First Dive Of The Season

I have not been feeling very happy lately, and I did not know why, but now I think it's simple. I have been out of my natural habitat.

Today I got back into it at Beadnell, where myself and a buddy had a happy 45mins floating around Lady Hole. Not too many fish, but velvet swimming crabs, hermit crabs, edible crabs, starfish and lobster were all there. I actually think I saw a spider crab, but left my camera at home, so can't verify it. (Picture on the left taken by buddy.)

I usually do leave the camera at home when I do refresher dives, either in the pool or in the sea. If I'm going to have any problems with either my gear or myself, it'll be on the first dive of the season, and cameras can distract you from problems. (Also I forgot to charge the battery. Oops.) I did a pool dive on Wednesday, which was fine apart from getting cramp in my foot, which was not fun.

On the plus side, we had 3-4m vis, temperature was very nice for the time of year, lovely sunny day, and my new dive torch (courtesy of a photo competition I won last year) worked a treat. Fun all round! Farnes and Oban, here I come.

Motivational Thoughts

I was recently online on a discussion forum for professionals in my field. (As one does. In my defense, I do have a life, most of the time, and having to interview for your own job twice in ten months will tend to make you take a keen interest in your career.)
One of the discussions was "What motivational sayings do you use?" Mine were:
"Onward and upward". (Works in any given situation.)
"Stay calm, stay cool and stay focussed." (Works especially well in stressful situations.)
"It will all be the same a hundred years hence." (When perspective is needed.)
"At least you're not tidying wallpaper for a living." (This was my Saturday job, aged 16.)

Unitarian Cupcakes

Something not a lot of people know about me is that I'm a Unitarian. I'll post more about what that involves in the future. The name comes from our belief in one God (as compared to the "Holy Trinity" view of God in most other Christian churches), often described as the "Divine Mystery". Once I began to attend a Unitarian church I found a people whose beliefs were mine. It was a very happy moment.

More about Unitarianism here: Unitarianism

One belief we all share is the importance of a drink and a biscuit after the service. Recently we received these rather beautiful cupcakes from a relative of a member of the congregation, who is setting up a baking business. Aren't they lovely?



(The Unitarian religious symbol is the lit candle, not the cross.)

Pip's Graves

Bit of a departure this, literally. I've left my usual Northern haunts for a visit down south to family, where we stopped off to look at "Pip's Graves" in St James's Churchyard, Cooling, in Kent. These are the tiny gravestones described by Charles Dickens as being the graves of Pip's brothers in "Great Expectations". You can see a picture here, they're quite strange and sad:

Pip's Graves

I really ought to read some Dickens this year.

I should also soon have finished my write-ups of Glastonbury 2010 and Leeds 2011, they'll be posted up here soon, and the dive season is coming! Yay!