Bring on winter!

Why the sudden desire for winter to come on? Has the sudden cooler weather numbed my senses as well as my fingers? Has all the pollution and the black stuff that ends up in your nostrils when you ride the tube finally made it's way to my brain? Or am i simply becoming a pom? Luckily none of the above (despite what i say in the last line of this post)!

Sarah and i now own dry suits!!!

Notice i said 'own' not 'have'. We went to the Birmingham Dive Show on the weekend which meant a 2.5hr drive each way. Lots and lots of diving stuff on offer, everything you can think of, including drysuits. We had been contemplating buying them for a while as they are rather expensive and had decided now was the time to buy them if we were ever going to get them. After a bit of pre-dive show research i was tending towards o'three drysuits, so we found their stand and got fitted out. Sarah's suit needs a bit of altering to fit in those long legs, and mine needs bigger boots, so we will be off on another 2hr drive to their shop in two weeks to (hopefully) pick up my suit, and so Sarah can have her first fitting. I decided against a P valve. With any luck we'll soon be diving in cold english waters, in foul english weather, while we're toasty warm and dry!

Also at the show we ran into some old friends - Martin and Andrea (Sarah and i met them in the Maldives) looking for new gear, and Suzanne (Gary and i met her and her husband diving in Egypt) working at the Oonasdivers stand. Many months ago Suzanne had submitted some of my photos for the Oonasdivers website to feature on the picture of the day page - (Jun 14-17 & 22). Now the new Oonasdivers brochure and one of their bookmarks also have my pics! Finally published, and not paid a cent!!! To make up for it, Suz slipped about 50 bookmarks into Sarah's bag, so i now have xmas presents for everyone. Below is the photo they used.

Thank god i started working before the dive show, or there is no way we could have justified spending so much money. The temp work looks like it may become a permanent job - i now have a work e-mail address, am on the internal phonelist, have my own magnetic key for the office, and know how eveyone takes their tea. As long as no one applies internally for the job it should be mine. And for those who want to know exactly what i'm doing, my job title is Human Resource Administrator. You'll all have to wait for a photo of me in a suit, but i did manage to get a photo of the people in my office.

Left to right are Mark, Karen, Sarah, Laura (guarding the doughnuts) and Stephane. They're all great people who are very friendly and have really helped me find my feet. Karen is a shining beacon of knowledge who must be getting sick of my constant stream of questions, so i try and ensure her tea cup is constantly filled. Oh yeah, i've stopped drinking coffee through the week and now drink tea!