General

Long time no blog... Life has been really hectic and I rarely have time to stop right now. On 23rd January Louise and I along with four friends went to the Hilton Long Beach Hotel in Hurghada, Egypt for a week. As luck would have it my 27th birthday fell in the middle of our week away (on the 26th of January). I didn't think we were even going to make it out to Egypt in the week leading up to our holiday with the fence blowing down, a client's server going down and the car misbehaving but we got there in the end...

We got to the hotel pretty late on Tuesday, just in time to get a little food and some beer before getting some sleep. As usual I didn't manage to sleep on the plane and so was exhausted. Our room was really nice, all our dive gear made it out with us, we packed lightly enough to avoid excess baggage charges and the weather was great.

On the first full day we went down to the resident dive cetre, Pirates Diving (not a very nice web site), my friends signed up for their PADI open water course and we took our dive gear down to the centre and did a beach dive in the afternoon. They kept us waiting around for a few hours until the divemaster finally turned up. I was getting impatient to hit the water, but he got there after a few false starts, we kitted up and jumped in off the jetty. It was a nice dive, warm water at 22 C but the reef was pretty barren and there was a sandy bottom at about 7 m and so no blue to stare off in to.

In between working on my thesis I have been reading some really interesting posts on a blog from the EPSRC Ideas Factory on the "Software Control of Matter". To me and many others this is an extremely interesting area of research. Its director is Professor Richard Jones FRS who has his own very interesting blog as well as a very good book out on the subject called "Soft Machines" which I have read and would highly recommend.

The ideas factory is taking place this week and the blog poses some very interesting questions and the comments to the posts are well worth a read. I couldn't resist posting a few of my thoughts on what one might do with a matter compiler. My own slant leads me to hope that there will be an open source version available rather than some DRM crippled machine that only makes what the vendor wants you to make/sells you. There are obviously dangers associated with that depending upon how powerful the matter compiler is. I was also reminded that a matter decompiler is very different to a matter compiler by a subsequent commenter - I guess I was just getting ahead of myself as he is obviously correct!

I know I will be reading the blog entries and comments with great interest (even though I should probably be spending more time on my thesis). It also makes for an interesting new and open way for new research proposals and directions to be discussed by academic researchers. I for one think that this approach is great and would like to see more of it.

Coincidentally I also read about an open desktop fabricator developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA. This is a desktop fabricator you can build yourself, they have also developed software to control it and you can use several different materials to fabricate 3D objects at home. Not quite nano but still very interesting to see. They have set up a web site about the Fab@Home project that is well worth a visit.

I just thought I would wish everyone out there a happy new year. I have given the parties a miss this year, but had a great party yesterday where lots of old friends from university along with a few new ones came over to our house. We cooked dinner for everyone and then played party games, talked and drank well into the morning. The house is still a mess, I will be eating leftovers for a week but I had a really good night. I figured I could get some work done tonight and tomorrow - my thesis certainly needs as much time as I can spare for it! Gentoo development has also been neglected recently due to me writing up my thesis.

2006 has been a pretty good year overall. I got to do quite a bit of traveling to Baltimore, Malta, Dublin and several places around the UK diving. I recently got my PADI divemaster certification. I ran my first 10 km race and am in the best shape I have been for years. It hasn't been a perfect year as my thesis is still not complete and I have not found a postdoctoral position as yet. I will be getting my thesis finished very soon though and I have a week in Hurghada, Egypt to look forward to.

I am going to have a think about new years resolutions. Last year it was to lose weight and get back into shape and that worked out pretty well. Completing my thesis will certainly be in there! I hope you all have a great new year whatever you are doing. I am going to go and join Louise at her parents before the new year gets here!

Happy new year!

I have been meaning to write about this for a while now and new year's eve (grammar?) seems quite appropriate. In mid-January we changed gyms from Virgin Active to Greens. Part of the reason was because Greens was in a more convenient location, some because Virgin Active had become so busy over the last few months it was difficult to use and partly because their staff never really delivered on their promise of offering regular training advice as part of our membership.

In 2005 I made some progress and got into better shape but didn't really get anywhere near to reaching my goals of losing weight and getting into better shape. I think I tried my first ever diet in 2005 too, starting off with just trying to cut out junk, then trying the Atkins diet for a while and then going back to just cutting out rubbish again. The first picture shows a photo of me in July 2004 before I started out on my quest to get back into shape. Below is pretty much after about a year of going to Virgin Active and trying various diets (and getting married) in January 2006.

