I mean I want to see

NEVER pressurise friends who aren’t confident in the water to go diving. ALWAYS do equipment check before you set off. Always ask questions before you sign up with a dive shop, or you may as well be diving solo. Always make sure you can rig up your own equipment, check your own equipment, AND DO BUDDY CHECK. Make sure you practice hand signals with your buddy before you go down into the water. Once you’re certified, you HAVE TO KNOW HOW TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR BUDDY in an emergency.

Diving is not a walk in the park. Seriously. Really. Go watch National Geographic or go snorkelling if you’re not equipped to be a responsible diver…

In other words, a safe diving rant from your friendly nagger who sliced open her foot and couldn’t go on a single dive this trip. But REALLY. DIVE SAFE.

And this is one piece of priceless advice I heard from an experienced diver: Never dive with someone with a big ego.

Which means I have to try not to have a big ego…which also applies to all areas of life. Big egos = danger.

Image © Yvonne Koh

A (Pointing to SIA ad and preparing to go into autorant about the Singapore Girl): You see, this is precisely…(sexism, fantasy, etc etc)
B (noticing it’s an ad for Munich): This is a sign! You’ve to visit me in Germany!

SHOWING Katrin around Singapore — we’d covered so much, with NUS and Little India and Holland V and Geylang for durians and chilli crab at East Coast; I’m now taking a breather, doing some reading and preparing for my dive trip this weekend. Get a mesh bag, fins, pack the wetsuit and all…

:) Diving diving! Therapy under the sea.

SOME people log down turtles and animals during their dives. I log down my paranoid questions, and had them answered by CS from V3 Aquatic Club.

A) How do I vomit underwater?

Try not to. The gag reflex is totally different underwater and you might end up choking on your own vomit. Not a very glamorous way to go.

It’s also possible to swallow your saliva if you feel like your mouth is too dry. Just try not to vomit.

If you *have* to vomit, vomit into your regulator. Do *not* take your regulator out of your mouth — always have air ready at your fingertips.

A ii) What should I eat before diving?

Just eat bread with kaya for breakfast, and a banana or a muesli bar. Don’t gorge on the oily stuff.

Also remember to hydrate: that is, drink lots of water, to help avoid cramping.

B) Are split fins any good?

CS’s advice is not to buy them as most diving accidents happen on the surface and split fins are very bad for movement on the surface. He’s trained in physics, so the physics of it mean that you have to flip more (albeit gently) to propel yourself forward, while with regular fins the right technique mean you propel yourself forward with fewer kicks.

His recommendation is the Mares Avantis Quattro. I would buy them in bright colours — one of the ways to attract attention at the surface is to wave your fluorescent orange/yellow/pink fin around if you don’t have a sausage.

C) Am I really an “advanced” open water diver after just 10 dives?

No, you’re not. It’s not the number of dives you’ve logged that matter, but your skills development.

Commercial outfits have to pay the rent, and they feel the pressure by PADI certification, so even NAUI and SSI and others tend to “churn out” divers without really paying attention to skills. It depends largely on your instructor, but I prefer the club system. I’m crossing over from a commercial SSI outfit to club BSAC training because of safety issues.

I also don’t really trust commercial outfits that can’t tell me their evacuation procedures in case of propeller accidents or decompression sickness.

D) Do I need to remember how to set up my own gear before I go diving?

Please learn to set up your own gear instead of depending on live-on-board/resort staff. When you’re below water, your air delivery system is your *life*. Make sure you know how to gear up with your octopus, make sure your octopus isn’t dragging when you dive, and learn how to deploy sausages etc.

Check *everything* before you go down. Take charge of your own safety. Scuba diving is no walk in the park.

Also remember to surface when the gauge hits 50 bar and not below. Sometimes there are errors in calibration and you really don’t want to be out of air. You also need some air in case of surface conditions, such as storms when you don’t want to be drinking water.

D) Do I need to read dive tables? Can’t I rely on computers and the dive master?

Dive computers fail. Some dive masters push too hard to “show” their charges more exotic things. *Yes*, you need to know how to read dive tables. Don’t jump in blindly expecting to follow people. Don’t expect your partner to take care of you. Take charge of your own safety!

SO I was with D yesterday after a gorging session down Katong and Joo Chiat (328 laksa, Awfully Chocolate, Fei Fei Wantan Mee) and we ended the session at Eunos MRT, and heard Richard Marx’s Right Here Waiting over the broadcast system…

A: Perhaps this is to prevent people from suicide.
B: Those signs are not enough.
A: I don’t know. If I have to listen to sappy muzak day in day out I’ll jump.
A: Or maybe this is for the fun of the station controllers. They look at all the appalled faces of the commuters and laugh.

I actually kind of like the song, though, in *very* small doses.

Righto. Time to decide which hobbies I can pare down on and which ones to develop. My schedule’s packed to the gills. Calligraphy (guiltily skipping lessons). Diving and swimming. Chess (down the drain). Writing. Photography (asked about SLR courses). If only there were more hours in a day.

