No Dive... Boo Hoo

Gawd! Was I pissed when I wrote my last blog? Sounded like it. It was full of soppy shit.

Anyways, so I'm back to being in a bit of a mood due to nitrogen withdawal symptoms. My planned dives in Miri did not happen due to bad weather. SIGH!

As my mum drove across the border to Miri on that fateful Saturday morning, it started drizzling and she said 'U sure u can dive in this weather? It's raining'. And I said 'Mum, you can't do anything but dive when it's raining'.... how wrong was I? 10 mins later, my phone beep with a text message 'Today's dives are cancelled due to bad weather'

Okay... sent a text to my sister and ask her to book me into a day spa. Might as well make use of the time to get myself properly relaxed and ready for the next day's dives. All dopily sleepy coming out of the treatment room my phone beeped again with a text 'Tomorrow's dives will also be cancelled due to bad weather'

F**K IT!

There goes another long weekend wasted. Worse still, my mates on the BM saw a manta ray. And the others on the WM saw a list of fishes you might hope to see in a lifetime in one sodding dive trip!

So now I'm desperately trying to squeeze in another dive trip before the monsoon hits the east side good and proper. I'm keeping my fingers desperately crossed. I NEED to get in one more trip before Australia.... *twitch*

Another Dive Trip.... Woohoo!

Just been out with a couple of dive buddies I met over the last couple of trips and met a few other divers. Must say, being a diver must've been one of the most sociable thing I've ever done in my life. Why?

Well... firstly, diving involves being (for the most of it) in warm waters where you would imagine your best holiday would be. The sun, the sea... ok, the sand might not be there but you could encounter it about 18 to 30 metres under water.

Secondly, for the hardcore divers, a liveaboard is the place to be in. Almost like being on unchatered waters, if you're lucky enough to be with a well-organised operation, more often than not you'll be the first boat at the dive site. Diving in water with anything more than 15m visibility and nothing but fishes and corals around you has to be the best feeling in the world. (Ok, maybe just for divers).

Thirdly, with all those perfect ingredients of sea and weather mixed into one boat and whole bunch of people who love nothing but to jump into a great big world of blueness with amazing creatures who breathe in a medium which we would drown in.... the bliss of being underwater....

.... what more can you ask for?

A get together of like minded people. The perfect place to get away from it all, your job, your friends (if necessary) and be amongst perfect strangers both breathing above and underwater....

For me, this is what LIFE is about....

I can't wait til I go on my next dive adventure.

*WHALE SHARKS..... MANTA RAYS....* ok, even nemo would be good enough ;)

It's been so long.....

..... since I last blogged. Life has taken over and I have better things to do than to write countless blogs.... Well, to be honest, a blog becomes boring when it's just words and no pics. Getting pics uploaded here is the most cumbersome thing ever. I have to upload each photo at a time and a great diving trip could take all night to blog. Much easier uploading pics to facebook.

Anyways, since last August, I have been on two dive trips and got my Advanced Open Water certificate. It all kicked off with our MBS Sept dive trip to Aur, again. That was my third time to Aur in 3 months. I'm not sure whether it's the variety of fish available that never fails to amaze me, or the fact that I'm still a relatively new diver that any place is just a good. I'd probably dive in my bathtub if I had one! LOL!

Here's me doing my safety stop and looking perma-shocked... and the one below of me getting a well-deserved snooze after our last dive. I've received quite a few pics of me sleeping. Obviously it's of great fascination to many. (Hope I wasn't snoring, teeheehee)

Then I went diving in Phuket and Phi Phi with the boys during the Hari Raya public holiday. Organising the trip was relatively easy as there were a quite a few dive centres to choose from online. The best bit about the holiday, other than the diving, was our hotel on Patong Beach which fronted the beach. At SGD$35 (GBP15) per night, it was a steal.

I was determined to dive everyday so I had 4 days of brilliant dives. I saw three leopard sharks and a graceful eagle ray flying along whilst I was doing my safety stop. Here's a pic of Sharkey.

It's a shame I didn't have an underwater camera with me as there were loads of interesting stuff in Phuket that I had not seen before. My favourite has to be the yellow boxfish. They are just so cute, far cuter than Nemo. And I saw a teeny baby one about an inch square just swimming along the crevice on Koh Doc Mai.

I did my Advanced Open Water course during the overnight trip to Phi Phi and I was stressing a bit with 5 chapters to read through whilst I was in Phuket. It turned out to be pretty easy and I had a great one to one during the whole course. During the final module underwater, my instructor's find strap broke so she had to buddy me up with someone else and she ended her dive. I think that warranted an automatic pass.

