I’ve had a fantastic weekend diving down in Cornwall out of Porthkerris. A bit of an epic seven hour journey to get there but worth it for the four dives that I had.
The highlight of the weekend has to be when we returned from the last dive spotting a basking shark in the bay. All of us madly were putting our fins, masks and snorkels back on hoping to get in the water with it. I was not disappointed and managed to see it gliding through the water. The size of it was incredibly impressing.
Well I’ve had a busy couple of weeks. First I was off down to the Isles of Scilly for a great week of diving in some gloriously sunny weather. I was lucky enough to get in 12 dives, a couple of very good wall dives, several on wrecks including the last to go down in 1997. Managed a great swim through underneath the bow of this ship. We even managed a couple of dives with
Last week I was out in Amsterdam with work but managed to take in a few of the sights and sounds and avoiding getting run down by a cyclist. I managed to take in the a canal boat tour and dinner, a visit to a windmill, Van Gogh museum which currently has on an exhbition of Caravaggio and Rembrant painting, the Rijksmuseum home to more painting by Rembrant indcluding the Nightwatch, Rembrant’s House, Anne Frank’s House, the Foam Gallery, Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography and De Oude Kerk which had on the World Press Photographer 2006 exhibition. On top of this I managed to wander round the city passing through the red light district.
Amsterdam is a very different city to other’s I have visited. It’s canal’s and flat terrain have created a very varied city with a compact centre that is small and easily crossed on foot and easily enough that people are willing to cycle rather than having to own a car. I can imagine that Amsterdam is a very difficult city to learn Dutch in as the Dutch speak English very well. I came across several conversations as I wandered around where a foreigner was speaking to someone Dutch in English.
Had a interesting time taking in my surroundings and was pleasently surprised to someone to explore a couple of the sights and sounds with. Strangely enough an Australian lass working near Munich on a placement as part of her studies.
Another good weekend seeing school friends. It’s a shame that’s only twice a year but we’ve decided that we ought to go to Norway this summer so hopefully I should see them sooner rather than later.
Some classic quotes from the weekend in Bishop’s Stortford with Alex Long, Geoffrey Willobough and Jeremy Parkinson.
Alex: I’ve made the long list.
Tim: Is it full of Longs?
Tim: We’ve got at least two intelligent people here
Geoffrey: Half each
Tim: We’re not wearing studs.
Alex: But we’re all studs.
Alex: I get weak after so much.
Geoffrey: So does your prose
Tried Ceroc for the first time tonight. Very different from Salsa, don’t need to worry about the feet being in the right place every beat. Quite chilled and less complex than I thought. I’ll be goig back for more but will also keep up with the Salsa.
Another birthday celebration last night. This time my friend Fiona having reached the tender age of 27. Makes me realise that it is now nearly ten years since I left school, a longer period of time than I spent at my secondary school.
Found somewhere else to do salsa in Maidstone, from the 3 April, Monday nights in the Spanish Restaurant in Earls Street, I’m tempted to give it a go.
Well I’ve just returned from 18 Plus’s 2006 Brean weekend over at Brean near Weston-Super-Mare. The second year in a row that I’ve been there and I had a great time meeting people I’d met last year for the first time and making new acquaintances.
Still single and didn’t meet anyone special at Brean. There are times where you do meet someone one and it nearly goes somewhere but fails and the reason’s not obvious, not the right time, not the right place, too far away, too much trouble, too little faith in one’s self. This time I was just on planet Zog. Did have a cracking good talk about fusion reactors though
Driving back through Glastonbury I had a fantastic view of the Tor frame between two hills but trapped behind the wheel with the camera in the boot it will be a memory I will have to hold in my head and perhaps only one day capture on film.
Had some excitment on the way back when I managed to stall my car at a roundabout in Salisbury and then couldn’t get started again. I ended up having to call a mechanic out to fix what turned out to be a problem with a module that controls the distributor. It’s a first time for everything and I’m glad I didn’t break down on the motorway as it would have been far more dangerous and expensive.
Having read Slashdot’s article on Sony’s PS3 Announcement at the Games Developer Conference 2006 it looks like Sony’s next generation console could well become my next new PC.
Given that I would need to upgrade my computer to run Windows XP let alone Windows Vista I can’t see any problem with keeping my old PC to run legacy applications: – Diablo II, Freespace, Independence War. Perhaps someone will write an emulator fast enough so that I can carry on playing it in on the PS3. 60 GB of space is more than ample to store my photo collection and if it works as a network server as well as is hinted than it can join my PS2 doing archive duties. All I need now is a facility to play Atrac3’s on it and I’ll be sorted.
With 3 ethernet ports and wireless ethernet it could well be the network hub and make a steal on Microsoft given that these facilities aren’t standard on an Xbox 360.
Just have to wait and see what comes out and at what cost.
Saw something that I’ve never seen before today. A massive flock of birds wheeling across the sky. So large that it didn’t have the typical V shape that one imagines but more lumpy with a prescene of a group that knows it’s going somewhere.
On another note it’s budget day tomorrow.
Not quite yet my mum’s 60th birthday, that’s tomorrow but we celebrated it today with a flight on the London Eye with 25 of my mother’s family and friends followed by a party. Strange to think how full a life can be after 60 years marked by memories, friendships and photos. It makes me wonder where I’ll be in another 33 years.
On my own side I’ve not had the energy or the time to post stuff recently having been involved with a turnaround at work. I think that it might be over for me. Just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.