I’ve a huge capacity to burn myself out.

Redang…beautiful white sand between my toes & clearest blue waters too. Mmm….

AND relaxing after finishing my first dive of the year, after I got certified last July. Saw a hawksbill turtle, a dead hawksbill turtle, and a huge blue-spotted ray :) Had to surface as I was cramping and my fins dropped off two times, though, and my sinuses are not feeling all that great. We’ll see if I can continue diving tomorrow…

I’m with a fun bunch of people, who’re much more experienced divers. I’ve only logged six dives, while the rest of them have at least 30 under their belt.

Am pretty rusty when it comes to buoyancy, and I’d even forgotten how to put the gear together…but as with driving and other hands-on skills, it’s by doing that we learn. I adore the feeling of weightlessness under water. It’s so good to just float along, with zero gravity.

Would love to get S and DS and JC and the rest of the divers out, but everybody seems to be busy with work or are injured. LT is interested in learning, though, and I’m very enthused about having another potential buddy.

And gearing up…a pair of fins, booties and a mesh bag is the next step, with a BCD eventually…will want to try out other people’s gear when I go on course. A regulator, I’m not so sure. A dive computer can wait as well, though it may well be my next watch. C has a Swatch watch that goes up to 200m and doesn’t cost that much. I think there’s a huge market for pretty girls’ dive logs, dive computers, gear bags (come on, why are they all in uniform IBM black), und so weiter. I chose my Beuchat wetsuit because it’s edged in pink, and the Tusa snorkel and mask strap cos they come in pink as well. Maybe we can have little dolphins and Nemos with flowers all over our stuff… :)

*

From Writer’s Almanac.

This is why I like KFC actually, it lets me share meals with my Muslim friends. I get a bit sick of fried food all the time…I actually (secretly) like YTF despite bitching about it all the time. Hey, I am Hakka.

Perhaps the World Ends Here
by Joy Harjo

The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what,
we must eat to live.
The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the
table so it has been since creation, and it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe
at the corners. They scrape their knees under it.
It is here that children are given instructions on what
it means to be human. We make men at it,
we make women.
At this table we gossip, recall enemies and the ghosts
of lovers.
Our dreams drink coffee with us as they put their arms
around our children. They laugh with us at our poor
falling-down selves and as we put ourselves back
together once again at the table.
This table has been a house in the rain, an umbrella
in the sun.
Wars have begun and ended at this table. It is a place
to hide in the shadow of terror. A place to celebrate
the terrible victory.
We have given birth on this table, and have prepared
our parents for burial here.
At this table we sing with joy, with sorrow.
We pray of suffering and remorse.
We give thanks.
Perhaps the world will end at the kitchen table,
while we are laughing and crying,
eating of the last sweet bite.

“Perhaps the World Ends Here” by Joy Harjo, from Reinventing the Enemy’s Language. © W.W. Norton and Co., 1998. Reprinted with permission.

*

A (at the buffet): She’s going Western style, course by course.
B: I’m going Ethiopian style as I don’t want to vomit underwater.
C: I’m going garbage style: Everything also goes in.

A: So we were in the army and this guy I knew was quite pampered at home. So he put stones in his pocket or something to march for three hours and ended up going to see the medic with huge bruises and abrasions on his thighs. He got out of heavy marching for days after that…
D: Wow, that’s smart.
A: This guy is quiet but he’s good. There he is. (points to E)
E smiles.
A: To this day we’re not sure what exactly he did. We’re just guessing it’s stones.

“The unreal is more powerful than the real. Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because its only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well, they die. But things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on. If you can change the way people think. The way they see themselves. The way they see the world. You can change the way people live their lives. That’s the only lasting thing you can create.”

– Chuck Palahniuk

From this blog. This man sounds like such a lovely man. In Vienna.

He reminds me of why teachers in Asia are my favourite people. I love the Princeton programme…I met some of his friends on my trip through Laos, and they remind me of X. Educators *are* my favourite people. The people I met are friendly, easy-going, empathetic, and intelligent and hungry and funny.

I hope you find your harbour. I hope you find your sanctuary. I hope you find your heart’s home. God bless, god speed, and bon voyage. If you want to stay where you are and sleep all day, I think that’s perfectly fine too. :) That’s how dreams are made, you know.

That reminds me, I have to go read The White Tiger. Mmm…reading. You adult readers can go and watch football and surf for porn and watch TV if you want. Just remember to stay clean, go slow, and relax. :)

I think Singapore’s the best place for that, actually.

“Take only pictures, leave only bubbles.”

- Diving instructor

No, I didn’t write those words. They were written for me to copy as practice.

I love these shelves. Sturdy, strong, rugged.

Piles…*shudder* I can’t believe I’ve actually read (and sometimes re-read) every single book here…Ok, not War And Peace, that’s still to be tackled.

