Back from the Sea. Time for the challenges ahead

NEMO!!! Papa, Mama and two kids.

5 dives and 1 at night, I am finally back from Pulau Aur. A fruitful trip as compared to Tioman months ago. Finally! I saw turtle and we were all really lucky to spot it during the night dive. If the dive torch had wondered else where that night, we might all have missed out on the turtle wondering just around "Crocodile Rock". It was so so so close to me that I almost could ride on it! Got the oppurtunity to hover above the Anenome and couple of Clown Fish popularly known as NEMO. They seems to like swimming around my hands but I later realise that the Clown Fish are territorial and is actually nibbling on my hands as a defensive reaction.

On the last day dive, we had the rare oppurtunity to observe a huge school of Bump head parrot fish swimming slowly, lead by a small sea turtle. From my conversation with another diver that day, he mention that seeing a school of bumphead parrot fish is a rare sight. Damn...my underwater camera ran out of batteries and I forgot to bring the charger! sigh.

Talking about underwater photography. Pulau Aur dive trip is the first time I experiment with underwater photography. It was disappointing on the first dive not because there is nothing to shoot but the camera suddenly ran out of batteries the moment we all descend to 5m even though its indicating full power. Switched to a fresh battery back on shore took most of the picture featured on my blog today on the 2nd and third dive. Still need a lot of knowledge and practice to take better underwater pictures. Eventually I learn that due to water pressure, underwater camera batteries usually only last for 2 dive session. Still researching on this fact though.

Sadly, without bringing the batteries charger...I was not able to take more pictures of the underwater world of Pulau Aur. I missed out on really good photo shoot oppurtunity of sea turtles, squid and Stingray during the night dive and early morning dive on the last day. However I do bring back a photographic memory of the interesting encounter with sea creatures and of course the friends I made on the trip. Philip (Switzerland) , Zaiming (China) , Eva (Croatia), Cindy (Singaporean), Allan (Cindy's Angmo hubby), Nevi (Croatia), Ivo (Indonesia), Vincent (Instructor) and Jack (Instructor), once again... my new friends make this a memorable trip again just like Tioman. This photoblog is dedicated to all of you. Do bear with the ameuteristic underwater photos, its my first attempt :)

Back from the sea. Wash up my wet suit, fins, mask and booties keeping them clean from sea salt which can do all sorts of nasty things to it in the long term if left intact. Gonna be a 5 months absence before my next diving trip probably in Bali or Phuket. The focus now will shift from holiday mood to school day tempo. Just finish keying in all my lesson schedules into my Palm TX PDA. Looks like its gonna be a busy months ahead till my birthday when I will be having my last examination. Looking at the months and challenges ahead can be pretty daunting. There is more things to juggle now in life and scheduling had become an important part of the planning process. One have to wind up the stress level to attain the next stage of achievement, so I shall face the months ahead with a positive attitude. Work hard hard and smart smart too!

Changes is part of life. The only constant in life are changes. The responses and decision we all made are the intiator of changes. We all want changes for the better but sometimes things happen the other way round. In life there are things we have no control over, thats 10% of life. However we all do have 90% control over life through our responses and decision. All lesson learn are already written in books around the world in many different language, there is no new mistake but old mistake made by new people. Thats the reason why education is very very important and having a good teacher is essential to get the knowledge across. And about good teacher...

"Apparent Learning Disability Is Nothing More Or Less than Teacher Inflexibility"

Everyone can be a teacher of an issue or subject or problem solving to one another. We don't have to know everything but its important to teach the right thing instead of falsehood and discrimination. Principle of life 2: Learn Be Wise. Share Be Compassionate. Develop others potential. Hmm...can we develop potential at a very young age? Like when they are still babies???