By January I had lost some weight, I was swimming pretty regularly, eating pretty well most of the time and we had found a reasonable diet that made sense and that we stuck to on the whole - the GI Diet which to me seems like a healthier, more scientifically sound and less extreme version of the Atkins diet. It also doesn't require too much planning which is great for me. We also watched a TV programme and I later bought a short paperback book written by Paul McKenna called "I Can Make You Thin" which contains some very simple advice which I could have probably thought of on my own but hadn't taken the time to consider until reading it.

As part of my induction at Greens I met a woman called Debs who is one of the trainers there and she outlined my initial exercise program. She also invited us along to a healthy eating session the gym runs for its members and encouraged me to use my monthly review session. At Greens they really seemed to stick to their end of the bargain which helped me to stick to mine. Most of the time I managed to eat healthily and adopted Deb's philosophy (and the GI diet's too I think) on trying to eat natural unprocessed foods as much as possible.

I slowly started running on the treadmill (hadn't run for more than three or four minutes before that since school), going to a few classes like spinning and following my exercise program. I also weighed myself at least once a week and kept a record so I always knew how I was doing without becoming neurotic about the occasional blips. The result is the last picture. In a year I have gone from having a BMI in excess of 30 (which horrified me when I found out) to one of just over 26. I think I have lost over 25 kg in the last year (although a little has crept back on in the last month).

I usually workout three to four times a week now, I ran my first 10km race for the British Heart Foundation and am planning to go in a few more and do the Sheffield half marathon in May next year! I feel better by far and have gone from being an overweight geek to a much leaner one - I remember Donnie noting how open source developers tend to be overweight or very skinny in a previous post. I am pleased to be moving over to the skinny side of the fence!

I feel much better at my leaner weight and my health in general has improved. We have also cut out the majority of processed food and tend to eat wholegrain stuff and well in excess of the five a day (portions of fruit and vegetables) the government recommends. Going forward into the new year I will probably shed a bit more weight, that should make the half marathon a little easier. Other than that I am going to try to improve my aerobic fitness and concentrate on completing my doctoral thesis and finding a job!

It was tough getting back into shape but well worth it. I for one am glad to be out of the obese bracket and never intend to go back there. I think having hobbies such as scuba diving really help me stick to that. Seeing the photos all on one page it really does shock me just how different I look now.

Update: This xkcd entry seems especially relevant

Did you all have a very merry Xmas or was it more of a bah, humbug for you? I have to admit I personally do not have much time for the season of excess and high expectations which are all too often not met for many people. Getting together with family, eating and drinking too much to spend the next few months regretting it for emotional or weight related reasons

I think it can be fun for children if done in the right way but adults should see it as a chance to spend time with family and friends. I personally look forward to getting together with friends in between Christmas and New Year. As an atheist I have no problems with the religious message of Christmas being lost (they borrowed most of it from the pagans and various others anyway). I dislike not being able to nip into the shops and the disruption to my schedule but you get used to it. I do however always look forward to meeting up with old friends.

This year was always going to be worse than others for me as I am behind on the completion of my thesis (should have been done by now) and so every spare moment is spent writing that up. There are also various things around the house that need finishing up... I for one don't feel the need or wish to conform to the Christmas traditions, most of which were made up in the last 100 or so years. I hope you all got what you wanted from Christmas, or if not at least got out of it without too many lasting scars

I for one will be getting back to work now!

Louise and I did a one mile santa dash last Sunday around the Winter Gardens in Sheffield city centre. It was for the British Heart Foundation and we got a santa suit included in our entry fee to keep forever (don't think many people would want it after we ran a mile in it). I was feeling really out of shape after the Christmas parties and drinking I have done over the last few weeks not to mention muscular atrophy due to being tied to my computer writing up my thesis when I haven't been out drinking!

The Sheffield Star wrote a short article about it here and Louise thinks she might be in the picture too. Even though I was feeling out of shape I still managed to stay with the front group the whole way round...I was at the back of it but still in the group of front runners. I forgot to start my stop watch but I reckon I managed it in a fair time and I was very out of breath at the end!

I am hoping to find a local 10 km run for the New Year to help me run off some of the rubbish I have been eating recently. It was good fun and I even have a tacky santa suit should I need one.

