I am sailing!!

As I write this i am rocking back and forth gently as we sail from sattahip to Bangkok. There are plenty of seasick people but at the moment I am fine. This sailing lark is all very exciting! We had drills once we had set sail and this consisted of lots of guys in firemen uniforms running about the place and the life boats being launched. it was great fun to watch and quite reassuring to see how trained these guys are.

I went through training today for my role in book ex. It sounds so much fun. There motto is 'work hard, play hard'. The people on my shift are a fun bunch of people and the work we get to do is amazing. We get contact with the local people at every port and get to talk to them.

Just a quick reminder that if you want to make a comment please email it to me as i cant actually view my blogspot on the ship.

(As this is the first time I've blogged (or even blobbed) I hope it works!!! And Ruth won't get to see it til next year! hehe! Alison)

liferafts and lifejackets and giant sleeping bags

just to keep you all on your toes i thought id blog agin quickly!! We had lifeboat training yesterday which was lots of fun but also very hardwork. It involved jumping from a height wearing lifejackets and various things involving liferafts.
Apart from having to clomb into the liferaft fully clothed and with a life jacket we also had to be able to flip the liferaft just incase it opens upside down.
This would not have been too difficult apart from the fact that you had to do it wearing a rather awkward and big lifejacket. So you have to haul yourself up onto the back of the liferaft over the bottle of air using a rather makeshift ladder. Really not very easy and i am aching all over this morning from the effort.
We also learnt how to get into a TPA underwater. These are thermal protective aids and are basically like a waterproof sleeping bag. Infact with that on and your lifejacet you are quite cosy and i could quite easily have fallen asleep in the pool had it not been for the instructers being there and about 40 other preshippers.
Anyway i met my k group last on wed night. They will be like my family on board so i now have 4 older brothers and 5 older sisters as i am the youngest in the group.
iv rambled on long enough thank you for all the comments they really are great.
Kate i knew about steve Irwin but not about richard hammond!!! those are the kind of things i like to know as i am very disconnected from the world!!

coup

oh yeah i just lived through history last night while i was sleeping there was a political coup in bangkok how weird is that!!

elephants

just thought id share with you all the serious missionary work im doing. this involves being picked up and riding elephants!! yes thats right i got to go for an elephant ride. This missionary life is so hard!!! please bare in mind that this was my first day off in 3/4weeks not counting that mayhem in the weeks before i left.
We are having intensive safety training this week. So i got to go out in the lifeboats yeasterday which was very fun!! also got a tour of the ship and realised im going to spend half the year completely lost. I did my kate winslet bit though on the bow of the ship which is identical to that of the titanics!!!
anyway i officially join the ship on saturday. yay i cant wait!!

bangkok

hello from bangkok
to post this blog i had to walk ten minutes in monsoon style rain so please take the time to appreciate it!!..........................................just giving you time. Anyway apart from the rain bangkok is beautiful and the place we are staying is literally across the road from the beach. So i get to go swimming and stuff.
It feels abit like bootcamp here but it is a lot of fun. I am continuing to build friendships which is a lot easier here as we all know we are going to the same place.
i just have to take a minute to mention the food here. i am eating thai food every day its like heaven! i will be visiting the ship next week for two days to do various forms of training which will be fab.
thank you emily for being so appreciative of my blog and my somewhat chaotic life. any way i have to venture back in the rain now bye

bon voyage holland

this is my last post from holland. tomorrow i go fly to bangkok! I hate long haul overnight flights because i cant sleep and am usually ill. But it should be fun other than that. there are 46 of us going from holland and another 30 people meeting us out there. So it will be a large group. We then have two weeks preship training. This involves life boats, firefighting and jumping into swimming pools from great heights apparently. I will be stationed about 2 hours south of bangkok and then the ship is about another hour and a half from there. Apparently we get to do a couple of days training on the ship which has never happened before. However please pray that we get some engineers for the ship or it wont be making it out of sattihip and to bangkok!!
The time here in holland has gone so quickly and it felt really weird packing my suitcase again. i am also aware that i will have to say goodbye to another set of friends! but hopefull i will make alot more out in thailand

mission possible

This was the name of yesterdays task! It was a simulation of trying to get into an imaginary country that didnt want us there. I was interogated, blindfolded and searched. it was a very real and sometimes scary experience but was also a lot of fun! it made me realise what some people will go through just to get into a country.