Fisherman's revenge

Now i'll be the first one to admit that when i'm going diving and i notice fisherman fishing near by, i always keep a look out for their bait - a few hard tugs usually convinces them they have a big one on the line. But i will definitely be keeping clear of a fisherman's crab and lobster pots.

Nah nah na na nah!

I've got my drysuit!!!!

The other good news is that despite the screen on my laptop being so damaged that you can now only see vertical lines, I figured out a way to access all my files - but don't worry Chan, i'm not becoming a nerd. After many failed attempts to get it working and frantic calls to computer repair shops (the cost of a new screen is almost the cost of a new computer!) , Sarah pointed out that i may be able to connect the laptop to another screen. Duh i said to her, of course i've thought of that (not)...... So I sit here now with the laptop in front of me, twisting my head around to the right to see the other computer's screen.

Back in action!

Wedding season

On Saturday we went to Sarah's second cousin's wedding up in Keele, which is just past Birmingham. Unfortunately, about an hour into our trip, i realised i had left my shoes at the front door of Sarah's mum's house...... First shoe shop (in a small country town) had only one decent pair of shoes, that looked a little like a pair of sneakers, which were swapped for another pair of shoes at another shop (slightly larger country town) about an hour before the ceremony.

Lawrence and Claire got married in the main hall of the university they met at, so my expectations weren't high, but it turned out to be a really nice place. There was also something special about having a dreadlocked uni student strumming a guitar on the lawn just out of range of the cameras as photos were taken. Due to a rather early reception and then extended period till the meal, there were quite a few merry people by the time we sat down for dinner. Sarah and I were most fortunate to sit beside an extremely lively (drunk) lad who kept us well entertained through the meal, much to his girlfriend's horror. We definitely got to sit at the fun table at this wedding- lots of corse language, snide remarks and laughter! Sarah's sis and her husband copped the oldies table - mortgages, grandchildren and melancholia. he he he

We all (Sarah's mum, sis, brother-in-law, and us) retired back to the hotel we were staying at rather early, so had a few drinks before bed. When we discovered a pool table we decided to stay up a little longer. The photo below was at the end of the evening - Sarah and the bar staff behind the bar, hoping we would finally let them go to bed about an hour after closing time.

Unfortuantely for Carina (Sarah's mum) she had the room beside ours. If we didn't wake her bouncing off the walls coming down the corridor, she was definitely woken when Sarah broke the headboard above the bed. At least she now knows her son in law has rhythm........

Cross your fingers - dry suit this weekend!

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!

No diving at Stourhead

We had originally planned to do our last dives wearing wetsuits before winter sets in this weekend, but the weather during the week wasn't good, so rather than potentially loose a deposit on a charter boat we changed our plans and went down to Wiltshire to see Emily (one of Sarah's school friends) this weekend at her new house and place of work, Stourhead Estate.

It takes around 2-3hrs to get to Stourhead, and on the way you pass Stonehenge. As i may have already told some of you Stonehenge isn't the mystical sacred site you expect, it's right beside a major road, so as we drove past i took a photo so y'all can appreciate it.

Stourhead is a "Celebrated 18th-century landscape garden and Palladian mansion". Emily's flat is in the rear of the house, so we can now claim we have stayed in a country manor as honourable guests - forget the fact that we may never actually set foot in the main part of the house where all the antiques are. We did get to walk around the grounds though, which are absolutely amazing. In the grounds there is a village, a pub, a few temples, a few grottoes, a huge lake with a couple of man made islands in it, lots of trees, lots of ducks, but no squirrels.....Too many guns in the area me thinks. There were also a few cows, so i foresaw a bit of a 'cow-tipping' session that night, but Em thought it might hurt the cows.

I did finally try an old English favourite while we were there - a cream tea. I was expecting a nice cuppa with cream instead of milk, but as with all things English, i was completely mistaken - it's actually a cuppa and scones with jam and 'clotted' cream. Delicious!

And now the Little Chef saga comes to an end. Little Chef is a chain of restaurants that you can find dotted along every major highway, usually beside a service station - where you would usually find a McDonalds or Burger King. Ever since i've been in the UK i've passed these places and it has become an obsession to eat there. Whenever i mentioned this to anyone, they would invariably point out that the food was crap, so we never went to one. Well, Little Chef is apparently closing down soon, so we decided that the time had come to stop there and try a meal, and as it was brekkie time i went for the full English breakfast, without the black pudding The verdict? Pretty good as long as you're not expecting a piece of parsley on the plate. The difference between real fast food and this place is sumed up in the sign below.

And as you can see, it's a great place to pick up women!

It's starting again....

Something didn't feel right on the walk to the bus stop this morning, but it wasn't till i saw the steam coming from my mouth that i realised it was considerably colder than it has been lately...
Yes, winter is coming!!!
The days are getting shorter, the leaves are changing colour and Sarah has decided it's time to dig out her beanie. I'm really not looking forward to having to go through this again, especially now i'm relying on public transport to get to and from work. And when it rains it's just miserable. But never fear, there is always the warmth of the tube!
Below is the platform at Victoria Station after a train was delayed. The tube lines are buried deep underground where the air soon becomes very still and humid, the only breeze being the wind when a train enters the station.

The next pic is what it looks like once you get on the train. Packed in like sardines you really get to know your fellow travellers. Wearing a suit it doesn't matter how cold it is outside, you will be sweating within a couple of minutes.

And yes, the work experience has turned into a temp job. Don't know how long it will last (it's a week by week contract), but the work is good and the people in the office are a fun bunch, even if they do eat too many Crispy Creme Donuts!

Photo of the crew as soon as i can drag them away from the donuts.....