I think the funniest moment has to be when I got a bit confused over whether I should be doing the square navigation under water as I was told at the surface that we would do that the next day. When we got to the bottom, my instructor drew a square and an X on the sand and then pointed to me and drew the square again, I was wondering whether I should do it, did it half-confused and ended up doing a circle! Oh well, nevermind, I did it alright the next day.

I'm glad I booked my trip to Phuket again over the New Year's public holiday. I believe it's now nearly fully booked. I will be on the big Black Manta for this trip and we'll be sailing over to the Similan Islands for 5 days of solid diving. There would be nothing better than getting up early on my birthday, jumping into the water and be greeted by a whale shark or a graceful manta ray.

In the meantime, I'm off to Miri this weekend for little Emma's second birthday and 2-day dive off the coast of Miri. I've now bought myself an underwater camera housing with an arm and a leg. Although with my dad's connections, it only cost me an arm. Hopefully Miri being relatively quiet, it will have some pretty untouched reefs and I should have my very own underwater pictures to show. Feel a bit like a cheat posting up loads of underwater pics on facebook when I've not taken any of them!

Moody Rants

I must've got up on the wrong side of the bed, or was pre-menstrual or both earlier this week. Despite having a brilliant time in KL meeting up with JL and a relaxing time catching up with my cousins in Brunei, I came back to work on Tuesday with a face like a slapped arse - whatever that means.

I got shortlisted for a scholarship to study in the States, so I went back to Brunei for the interview. It lasted all of 10 minutes, not exactly difficult questions. But had I read the little essay I wrote for the application form, I reckon that scholarship would've been mine. Having written it months ago, I completely forgotten what I had written. I even nearly forgot what course I was thinking of applying for. Needless to say the interview could've gone better, but I thought it went ok anyway.

Went straight into work from the airport to be greeted with stupid stupid news. Months ago there was talk of me looking after a complete section together with the facades. Then there was talk about me just looking after the facades. And now... I'll just have to carry on doing what I've been doing and there bringing someone else in from Macau to look after my section and I'll have to work with him. Have I just got short-changed for a promotion - twice?? Fact is, even my previous trainees could do my current job with their eyes closed. Hardly brain-flexing work.

So, I obviously didn't take that piece of news very well. And for the rest of the week I had to deal with complete imbeciles. I think I completely lost the plot and swore a great deal. Apologies to those who got caught in the line of fire and were told to get f**ked.

Today I feel much better. If I don't get the scholarship, there's always Vancouver possibly still waiting for me. I need to get out of this hell hole. If I don't start using those grey matter, I fear they will die of intelligence-starvation. I need to stop treating this like a paid holiday. I'm getting bored. (Not to mention sick of interacting with kiasu morons everyday)

August Dive Trip - With The Boys

Again, no pics for this post. They're all available on facebook. Plus, I'm just too lazy to attach photos. They're a pain in the arse with trying to get the format right, etc.

Back on the White Manta to Aur again for my August dive trip. Although not on my own this time. Two of the guys from work came with me to do their open water course before we go on our September trip.

Same dive sites, although this time, I didn't have the luxury of having the instructor all to myself. Although, I must admit the White Manta's divemasters are pretty good. My divemaster, who happens to be an instructor as well, took pretty good care of me.

The only significant thing this time round was I managed to experience a drift dive. Which is brilliant as long as the current isn't too strong. You just drift along and need no energy for any finning.

I also got caught in a bit of a current on another site. I could see everyone finning ahead of me and I was finning pretty damn hard and not going anywhere. Luckily the divemaster turned round and saw that I was stuck, came and pull me out of the current. On our way up, we were caught in another current and were hanging onto our dear lives on a rock. Ok, maybe a bit of an exaggeration, hanging onto our dear lives. But it was pretty strong for a novice like me.

D and M both got passed their open water, but not without a story or two to tell. The Triggerfish were back at it. I managed to see it from quite a distance. But when the boys were down at the bottom for their first dive and their instructor was still at the surface trying to get the last guy down, there was a Triggerfish laying waiting to attack. My divemaster managed to spot it and got the guys out of danger before the Triggerfish had a chance to pounce.

Relatively uneventful trip, but fun and relaxing nevertheless. I don't think I'll ever tire of diving. The only time when I feel that time has actually stopped without a care in the world. We're now planning our Phuket diving trip in October. The boys are pretty into diving as well now. I'm making sure I go on a trip at least once a month, and the guys are following suit.

