Hi to you all, my name is Ray Bilcliff, I am a photographer and retired scuba instructor and I have known Tim and Nat for quite a few years. This website was a wedding present from me and the reason for it is that Tim and Nat have so many friends scattered all over the world, it was my hope that this site would bring them all a little bit closer together, that was in August 2005.

The reason that they have so many friends scattered about is that Tim and Natalie are scuba diving instructors, they have between them taught over 4000 people from all walks of life and all corners of the globe how to breathe under water.

Natalie is a Master Instructor and Tim is a Course Director. What is that?

Some history, maybe true maybe not....

Tim was born in Toronto, Canada. Where he went to school with his big brother JJ. Tim was a bright student with his head firmly planted in the clouds, he was a dreamer who drove his teachers insane with his constant babbling about fish. No one understood what he was talking about, until Annie, that's his Mum, decided to find out what all this fish nonsense was about, she took Tim to a Psycho. Now, this child psychologist had never seen anything like Tim and wanted to keep him as a unique test subject that he could parade around the conference halls. Annie thought this was a good idea but unfortunately the psycho would not pay the asking price of $20 to buy him, so she had to take him home again, as she was leaving the office the psycho remarked that he thought Tim should be at the bottom of the sea, sort of out of everybody's way.

Tim's parents now quite desperate decided that they had to get him out of the way, so decided on taking him to the far ends of the earth and as far away from Canada as possible. They selected a small island off the east coast of Thailand called Koh Tao, and they thought if they could leave him there and everything would be fine.

The dawning of the age of Aquarius....

On his first night there Tim went down to the beach and stood on the waters edge and started talking about fish to the setting sun... He was still babbling when a beautiful young woman walked past and heard him, she understood immediately what he was talking about, so she stopped and said "Hi, handsome my name is Natalie and I like fish as well". Tim was dumbfounded, here at last was someone he could talk to about fish and to make things even better she was lovely to look at. Tim began his scuba diving course with his new love and scuba instructor Natalie, who went on to teach Tim everything he knows about the undersea world of fish.

It was not long before they were cruising along the coral reefs hand in hand oblivious to the rest of the world. Now, that is not the end of the story as Natalie's employers and the entire scuba diving community knew it was very unprofessional of Natalie, it was conduct unbecoming of a scuba instructor to frolic under the sea with a student. Tim and Nat decided to run away to the Cayman Islands where they could frolic in the Caribbean Sea undisturbed, like turtles or something.
 

And that is where I met them....

I donned my scuba gear grabbed my underwater camera and dropped off the side of the boat into the warm deep blue sea, as I entered this blue world I experienced the awe and excitement as I always did as I swam down towards the coral reef, brilliant flashes of sunlight streaked down upon me like radiant heavenly beams shinning through a cathedral window into a dimly lit amphitheatre of life, and life was everywhere, a myriad of colorful, darting fish, azure, silver and gold everywhere I looked, but something strange, out there in the dim light, moving in and out of the light beams and shadows like a mermaid, could it be? could mermaids be real?

I swam in that direction keeping behind the coral heads out of sight. I saw her then, her beautiful long blonde hair streaming out behind her and waving in the gentle current, like finely woven silk threads as she moved gracefully and effortlessly among the colorful corals, her beauty and grace was a thing to behold, she was a dream certainly, and so graceful. She moved like a mermaid would move though, no, not moved, glided, she glided through the shimmering water. But this was no mermaid, this was a woman, a very beautiful woman, and I fell in love immediately. She saw me then and waved and I could see her lovely smile even through the mask and mouth piece of her regulator, I brought up my camera and started to take her photograph, but she smiled again and shyly turned away. I was stunned by her beauty, I had to have her picture, this was a photographers dream.

She went over the edge of the deep abyss and I lost sight of her, and then the beauty of the underwater world turned dark and menacing when out of the gloom came utter disappointment, my dreams shattered, I should of known she could not be diving alone, here was her companion, her underwater buddy and the man she loved.

That is how I met Tim and Natalie, my friends and companions for the next few years. We made a great team, I drove the dive boat and took the photographs of the students as they taught them to dive. It was a wonderful time, we called it "living the dream" it was life at it's very best, living on a tropical island, wearing shorts and flip flops, Nat wore a skimpy string like bikini, and we went scuba diving every day, AND... they paid us to do it.

I thought life is so sweet and that this dream would go on for ever, well it didn't. Disaster was on the horizon in the shape of a cat. 5 hurricane called Ivan. And the rest as they say is history. Oh, yes they got married, my darling and my best friend tied the not in Canada on August 20th. 2005 at Talisman, Ontario, Canada.

They have returned to where it all started, the island of Koh Tao, they would love you to join them there.
How do I do that?

And you ask, what happened to the handsome photographer? Well he's living in the swamp.
Why is that?