Open Water Dive in Tioman-May 09

All along, I wanted to learn diving. However, this dream was never fulfilled as nobody jio. Peggie sms me the other day about open water diving & I thought why not? No leave needs to be taken as it is only a weekend trip. And diving should be chicken feet as I swim regularly & Lawrence says so. I was wrong...
Theory Test needs to be taken - I failed as I never studied and played too little cheat.
Practical at Outram Secondary School was horrible; the pool was flooded with so many people. I couldn't breathe through my mouth initially & then I could not take the bloody mask off my face. I was totally exhausted at the end of the day & seriously thought of cancelling the trip to Tioman. Due to the no $ back policy, I eventually still pressed on with the trip with Lawrence (he went for leisure dive) after going for another pool lesson to build my confidence.

Meeting point at Ghim Moh Road on Friday to take the private couch to Mersing (before we transferred to the ferry to cross to Tioman). We arrived approx  2am & had to wake up around 7am!
Peggie & Silvia (Peggie's friend) shared the bunk with us & had to tolerate Lawrence's snoring & grunting throughout the night..

I paired up with Silvia  for the open dive...It did not turn out too bad after all.. However there was one test on navigation using the compass. Those who know me well should be aware how directionless I can be (imagine I can get lost in Raffles Place ?). So learning how to navigate nearly fried my brain cells.

All in all, this trip was fantastic, despite my initial misgivings..I am actually looking forward to the next dive drip with Lawrence (although he chose the turtle over me when we paired up for the last dive, and he never noticed that I was drifting up..I will remember this forever! What a buddy!)