Diving Season start liao!

Was still sleepy eyed when turning into Chin Swee Road. Hmm...my first pool session assisting after season closed last year.

Drove up the slope Outram Secondary School carpark...and the carpark is full??! and there are cars parked on the slope as well! And the pool is full! at 9.20am, there are people already doing stuff at the deep end, most are doing their swim test and there seems not to be single inch of the pool not occupied by somebody

In YP's (the instructor who took today's session) words, it's like carnival going on man! Diving season has really started - Need to blow some bubbles underwater!

Woohoo~

Ok I am damn tired now.

First from late nights last week.

Second from having to run different things on Fri itself, and running off at 530pm sharp, when there were still stuff unsettled.

Third, from reaching Mersing at 11pm and waiting for 2 hours just to get onto the transfer for the boat to Aur.

Fourth, I dont remember the boat ride to Aur is so long; by the time we reach Aur, it was already 6 plus in the morning (I had reached Aur at 2.30am the last round). With only about 1 and half hour's rest before first dive, no wonder I was feeling quite pucky after the first dive.

Fifth, keeping on one's toes were tiring!!! Watching from the corner of the eye for some form of simulated distress, waiting for the moment when someone shout "Panic diver on surface!" or "Missing diver!", followed by the flurry of action - grab BC, grab fins, jump into water, , sink-fin-grab-tow-flick-give rescue breathes-lift-perform CPR.

But it's good :D

I just wonder if I am mad to be loading myself now, given that the casinos are going to be opened in half a year's time.

How I survived my 31st birthday

I chose to sneak away to Malaysia over the weekend:-

(i) to test out my new buoyancy control device (whee~!)

(ii) to get out of SG for a while

(iii) basically to do something that I think I will enjoy, since 生日最大 :p

The outing has done me some good - 1 don't think anybody can fight against the sight of the blue sea, soothing cool water, and warmth of bright sunny skies.

Back from Tioman!

I'm back! With a bit of sunburnt, tired arms and legs, and a Advanced Diving certification! :))

I guess I should have taken photos from my trusted sony ericsson..since I brought it instead of my HTC phone. But anyway not much time since it was a rushed affair from meeting at the dive shop to heading for the checkpoint to driving up to mersing to catch the boat before finally hitting Tioman at 3am plus in the morning. Not much time except for snatches of sleep on the boat. It was almost possible when we reach Sun Beach Resort Tioman to catch another 3-4 hours of good sleep if not for someone, belonging to a group conference particpants who were also staying at the resort, using a loudhailer siren with announcements to wake their participants at 5.30am for prayer..The announcement was not done only once..but done 5 times and at various locations around our accomodations.WAH LAU EH.....

So although we only started our day at 9am the next day, can imagine how grounchy I am already. Plus the fact that this was my first dive for more than 1 year, totally no mood to take out phone cam to take photo.

And now I am regretting..damn..but there is hope yet. tongpang-ed other ple's cameras :p but must wait out for them to send over.

Anyway the highlight of the trip had to be the two turtles we saw during the last dive today, at the marine park. The first one was swimming away, but the second one was happily munching at the corals.

We were actually a distance away, and that was after I deployed the surface marking buoy (this floating thingey to send to the surface to alert the boatman that we are waiting underwater for him to come near and pick us up) ( finning on the surface to boats are more tiring than underwater) But since I only tried it once, this time the SMB almost pulled me to the surface cos my octopus was caught in the opening, which thankfully I manage to disloged before I hit the surface. So I was still recovering from the episode, when one of us saw the turtle having its snack. I was still a bit lost when my dive instructor pointed at the turtle and the rest started finning towards the turtle. But when I finally made out what it was ..it was like wahh...!!

It saw/felt us coming and hovering above it, and it lifted its head to look at us..then went back munching nonchanlantly. It looked at us a couple of times between intervals of its munches, until we swam away..I guess it must have been quite used to weird-webbed beings hanging around :p

Overall, I would say I'm quite glad that I have gotten the advance certification over and done with. Doing skills can be quite stressful leh..I can only imagine how much air I wasted during the night dive cos viz was so bad that I practically was panicking like from the time I went into water to surfacing. =.="

Will just do more leisure dives next time..take own sweet time and watch more fishes! :))