Into the darkness...

After the last weekend kayaking and raiding fishermen's nets I was ready for something different. (We didnt steal anything. Just haul up their nets in the middle of the sea to see what's in them. Although me, TC and Brandon did think of it when we found 5 crabs in one of them cages. But hey, everybody's got to make living.)We did bring back 40 or so mussels after stopping by a kelong. Boy did they taste good! Good haul. Have to go back there again sometime soon.

This weekend. the 27th. Wenbiao's bday. His first open water dive at Pulau Hantu and I went with him. Should be interesting since Singapore's waters is reputed to have very bad viz. My hopes weren't high but I hoped we'd see something.

I was diving with divemaster Carla (think she's a Brit) and a recue diver trainee Sharon. I was informed by Carla that she would pretend she was out of air to see Sharon's reaction and told me not to panic or interfere. Ok sure.

The Viz was bad. I think max 1.5 -2 metres. We descended to like 9-10 metres before hitting the seabed and around the 7 metre mark it got v dark. Quite disturbing actually the feeling because I nearly got disoriented. After my eyes adjusted it was ok. Saw some crabs and small fishes. I was grubbing around the sand looking for something nice and I saw this scallop shell. Cool Souvenir. I thought. Nth inside the shell so I took it and stuffed it in my wetsuit.

Then, Carla started signalling out of air. (Gawd! I forgot the warning and nearly rushed to offer my air I saw sharon coming.) Carla then started struggling at sharon and tearing at her spare regulator mouthpiece. Oscar worthy performance. Sharon reacted well by stopping and "calming" Carla before offering her air. That was basically it for the 1st dive.

2nd Dive. The moment I descended for about 3 seconds from the surface. I lost sight of Carla and Sharon. It was as if they vanished in front of my eyes. The viz was that bad. Ok , I thought, no need to worry. Just get to the bottom and search them out in 1 minute. I carried on descending and then it got darker and darker and finally it became pitch black! Oh Geez! I can't see nothing. Its like being struck blind. I looked up and its still pitch black. Uh-Oh! I'm in trouble. Should I wait for them to find me? Or go up. No way they'd find me in this darkness unless they bumped into me. Best go up. And I found them on the surface.

WE tried again at the anchor line to go down. I suggested we go down and see how it'd be like at the seabed whether it'd still be pitch black. So I went first descending using the anchor rope. Same creepy feeling of going blind slowly. Then pitch dark again. Then, as I stayed there waiting for Carla, morbid thoughts started circling my mind.

"Hmm, if some predator or Shark wants me for dinner, here's their chance, I can't see can't hear and cant move from this line."
"Maybe I ought to pull out my knife...."
"Nah if I stick myself or Carla with that I'm in deep shit."
"Nah no sharks around"
"Hey who's hand?! Oh its Carla"

That's when we ascended holding hands. What an experience. I've dived more than 10 times and never seen pitch darkness in the water before. So we had to abort the dive.

Afterwards, biao wanted to go to Harbourfront to get some clothes. But I walked in there sopping wet and wearing booties. What a sight I must have been! Biao had the decency to change and wear sandals. As I said " Hey its ur birthday. I'd gladly embarass myself for ur amusement on ur bday."

All in all an interesting day.

'07

Let's see. Its been a long time since I blogged. First entry of the new year.
I probably won't blog again for a while again. Maybe in a couple weeks. So I'll try to make this a long one.

Let's see, the Army rejected my application to go in early. Hey, why did I wanna go in early some of you ask? It what guys who suffer a heartbreak do. We want to go in in January. We wanna get away from the city and seeing couples all around. We want to invest our energy in serving the country instead of moping around drinking shooters every saturday night and shooting the shit with the fellows. At least that was the way things were going through my mind when i impulsively entered CMPB to apply for early enlistment. Seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

But that was after Christmas. its history now. I can laugh again (Well most of the time. I just got back today from my first love. Flying. It was great. After watching Flyboys. I rememebered how long since I'd last flown. The feeling of being in the air and controlling my own destiny(through the Grace of God) is just fantastic.

I got to thinking. Why do people write blogs? Where did the good old fashion journal go? Blogs can be seen by anyone. I don't tell many people about this blog for this precise reason. All you who see this are just scraping the surface of the REAL me. Most parts this blog is about flying but I do blog about life sometimes. Maybe its time I started writing a journal. Yeah, I'll do that in the army. Its gonna look like this..I got this inspiration from Call of Duty
Example:

21st April 2007
Barracks, BMTC School 1

Its been a tough day. We went for live firing and SOC today. We did ok for firing. SOC was tough and I nearly collapsed. Johnny slipped on the Jacob's ladders and broke some tooth. Chow was crap as usual. Outfield next week. Sergeant Tan says that we may be able book out early this weekend to rest up. Excellent!
Hope that the outfield will go alright. As long as we in the platoon support and help each other and our buddies, we'll be fine.

Rec. Colin Chu
2nd Platoon
Cougar Company.

Not bad eh?