divebunnie

Well a big old Happy Christmas to the faithfuls out there. It even looks as though some of us may get Christmas day off too!!! Unlike last year which was heaving on Christmas week, we seem a little quiet this time. So it really could end up being a bit of a party week!!! As it is, we are having two Christmas dinners, one this evening (Christmas eve) as we have some Europeans among us, and then another British one tomorrow. No complaints there however!

Well it is back to normality for me and to ease me in gently after nearly a month off, I had a single Open Water student. After my longest break since becoming an instructor, it felt sooooo good when I went off for that first little swim around the pool… ahhh that floaty feeling of just sitting midwater, like the ultimate floatation tank.

The course went well, although in my absence the water seems to have frozen over!! Ok you hardcore Brit divers will be clicking your teeth at me here, as I am talking a paltry 22ºC nothing hovering around the single figures you often dive in… but for me it was a tad on the nippy side.

Having said that, we have started doing our first open water dives from Naama Beach, and there are some new things to be seen there that I haven’t seen elsewhere which was cool. I especially liked the horned trunk fish, which is like a cross between a box fish and a scribbled file fish, really cute.

Well after a fantastic holidy, our flight home has got off to a slightly shaky start. We are delayed an hour, and the kindly security gentlemen here at JFK after rummaging through one of our bags and carefully replacing the padlock, only sent the other bag through unsearched and unlocked! We now have visions of that bag (which does of course contain our Christmas tree and presents!) turning up empty or at the very least a little rifled through once we get to Cairo. We have asked them to try and track down the said suitcase, but now only have visions of all our bags getting delayed and not making it to the plane! Joy… of course this always happens at the end of your holidays doesn’t it? Not at the beginning when you are a touch more chilled out and happy.

Anyway, I have now discovered that the airport here does have wi-fi so how cool that I can get on line while passing the extra time? Of course it is now 3am in the UK and 5am in Sharm, so no one is on MSN… funny.

Ok so all good things must come to an end, and I guess it is nearly time for us to come back to reality… of course, thankfully our reality does happen to be based in Sharm and diving most days, so I won’t grumble.

This was my first visit to the states, and it was totally awesome!

I would say that the Grand Canyon was one of my best trips (especially the realisation that the wall on Shark reef is nearly the same depth in places!). If you ever get the chance, grab it with both hands… but remember to take warm clothes! We had not really thought about it, so were totally gobsmacked when our pilot told us to “wrap up it’s -10ºC out there!!”.

Anyway, we have a couple more days in New York, another show to watch, and then another 24 hour trip of 15 flights (ok I’m exaggerating about the flights) back to Sharm el Sheikh.

So.. not satisfied with freezing to bits in Sharm, I thought I would go one step further and freeze for real in New York… yes that is the New York that is found on the East coast of the USA! Ok not very aquatic, but we thought we would take a much needed break and come here for a holiday and a change of scene for a bit.

I must admit I thought I was going to have fun getting through customs with about 15 Egyptian stamps in my passport not to mention a Russian stamp from my previous career! (What with all the recent stuff going on between Russia and the UK) But the only hassle we got was for not having the exact address of the people we are staying with .. oops.

Of course being used to a nice balmy 27′C or so, it does feel a little on the nippy side.. added to which, they have forecast temperatures of around -4′C later today!! Eeek!

 Still it is great to see green grass again and even a bit of a downpour last night (after not seeing rain for the best part of a year). And I can’t wait to do the shopping bit in the city itself tomorrow! Not to mention finding a bit of kit! Anyone know of a good dive shop in NYC??