More piles…

CATALOGUING away, and this is the aftermath. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. Yes, you can tell I’m environmentally friendly as I’m starting compost heaps and leaf-litter communities in my room…soon the bed bugs will bite.

Piles to go before I sleep.

*

From Taleb’s Fooled By Randomness (very good book, everyone go out and buy it NOW):

To stay a “hot trader” requires some organisational ambitions and a power hunger he feels lucky not to possess. He was only in it for the fun — and his idea of fun does not include administrative and managerial work. He is susceptible to conference room boredom and is incapable of talking to businessmen, particularly the run-of-the-mill variety. Nero is allergic to the vocabulary of business talk, not just on plain aesthetic grounds. Phrases like “game plan”, “bottom line”, “hot to get there from here”, “we provide our clients with solutions”, “our mission”, and other hackneyed expressions that dominate meetings lack both the precision and the coloration that he prefers to hear. Whether people populat silence with hollow sentences, or if such meetings present any true merit, he does not know; at any rate he did not wish to be part of it. Indeed Nero’s extensive social life includes almost no businesspeople. But unlike me (I can be extremely humiliating when someone rubs me the wrong way with inelegant pompousness), Nero handles himself with gentle aloofness in these circumstances.

*

Lucky fools do not bear the slightest suspicion that they may be lucky fools — by definition, they do not know that they belong to such a category. They will act as if they deserved the money. Their strings of successes will inject them with so much serotonin (or some similar substance) that they will even fool themselves about their ability to outperform markets (our hormonal system does not know whether our successes depend on randomness). One can notice it in their posture; a profitable trader will walk upright, dominant style — and will tend to talk more than a losing trader. Scientists found out that serotonin, a neurotransmitter, seems to command a large share of our human behaviour. It sets a positive feedback, the virtuous cycle, but, owing to an external kick from randomness, can start a reverse motion and cause a vicious cycle. It has been shown that monkeys injected with serotonin will rise in the pecking order, which in turn causes an increase of the serotonin level in their blood — until the virtuous cycle breaks and starts a vicious one (during the vicious cycle failure will cause one to slide in the pecking order, causing a behaviour that will bring about further drops in the pecking order). Likewise, an increase in personal performance (regardless of whether it is caused deterministically or by the agency of Lady Fortuna) induces a rise of serotonin in the subject, itself causing an increase of what is commonly called “leadership” ability. One is “on a roll”. Some imperceptible changes in deportment, like an ability to express oneself with serenity and confidence, make the subject look credible — as if he truly deserved the shekels. Randomness will be ruled out as a possible factor in the performance; until it rears its ugly head once again and delivers the kick that will induce the downward spiral.

*

While we do not see the roulette barrel of reality, some people give it a try; it takes a special mindset to do so. Having seen hundreds of people enter and exit my profession (characterised by extreme dependence on randomness), I have to say that those who have had a modicum of scientific training tend to go the extra mile…Without excessive intellectual curiosity it is almost impossible to complete a PhD thesis these days; but without a desire to narrowly specialise, it is impossible to make a scientific career.

On the one extreme, those who never accept the notion of randomness; on the other, those who are tortured by it…

Indeed, by the late 1990s, one could get someone trained by a world-class scientist for almost half the price of an MBA. As they say, marketing is everything; these guys do not know how to sell themselves. I had a strong bias in favour of Russian scientists; many can be put to active use as chess coaches (I also got a piano teacher out of the process). In addition, they are extremely helpful in the interview process. When MBAs apply for trading positions, they frequently boast “advanced” chess skills on their resumes…MBAs, typically, can interpret their superficial knowledge of the rules of the game into “expertise”. We used to verify the accuracy of claims of chess expertise (and the character of the applicant) by pulling a chess set out of a drawer and telling the student, now turning pale: “Yuri will have a word with you.”

…occasionally, a fast-thinking scientific-minded individual of street smarts would emerge. The interesting thing about these physicists did not lie in their ability to discuss fluid dynamics; it is that they were naturally interested in a variety of intellectual subjects and provided pleasant conversation.

*

Beware the spendthrift “businesswise” person; the cemetary of markets is disproportionately well stocked with the self-styled “bottom line” people. In contrast with their customary Masters of the Universe demeanour, they suddenly become ming cheh-cheh (look pale, humble, and hormone-deprived on the way to the personnel office for the customary discussion of the severance agreement).

*

A (guy): What’s that?
B: My make-up pouch. Otherwise known as my emergency ration pack. When I’m hungry, I fantasize about biting chunks off my lip balm (shows off strawberry-flavoured stick) and when I am bored by crashing bores, I drink this (shows off little Benetint vial) and feign food poisoning, saying “If I don’t go home I’ll die.”). I think you should have one too.

*

Can’t believe I ploughed through almost ALL of this when I was taking diving lessons just to find out how I could get maimed or die. I like to know about any possible blow-up before it happens…Come on folks, take up diving so we can go look at turtles together!!

