heres a pic of me preparing for our last snorkel this morning, fantastic sky!

We had decided to do a "macro" snorkel taking lots of pics of the smaller bits and bobs but it turned out to be a bit of a shark day

We also managed a few macro shots thing with the hole in the top is about half an inch wide at the base

These little fish (3" long) are quite amusing on a previous trip one came right up to look into the lense then when i had taken the picturte it came around to the viewfinder as if to look at the picture.

This is a titan trigger fish about 15" long 10" tall they can be quite agressive and this one made a lunge at me just after taking this pic, i managed to back off quick enough

Right well thats it a nice big dinner in the best resteraunt to night and we fly out early in thre morning

tangle of the titans?

Sat here just after lunch listening to the rain on the greenhouse which houses the webcam back home. 

Good snrokel this morning, the ocean was calm and no wind about so the water was super clear. 

 Just missed getting the whole of the tuna in this shot as i was just chasing the shark at the time.  I thought they might have a go at each other but they just swam by. 

Here are some tunahaving a go at a shoal of fish that have crowded into a ball as a defense mechanism

 We were only saying at breakfast that we hadn't seen any Moray eels so far.  You normally just see their heads poking out of holes in the coral.  So it was unusual to see this fella toodling along out in the open, i got a good video, he was about 5ft long and a good 8 to 10" thick

Ooopps!

Just missed stepping on this sting ray as we finished our morning snorkel today. Just a bit too close! Its about 3ft across and 5ft from nose to tail.

Nice little black tip reef shark below about 5ft long, it came up behind us and seemed to be using us a shield to get closer to a bunch of fish in front of us

Strange how!

Its srtange how quickly you can get used to 3 glasses of champagne for breakfast!  Part of the accommodation deal we are on gets you what they call a champagne breakfast in a place called the ocean grill.
 At night its without doubt the best resteraunt on the resort with tables out in the open where you can watch the juvenile black tip reef sharks searching out their dinner in the shallow lagoon that borders the over water seating area.
For breakfast its a place where only the likes of the pool villa folks or anyone willing to shell out another $15 on top of the normal breakfast price get to eat.  We met a guy we knew from our last visit who is in charge of the operation so get even more attention than normal to see that everything is going ok.
The weather is being kind because normally you do get the od rain shower and one was forecast for this afternoon but as yet, and its early evening now the skies are clear.
Snorkeling was good today as we were surprised by a 6ft black tip reef shark which came right up out of the deep and on to the house reef ledge we were swimming along.  pic below

Must away to dinner at the Ming Court Chinese resteraunt!!!

Wow!

First morning just sitting by our pool having a cuppa, before wandering off to the champagne breakfast!

Not a bad flight, but they are always as bit of a trial.  Our flight was going onto Sri Lanka so only about 30 got off here.  Quickly through immigration and customs and then onto our own boat to Kurumba  (pic below)

Even though we have been to Kurumba twice before its still a thrill wandering around in the sunshine meeting up with old staff members that are still here and remeber you (or was it your tip?) and getting to know the new ones. 

The guys who run the bar are mostly Sri Lankan and we mentioned having visited a couple of places there.  It turns out one barman knows people back home that we do so thats a guarantee of extra special service.  

Anyway onwards and upwards to the champagne breakfast!!

Holidays and things

So here we are holiday day and we are both looking forward to our trip to the Maldives for 8 days of absolute luxury!  I will post a few pics onto the link gallery page "Kurumba Maldives" and anyone I have an e mail address for will get a few! 

I don't think Tom & Sainsbury the cats will enjoy their stay in Stallag Luft III down at the wonderful Stankirk kennels.  When I came home from the shop yesterday old Tom looked as if he knew something was up as I didn't feed them as soon as I got home and he had spied the cases brought down from the loft in the morning.  Sainsbury hates the cat carriers so he only twigged as I put him in his.  

So Armed with fluffy toys special blankets and a huge packet of cat biscuits I deposited them there yesterday and came home to a very silent house, strange how you miss them right away!!  

I was going to pack on Tuesday but my old website PC decided to close itself down, I think the problem is overheating so a new fan might be in order.  Anyway I spent the whole of the afternoon swapping everything on to my little Chinese netbook  (bought it in Hong Kong).  

Everything worked fine as I struggled to remember some of the rules and settings except the weather machine software.  It failed that evening, its updating the site but without updating the readings from the main machine.  Its done it before and in fiddling to fix I broke it completely.  I cant even get the software display to work now.  So hence the new display on the website. 

Onwards and upwards then off to pack and try not to set out too early for tonight's departure from Heathrow. 

Knobs R Us!!

Funny incident the other day in the shop.  A bloke and his wife approached the customer service desk wanting to complain that a particular "Meal Deal" appeared not to have any items on sale.  "I have a picture of the offer here on my phone" he says as he turns the phone to the customer service person.  "I dont think thats the offer sir" he says looking at a picture of a blokes genetalia. 

I think he should have said "that meat and 2 veg offer is finished sir".  When the bloke realised what picture he'd shown it was red faces and he and his wife made a quick exit from the shop.

  

Snow! what Snow!

We had been warned by the weather men and by the newspapers especially the Express to expect 8" of snow and it to be so cold grit wouldnt work?  This was all meant to happen last night.

A point to note here though:  These are the same weathermen who in 97 was it?  Couldnt even see the mini hurricane plodding its way across the Atlantic which completely "surprised" us a few days later.  And the same newspapers who had been predicting that it would be so cold last week 2000 people a day would die.

