Saturday, April 29th, 2006

Amazingly, even though I had been on holiday all last week, I was still given my usual day off, along with the majority of the dive centre, so it has that true weekend feeling. Many of us were out and about last night (despite any misgivings after the Dahab bombs bringing back memories of last summer).
So… it has been a lazy day of waking up slowly and snoozing infront of dodgy old movies.
Off to Terrazzina for lunch later…

Saturday, April 29th, 2006

Another local classic.
We were moored a little further away from the pinnacles than I would have liked today however, but still got to have a potter. I had a couple of divers who had just qualified, so for them it was great to actually get to the pinnacles, rather than having to stick to the sandy bottom doing skills.

Saturday, April 29th, 2006

Ah… it’s good to be back at work again, and guiding a nice little group who are just having a potter on their last day.
Up we went to Fiddle gardens to one of my favourite local sites.
Beautiful as always, my one disappointment is that the cleaner wrasse were so interested in munching on the masses of tunicates gathered in the water, that they had lost all interest in their usual human fare. No ear cleaning or mouth grazing for us today which was a shame.
The glass fish were still heaving around the pinnacles though, the groupers not having got too greedy just yet.

Thursday, April 27th, 2006

Ah… it was lovely to be back in the water again after a few days dry with my mum.

As there was a chance she might have wanted to snorkel at Jackson, I decided to jump in and dive Woodhouse reef.

To be honest, it wasn’t a particularly lively dive… however there were just swarms of fusiliers munching on the bunches of tunicates floating around like grapes which was quite cool to watch. I did see a baby napoleon wrassed pottering along which was quite cool. And then for a split second, thought I had seen a couple of small sharks out in the blue, only to realise that they were milk fish!!! Doh! But funny.

Ged was my buddy, who amazingly lasted a whole 45 mins before freezing his butt off and ending the dive. Well he was in a shortie, and I got cold in my drysuit after 35mins! It was 23ºC, so I think I was being a bit of a wuss.

Thursday, April 27th, 2006

OK, so we all knew it was going to happen, but when it did, it was a little bit of a shock.

The kittens have finally managed to clamber up onto the wall of the balcony and for sure will soon be jumping off and discovering the world at large, just like their mum. However the jump is a pretty big one, and I am not on the ground floor, so room for error is minimal!

So… inevitably 2 days after our first nailbiting moment as we witnessed tiny Tigger up on the balcony wall, I got woken up by some distressed kitten mewling coming from somewhere other than the balcony! Yes, there he was sat on our stairs somewhat shocked to find himself there. Mum was wandering around equally disturbed, but he is now just a little too big for her to carry him and jump back up at the same time. Hence the mewling… to bring in the human cavalry.

Thankfully in true cat-like fashion, he had landed on his feet, come to no harm and will no doubt be doing it again, but maybe in a little while, once he is a little stronger.

Grief, we are sitting here watching news as it breaks of bombs in Dahab… not again!

Why on earth someone would want to bomb such a tiny, cute little town I don’t know.

Our thoughts are with all our fellow divers up there and those holiday makers who once again have found themselves in the middle of a nightmare.

So far, from what we can tell, once again most of the injured have been Egyptians due to the Egyptian holiday, and certainly all the staff at Poseidon divers are ok. As for anyone else, we don’t yet know.

Thoughts also go out to those here in Sharm who out of the goodness of their hearts, headed down to the hospital to help treat the wounded and comfort the bereaved.

Those of you who have been following my blog for some time will be familiar with the tale of our adopted pregnant kitty… see the blog archive. Weeell after her hormonal moment with me, she did eventually disappear to an apartment across the road and gave birth to two very cute kittens (judging by the size of her we were expecting at least 6!). She then turned up at our flats all lean, svelte and calm managing amazingly to rekindle my trust.
It didn’t take her long, but as soon as her little ones were big enough, she turned up on my balcony with my new neighbours. Yes I have kittens living on my balcony… and very cute they have been too. Thankfully I have had advice a plenty from friends here well versed in kitten care, and they are turning out to be quite a robust little team.
Not quite sure what I am going to do with them as they grow up however…

Sunday, April 23rd, 2006

Well finally I get a family visit! Weeell… a visit from Mum. I think what finally swung the deal was when I offered to get the ticket for her, saving her the hassle of finding the right flight, place etc.

Unfortunately this very week, the weather decided to truly kick in for summer, so we have hairdryer hot winds, and the aircon is a definite necessity. Just a bit of a contrast with chilly England right now. But having said that, it is glorious, which can only be a good thing when you have been sitting in the cold for the last few months.

Hence I have had a few days off! It has been most odd, being in Sharm but being on holiday… we did very little on day one, just chilled out in the bakery followed by a bit of an aircon moment to cool down. Yesterday was spent at Shark’s bay on the beach, quite a cute place not unlike Dahab really.

Today we are out on a boat… which I must admit, I have missed over the last couple of days.

Wednesday, April 12th, 2006

Hey ho… I guess it happens to the best of us… have been called in to help out in the office today.. great joy. Well, I shouldn’t complain really, I made the mistake of diving with a cold last week dosing up on the usual Clarinase and Afrin, (which works like magic at the time, I might add) and am paying the consequences this week with bunged up sinuses. Such is life.

Wednesday, April 12th, 2006

Well, once again I am on a boat with a heap of teenagers! What a great school trip eh… a scuba diving holiday! I guess we did have ski trips available when I was at school, but never diving. What a great way to learn about responsibility and trust whilst discovering a new world… very educational.