(from the handbook)

- Preparation for a day at sea begins the night before. Get a good night’s sleep, eat sensibly, refrain from alcoholic beverages, and arrive at the boat refreshed and ready.
- Don’t worry about being seasick. Involve your mind instead with the excitement of the opportunity to dive (omg so twee…)
- Remain on deck and let your eyes see what’s going on around you. Do not stare at the deck or at the people across from you. Watch the boat move on the sea and feel yourself as a part of it. Watch the horizon as a point of reference.
- If possible, stand up and face forward.
- Avoid reading and doing close work
- Don’t wear a dive skin, wet suit or restrictive clothing.
- Once the boat arrives at the site, get ready and be one of the first to get into the water.
- Seasickness is contagious. Avoid other seasick divers.

If you do get seasick, move to a lee (downwind) rail and get it over with. Do not use the head (bathroom).

Disorientation caused by surge or being in wave motion at the surface can produce sickness. It’s possible to vomit through a regulator and I recommend that you not remove your regulator in the event that you do get sick. Stay calm, don’t panic, be careful not to aspirate water or liquid, and purge the regulator when it’s all over.

There are medications designed for seasickness and other fvorms of motion sickness. They raise the threshold of resistance and are much more effective for resisting motion sickness than for reversing sickness once it occurs.

Drugs: Scopolamine has been reported to cause personality changes bordering on dementia in rare cases. All the drugs cause drowsiness and may impair judgment, and there are serious questions about how the drugs react when under the pressures divers routinely encounter when diving. Dangerous if you become more drowsy or more stupid than usual.

(BTW, all of this is from The Certified Diver’s Handbook by Clay Coleman)

IF YOU were to ask a non-diver what his biggest concern would be at the prospect of taking up scuba and going diving, the answer would probably have something to do with marine creatures with bad reputations like sharks or jellyfish. A new diver’s answer to a question regarding concerns about her next dive trip would probably revolve around skills like buoyancy or air management. But if you were to ask an experienced, independent diver to define his biggest concern regarding his next dive trip, the answer would almost invariably be the weather.

The experience you gain with various weather conditions is as important to your development and safety as anything you’ll learn underwater. You should become a student of the weather and how it affects the conditions of prospective dive sites. Talking about the weather is far more than a casual pastime for divers.

You’ll have to come to grips that you’ll have to forfeit some dive trips due to the weather. Don’t worry about it. Just accept it. The day will eventually come when you’ll have a thought you never thought you’d have. You’ll be on a trip, living your passion, but the weather takes a bad turn, the boat rocks and rolls, the spray flys, and this will suddenly occur to you: You’ll wish you were back home eating muah chee. No kidding.

WIND AND WAVES

Barring a seismic event such as an earthquake, waves on water are caused by wind and generally move in the same direction as the wind. The size of waves depends on wind speed, wind duration, wind fetch (the distance the wind blows over the water), and water depth.

Waves are described by their height, wavelength and period. The height of a wave is a vertical measurement from the wave’s crest (highest point) to its trough (lowest point). The wave’s wavelength is a horizontal measurement between crests (or troughs), and the period is the time it takes for two successive crests to pass any given point. The surface of the water develops what is called a sea state as wind blows over it, and the resulting waves are called seas.

Seas are unstable waves in the act of formation. Once waves are formed, they may continue to move in a stable form for hundreds of miles. These stable waves generally have a long wavelength and are known as swells. Swells are more gently rolling waves that pose far less danger to boaters than do unstable seas.

CURRENTS

Created by tides, gravity and atmospheric wind. The velocity of a current is expressed in nautical miles per hour, commonly referred to as knots. The distance of a nautical mile is determined by dividing the circumference of the Earth into 360 degrees, then dividing each degree into 60 minutes. One minute of the arc of the circumference of the Earth is equal to one nautical mile. The distance of a nautical mile works out to be about 1.15 statute miles (1.85200 kilometers), so a velocity of one knot is about 1.15 miles per hour (20.25 in/s, or 1.85166 km/h).

The velocity of a current is called its drift, and the direction a current is flowing is called its set. So if a current’s drift and set may be described as north at 2 knots, meaning that the current is moving towards the north at 2 nautical miles per hour. It’s important to remember that the set of a current is the direction TOWARDS which the current is moving. This is the opposite of the way winds are described, as wind direction refers to the direction from which the wind is coming. A north wind and a north current move in opposite directions.

A physically fit diver swims at approx 1 knot. A current of only 1 knot will tax even the best underwater swimmer. The two most precious commodities of any diver are air and energy. Currents work to rob a diver of energy, which effectively diminishes the diver’s air supply. Currents also complicate underwater navigation, as they can significantly skew a diver’s course.

To estimate a current’s drift from the shore or from a stationary boat, watch debris in the water to see how it moves. If you’re on an anchored boat and you know how long the boat is, you can calculate the amount of time it takes for an object in the water to drift the length of the boat. Once you know the time, you can calculate how fast the object is moving. (multiply divide blah blah blah)

Currents can be divided into near-shore and offshore.

