Here I am............a year later!

Waaahh! How time flies! A year has flown by since I have a blog entry. I am sure all of you have given up clicking on this blog. My usual excuse...........too busy lor...

Anyway, the following is a summary of the last 12 months:

We had a house extension; starting from the last week of July and ending the week before Christmas. The following are some pictures of the work that went on.









So after lots of dust and the builders getting in the way of our daily life, the following is the result:



I have to say that though it was a fairly hectic time for us, it hasn't been too bad. Having said that, we were without a kitchen for almost 5 months. We had to do most of our cooking on the BBQ stove, which I had positioned in front of our daughter's Wendy House in the garden. The microwave was also in use a lot. I almost burned the house down one night, when I came home late and tried to cook a jacket potato in the microwave. I had programmed it for too long, and the potato had turned into charcoal and caught fire in the microwave.

While all this work was going on, I had nipped back to Malaysia for a quick trip for my 25 year reunion with my school friends. In fact for me, it was actually a 30 years reunion, as I had left home just after my primary school years. It was very good to catch up with old friends; some of whom I have not met for 30 years! While I was there, I also managed to squeeze in a dive trip to Pulau Tenggol. Yep! All in one week. Hope you enjoy the following shot. Took me all of 22 snaps to get the 2 clown fish together.




In October, I made my usual trip to the US for my annual conference. This time, it was in Orlando. Again, managed to squeeze in a trip to the coast for a swim with the manatees. Amazing creatures!

Two weeks after I got back from the States, I took a a group of divers to the northern Red Sea for a liveaboard. It was supposed to be 10 of us in total. Unfortunately, due to the collapse of XL Airways, the dates were changed slightly, and only 4 of us could make it out there in the end. It was great diving all the wrecks in this part of the Red Sea. However, I have to say that the sea life was quite sparse on tnis occassion, compared to my first trip there. I think this must be due to the fact that this part of the Red Sea has been over-dived over the years. Perhaps, the best thing would be to shut off this part of the Red Sea to tourism for a few years for it to regenerate.

Over Christmas and New Year, we were just settling into our new house extension, and taking it easy. Not for long though. In February, we went to St. Lucia for 2 weeks to attend a wedding of a friend. It was sooooooooooo expensive. At least, I managed to do 10 dives while we were out there. This time I managed to use my Nikon dSLR for my u/w pics. Some of the results are posted below........errr, for some reason, not able to upload the photos to blogger at the moment. Will do them later.

So, there you go. My last 12 months in brief............see you guys in another 12 months' time...maybe...

Life is Funny sometimes...

This weekend just gone is just one of life's funny coincidences, for example. Originally, was supposed to go down to London for a gathering with some folks from my school. Been planning for the last 3 months, but last minute everyone, except Hedeghog decided to "fly kite" and not wanting to come. So, we decided to defer it to another time.

However, much to my surprise, I received an email on Thursday evening from the sister of one of my former classmate, to say that another ex-classmate of mine from my Bukit Mertajam days is in London for a couple of weeks and was I able to to meet up over the weekend. Why was it a surprise, you might ask? Well, for a start,I did not know that my friend's sister was living in London for the last 8 years. Secondly, I was even more surprised that she had managed to get my email. As it turned out, she also knew my cousin from their law school days in London. So, she wrote to her on the chance that my cousin might know my email address. As luck has it, my cousin whom I have never corresponded via email before( as far as I can recall) did have my address!

So, there I was making my way to London after all and catching up with my friend Bull, whom I must have not seen for the last 10 year or so. It was a great weekend catching up on the news from all these years. So, if my other group of friends have not backed out in the last minute, I might not have been able to reminisce about old times with Bull. What do you think? Doesn't life have its funny twists and turns? Ok...PP, you are forgiven....hehehe!

So busy...so busy..

Wah...........so, so busy lately. Sorry , haven't posted for so long. Today, in particular was a long marathon. Can you imagine sitting in a room from 9am till 6 pm examining medical students for OSCE........almost non-stop.....72 students in all! Glad to say, I passed them all, although one came very close to crashing. My first time being an official examiner. In the morning, I think I was just as nervous as the candidates. I hate exams!!! Vowed I would never take any more exams, once I passed my last professional exams. Hmmmm! Does this qualify as sado-machism??

On a lighter note, I have finally taken up dSLR photography. Been learning how to use it in the last few months. Quite a steep learning curve. Being mong cha-cha, I plumbed for the Nikon D300. When it arrived, I was like....errr, what do I do with this monster? Apart from turning it on, I did not have any clue what to do next. Auto focus..sounds easy, but how do I switch to that mode; white balancing...oh dear, I am getting a whiteout in my cerebral cortex; spot metering...oh shit, now I know I am in trouble! Mind you, it was a struggle trying to attach the Sigma 18-200mm lens that came with it. And, and.....is that a speck of dust on the lens....wipe the lens, easy; that should take care of it.....hell no! It's still there! %%$^%**! Air what? An air brush?......never heard of it. Sigh, guess its another trip into Jessops.

As you might have guessed, my main interest with all these is to do with underwater photography. Currently, reading a book called "The Underwater Photographer" by Martin Edge. Really excellent book. Learnt as much about u/w photography as dSLR photography from it. Getting very excited now. I have finally sorted out all my kit for u/w photography. My 60mm macro and 12-24mm Nikon lenses will be arriving in the morning. In the last month, I have spent a small fortune acquiring all the stuff. Sea & Sea MDXD300 housing, ports, strobes etc etc...........have all put a dent in my bank a/c. For the first time in my life I have been frozen out of my credit card, as I have reached the limit! Unbelievable!!. Sigh....more private practice I guess! Hello...yes....the toilet needs cleaning?.....ok, I'll be there straightaway!