I got an email from PADI member services today with my Divemaster number - I am #642006. I was quite excited to receive it but was hoping I would have the card by now. It is quite special as you keep this number for the rest of your professional qualifications with PADI. It doesn't mean that much if you are not into diving though.

I might not be able to get diving for quite some time though as I am stuck writing up my thesis as well as being pretty broke due to the way in which PhDs are funded over here. It will be a tough holiday period writing up and being broke but this should be the last one as a student! Hopefully next year will be a good one for work and diving - ideally I will have lots more time to do some development too!

I recently bought the The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and couldn't put it down. I attended a Roman Catholic primary and secondary school and learnt quite a lot about religion. The more I learnt the less I believed, I think I was about 13 or 14 when I realised I was an atheist after spending quite some time reading the available literature and talking with some of my teachers, friends and family. I have been in situations where it has been difficult to discuss my beliefs and have had several people try to intimidate me over the years, as well as the odd attempt a "saving me"...

I have to say that this book is very well written, and I recognised so many of the arguments used by religious people as well as many of Richard Dawkins' very well thought out responses as I have had similar discussions over the years. I really think it would do many people a great deal of good to read this whatever their particular theological stance. To me it was extremely refreshing to read such an honest and well thought out book that looks at every major argument used by religious people in turn and respond to it. This book will certainly be taking pride of place on my book shelf and after reading it I have been convinced that I really should be more outspoken about my own particular stance.

There is a web site with more details about his book along with details of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. It is absolutely great to see work like this being undertaken and I for one will do what I can to support it. People should not be ashamed or worried to come out as atheists, although some of the statistics and quotes in his book do make me realise that I am lucky to live in England where there is far less fundamentalism than in other parts of the world; although it does appear to be creeping in quietly and so vigilance is required.

In closing this is a very good book, and I intend to read it again once I have finished my thesis and I have a little more time. I have so many other books I want to read too but I am glad I bumped this one up the queue!

I was just adding a couple of bits to an order with Amazon that I started yesterday (I think, may be the day before) and they just increased the prices on three things in my basket What is happening? Not the normal pound or two either, Spooks Season 4 (Xmas pressie) went from £27.99 to £31.99, Blue Planet (I like stuff underwater if you haven't noticed) went up from £17.99 to £23.99 and the Final Destination 1-3 box set went up from £15.99 to £21.24!

I learnt to stop being quite so lazy and found out that by shopping around I could get Spooks Season 4 for £27.99 and the Final Destination box set for £11.99 from Play.com with free delivery too. I need to stop being so lazy but I don't get why Amazon suddenly put their prices up by so much. Is this the sound of Xmas coming or is there something else I am not aware of? They do Blue Planet at £22.99 though so it wasn't all good news, but they are now way cheaper than Amazon...

I am going to go back to writing my thesis instead of ranting about randomness now May be I should start a new rants category.

I was hoping to get some work done over the bank holiday weekend but instead we just haven't stopped at all since Friday evening and I haven't gotten any work done until this morning! Started off going out for a curry with Louise and some friends from work along with their partners. It was a really nice curry but the waiter made me laugh as he had put mad hot next to my order and I had found it enjoyable but far from mad hot Saw a few guys from the magnetics group in the pub before we left and realised how rarely I make it out these days - they had redecorated and refurbished the bar without me even noticing any of the work going off...

Saturday morning it was over to Tigerdive early to help out with my first open water course as a trainee divemaster. It was good fun but a really long day. I think I got there at 8:30 and wasn't home until just before 21:00. It was quite a small group, with only four students in the end but it was still enjoyable and an opportunity to learn more about being a divemaster in a teaching assistant role.

Then straight off to town for a few drinks with some old friends I haven't seen since school. They met up for a meal at 19:00 but I knew I probably wouldn't make it in until later. It was strange seeing them after so many years and I hope we manage to stay in touch a little more in future. I remember my days at All Saints quite fondly on the whole.

I got a lay in on Sunday and then we went off to visit Louise's family at her sisters for the weekly coffee morning. After that we went shopping at CCC and Decathlon for some camping supplies. It was good fun but I took ages deciding between three tents. We had the two man fold out, the three man dome tent and the three man tunnel tent.