(I give up. It goes on for 20 plus pages in the same vein. Will probably end up buying the book anyway. If you’re really interested go look it up in the library.)

*

OK man even I am boring myself droning on and on with all this navel-gazing therapy stuff. Lessons I’ve had to learn, I believe all of us pay our dues eventually etc etc but argh.

FOR the buddy system to work, each diver of a buddy pair must be immediately available to the other to offer useful assistance. Unfortunately, this is seldom the case in real-world diving, and, consequently, divers who perceive their buddies as guardian angels are flirting with peril. The fact is, unless your dive buddy is an instructor a dive professional who has dedicated the dive to taking care of you, he is probably far more interested in his own dive than yours.

The buddy system involves more than simply diving in proximity to another diver, and divers who rely on the buddy system as a panacea for their own lack of confidence or preparation place themselves in a dangerous situation. Independent divers should practise the buddy system with an attitude of mutual support and assistance but should never rely on anyone other than themselves for the safety of their dives.

You are solo diving whenever you cannot realistically expect immediate and useful help from your dive buddy during a dive. Many ordinary recreational divers already practise solo diving without being fully aware of it.

*

The key to becoming an independent diver is a marriage between formal training and actual dive experience. Only through actual dive experience can you realistically develop water skills and risk assessment skills, and only by the development of those skills can you become a diver capable of planning and making safe dives in a variety of conditions or situations.

Independent divers are those who have developed confidence in their capacities to the point that they assume sole responsibility for their dives. Of course, they will adhere to the buddy system, and they will seek the advice of those with local knowledge and experience or of those with greater general knowledge and experience, but independent divers do not defer to anyone on matters of their personal safety or well-being. Becoming an independent diver is an act of personal responsibility as much as it is a declaration of freedom.

If you’re a newly certified diver whose only dives have been under the supervision of an instructor or a divemaster, it’s time to change attitude gears. You are a trained diver, and, as such, your safety underwater is no longer the responsibility of your instructor or of your dive buddy. It’s yours.

*

Boarding ladders

Divers sometimes slip off and fall back into the water, and if another diver is approaching a collision occurs. The approaching diver is hit in the head or face by the tank of the falling diver, and the impact may be severe enough to render him unconscious. The first rule of the boarding ladder is to stay well away if someone else is using it.

The second rule is to remove your fins before putting your feet on the ladder.

The boarding ladder will not move in synchrony with a boat rocking in the waves. Stay away from the side of the ladder unless conditions are calm, as the boarding ladder may turn into a giant pair of scissors that are capable of mangling anything that gets caught between it and the back of the boat.

When there are waves: Once the ladder is clear of divers, approach the ladder underwater and grab hold of it. Things are calmer underwater and you’re at no risk of getting caught in the “scissors” when holding onto the bottom. Grasping the bottom of the ladder with a stiff arm to prevent the ladder from hitting you as it moves is like holding a snake behind its head so it can’t bite you.

Once you’re secure at the base of the ladder, slide the heel strap of one fin off your heel and slip the fin off your foot with your free hand. Put your hand through the heel strap, which leaves the fin hanging from the wrist. Then switch hands and remove the other fin the same way. When both fins are removed and one is hanging from each of the arms, put feet on bottom rung with both hands and climb aboard. If you fall back off, you’ll have your fins and can put them back on.

*

Met a couple of people I really admire…Character is ultimately revealed by what a person does, not what she says. A few of the most highly evolved among us may achieve perfect consistency between what we say about ourselves and how we behave, but there’s often a gulf. There are diamonds in the rough whose beauty is hidden beneath their modest, self-effacing ways. Very often the people least likely to blow their own horns are the most loyal friends, the hardest workers, and the most dedicated parents. And it’s their actions that prove it.

(After seeing a giant garoupa underwater)
Father to son: That fish kind of looked like Granny, didn’t it?

What I love about diving is that the minute you go underwater you feel absolutely insignificant. You’re just a speck in the ocean. Absolutely nothing. It is incredibly overwhelming and humbling. And I love building these memories… :) Now to find someone to share them with.

*

A guide on Nemos and their homes.

*

Things to do:

1. Practise calligraphy! What with the excitement over diving I’ve forgotten about calligraphy & languages etc. Best is to set aside a set time each day.

2. Diving
- Buoyancy control
- Get gear: fins, wetsuit, casing for camera
- Get wildlife ID books
- Plan next trip

*

Slack tide: time during which no appreciable tidal current is flowing in a body of water.

neap tide: times with minimum fluctuation of tide, happens when sun and moon, relative to earth, are at right angles to each other.

Spring tide: times with maximum fluctuation of tide, happens when the sun, moon and earth are in alignment.

