Birthday and Dive Logs....ABC...

A for Aloysius
haha..have to mention about this 'shuai-ge' from my advanced dive group, he's a fourth year law student. A really cute and nice person to get acquainted with during the trip. Well.. I hope he don't subscribe to blogger and surf into my website by mistake!

B for Boat rides
Its incredible, but I think I had the longest boat rides I ever remembered!! But luckily, I was knocked out for most of the journey, just that we took 6 hours traveling on the boat there and 7 hours back. It's also our dive boat for the advanced course, there's two whole row of double decked mats inside for us..a good way to cure motion sickness as we could lay down and sleep! It's air conditioned actually, but on the way back, the air con broke down during one of my dreams and I really felt so out of air!! Didn't have a problem with air supply during the dives, but ironically it was on land that I felt suffocated..

C for celebration
I was still on my way home when it was my birthday. Really low profile this year..but enjoyed it a lot. Had a peaceful birthday and was glad that I didn't plan for any gathering as I was still quite tired from the trip. At the end of the day, went Danping's house and had a really nice chat with her and Giam. Was very happy.. Celebrated at home too, ever since I was one year old till now, I didn't have a cake every year. But this year Sister generously bought one..

D for doughnuts
They had the best doughnuts that I ever had in my whole life!! We had it during our breaks in between dives, so the first day didn't dare to eat that much, but the 2nd day it was after my last dive for the trip so ate 10 or more!! Hee hee.. now still craving for the crispy yummy doughnuts

E for energy
This is really a test of endurance as we had 8 dives altogether, the first 5 dives were compulsory and the rest optional.. I did 7 out of the 8, the first day I did all the 4 dives and really felt like dying. Knocked out immediately that night. 2nd day was better as I saw many exciting things in the water, actually had a lot more energy than the first day too..

F for Fun
fun..fun..do I still need to elaborate about this?

G for group
It was a big group of 60 pple, even bigger than the last dive I went to. And even though they are just acquaintances who do not know much about my life and I wouldn't share many things with them, still glad to know more pple from NUS during the trip. Great Experience!

H for hunks
saw lots of them during the trip, but actually half of them are just poseurs, wannabes.. didn't really qualify into the hunk category.. pathetic..

I for Instructors
For our dive group our dive instructor is Richard, a guy in his forties or fifties.. a typical DOM-dirty old man!! And another divemaster who followed us was Simei, was quite impressed as so far she's the only female divemaster I've seen.. although I didn't go for that many diving trips yet.

K for Kelvin
The 2nd year civil engine guy from my own dive group... he's quite a funny person to be with, as he's really helpful. There was one dive when he tickled me underwater and caused water to get into my face mask..also, another incident happened when I needed someone to unzip my wet suit for me, intended to find a girl but as he was just around, he came up immediately and helped me enthusiastically..although I think unzipping a wetsuit is quite a personal act, but was too late to stop him..oh well.. ..

L for log dives
Quite glad that my logged dives went up to 12 after the trip..and now quite motivated to go diving at least twice a year!! Every single dive is actually quite unique to me.. fond memories indeed. =)

M for Money
Needless to say, spent a bomb on it.. But I'm glad that I could afford it and the $$ was well spent..=)

N for night dive
Went for my first night dive.. it was supposed to be quite an exciting experience but my buddy clinged on to me the whole time and from the whole time I descended till I went back to shore, I was having a terrible headache.. Sigh.. they told me that it might be due to the compressed oxygen that I had used the whole day as I had 3 dives before that, and was in a state of fatigue during that night dive. So I skipped the 2nd night dive.. although really tempted to go for it as night dives are quite rare... but I was just too lazy.

O for orange
Simei actually brought an orange 15m down during one of the dives, I was quite amazed to see her peeling it and taking out the regulator to eat the orange underwater, think it must be really saltish!! I was careful not to get any salt water into my mouth as it was really yucky.. but I guess she must be used to it. Some of the orange she actually chew on it and took out to feed it to the fishes.. the blue fishes named rashes will actually come rushing at her to get the remains of the fruit... quite fun...

P for present
Guess I've really grown up.. as presents are really not that important to me anymore. I remember that quite some years ago, there was this phrase when I strongly felt that presents meant a lot to me, to show how much pple really care. But now somehow felt quite happy yesterday spending time with friends and family, so thought that it was even happier than having presents!.. Got a suncatcher from my older sis, who bought the cake and helped my parents get a new HP for me.. First time she's being so nice, and I sort of feel quite guilty as the phone really cost a bomb. Must nver lose it or will surely get hantam!

Q for queasy
What stressed me the most was motion sickness.. and I was low on the pills for this trip. But luckily it didn't hit me that much except for the first dive which caused me headache after I boarded the boat. Even the long boat ride was fine as I slept throughout..=P

R for Rosalind
That's my buddy for the whole dive trip, she's quite a nice girl just that she got quite uptight about diving as she was not too confident. Was more comfortable when I was with Aichin. Felt that during such trips, you can really get to know your buddy very well. I did for both trips, it was the dive trip that made me know Aichin really well. But for this trip, during the night dive Ros really clinged on to me the whole time, and made me quite stressed and felt so confined.

S for sweet secrets
That's where the birthday cake was from.. it's a very nice one, guess was quite costly too. Both my sisters were waiting for me anxiously to cut the cake not because it was close to midnight, but they really wanted to eat the cake themselves..

S for suncatcher
That's the present that sis gave me.. it's a star-shaped crystal that will form a brilliant coloured rainbow when suspended in direct sunlight.. It's a unique and nice piece of gift, but sad to say a small part of it chipped off as I dropped it on the floor while eating the cake and opening the present. She mentioned that it's not that cheap to get another one, but luckily sis didn't get too angry with me for dropping it. It's now hanging next to my dream catcher at the window..

T for turtles!
Finally get to see turtles..two of them chit chatting away in the deep water, and it's our very last dive! Was quite disappointed didn't get to see much things during the first day, but the 2nd day was much better and we saw eel, stingray, cuttle fish.. etc.. Really enjoyable..=)

U for Underwater
Of course, that's why diving is all about. The first trip I went to, really felt moments of panic and discomfort underwater, felt like shooting up to get the fresh air from the water surface any moment. During the first few dives, still had the same feeling, lucky for me that I didn't have a problem with air supply as it's quite scary to surface on your own with your buddy. But eventually..felt so relaxed in the sea, and there's really so much to see underneath....it's another world.

W for wonderful holiday!
Really treasured this term break a lot, think it was a well spent one.. Studied for the first part, then went for a great trip. Hmm.. wondering when I'll be going for another trip again and who I'll be with the next time?

Y for Yummy food
Food was great at the resort.. it's western type of buffet but most of the times we didn't dare to eat much in between dives, really had to restrict myself by taking a very small portion of the delicious food waiting there for us.

Z for zzzZZZ
Everyone was really amazed by me by how much I can sleep, esp during the boat ride there everyone was excited and had lots of energy, but I knocked out the earliest and only woke up one or two times in between the 6 hours. They thought that I must be very refreshed and couldn't sleep anymore when I reached the resort, but once my head touched the pillow I was knocked out again. I was also amazed at myself as the last day on the journey back I also had a lot of sleep.. think there's really no limit at how much I can zzzZZZ!