I’m back from vacation. And it’s a new year. You know what this means. another return to blogging before I get too distracted by other things and forgetting about it altogether.
I think I took The Longest Vacation ever known to man. A month off (almost) of hanging out with my family, playing video games, hanging around the giant floating mall that was formerly the Philippines, and spending as much time as I could manage being underwater.
Vacation was fun. My family hasn’t been All Together In One spot for nigh on 13 years or so. The last recorded instance was somewhere around the time Old Men walked to school uphill both ways in the snow without shoes. That puts a Gomez Family reunion somewhere around the frequency of Haley’s Comet coming for a visit. So it’s a special time indeed.
Amongst the various activities on the docket: Learning to Scuba Dive. And no, this wasn’t the Intro to Scuba dip your toe in the water so you can brag about it to your friends nonsense. I wanted a license.
So off to the pool it was with Mel in tow (one needs a dive buddy after all) for the more hardcore training. Skills in a closed tank gradually got extended until I found myself showing my instructor that I can recover my regulator (that’s the thing you breathe with) underwater and that I had gotten over my annoying tendency to try to breathe water whenever I removed my mask. Eventually I was keeping myself aloft using just lung volume and finning around after Mel and our Instructor with confidence.
It’s a good experience and it’s quite cost effective in the Philippines compared to say, the US. Batangas in the Philippines is supposed to be one of the best scuba diving spots (all of my five dives so far have been there) and if you ever want to learn, I’d heartily recommend giving Arnell Sevilla over at Portulano a ring. Great guy and a good instructor. Not many people can convince me that yes…it is a good idea to swallow that water you just inhaled and let out the World’s Biggest Belch…all with just hand gestures since we were 60 feet underwater.
The resort’s pretty good too if you’re looking for a place to get away from it all. Don’t expect room service after midnight. So sure…right now I have on thermal underwear instead of a wetsuit. And I’ve traded my scuba tank for a big puffy winter jacket. But deep down I’m still finning around a reef pretending I was Darth Vader. You see, I passed the test and that makes me Jacques Costeau junior.
Little Mermaid eat your heart out.
=BG Out=