It's sunny and the airport is open

The showery weather has continued for the last few days, but it's not the weather everyone's been talking about. On Friday, protests in Bangkok against the government unexpectedly spread south. Protesters forced the closure of Phuket airport, as well as Krabi and Hat Yai. As light showers came and went, I started a bit of "live blogging"... well, at least trying to keep up with events. My Phuket blog has had double the normal number of visitors over the last couple of days, mostly people searching for Phuket airport information.

• Phuket Airport Closed by Protests

Phuket Airport is now open again with flights resuming this afternoon. I hope not too many people have had major problems because of this. I know at least a few of our diving customers have had to change plans as they were due to leave or arrive yesterday.

The weather here in Phuket yesterday was toasty. I got a bit of sunburn... no not lazing at the beach, but working in our garden. We took early dinner at Leelawadee restaurant and half planned to take a walk afterwards, but dark clouds popped up again. The clouds then vanished by the time we got home.

Today started with a completely clear blue sky when I awoke at 7am. By 9am there was some light rain falling as I arrived in Karon beach for work. Clouds and light rain have competed with sunshine all day. Sunshine is winning. Latest satellite picture looks quite clear, forecast for light winds and isolated very light rain. Could be a very nice week for a dive!

I think all the rain around here has been diverted to the gulf of Mexico, where Hurricane Gustav has splatted the Cayman Islands and Dominica, is churning up Cuba and may well hit somewhere close to New Orleans tomorrow. I don't reckon they deserve that. Katrina was just 3 years ago.