Red Sea trip update. Yahoo! I have filled 13 (oh dear, unlucky number) places on my boat. Can't wait to get out there. Still 7 places left folks, if any of you fancy a week of inclusive diving, sun, sea and .........errr sex? No, you got to provide your own. Charging points available for your batteries, though. Hehe! For your dive torch!!!........you perverts!

Anyway.........signing off now, for a another period of hibernation.........maybe???

Easter Holidays

We are currently in the midst of our Easter Holidays. Quite fortunate in that while we are enjoying the sunshine here in Costa del Sol, it is rather cold and snowing back in the UK, where we live. We flew from Manchester Airport to Malaga last Saturday. It is hard to believe that the flight only took 2.5 hours, and it is a completely different world here. Booked our holidays entire thru the internet and am pleasantly surprised to find our self-catering apartment here to be a really nice place. The resort that we are staying in is called Sol Andalusi Resort and Spa. It is situated just outside Alhaurin de la Torre, which is just about 15 minutes drive from Malaga International Airport. The resort is not the typical beachy type. In fact, it is in the midst of a few mountains.

So far, we have visited Torremolinos, Benalmandena, Nerja and Marbella. Two places of note is the Cuevo de Nerja, which is a large cave system about a hour north of Malaga; and also the Crocodile Park at Torremolinos. The park boast of the largest crocodile in the whole of European zoos. It was caught in the Zambezi River about 7 years ago and has a harem of 5 female crocs to satisfy its appetite!! We have been meaning to visit Granada as well. However, it is about 1.5 hours drive from where we are and we have been getting up too late each day to make the journey. What is surprising too, is that fact that I am feeling very relaxed when driving on the opposite side of the road to that which I am familiar with. Perhaps, it is to do with the automatic gear stick. It has not been as cheap a trip this time round, as the £Sterling is only worth Euro 1.36

So far, I have managed to do a day's of diving in Gibraltar. I have been doing some reading about underwater photography and am a little bit pleased with some improvement in my technique so far. Hopefully, it will show some significant improvement soon.

Early Diver Training

When we were down at the London Dive Show, I managed to buy a mask and snorkel which just fitted Elly's face nicely. Thot I am going to start training her to be a diver from now....hehe, she is only 4 1/2 years old.

So, yesterday, I put the snorkel in her mouth and pinched her nostrils shut and ask her to practice breathing through her mouth. She did well, and so after a couple of minutes, I fitted the snorkel to the mask and put the whole thing on. Again, after about 5 minutes of practice, I'd reckon that she was ready for the pool. So, off we went to our club pool. There was initial reluctance to put her face in the water, but after a few minutes of coaching, she was off on her own snorkelling away. To enhance the experience, I taught her some scuba diving hand signals e,g . ok, problems and up and down signs. I would then swim underwater and signal to her at the surface.

Ok, I have to say it. I am so proud of her, and yeah..........definitely a budding diver in the making!

A Father's Heart

The above video was sent to me by madkdr. I do not recognise the YouTube username. However, it is such a beautiful video that I feel that I have to share it here.

Growing up in the Christian faith, the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son to God in obedience to Him is a very familiar one. However, I now realise that as often as I heard this story, my understanding and response to it had always been an intellectual one. Lately, I have been pondering that if God were to take my own daughter Elly away or that if He had asked me to give her up for His own purpose; would I have been able to accept it? Is it within me to have an Abrahamic response? At this point in time, I am not sure that I could. I believe that this video has finally given me an emotional connection with Abraham, from a father's point of view. Amazing! All these ages apart, and I have finally captured a glimpse of his anguish. Words cannot describe it appropriately. Perhaps, those of you who are parents would know how I feel.

I hope you enjoy the video and song as much I did. Thank you madkdr. Whoever you are!

London International Dive Show

Decided at the last minute to take a trip down to London for the dive show. Last went to one in NEC, Birmingham about 5 years ago. How time flies! Anyway, I wanted to look at some underwater photographic equipments. So, I thought this would be a good opportunity as all the top trade names would be there. My wife , daughter. and myself caught the 7am train down to Kings Cross. Journey was pleasant enough and it only took us 2.5 hours to get there.

At Kings Cross underground station, we queued for quite a long time to buy our tube tickets for the day. Was quite surprised as usually, it was no effort at all. Anyhow the plan was to take the Southbound Northern Line to London Bridge, and then change to Jubilee Line. This will take us to Canning Town, where we would change to the Dockland Light Rail for a quick 2 stop hop to ExCel London for the show. This was not to be as there was engineering work on Jubilee Line. We had to get off at Canary Wharf tube staion and then had to walk to the DLR station which was about 5 minutes away. From there, we had to take the train to Westferry, where we had to change to another train to get to ExCel. A bit convoluted, but we got there in the end.

The show was not as big as I had anticipated. In fact, judging from the discussions by the divers on Yorkshire Divers forum, it was a disappointment. Anyhow, I got to do what I went down for. Spoke at length to a lady at the Cameras Underwater stand about my requirements. Got it sorted out, but...............its going to cost me!!! The camera housing and accessories will cost me about £2k and for the type of photography that I wanted to do, I have to shell out another £1k more or less to buy a couple of lens. Uuurrgh! I am broke again.....

The journey back............well that's another story!