After much deliberation I decided on the three man tunnel tent because Louise liked it more and I thought a little extra space would be good. Hopefully it will be a decent tent. I will be using it up at Capernwray this weekend along with some of the other goodies we got. I think we will be borrowing Louise's parents bigger tent when we camp up at St Abbs the weekend after. In the afternoon I went to help out with the open water course again. Didn't get home until late an then just collapsed on the sofa and had a bite to eat.

Sunday day I spent reorganising my office and tidying up to make the perfect thesis station as I really need to accelerate my thesis writing if I want to be finished by the end of the year. It looks pretty good now and it feels better having a change. Then some friends came round for dinner and stayed until quite late drinking some wine and Jamesons...

In the middle of all that Louise picked up our new used car - a really big Renault Megane Scenic. It is pretty nice although well used. It is one of the oldest cars I have ever driven (P reg) but has lots of space for diving and camping gear along with us and the dog. My dive box just slides into the boot which is great. Hopefully it will prove to be a reliable car - but we have only had it for a few days so far.

Best get back to writing that thesis - I have written all these words on here but none of them count towards my thesis I will work on a thesis-o-meter tonight to track my progress throughout the final months.

I am so busy at the moment! Went diving yesterday at Stoney Cove to do my deep specialty - it was really good to get away from it for a day. I have been doing data analysis all day today, and I was hoping to get more of my thesis written but so far haven't had time to get to that today. I haven't had much time for Gentoo development at all recently - hopefully things will improve a little once I have made some progress with my thesis write up. I can't believe it is mid-August already!!!

Back to the grind stone...

Been so busy this week and haven't even had chance to sit down and write about Ireland until today! Louise and I had a really nice time out in Dublin. We met up with former dev Rob (tigger^) and his wife for a meal on the Friday night. Louise and Sarah started laughing at us when we started speaking about techie things and steered the conversation back to more important things like the sights of Dublin!

Louise and I went to the Jamsons distillery and the Guinness store house for their tours. I got myself a nice bottle of Jamesons 12 year old as a souvenir after sampling a few of their drinks. Saturday night we got invited to a small party with some friends of Rob, had a really nice time but found out just how hard a taxi can be to get in Dublin late at night!

The next day we had our big drive down to Cork. Found a nice pub along the way to get a little lunch at but most of Ireland seemed to be closed so we didn't do much else. Our hotel was pretty easy to find, but both the hotels we stayed in claimed to be in the city centre of Dublin and Cork respectively. Neither was even close - we must research these things more closely in future!

On our last day in Ireland we went to the Old Middleton Jamesons distillery to see if that one was nicer. We thought it was and enjoyed the tour more at this one. I did resist the urge to get any more souvenirs though Then we went to a zoo where they seem to let the animals roam about. Louise loves her zoos. I got some really nice pictures on my SLR (need to get the film developed) and Louise got some good ones on my little digital camera too. Had a beautiful meal at the hotel after trying to park in Cork and giving up after about 45 minutes of trying!

We would definitely go back to Ireland, but I would like to take in some of the west coast next time. I hear there is some amazing diving too so we would have to take the ferry next time as 10 kg is not a lot of dive gear on Ryanair! I will try to put up my photos as soon as I get chance.

We are about to leave for the airport. We are taking a long weekend break in Ireland! Should hopefully be meeting up with Rob Holland (former dev) whilst out there and I will be sampling the local Guinness to see if it really is nicer out there. Get to spend a few days in Dublin and then down to Cork. Should be lots of fun (neither of us have been before).

Best get going - back Tuesday I think

I finshed my 10 km run in Graves Park today!!! I was really pleased with myself as I did the whole thing in just under 59 minutes, I didn't get any shin splints and I managed to raise £56.50 for the British Heart Foundation. It was certainly very tough and there were some big hills on the course. It was mostly on grass too which seemed to take more out of me as I was running it.

I was aiming to do it in under an hour though and I did that. I don't think I am super fit yet, and I haven't lost as much weight as I would like but it certainly made me feel good that I could make it round the course and come out with quite a good time. There were a few there that did it in 35-40 minutes I believe - I might get there one day! I would quite like to find a half marathon to run somewhere next!

I am going to relax for the rest of the day working in front of my computer...

Well I signed up for the 10 km race in Graves Park, Sheffield this Sunday. I nearly wimped out and took the 5 km option as I know I can run that but I thought I should try to push myself. Louise did really well in her 5 km run she did the other week and that inspired me to push myself. So I signed up and paid my entry fee.