*

Trimix: a blend of oxygen, nitrogen and helium. Divers are the beneficiary of decades of medical research, much of it conducted for the US Navy. Researchers addressed the phenomena known as oxygen toxicity and nitrogen narcosis, the two chief maladies of deep diving. Oxygen toxicity, which often triggers convulsions and underwater blackouts, is caused when divers breathe oxygen under pressure. Nitrogen narcosis results from the toxic effect of nitrogen under high pressure. Its main symptom is disorientation also known as the “martini effect” as it feels like being drunk. The deeper the diver goes, the more pronounced the effect. Divers first feel a sense of mild euphoria. Then mental processes degrade, become syrupy, and their short-term memory suffers. The effect is temporary, but it can be deadly. The diver’s sense of judgement erods. He can lose his sense of time, and though scuba diving provides its participants the illusion of weightlessness and detachment from humdrum reality, it’s a sport ruled ruthlessly by the clock.

By replacing a bit of the nitrogen and oxygen, helium tends to reduce the potential for oxygen toxicity and nitrogen narcosis. For every 33 feet in ocean water, the nitrogen gas pressure increases by another 14.7 pounds PSI. As divers drop deeper, the pressure compresses the breathing gas mixture, so it’s more quickly absorbed into their bloodstream and tissues. Time is also a variable: the longer divers stay underwater, the more nitrogen dissolves in their bodies.

Divers who dive for years using plain air become accustomed to the disorientation and learn to exercise conservatism at deep depths. But this level of skill takes years to master. Trimix appeared to level the field. It helped the divers speedily make deep dives that the previous generation of divers, hwo relied only on air, had taken years to achieve.

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- Indonesia is home to a third of the world’s total corals and a quarter of its fish species, nearly 33,000 square miles (85,000 km2).
- Astove

1. Tioman Marine Park
2. Lebas
3. Malang
4. Renggis
5. Tumuk

- black tip reef shark!! :))
- giant garopa
- giant clam (”Was that a nudibranch?” “It’s a giant clam. About 5,000 times the size of a nudibranch…”)
- triggerfish
- beaked coral fish
- numerous clownfishes in anemone and peeking out at us…so cute!!
(in pretty Heteractis magnifica sea anemone especially)
- many goldband fusiliers (Pterocaesio chrysozona)
- batfish (with “cleaning station”)
- wrasses
- Red-breasted Maori wrasse
- foxface rabbitfish
- damsels
- squirrelfish
- trevallies
- stingray
- parrotfish
- butterfly fish
- cardinal fish
- needlefish

To visit: Sipadan (”Shark, turtle, shark, turtle, shark everywhere you go”), Manado, Liberty wreck in Bali…
To get: underwater casing for my camera, wet suit, fins, gloves…

It’s such great fun, though I’d difficulty swimming in the currents and need more practice. So fun!!! I’d problems with buoyancy at first, but it turned out fine. And my buddy had to grab my hand a couple of times during the dive when I hit a current for the first time…I need more practice with diving into currents.

So! I recommend diving to anyone who’s fit and can swim a couple of laps! Go, go, people. Whole new worlds will open up, and the community’s full of a great bunch of people.

*

Instructor (threatening after we were making fun of him): “Remember when I turned off your air for the emergency ascent practice?”

At breakfast, before our first dive:
A: Don’t eat too much…sometimes you vomit when your throat is too dry.
B: But…you have to keep the regulator in your mouth….
C: It’s okay, we’ll just stay there, vomit and let the fishes come to us.

Vomiting II:
A (who has his own regulator and said he vomits easily): Sometimes my friends find it hard to breathe into my second-stage.
C: It’s probably because of the accumulated vomit.
B: Yeah after you told me about the vomit I made sure I purged my second-stage a few times in the sea and gave it a bit of a scrub with my fingers.

On the danger of boats: “If your buddy gets caught under a boat’s propeller you’ll be the one collecting the bits of brain, bone, eye etc. And have the job of calling the family.”

On first aid: “Hot water helps as venom is protein based…But remember to use hot, not boiling water.”

On scrape wounds: “Do you want some pee on that? I’ll contribute a cup.”

Test option on question on “to-fly-time”: “It tells the diver the time before it’s safe to take a hot shower.

On the test:
A: Can we bribe the marker?
B: Bribery is welcome. We are in Malaysia.

On dinner, which actually came with dishes served to the table:
A: You mean you thought the bee hoon was all and didn’t complain?
B: Yeah I just took the bits with more beansprouts.

On not eating seafood.
A: He said it was due to his religion. I asked what religion it was. Turns out it’s diving.

*

Tioman, which measures 38km by 19km, has attracted travellers for 100 years. In 1972, 12,000ha on the island was gazetted as a wildlife reserve. Today 60% of the area is still under forest cover. Its waters and marine life are protected, and it is the Malaysia’s largest marine park.

A survey conducted by Coral Cay Conservation Ltd showed that 183 species of corals in the waters of Tioman, more than other marine parks on the East Coast like Pulau Redang and Tinggi.

