Had some bad news come through today, unfortunately at the ripe old age of 94 my grandad, and last remaining grandparent, has died. The rain in the Maldives at the moment certainly seems to be matching my mood, but how sad can you be when you think that someone had 94 years on this planet, leaving behind 2 children, 5 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren, having fought for his country, lived in some of the most exotic places in the world, drank tea in the gardens of Sri Lanka long before it became 'au fait', and was still making grandfather clocks for his neighbours and friends long after he should have been allowed to shinny up a ladder. Rest in peace Grandad, if anyone deserves it you do, and I hope I have accomplished just half of what you have when I'm anywhere near your age.
And so on to the next piece of the saga - enjoy!
Week Two in Utila - The Toe Saga Continues...
Hello everybody!! Well, you find me in a much better mood today, I'm back in the water, yay!!! Did two dives this morning, upsettingly not as good as Egypt, but very pleasant nonetheless, saw a big stingray, humungous crab that had fallen into a barrel sponge rather amusingly, and a big Barracuda.
I've met up with one of the other girls who came from Real Gap, who will be doing her DMT with me starting on Monday, and I start my Rescue Course with Dom tomorrow, which is good news, because a. I wanted to do it with Dom, and b. I'm pooing myself about it because the DM's try their hardest to drown you and I want to get it over and done with as quickly as possible. In one of the scenarios, Dom takes a black fin and pretends there's a shark attack, then whilst you are saving the bitten, desperatly flailing panicked diver, one of the DM's comes up behind you, takes off your mask and turns off your air whilst you are underwater. Looking forward to that one.
The Dive Master Training (DMT) starts for me on Monday, with a chap called Jason as my mentor, who is half south african and is recovering from a particularly nasty bout of Dengue that appears to be going round the island. It kicks off with 5 initial exams before you're even allowed on the course - 3 paper exams on physics, skills certification (seeing if I remember stuff from my open water) and a swim test (400m swimming, 100m tired diver tow, 800m with a snorkel and flippers, 15mins floating on your back). Looks like monday's going to be a busy day!! And then I'm basically going to be everyone's bitch for 4 weeks. Excellent...
The toe is much better, Dr John ripped out the final piece on Monday which caused me a lot of pain and blood loss, but all over with now. Didn't help that Alex stood on it with his wooden leg, which meant that he couldn't feel it, but I certainly could! Hey ho!
Well, think that's it for now, I've got the afternoon off, so I'm going to go and grab some banana cake before heading to the pool at the Mango Inn, then maybe sit on the patio at home and watch Charlie and Lola the dogs chase hummingbirds through the coconut palms. Big UDC bbq tonight, so must make the most of newly-single life, hmmm, what to wear.....
I've met up with one of the other girls who came from Real Gap, who will be doing her DMT with me starting on Monday, and I start my Rescue Course with Dom tomorrow, which is good news, because a. I wanted to do it with Dom, and b. I'm pooing myself about it because the DM's try their hardest to drown you and I want to get it over and done with as quickly as possible. In one of the scenarios, Dom takes a black fin and pretends there's a shark attack, then whilst you are saving the bitten, desperatly flailing panicked diver, one of the DM's comes up behind you, takes off your mask and turns off your air whilst you are underwater. Looking forward to that one.
The Dive Master Training (DMT) starts for me on Monday, with a chap called Jason as my mentor, who is half south african and is recovering from a particularly nasty bout of Dengue that appears to be going round the island. It kicks off with 5 initial exams before you're even allowed on the course - 3 paper exams on physics, skills certification (seeing if I remember stuff from my open water) and a swim test (400m swimming, 100m tired diver tow, 800m with a snorkel and flippers, 15mins floating on your back). Looks like monday's going to be a busy day!! And then I'm basically going to be everyone's bitch for 4 weeks. Excellent...
The toe is much better, Dr John ripped out the final piece on Monday which caused me a lot of pain and blood loss, but all over with now. Didn't help that Alex stood on it with his wooden leg, which meant that he couldn't feel it, but I certainly could! Hey ho!
Well, think that's it for now, I've got the afternoon off, so I'm going to go and grab some banana cake before heading to the pool at the Mango Inn, then maybe sit on the patio at home and watch Charlie and Lola the dogs chase hummingbirds through the coconut palms. Big UDC bbq tonight, so must make the most of newly-single life, hmmm, what to wear.....
 |
| Charlie and Lola in their element! |
No comments:
Post a Comment