On Saturday we went to Rother Valley and ran around both lakes - that is about half the distance at ~5 km. Then on Sunday I ran 6 km on the treadmill at the gym, and yesterday I managed to run 7.5 km on the treadmill. I kept it on a 1% gradient the whole time to put some gradient on it. I am planning on running 9 or 10 km at the gym tomorrow, and then running about 10 km at Rother Valley on Friday. If I make it I may actually have a chance.

I am fitter now than I have been in years and I hope I manage to make it round, it would be great if I can do it in under one hour. I have raised £40 for the British Heart Foundation already, and hope to raise a little more before the race. If you fancy giving a little money to a good cause, and sponsoring a fellow Linux geek in his bid to get fit they have an online sponsorship page for me here.

Running has been a great way to keep the weight coming off, even when I am not as disciplined as I should be Wish me luck on my first ever long distance run (used to run 400 m at school) and my first race since I was at school! Hopefully all will go well on the day.

After singing Dyson's praises yesterday I suppose it is only fitting another company makes my blood boil today. I don't think I ever wrote about it but a couple of years ago my wife and I went to Ibiza to spread my brother's ashes with my family. I took my SLR camera and ended up taking about seven rolls of film out there. Louise took them to Jessops in Sheffield city centre near Ponds Forge. We used them a little before that and I actually bought my SLR camera from them about six months earlier.

She asked for one hour processing when she dropped them off on her lunch hour. We went to collect the films at about 16:30ish after work and they weren't ready - in fact they had not even started to process them. The machine wasn't doing anything at the time. They actually lied and claimed that she had asked for four hour processing (we didn't even know they offered that - all that was advertised was one hour or next day I believe). They weren't even ready in four hours. They had a kid with long hair in the back who did the processing and he actually started talking about Louise with the other staff whilst she was stood there - hurling insults at her which she overheard as he wasn't talking as quietly as he might have thought.

I complained to the manager, he was pretty spineless and didn't do anything about this rude employee. He offered us the processing for free, but then when he realised how expensive it would be backtracked and offered it to us half price. We stood there and waited whilst the kid who was so rude continued to process the film. In the end (after about 45 minutes) we got our photos and I let the manager know again just how unhappy I was. I also wrote a letter of complaint to their head office and got a reply back basically saying we're sorry and not a lot else.

Then yesterday I was placing an order with Club 35 whom I have found to be very good over the last year or two. As I was looking at the negatives I noticed that the photo I wanted an enlargement of has had its edge sliced off. Looking through the other negatives quite a few of them are like this. Now Jessops is supposed to be an award winning photo processor (part of the reason I paid more to use them) but I also remember him slamming the blade down as he was chopping up the negatives. To me that is just gross incompetence or possibly even malicious. I prefer to believe incompetence but I suspect it was malicious.

That guy didn't have a clue how much or how little those photos meant to me or my wife. Hopefully the guys at Club 35 will be able to make an enlargement from the negative anyway, but I really just wanted to write this post to express my sheer anger. Jessops should discipline their staff if they behave in such a manner, it upset my wife and that guy has damaged the negatives to my pictures from an event that will only ever happen once. It also reminds me how much trust you are forced to put in strangers and how it is so easy to let you down...

No I haven't been paid off by Dyson, but I just felt that I had to express my total satisfaction at their fresh approach. Like most people we have to clean our house from time to time otherwise our computers would get clogged and the house would smell... We've had a Dyson for the past three years or so and it broke on Thursday with a nasty metallic smell coming out of it. We looked at the warranty and it only lasted for two years but we figured it was a fairly expensive Dyson so it might be worth getting it fixed.

They sent someone round to our house on Monday and said there was no charge if he couldn't fix it, it was also free if it was a manufacturing fault or a flat rate fee of £55 to fix it. We figured we couldn't go wrong with that and when he came round he had it fixed within twenty minutes (new motor + filter) and said it was free. They even guarantee the repair for a year! After all the hassle we had with things like our crappy Peugeot 106 (actively trying not to honour their warranty) I was so shocked at a company like Dyson treating us so well.

