I was diving again at the weekend but and there does always seem to be a but, it didn’t go quite to plan. Just when I think I am moving forward the crappy bits comes and slaps me down. I had wanted to come away from the weekend having achieved a couple of things, I didn’t which was very disappointing. I had a couple of mates trying to put a positive angle on things but it still didn’t work, I left with some decisions to make. The main one has been made and there is no turning back.
We have the radio on at work and I heard a track which I had recently heard before but this morning the words made me think, I just kept hearing a friend of mine repeating “Stop being hard on yourself”, “Don’t let your demons pull you down”. I suppose this is where I have to admit that the lines of the song are from the new Take Thank single - Shine, I don’t normally pay much attention to music, it’s there in the back ground but I couldn’t tell you what had just been playing.
Now all I have to do is think about the words and everything should be OK - 
February 27th, 2007
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Fiona |
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I was at my LDS Divelife on Thursday night getting a Nitrox fill just in case I went diving, whenever I go I am there for a few hours not because it takes that long to fill but because there are so many people coming in I just chat and wait for a gap. Anyway I jokingly suggested I learn how to use Brett’s blending panel and to my surprise he agreed, he started to show me but then someone else came in and we got sidetracked.
Yesterday I decided to go back and see if it would be OK to do some filling under Sam’s expert supervision, excellent no problems only trouble is we started with a Trimix fill for a 3ltr cylinder for one of the RB guys, blimey how complicated can a fill get - I have been home blending for some years and Nitrox is a doddle in comparison. We ended up doing it twice to get it right, no wonder some shops prefer customers to leave them. Sam said he would prefer it that way to but if people come in and there is time, Brett and Sam don’t seem to mind.
I did get to do some air fills, which were really easy, but when Sam went through the compressor I got a little lost. There weren’t as many fills as I would have liked yesterday, perhaps everyone was out diving, as it was a lovely sunny day. I took my IANTD blending course back in 1999 and I haven’t used a panel before although quite a few years ago another lds let me fill my own, so using Divelife’s panel would be a nice skill to have, if you don’t use or pratice then you forgot what to do.
February 18th, 2007
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Fiona |
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I wrote this a while ago but it seems to be a good time to make it public.
Wow where do I start….. I have been a member of a very sucessful dive forum for nearly 4 years and over that time I have met a number of wonderful people and some I wouldn’t want to meet again, but they are the few. I have no idea if it is me who is getting bored with the whole forum thing or is it the people who now seem to frequent them, I really hope it isn’t me.
I recently had to log off and only log back in when I needed to, which wasn’t often, the first day without it was like suffering a bereavement and I struggled not to lurk but if I was logged in all the time, by now my blood pressure would be through the roof and I would have more red blobs than everyone else in history, rather ironic as things have turned out.
Why is it people feel the need to tell the world their drama’s, do they think the rest of the readership wants to know - I have news for them nobody cares, just like no one cares what I write although I am too cowardly to make this public, so it is just for my own amusment.
At the end of last year I suffered what I would probably call an emotional breakdown, I suppose old age kicked in, I am probably just at the time of life when things get you down and you have to take time out and reassess your life, lucklily I had a few friends around to make sure I was OK.
I hope it is a “winter thing” and people aren’t diving but everyone seems to be ranting about absolutely nothing and it’s the same old crap which is being trawled up. I never thought I would feel like this about a place I call my club, if it was an actual club I would have walked out by now, but its only the internet and I can always turn off.
What has happened to YD by some so called members can only be described as shameful and very sad. There are a couple of members who have declared themselves but some obviously haven’t - those are the cowards in my book. If it was my site I would ban them but I suspect that isn’t going to happen - pity they spoilt it for the rest of use though.
February 15th, 2007
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Today I had a another couple of dives in Stoney, I was diving with a couple of guys I hadn’t met before but I had exchanged a couple of emails with Phil and he seemed like a nice guy, some insider information confirmed that. I woke after a restless night, I never seem to sleep well before I go diving so when the alarm went off at 3am getting up wasn’t a problem, the last of the dive kit packed in the car and off by 3.45am - what the neighbours must think I don’t know.
I had a good journey despite the weather over the Pennines being foggy in places and snow still lying on the moors. I arrived at Stoney thinking I would be queuing in the car park only to find I was about the 5th car there, Phil arrived just as I did and I said a quick hello before getting back in the car for a rest. Don’t know if I dozed off but there was a knock on the car window and one of the Stoney staff was after money, it was about 6.30am - god I hate Stoney. Just before 7 we were released through the gates and parked up, Andy must not have been far behind us because we all ended up parking together. I was just a little pi**ed to find even the cars arriving at about 7.30am were in the main car park.