Large marine species such as the whale shark and dolphins are also found in its waters as well as the green turtle and the hawksbill turtle.

Tioman is naturally a famous diving site with visibility up to 33m underwater. Its surrounding waters have sea caves and coral gardens of sea fans and sea anemones.

Tioman Island’s terrestrial beauty is no less awesome. Its tallest peaks are almost perpetually shrouded by mist. Taking a ferry from the Mersing jetty to the island, you will see the twin peaks known as the Dragon’s Horns (Batu Siram and Nenek Si Mukut).

The rainforest of the island is said to be more closely related to Borneo’s than the Malay Peninsula’s, and this makes it very unique.

The island has a record of 138 bird species including the critically-endangered Christmas Island Frigatebird. Its 92 species of herpetofuana (including 37 species of snakes, 32 species of lizards, 22 species of frogs and one species of freshwater soft-shelled turtle) are a good indication of just how rich of Tioman’s rainforests are.

Legend has it that a magical Dragon Princess from China was on the way to Singapore to meet the love of her life when came by the waters here. Resting in the area, she was so pleased with its marine beauty that she decided she wanted to stay.

Forsaking lovem she decided to provide shelter and refreshment to the seafarers and fishermen in the region by turning herself into an island.

That island is now known as Tioman.

SO FUN! Finished the theory and pool sessions, and I’ll be heading out for my open water dives this weekend. My ears are blocked, I’ve an unstable grasp of buoyancy, but ohhhhhh the sensation of hitting neutral and coasting along! And hurray for the fishies and the Coral Triangle.

I’ve to improve my crawl though, am very inelegant.

*

AND I met this beautiful person, who’s involved in teaching nursing and travels all around the Asia-Pacific for her work in health-care education. She goes to Mauritius for six months to do her academic writing, and has been all around the world. Oh, lovely lovely. I can’t wait till I grow old, and have such stories to tell. To do well in an area of work — be it academic or professional or even just parenting — learning new skills, teaching.

*

To learn: first aid.

ABOUT diving — I should have done this much sooner, but it’s going to be a great journey, I’ve been surfing the web for photos (lovely ones here and videos of where I’m going to do my first open water dive in Tioman, and oh, whole new worlds opening up!

1. Tioman
2. Pulau Aur
3. Bali, Lombok
4. Bunaken
5. Hantu to build up experience
6. Anambas, eventually
7. Similan

Hurray!

Q: So what do you do if you turn upside down in the water?
A: Some people scrabble about. But you can just flip around again.

Q: What happens if we ascend too fast?
A: Shake a bottle of coke really hard and then open it. Now imagine that happening in your lungs and blood vessels. Pop! Popopop!

So life’s been busy and full, what with

1. Academic stuff
2. Volunteering stuff
3. French and Cantonese
4. Calligraphy
5. Diving and trip planning
6. Social activities

And am *still* cataloguing my books, up to about a thousand, but it’s not ending….

*

Hamilton Russell Pinot Noir 2007: Une robe d’un tres joli rubis. Nez complexe avec des notes de fruits rouges et noirs (groseilles et mures), ainsi que des notes de boisees. Bouche en tension, sur un duo acidite-mineralite impactant, certes un peu saillant, austere, mais offrant une tenue remarquable. Belle fraicheur fruitee, une longueur etonnante, une finale qui colle a la bouche.

Argh my French fails me — I really really like this wine from S. Africa that’s made in a Burgundian style. So here we go from the winemaker’s tasting notes: The low-vigour, stony, clay-rich soil, cool maritime mesoclimate, naturally tiny yields of under 30 hl/ha and our philosophy of expressing our terroir in our wines give rise to a certain tightness, tannin line and elevated length to balance the richness and generosity of our Pinot noir. Our Pinot noir is not overtly fruity, soft and “sweet” and it generally shows hints of that alluring “primal” character along with a dark, spicy, complex primary fruit perfume.

A: We saw a turtle and I was trying to keep up with it…but I couldn’t and I’d to surface as I was getting tired.
B: Outpaced. By a turtle. Happy birthday.

*

Ceretto 2007 Moscato D’Asti Santo Stefano: Parfait pour brunch — très rafraîchissant. Robe jaune pâle. Le nez est assez frais, caractéristique du cépage moscato, avec des traces nettes d’épices et notes de miel d’acacia. Finale assez persistante. Vraiment agréable!

*

Oceanic scope, echoing waves, horizon-reaching vistas of the world…

Reading

1. Ishiguro’s An Artist Of The Floating World and its description of the miai between Noriko and Taro Saito, and of the “floating world” — the nighttime world of pleasure, entertainment and drink which formed the backdrop for the protagonist’s paintings, and talent gone to ruin (cf All Soul’s two beggars).