Anyway at work (the local sainsbugs) it was slightly akin to the day before Christmas Eve as people cleared the shelves and looked set to have enough food until Easter.  This did wonders for the sales figures with a boost of +40k on the days target for takings.  It does however make a pain in the ass for the supply chain as it cant react quickly enough, but hey ho.  We had the usual wild eyed panic stricken few who seemed to think if they didn't get what they wanted the world would end. There were a few shouting  matches but come on we were heading for Armageddon what could you expect!

Being a bit of a weather saddo with his own weather station in the back garden and on the website.  I had been closely watching all the forecasts and came to the conclusion that we might not even get any snow.  When I said this to a few customers they looked at me like I had just arrived form another planet.

To compound the panic after "the Managers meeting" we were asked if the dreaded snow did arrive as predicted would we be able to get into work today.  Having the pick of 2 quality vehicles (Land Rovers) I answered in the affirmative.

It came to pass then that at around 1730 when we drove to the pub (Church Inn Darley Dale) for a "Pie and Peas Night" it was raining.  By the time we had sampled said Pie and Peas, delicious I have to say by the way,  there was just the odd soggy flake and I thought my amateur prediction might go down the pan.  3 J2O's later we emerged into more rain and made our way home.

To be fair it did snow but only about 1/8th of an inch rather than the 8" promised.  When i went into the store this morning there was not a crumb let alone a loaf left on the shelves.  I had left some rathere battered loaves on the shelves on the hope they would go and surely they did.

So it just go's to prove that if you tell people often enough that something is going to happen it can be complete crap but they will believe it!

Saga of the pond Heaters

The recently ordered pond heater arrived yesterday and as it was predicted to be very cold last night I decided I would fit it even though it would be dark when my wife would bring it with her from work.  Its more practical to have it delivered to her work than be hovering at home especially if an item has to be signed for.

In preparation I took out my multi tester to make sure the others were not dead because of fuses.  It did dawn on me that maybe I should have done this earlier but I was so convinced they had failed after reading in the net that they only last a couple of seasons.  Both are at least 3 years old.

They were both plugged into one of those adapters and that had a fuse, it tested ok.  While I was testing it i plugged one of the heaters straight into the extension and it worked! changing one heater for the other only confirmed that they both worked!  I tracked down the problem to the fact that the air pump bubble machine is on a timer that allows it to run for 15 minutes then off for 15 minutes.  We've always had it like this because if they run all the time the bubbles cause so much wash you cant even see your fish.

The adapter had been up against the bubble machine timer and didn't allow the plug make a contact sufficient to get power to the rods.  I couldn't see this as i have my filter box in a large polystyrene case to stop it freezing in winter and it hinders the opening of the plug box.

The upshot then is I spent £39 for nought.  The one saving grace is that the new machine has a thermostat and only switches on when the temp go's below zero and off again as it rises above.  The other type were on all the time if it was freezing or not.  money saved in the long run? Hey ho!

Pics below shows old and new heaters with final pic showing new in pond.  Final point why do pond pumps and accessories not come with fitted plugs but instructions to say they must be commissioned by a qualified electrician?!

Pond heaters and things

I found out the other day that the "bermuda pond heaters" which have done such stirling work in the last 2 years keeping our pond clear of ice have both failed.  About half the pond was frozen over with only a space under the little bridge and by both the bubble machine outlets free.
If you let the pond freeze there's a chance gasses which occur naturally can kill the fish. We had one freeze over a few years ago and the only casualties were the 34 frogs that had taken cover in it.  Hopefully the replacement machine will arrive this afternoon and be immediately deployed!
After the upset of yesterday with poor Tesco i had to get out and have a walk so i took myself off to Ladybower Reservoir.  Its a nice peaceful place and in contrast to the grey weather in our valley it was sunny and clear over there.
Here's a couple of the pics i took.

Oh dear

A pretty ordinary day was blown apart by my next door neighbour asking me if all our cats were accounted for as he had seen one on the side of the road not far away.

I hadn't seen Tesco for about an hour and went to look.  Sadly it was her, she had been struck on the side of her head and it looked as if her neck was broken.  Thankfully she wasn't squashed and whoever hit her put her on the side of the road.

It was only yesterday that both kittens had first experienced snow so I will end here with the last pic I took of her and Sainsbury having rolled around in the snow yesterday.

 Both covered in snow with Tesco on the left about to jump on her brother

Pussy's cleaned size no problem!

Down at our local "The Church Inn" Darley Dale the new landlord has had an idea that if you put up a notice not many people will even notice it let alone read it.
If you put it on the TV in the corner people will notice it and read it.  He advertises the weekend carvery and up and coming events.  I was amused therefore to see a reference to our unfortunate incident when Sainbury the kitten decided to investigate the inside of our Beko washing machine and was locked in for a bit of a rinse! 

Fame at last!!!!!

Cold up on Curber today

We are fortunate to live in the bottom end of the Peak District just South of Chatsworth House.  One of the main walking areas are whats known as the edges just to the North of Chatsworth.
These edges are like rocky ledges that look down into the valleys and are at about 1000ft altitude whereas the valley bottoms can be as low as 100ft.
It was very sunny this morning so I decided that once I had done a bit if book work I would go for a walk on Curber edge.  As soon as I set out the clouds descended and it was quite grey up there as can be seen from the 2 pics below.  Depending how the weekend weather pans out I might go up onto Kinder on Monday and get a few snowy pics.