Phil and Andy knew each other so just my hello’s to be done and we started kit fettling, Phil - what a man he had brought a big flask of tea which was lovely since the tea bar at Stoney doesn’t open until god only knows when, say what you like about Capernwray they open all areas when you arrive. We set off for our first dive about 8.30, we entered off the quayside and descended to the 6m shelf then headed off along the road to the right, I haven’t done this route before and was a nice way of gaining access to the 20m areas without heading over the cliff. Passed the anchor chain to the Staingarth and up and around the boat, off the Staingarth to other areas passed the Wessex and back up the slope to the shallower parts. Nice dive but hands were getting cold towards the end, dive was 44mins to a max depth of 22.4m.
During the surfact interval we had a bacon cob which frankly wasn’t up to much so I don’t think I’ll bother again, after an interval of just over 2 hours we headed off for the second dive, the route was more or less the same as the first one which seemed nice and relaxed, during both dives I had been reaching for my valves and more or less consistently reaching them each time, last week I had problems on the first dive but this week it was much better although the first time I try isn’t quite right, so more practice and once I get them the first time and every time ( a little saying we had a work) I will be happier but I am now confident I could get to them if I had to - which is a good feeling. The second dive was a little shorter at 35mins to 22.2m. Phil had split his cuff seal when he was kitting up and had to use his spare, which apparently leaked a little so he was very cold and should have said something earlier.
Back out of the water we dekitted and headed off to the bar, how those boys could drink cold lemonade and coke I have no idea - I had a hot chocolate, which was nice. We said our goodbyes and I was home in time to watch the rugby about 12 hours after leaving home.
February 11th, 2007
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Fiona |
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I had another couple of dives yesterday which takes me in to double figures (dives 9 & 10)since November, I am still not as comfortable in the water as maybe I should be although I really don’t know where “there” is. It was purely by chance that I visited the UKDivers forum last week, I had been trawling around for something to interest me and I had a look to see what was going on, by chance they were going to Capernwray Dive Centre for the weekend. I emailed a mate and logged back in, so I arrange to pop up and see them on Saturday, unfortunately I put my knee out again on Friday night and it didn’t recover until Saturday night. Sunday morning arrived and I wasn’t sure I could be bothered to get up, anyway with the prospect of a dive and maybe the sun would shine again I decided to go for it.
I arrived and joined the queue of traffic waiting to get in, parked the car and went up for the obligatory hot chocolate. I wasn’t sure who I was looking for but did spot someone I recognised talking to a few people, so I ventured over and asked if they were from UKD - good they were and after a quick chat Dave came over to say hi. I joined him and he introduced me to Jen and another Dave. We had a chat and he said it was OK to join them, after chatting some more, Dave said it would be better to dive in pairs than a 4 so I left to get kitted up. Thanks Dave sorry I wrecked your plans. I joined Dave in the water and we had a chat about what we would do, so off we went along the road in about 7 or 8 metres, once again reaching the valves seemed to be a problem this is becoming frustrating as the last time I dived I thought I had mastered this. We finned around and Dave showed me some stuff and then I tried to do a valve drill, which wasn’t going to happen so I gave up, we continued with the dive ending up around 17m. Nearing the end of the dive I found my valves probably because I had a little more air in the suit, during the ascent Dave and Jen came past and Dave was signalling to say I had a problem, opps my weight belt was sat on the bottom a metre or so below me. As I was only wearing 1kg on the belt it didn’t make that much difference so I held on to it and we exited the water. Dive was 46mins to a depth of 17.4m, water temp was 7degrees. Off for a cuppa and a chat. While we were chatting we were joined by Jonathon at this point Dave left to join his team for their second dive.
Jonathon was back in the water after a layoff due to an operation and he had been diving with a friend who was doing a course for a couple of students, but said it would be OK for me to join them for the next dive. Dave (too many Dave’s) the instructor asked if we could run out a line so that one of the students could do one of their required skills, Jonathon volunteered me, I suspect the line wasn’t very straight as I haven’t done this before, on the way back I changed hands to have the reel in my left hand with my torch this was much easier than the right hand I had used to reel out.
We then rejoined the group for a dive, the students were doing some navigation skills and while they went to do their stuff, Jonathon and I stayed to do some other stuff. I seem to have a problem with keeping still and while Jonathon was doing his basic 5 I had to keep peeling off and coming back to face him, this is something I need to work on. At the end of the dive we did a free ascent and exited after a dive of 40mins to 7.9m again the water temp was about 7 degrees, quite pleasant really and didn’t feel cold despite having wet gloves and everyone else seemed to be in dry gloves.
Thanks to Dave Dowson and Jonathan for the dives.
February 5th, 2007
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Fiona |
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