Divemaster Internship Week 3

Evolution Divers as part of the Search and Recovery effort

picture from The Philippine Star

The BIG news on my 3rd week on the island was a plane carrying Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo that crashed into the sea just short of the runway for Masbate City airport (about 150kms north of Malapascua) on Friday afternoon and on Monday morning the Evolution Dive Team were helicoptered along with all their gear to  assist in looking for the wreckage of the plane and hopefully survivors.  Unfortunately the body of the plane was found with the 3 missing persons (Jessee Robredo and pilot and co-pilot) on the 2nd day at a depth of 65m.  The shop was really quiet at this point and because my instructor was involved in the search and recovery operation I went on a couple of dives with clients, but for a while I had a pretty open schedule.

Divemaster Internship Week 2

Wow - it was busy, and then quiet and then busy again.  I was very busy in assisting with an open water course with 4 people for the first few days.  The first open water dive was quite an experience.  We finished the confined water skills for the 4 open water students and a Discover Scuba Student (a single introductory dive for people who just want to see if diving is for them) and then headed off to deeper waters to take them on their first dive.  So we had 5 students between the 2 of us.  No sooner than the instructor would help one of the students start swimming underwater near the corals than another one (who'd previously been swimming quite comfortably underwater) would pop up to the surface (okay we were only at 3m) and then to make things even more fun 2 of the students got bored and decided to go off exploring on their own and I was banging my tank to try and get their attention to stay with the group.  Fortunately the rest of the course went off pretty uneventfully.  

Divemaster Internship Week 1

I arrived on the island of Malapascua a week ago to start my Dive Master Internship with Evolution Divers I’ve had my Open Water certification since 2003 and have been diving pretty regularly since moving to Singapore in 2008 and have logged over 160 dives in the process and visited some of Asia’s most beautiful spots (with an infinite number left to travel to).  I’d spoken to a number of fellow divers about where to progress to in my diving and had heard horror stories about DM courses where you are treated as a general dogsbody and put into the most extreme situations to find out how you react under pressure.  Now as I like my diving to be as gentle and stress free as possible it has taken me a while to change my mindset to take on a professional certification where I am now responsible for the well being and enjoyment of others.  On deciding to take the plunge I canvassed my friends to find a dive shop in a location with interesting diving that also had a strong commitment to safety and where I would be learning exactly how things should be done as well as getting a wide range of experience with customers from open water and discover diving courses to leading experienced divers on dives to explore the area and Evolution Divers seemed to fit the bill.

Singaporean flags begining to make their appearance and F15's flying overhead ... you know its time to start preparing for National Day.

Unexpected Adventure to Lake Taal

"Just walk to the end of the road and there you can catch a bus.  It should only take you 1/2 a day or so."

So duly armed with the directions above myself and another person I'd met at the hostel I set off on a journey from Manila to find and explore Lake Taal, a volcanic crater lake within a crater lake just south of Manila.

A Reader Freebie :)

30 May 2012 was a momentous event in the life of A Measure of All Things ... I attended my first ever media briefing and have my first ever reader freebie's to share with my readers from Singapore!

Foodpanda is a new restaurant delivery service that has recently launched in Singapore that currently has more than 130 restaurants (and still growing) on its books and is accessible through various online platforms or via phone.  They have a 60 minute delivery promise for orders in the Singapore CBD and up until the end of June 2012 they are offering the first 50 readers who sign up a Free Delivery voucher (unfortunately only for those people based in Singapore).  You can visit their webpage or Facebook page or follow them on twitter for more information and specials.  So click here for your free delivery code and try out this new service.

Diving in Similans Thailand

In early March I spent 5 days on a live-aboard trip to the Similan Islands off the west coast of Thailand.  I'm not sure how I feel about the trip ... 

I had just recently joined the ranks of the unemployed and was faced with a great deal of uncertainty with regards to my future, but as I usually find dive trips very relaxing I thought that joining some friends on this trip would be a great way to give me space to wait out and see what the universe had waiting for me.  But I found the trip disappointing.

Climbing Gunung Panti

This is my first attempt at a video blog as I felt that the pictures would tell a better story of my climb of Gunung Panti in Johor, Malaysia than a whole bunch of text from me.

Thank you to Katherine Goh for organising the trip and Calvin Cheng for the kind use of some of his pictures.

Scattered Diamonds

Photo: Cн¡aяa D. ƒσtσgraf¡e's

As a scattered diamond sparkles in the sand

So do you my dear, such a rare find

In a recent conversation I was reminded of this poem that was written by someone who I went to university with.  Sadly I don't remember the name of the poet, but the simple beauty of the poem has speaks for itself.  Happy Valentines Day.

Getting My Shoe Mended

While rushing to appointments one morning my shoe decided to come apart.  I managed to tape it back together, but was relieved to stumble across this shoe repairman as I came out of Somerset MRT on Orchard road.  After 15mins my shoe was glued back together and still is....