Tokyo Trip

It's been a long time since I last blogged. Life (or laziness) has finally caught up with me. Anyways, let's start with my Japan trip. Just over a month ago now. No pics in this blog. They can be viewed on my facebook.

Japan was a little gift from my sister for her annual birthday trip. I know, how does that work? I get a gift for someone else's birthday. Not only was it just a trip, it was a business class flight, in a 5-star hotel with spending money type gift! Thanks sis :D

I flew into KL to meet the rest of the gang at the Golden Lounge for the business class flyers *ahem* and our holiday begun with the comfiest seat on the plane. It was the best 7-hour flight I've ever been on. I got served a 3-course meal with the best Pinot Noir I've had and I get to recline my seat to a horizontal position for a snooze too.

We arrived at Narita airport in the evening and headed straight to the Imperial Hotel at Ginza where we were staying. We got to the hotel at 9pm and feeling pretty hungry. But all the restaurants in the hotel shut at 9.30pm! We eventually managed to find one which opens late. It was a 'western' restaurant. Although I wouldn't recommend eating there. The food was ok.

We then experienced our first earthquake on the first night!! I was asleep and about midnight, I felt these tremors. I thought, hmm... earthquake, keep calm. One of my colleagues worked in Japan for 2 years and said it happens all the time. And it wasn't like the building was crumbling down around me, and I was knackered (yes, I know, even after an extremely comfortable sleep on the plane). I was about to doze off when my sister got up, turned the lights on and went 'SIS, THERE'S AN EARTHQUAKE!!' All I could muster was a 'It happens all the time, go back to sleep' and so we did. But the building did creak, the bed did shake but we sustained no injuries. Apparently quite a number of people died at the epicentre.

The next morning I decided to get up pretty early for a swim in the hotel pool. It cost about SGD12 to use the hotel pool which I thought was a bit of a rip off seeing as I was a guest at the hotel. There were about a million rooms to go through before you actually got to the pool. First there was the locker room, then the changing room, the powder room, the toilets, the showers, the sauna, the bath (!!) before you get out of the ladies 'changing room' from the other end to get to the pool. Of course, before you get to the pool, there's the shower (MUST have a shower before jumping into the pool), then you get to a stepped pool of water which comes up to your thighs, just to make sure that your doubly-cleaned, before you walk to the pool to pick up a swimming cap before you jump in for a swim.

You'd think after all that, I would've had the best swimming experience ever. Well, it's the tiniest swimming pool I've ever seen. Probably only about 20m long, will fit about 4 people before it feels like a can of sardines and it's actually a prefab pool, i.e. a metal tin plonked into a hole in the floor and filled up with water. After the swim, I went into the sauna for a bit and thought better of jumping into the 'baths', inviting as they look. When I went back to the locker room to get my stuff and put my sandals on. The only other woman in the locker room looked at me in disgust and said 'Shoes are suppose to be worn outside'. She was Japanese. I wasn't sure whether I was more shocked about missing the sign which says 'No shoes' or the fact that she sounded very American.

We went to see the fireworks on the Sumida River on our second night. It lasted an hour and a half. The first fifteen minutes were pretty good. After that I thought it was never gonna end. But it was a great experience. Sushi and tempura dinner on the boat, fireworks in the night, plenty of beers and sake to go round.

On the third day I went shopping in Omote Sando. I got a the underground from Ginza to Omote Sando, a 15-20 minute ride. When I got to the underground at Ginza, although I had a map on me and knew exactly where I was going, I thought I'd ask the ticketman the question anyway. Don't want me getting lost in Tokyo underground. All he managed was to point me to the barriers. I f**king know I need to go through the barriers. So I gave up, found a ticket machine, got a day ticket and jumped on the train. Omote Sando is quite interesting. The main road is filled with Burberry, LV, Chanel and the likes. A bit like Knightsbridge. But off the main road there were plenty of quaint and quirky little shops selling all sorts of interesting stuff and clothes.

Fourth day, my last day, we were suppose to meet at the hotel lobby at 6.45am for a trip down the fish market and have extremely fresh sushi for breakfast. My little sis cannot stomach raw fish first thing in the morning. So she set the alarm for 5.30am to try and catch the first breakfast in the hotel at 6am. Unfortunately she turned the alarm off and we went back snoozing for five more minutes. Turned out to be an extra hour and a half. When I woke up and looked at the clock, I yelled 'Jo, it's 6.44!!!!!' I have never seen my sis jumped out of bed (literally) so quickly and proceeded to get changed right in front of me. I had to knock some sense into her and told her we weren't gonna get ready and get down to the hotel lobby in ONE MINUTE. She could actually take her time to get changed.

