Hey Stuart. no apologies necessary for being absent while you're out of the country!

Yes,
the Thai bureaucracy can be a pain in the derriere.... Like a lot of
people here, I have my own little business, but it's not so that I can
work freelance--I actually don't do that at all. I teach privately and
arrange custom-designed trips for my divers, so I get people a lot by
word of mouth rather than walk-ins. If all goes well, I'll bring a boat
that I own up from Malaysia, and try to expand by way of the boat. I'll
surely employ enough Thai staff then to make having the work permit and
TAT license I've bought worthwhile.

Low season has been tough. Last month, by the time I paid the
accoutnant and taxes and bills, etc. I cleared THB 400. Oh well. I'm
hoping for a good high season!

Luckily, I didn't know anybody on
that plane, and my few divers I've got here now weren't inbound or
outbound that day. Maybe we'll get lucky this time and tourists won't
stay away. Or maybe only the Asian tourists (with whom I don't work
anyway as they all go to the Japanese or Korean or Chinese language
ops) will stay away because they are afraid of ghosts.

Anyway, I'm diving tomorrow, so I'd better get my beauty sleep! 

sorry, just thought the previous comment deserved a block all of its own. but the t20 score from sunday can be part of this one - we won by 20 runs i think (i was at the game and thought we were going to be hammered actually!)

hey, thanks so much for all your help - i'll definitely come round your way then. my mom and dad are coming over to visit my brother in october, too, so will spend most of that month traveling with them.  will come to ao nang in the last few days of october.

by the way, do you know if bunky and jip are still doing their thing at seagull huts? lost contact with them a couple years ago, but am dying to reconnect.

hope your family is good and you're enjoying finland.