2. Alberto Manguel’s A Reading Diary.

Morel reminds me of certain characters (Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard or the faithful daughter in Merchant-Ivory’s Autobiography of a Princess) who spend their days watching the past come to life on a screen. The theme of the loved one recalled as a projected image appears for the first time, as far as I know, in an 1892 Jules Verne novel, The Carpathian Castle…In Verne’s version, the eccentric Baron Gortz brings back to life the beautiful opera singer Stilla, who has died in the middle of her farewell performance, and with whom the Baron has been long and obsessively in love. In the end, it is revealed that what the Baron has re-created is not her flesh and blood, but merely her image captured on a glass pane, and her voice in a recording.

(I now remember an earlier example: the shadows in Plato’s cave.)

Bioy Casares follows the precepts of the detective novel: hide nothing from the very beginning, reveal nothing until the last possible moment…

p. 10

Perhaps, in order for a book to attract us, it must establish between our experience and that of the fiction — between the two imaginations, ours and that on the page — a link of coincidences.

p. 14

Borges, when asked if he believed in God: “If the word God means a being that exists outside time, I’m not sure I believe in Him. But if it means something in us that is on the side of justice, then yes, I do believe that, in spite of all the crimes, there is a moral purpose to the world.

p. 32

We read what we want to read, not what the author wrote. In Don Quixote, I’m not particularly interested in the world of chivalry but in the ethics of the hero, and in the curious friendship with Sancho. In The Wind In The Willows, I care far less about Mr. Toad than about Rat, Mole and Badger. In Kim I am not in the least interested in the Great Game, all that infantile spy-story stuff, but I’m enthralled by Kim’s and the Lama’s respective quests and by the brilliance of the depiction of a world I don’t know.

Note: Literary travel is either a monologue or a dialogue, either the unravelling of one traveller’s route (Ulysses, Pilgrim, Justine, Candide, the Wandering Jew) or two characters in mutual progression (Don Quixote and Sancho, Huckleberry Finn and Jim, Brother and Sister in search of the Blue Bird, Kim and his Lama).

p. 41

Ana Becciu wrote this in Ronda de noche: “Love happens when we stroke a textured surface, when something is told with the hands or with the mouth. The mouth uses stories to stroke, causes scattered textures to appear, textures that can be read out loud. But almost no one knows how to read.”

…

Title for a doctoral thesis: “The Novel as Obstacle Course.”

The Lama believes that every obstacle in his way will be removed; Kim, that he himself is capable of either removing it or going around it. I read yesterday in Max Brod’s biography that Kafka disliked Balzac and had noted with disapproval the motto Balzac had engraved on his walking stick: “Je casse tout obstacle” (”I shatter every obstacle”). Kafka then added his own motto: “Every obstacle shatters me.”

- p. 43

This morning, outside the window of the train on my way home, a short, almost imperceptible snowstorm. In the Book of Common Prayer: “He giveth snow like wool.”…I make a mental list of descriptions of snow in books I’ve read and think that, since there are so many, they would not coincide with those of another reader.

- p. 74

I explore my library like someone returning to his native land after an absence of decades. Every time I leave on one of my book junkets, I have to chart its geography all over again, establish paths from shelf to shelf, remembering titles I have not thought about for weeks.

Like a man finding his bearings in a library, Holmes can trace his way through the labyrinth of London by reciting the names of the streets seen from a cab: “Wandsworth Road…Priory Road. Larkhall Lane. Stockwell Place. Robert Street. Coldharbour Lane.” And later, the districts through which he pursues his quarry: “Streatham, Brixton, Camberwell…Kennington Lane…The Oval…Bond Street and Miles Street…Knight’s Place.” A city reduced to the titles it contains.

- p. 81

In Turkish, the word muhabbet means both “conversation” and “love”. You say for both, “To do muhabbet”. I like the idea of conversation being a window into one’s heart or mind.

- p. 100

According to Alan Bennett, The Wind In The Willows is Mole’s bildungsroman. Mole is content as long as he isn’t adventurous. Contentment requires a certain lack of curiosity…Kenneth Grahame is masterly at describing comfort.

- p. 113

3. And also one of my favourite books of all time Howards End. Orgy! Of reading! I love!

Also watching Will and Grace, which I’d not seen before, as well as finishing the whole Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother with a friend who’s homebound…

*

“Thus to see our place in society from the perspective of this [original] position is to see it sub specie aeternitatis: it is to regard the human situation not only from all social but from all temporal points of view. The perspective of eternity is not a perspective from a certain place beyond the world, nor the point of view of a transcendent being; rather it is a certain form of thought and feeling that rational persons can adopt within the world…Purity of heart, if one could attain it, would be to see clearly and to act with grace and self-command from this point of view”

- John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Harvard University Press, 1971, p. 587.

“Life is monstrous, infinite, illogical, abrupt and poignant; a work of art, in comparison, is neat, finite, self-contained, rational, flowing and emasculate.”

- Stevenson, Memoirs and Portraits

“Our true birthplace is that in which we cast for the first time an intelligent eye on ourselves. My first homelands were my books.”

- Marguerite Yourcenar