QuALified oPeN wAter DivEr ;D

2.08am tUes mOrN 11th JuL'06

Sitting in my room... jus finished viewing all e picos sent by WJ & also replied e mass email to my diving group of frens...

its been a challenging weekend... cose i conquer another stage of my life... tats to drop all fear & worries n gain my Open Water Diving License ;D always wanna do it but never tot i really can achieve... very tough initially though...

e journey starts all e way from fri evening itself... been running ard like hot ants e whole day @ work... supposed to meet Pepe *btw... forgotten to include Pepe in my dive kaki list...guess cose she appears too often in my different activities tat i sort of taken her as part of e list w/o mentioning* rite after wk ard 615pm... but last min was held bk by my Finance Manager to discuss some stuffs... n it dragged all e way to 645pm... in which Pepe olreadi finished her dinner :s n so i proceed to buy bread for dinner... little did i realise tat 1 of e tuna bread had olreadi half way discomposing due to sour taste... *fainting*

following tat... we ended up e last batch to report to Sunny Cove... Ah huang, Ebby, Sally & Adrian were olreadi there waiting *paisey* then we met up WJ & Thomas... on e spot they intro 3 lovely ladies *Ai Hui, Hui Tze & Shoko* & our Asst Diving Instructor *Jo* to us... AH & HT were joining us to Puala Tinggi for work related purposes... n as for Shoko... she's from Japan... who came to SG for wk... ended up wif some extra time which she used it to take diving course... n tats where Thomas arranged her to join our group...

after getting all e dive equipments & our baggies into e mini bus... we started our journey towards Paula Tinggi... it was a 4 hrs ride to a jetty in Malaysia & an hr mini ferry ride to PT... unlike e rest... throughout e whole journey i didnt sleep... guess cose im e sort tat will wan to eye witness every single moments when im out on a trip... jus like a video capturing every memorable scene ;)

we had a stopover for tiolet & snack break @ e 7-Eleven near Jusco shopping centre... then we con't our journey to e jetty in which we waited a few hrs for e mini ferry... reason being tat its low tide... so e mini ferry couldnt move near e jetty... but when e mini ferry finally arrived... we all was so delighted as majority of us r dead tired & had enough feeding to e mosi mosi @ e jetty :s

it was a cloudy nite... wave was big n caused our mini ferry ride to be very "sPeciAL"... almost made me felt like im riding a grade 10 roller coaster... unlike e rest... i chose to sit outside so tat i can view e scenery... though it was dark... but it was very windy... very shiok & also abit scary...

finally we made it to e island, PT... n we had our supper *sandwiches & beehoon* then proceed to sleep... but by then it was olreadi 5+am... thus WJ allows us to do our pool session only @9am e following morning *Sat 8 JuL*... rooms were allocated according to diving buddy n so i shared room wif Ebby... n 1 cute thing is tat our room was connected to Sally & Adrian's room ;)

waking up wif little sleep following morning... all of us went to e dining hall for our breakfast...as we r e only group there for e weekend... so e food was prepared according to our preference... thus we ordered bbq food for our dinner... keke ;p

after breakfast & changing... we proceed to pool session... where we r 1st exposed to e dive equipments... not forgetting e diving suit... which i found mine a little small... *WJ see me too up liao* nonetheless... still managed to squeeze in though ;p we were taught how to dismantle & assemble e oxygen tank wif BCD... also we learnt how to swim w/o mask, how to clear mask when its filled wif little or full water, how to retreive our regulator, how to wear weight belt & how to wear BCD all in e water... was a tiring training which lasted till afternoon then we proceed to lunch...

by then weather was starting to havoc... cloudy sky wif big waves & drizzling rain... but WJ said it was still alrite to dive after discussion wif Jo... n so we gear ourselves up after lunch n proceed to PT beach... cose WJ wanna us to do our 1st & 2nd dive fm shore... always ve e perception tat it would be so much safer n easier to dive fm shore... but after experiencing it... i was totally wrong manz... it was horrible as e wave is always pushing me bk to shore n wif e dive equipment *abt 15kg* on my back... i felt helpless when i fell to e sandy floor... lucky for me... Ebby was a determined gal & best buddy tat she helped me up n we tried a 2nd time whereby this time succeeded... we made it to e sea where WJ directed us to e dive spot together wif Jo...

though Jo partnered Shoko as diving buddy... but most of e time... Jo was away fm her taking care of e rest of us & running some errand for WJ simply cose he's ADI... keke ;p Jo usually will tied e rope at e dive spots for us & also first to go down as he will assist in taking care of those who went down... WJ brought us down individually... it was a scary experience... as i felt pressure in ear in which i had to clear while moving down... n not to mention abt e tot of having e regulator as my only air source... aaaarrrrrgggghhhh :s

but still... managed to conquer my fear n made it for e 1st dive wif e help of WJ... then i experienced my first motion sickness in which i vomitted in e SeA :s was up on e surface floating in my inflated BCD aft 1st dive, waiting for e rest... e wave made me puked! it was gross... but i left wif no choice... lucky thing is tat i wasnt alone... as i had Ah Huang & Ebby as my puking kakis... keke ;p

left wif little time & air... WJ suggested we made another dive to clock 2 dives before we called it a day... n so we did before we swam towards e shore... we didnt see much in this 2 dives as e water wasnt clear due to e weather :(

con't on was dinner & theory exam...in btw tat Ai Hui, Hui Tze, Pepe, Ah Huang & me went to wanna free e baby turtles but due to heavy rain... e mission was aborted *sigh*

tat nite we slept ard 11+pm...WJ had planned our 3rd & 4th dive to start @ 8am... n so we had to ve our breakfast before tat... after experiencing e puking earlier on.. i decided to ve light breakfast as a preventive measure... but still it didnt work... cose i ended up feeding e fishes again :s

our 3rd & 4th dives were done rite @ e bk of PT from e mini ferry... we did gaint leap n also back roll... me n Pepe concluded tat back roll is easier for us... as sea water wont sip into our mask... weather was good then n we managed to see sea cucumber n some mini fishes when we reached e bottom... had a few photos taken... n finally we completed our open water diving course!!! hooray!!! keke ;p

1st & 2nd dives @ 4.5m while 3rd & 4th dives @ 8.3m... sAt nite i was firmed abt my decision never to dive again after getting e license... but now tat im here writing... i kinda missed e whole thingy... e tot of going for another dive keeps appearing in my mind... keke... but will only there to do so if im accompanied by skilful divers like WJ & Jo.... as their presence given me alot of assurance tat its safe to dive... of course i do wanna dive wif my diving kakis too *Ebby, Pepe, Ah Huang, Shoko, Sally & Adrian* ;D

hmm... a little abt Ai Hui & Hui Tze... athough they didnt join us for diving... they had their adventure too by going trekking to e all time natural water fall in PT... n also did abit of snorkeling ;D

we departed from PT ard 1+pm *SunDaY* n it was rainning heavily during our mini ferry ride... which contributed to another fun experienced for me... then all in all we reached Sunny Cove ard 7+pm n tats where we parted...

*tired* here's some picos to share... Enjoy!