We got to the fish market. Packed, busy and all the teeny sushi restaurants had miles of queues. Poor sis also had to stomach raw fish as she didn't get any breakfast beforehand. We were then taken to Shibuya for a bit of shopping. We were in a extremely trendy tiny mall packed with teenage wear. It was probably heaven for little sis, except that my other sister's mother in law was with us too. Kinda kills the shopping mood a little. I then made the mistake of telling our guide that I wanted to buy a ninja outfit if I came across one. They took us to a supermarket type place which sold everything under the sun. Everything except for a ninja outfit. My sis' mother-in-law asked afterwards 'Did you manage to get your Ninja Turtle outfit'. Ninja Turtle!!! So much for the stealth if you have a shell on your back!

In the evening, my sisters and I sacrificed dinner and went shopping in Ginza, near our hotel. It was the sales in Tokyo, we couldn't miss it. I bought three pair of shoes (they all hurt!). Somehow the thought of possibly never being able to shop in the Tokyo sales again (not true) makes you just wanna over indulge a little. Not to mention the fact that we shopped in Printemps, which is not even a Japanese department store.

And that was my Tokyo trip. I'd definitely go back there again. Most definitely couple it with a dive trip in Okinawa. If given the opportunity, I'd even work in Japan for a couple of years. But learning Japanese is a must. I don't know how I managed to get back without speaking a single word of Japanese.

I Found Nemo!!!

I went out on my second dive trip last weekend on board the White Manta. Much smaller and cheaper than the Black Manta. All on my own too. I was just keen to get back into the water to get my bouyancy right and enjoy the underwater scenery rather than stressing about doing skills on a course.

I'd rung the owner in advance to make sure he sorted someone out to look after me as I had just got certified and was going on board on m own. As the groups were pretty much sorted, I got the other dive instructor, C, all to myself so I pretty much got a one-to-one which was an added bonus.

I did a total of 6 dives, including one night dive. The visibility was amazing, about 15m and the marine life was brilliant. Loads of different fishes, corals, etc. Although half the time I didn't know what I was looking at. It was a tough job trying to memorise what you saw so that you could look it up later. I couldn't take any pics as I haven't got an underwater camera case just yet. But I've got pics of the fishes I saw from the internet.

Of course, the danger of not know what you're looking at is that you don't know whether the fish is aggressive or not. As my luck would have it, I was looking at this nice little fishy which turned out to be a nesting Titan Triggerfish and next thing I knew, the little fucker had it's fangs on my legs! I'm glad I bought a long wetsuit otherwise it would've had a chunk off my leg. What I didn't know was C had spotted the fish earlier, turned away from it and it was attacking the back of C's head!!

After that little incident every big-ish fish I saw, I tend to distant myself away from it. I saw this beautiful big angelfish and I found myself quickly swimming away when I got to it's sightline. Although what is a fish's sightline? They've got eyes on their sides, not the front like humans have.

Saw my first blue spotted ribbon tail ray. It was gliding along the bottom beautifully. On our way back, there was a school of dolphins swimming along some 30m away from out boat. I LOVE dolphins!! I think I'm definitely going to get a tattoo of dolphins on my lower back. It's gotta be done!!

Saw a cuttlefish. Ugly littl f**kers.

A giant baracuda. The one I saw was only about a metre long. And then I saw around a school of baracudas. It was beautiful!

Yellow snapper

Yellow mask angelfish

Yellow boxfish... hmm, I'm seeing a lot of yellow fishes

Scribbled filefish

Saw a pair of scorpion fish on the rocks

I found Nemo!! Well, more than one, they were so cute!

Grumpy old Napoleon Wrasse

Cute Moorish Idol

Map Pufferfish

Longfin Spadefish, aka Batfish

Checkboard snapper

Beautiful blue spotted ribbon tail ray

Funny little black spotted pufferfish. I was staring at it for ages hiding in the rocks

The cheeky little fucker who bit me, the Titan Triggerfish

My favourite, dolphins

Sargeant Major Scissortail

I wanna get back out there with the fishes. It was a bit sad on the way back. I've had such a superb weekend and for once, I thought I might actually just give up working in the construction industry and take up diving full time. There's a whole new world down there and you just float around enjoying the scenery. Plus, meeting all sorts of different people was always a bonus.

I've planned to go back out in the sea in a month's time. My mates were impressed with what I was telling them, particularly being bitten by a fish! I think I'm gonna be rounding up a troop of 5 or 6 in about 4 weeks. Titan Triggerfish, I ain't afraid of you. I'm gonna have my gang sort you out next time.... until you start biting.... yikes!