It is just a small thing but I have to say I am extremely impressed and as far as I am aware this is how they treat all their customers. They have made a loyal customer out of me and for once I have been shocked in a good way. Now to get some work done in my freshly vacuumed office

I was away 8-12 May at a UK Grad school as part of my PhD. I went away not expecting very much from it at all, and I was so shocked. It was a really useful week away, I met lots of interesting people and learnt a lot about myself. I think it has really helped to get me in the right frame of mind to get my PhD finished and find a great job out in California! It has taken me this long to even touch my blog as I have been so busy at work setting my schedule, agreeing it with my supervisors.

I also found the time to sign up for the researchers in residence scheme and attended the briefing day at Sheffield Hallam University (the other one down the road ). We did lots of really useful stuff at the Grad school such as interview skills (great for me as I am job hunting right now), marketing, negotiation, constructive feedback (the level of honesty was very refreshing) and lots more besides. We also squeezed a lot of socialising in during the few hours they gave us to ourselves!

I now have an agreed schedule for writing up my thesis and papers. I still have a little lab time I can squeeze in and fingers crossed it should be submitted by the end of September fully complete. I will of course be using my favourite open source tools to write up with and was considering writing an article on open source tools and their use in a scientific PhD. Could be a good one to write while I am waiting for my viva...

Just a quick note to say we had a great holiday in Malta in the end. The diving improved greatly in the end and Aquaventure showed us some great sites. Unfortunately they never managed to get us out to the Camino caves which would have been great to see. I did go on four really nice wreck dives though to the Rozi and the Um El Faroud - doing some penetration into the engine room of the Um El Faroud. Louise and I also went to the much older wreck of the HMS Maori on our last dive of the holiday which was excellent and he even found us a sea horse which I got a few shots of.

I have put up the digital photos here but have not had chance to improve the colours and stuff yet - some of them look much better with a little tweaking. A lot of the wreck photos also look amazing in black and white. I don't think I have any prize winners yet but they are a great set of pictures for my first diving holiday with the camera (in my opinion at least). I would love to hear what other people think of them. I really have the bug for diving now too so I am hoping to get into the UK diving scene a little over the Summer too. Some of the videos I made are really big, they play fine under Linux for me but Windows seems to have issues on friends systems...

We also went horse riding while we were away, it was Louise's idea and we both really enjoyed it. The weather wasn't great and the food didn't improve at the hotel at all but we had a great time in the end. I also got quite a nice tan. The Internet over there was so amazingly unreliable and slow too with the wireless taking up to 20 attempts just to associate with the router sometimes. Good to be back in the UK where things like this work a lot better

I am packing again this morning though as I am on a residential course out at Lake Windermere for a week with the UK GRAD programme. Cut off from civilisation again... Then I can play with my photos a little and get my SLR photos developed too - I have quite a backlog now. Great holiday though and I am about ready to get back into my work now - get that thesis written up!

We got to Malta safe and sound. It was really hot at the airport but got really cold by the time we got to the hotel. When we got here it was like the hotel time forgot - it seems to be stuck about forty years in the past which is why so many old people are here I guess It is nice enough but quite basic for a four star hotel - the Mellieha Bay Hotel.


We went on our first dive today with Aquaventure who are at the beach in our hotel complex. I have been looking forward to going on another dive for a good few months now but I was disappointed I am afraid... It was the shortest dive I have done so far at only 34 minutes, the shallowest at a max depth of 7.6 m and an average of about 4 m. It was also the coldest (15 C) and the one where I had the most air left at the end. I came up with just under 130 bar... There were very few photo opportunities in Slugs Bay too - I will put a few up with this entry though such as the sea slug I found.

It was nice to finally get to use all this new equipment though. My underwater camera enclosure seemed to work well, although the woman who sold it to me just told me I need the fibre optic kit to get rid of back scatter... If she had told me that when I asked at the dive show I would have bought one there and then. Never mind - I will get the best photos I can with what I have available. Even though the water was cold my wet suit kept me warm. Louise gobbled through her air - she only had 80 bar left but she gets a lot more nervous.

We have arranged a car for the next four days (three full days) and have two dives booked on Friday, one on Saturday and one or two on Monday I think. Hopefully I will get a few wreck dives in next week too as well as some caves. I really hope the diving does get better - I think we were spoilt in the Red Sea!


Lousie managed to beat me this morning too - she pasted me at Scrabble whilst we were sat at the side of the pool. Back to the evenings entertainment anyway...